Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton

174 reviews

karlyjo's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

1.0

very conflicted with my rating for this book. did i stay up until 3am to finish it? yes. did the mystery element have me turning the pages like crazy? yes. for that reason it should be a 3-4star rating  BUT I cannot stand the countless times God was painted in a false light and Satan was glorified. Also Zade hates rapists and pedophiles but he rapes her but it’s okay because she ended up liking it? and he called her little girl while doing it? no. the spice was the majority of the book and had my jaw on the floor but despite me flying through this book i can’t rate it more than one star for those reasons. also the ending had my stomach twisting with the elevated form of child sacrifice and pedophilia and the dark part of the dark romance became a little too much for me. did i have a unique and fast reading experience? yes. could i ever in my right mind recommend this book to anyone? no. even though it was thrilling and the spice scenes were… on another level… at the end of the book i felt like i never should have picked it up in the first place. yet i’m curious to read the second but i don’t think i will anytime soon. or maybe ever. everyone in this book needs major therapy 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Stalking, Torture, Vomit, Blood, Cursing, Murder, Gun violence, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Violence, Body horror, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Car accident, Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Rape, Trafficking, Child abuse, and Death

darcynewtonn's review against another edition

dark funny tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

While I'm still relatively new to reading dark romance or just reading in general, I can confidently say this is one of my favourite books and will remain a favourite. 

If you're reading this review i'm going to assume you have a basic understanding of the book because let's be honest here... what dark romance readers haven't heard of Haunting Adeline? Exactly 

When I went into this book i'd tried not to research it on booktok as I wanted the book experience without a swayed opinion. This is something I highly recommend doing as it allowed me to enjoy the true content of the book without knowing any spoilers and I think it just made it that little bit better. Admittedly any spoilers put onto TikTok would probably be removed due to inappropriate content so there isn't really much you can research on this book, but anyway, don't.  

Yes Zade may be a little effed up, however I still can't help falling in love with him... and I sort of wouldn't mind having my own sexy stalker to throw my life into the air... is that bad? Probably, but hey if you're reading this then you probably got something a little loose up there too so you can't really judge me.

The only true warning I can give is, even if you're into dark erotic scenes, some parts of this book do get deathly dark *literally*. Me and my sister very much read the same books however we have an ever so slightly different reaction to gruesome details and this is one I know she would not enjoy. So please understand the sheer depth of what you are about to read. It is graphic and it is very easy to visualise. 

One piece of information I do need to give on Hunting Adeline is that it is substantially darker and sadder reading the... situation?... thats going on. If you do plan on reading Hunting Adeline I strongly suggest you read the duet back to back with as little break in-between as possible, it makes the second book slightly less dark, not much, but slightly. 

Overall this book was fabulous and I really did enjoy reading it, especially chapter 30 ;). 
I've recommended it to numerous friends even though I think that's a slightly cruel thing to do but I really hope more people can love this book how I did. 

If you've made it to the end of this review, do send me a friend request as I love connecting with people who are just as mentally messed as me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Blood, Gaslighting, Suicidal thoughts, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Adult/minor relationship, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Violence, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Incest, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Child death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Slavery, Body shaming, Bullying, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Stalking, Body horror, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Medical trauma, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Alcohol, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Medical content, Murder, Pedophilia, Self harm, and Deadnaming

sara_mb's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

Initially I was quite skeptical, because of the hype and I don’t read a lot of dark romance. At the beginning of the book I was not really into it, It was a bit to intense and dark, but then I kept reminding myself it’s a dark romance and not something that we want to happen in real life. The plot was really interesting and complex, I was so intrigued and into it. It became more than just a psycho stalking a girl. Honestly the smut was real good, fucked up, but kinda hot. Anyway I was pleasantly surprised 👍

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Violence, Sexual assault, Death, Physical abuse, Trafficking, Sexual harassment, Torture, Blood, Child death, Child abuse, Murder, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Rape, and Sexual content

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Addiction, and Alcohol

katiew221's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Death, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Misogyny, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Body horror, Mental illness, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Murder, Kidnapping, Car accident, and Violence

mickculver's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book was amazing left on 2 cliff hangers making me need to read the second book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Body horror, Child abuse, Murder, Sexual harassment, Child death, Cursing, Pedophilia, Rape, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Car accident, Emotional abuse, Violence, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Blood, Gore, and Gun violence

tabbycat10414's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Mental illness, Trafficking, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Sexual violence, Stalking, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Toxic relationship, Violence, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Child abuse, Confinement, Gaslighting, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Misogyny, Gun violence, and Torture

noelle_julianna's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Stalking, Violence, Sexual content, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Blood, Gaslighting, Rape, Body horror, Pedophilia, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, and Trafficking

Moderate: Blood, Adult/minor relationship, and Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

jareadforfilth's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

This book was basically a struggle the whole way through. Is the subject matter dark af and super messed up? Of course, we been knew that so like, no reason to act brand new here. While the whole Stockholm syndrome campaign aspect is not the healthiest of love stories, my problems with this book extend to the basics: storytelling and writing.

The constant back and forth between Adeline and her stalker got old pretty fast and

when she finally and soOoOooo shockingly succumbs and starts falling for him it’s just like… honestly pretty boring? Like I was just so over it by that point. The complete hypocrisy and not-so-lowkey chauvinism of Zade which thankfully is addressed in the book is also so exasperating.

This book is honestly high camp in a lot of ways but I don’t think it was trying to be. It’s super melodramatic in a way that honestly reminded me a lot of anime. Zade as a character is just like, so extreme physically and personality-wise that it just became kind of laughable. Like the book kind of feels like something your h*rny suppressed friend in high school would write lol

To end on a positive note after this mild evisceration, the spice is pretty hot and when it hits it hits for sure! Otherwise it’s just kinda like ok whatever 😂 also the cliffhanger is fun and seems to bode much better for the plot in book 2 than book 1. That said, and I’m so torn about it, I *intend* on reading the second because y’all are all so hype, but we’ll see because this was just not it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Gore, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Violence, Trafficking, and Body horror

Moderate: Alcohol and Car accident

racheldacey's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Sexual assault, Trafficking, Child abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Torture, Murder, Death, Sexual content, Body horror, Kidnapping, Violence, Blood, Car accident, Cursing, and Pedophilia

jsmulan96's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

The writing is questionable at times. Certain things about the interior design of the house and the description of the decor didn't make sense (I managed an antique store).

It felt at times like we were skipping over action out of boredom or convenience just to get to the next exciting bit. The timeline of events got confusing and location descriptions could have been more planned out.

The sex scenes were sexy and the disturbing scenes were disturbing. It was a fun and quick read. Finished it in 2ish days

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Gun violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Cursing, Violence, Emotional abuse, Stalking, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Torture, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Gaslighting, and Kidnapping