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dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book really got my heart going. Once I was about 100 pages in it was hard for me to put it down, the character development, spice and plot thickens as it moves forward and the ending just makes me want to reach for the next book like two minutes ago!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Gun violence, Blood, Trafficking
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Torture, Kidnapping
Minor: Stalking
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This was a deliciously dark, hot and twisted listen. Hamilton and Sparks delivered Carlton’s story perfectly.
With the gorgeous backdrop of Adeline’s gothic manor home in the middle of the woods, this cat and mouse romance had all the spicy and witty banter you could ask for.
This one isn’t all spice and sex, but has a storyline that sucks you in, full of sinister underworld atrocities and a classic who-done-it murder mystery!
The cliff hanger ending has me champing at the bit to get the next in the series, but I’ll be sure to pick up some more Carlton while I wait!
With an abundance of trigger warnings, I do suggest looking these up before venturing into this wild and steamy read.
With the gorgeous backdrop of Adeline’s gothic manor home in the middle of the woods, this cat and mouse romance had all the spicy and witty banter you could ask for.
This one isn’t all spice and sex, but has a storyline that sucks you in, full of sinister underworld atrocities and a classic who-done-it murder mystery!
The cliff hanger ending has me champing at the bit to get the next in the series, but I’ll be sure to pick up some more Carlton while I wait!
With an abundance of trigger warnings, I do suggest looking these up before venturing into this wild and steamy read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder
I read this book because a Scottish man on Tiktok painted it in a much better light. Word to the wise, do not trust Tiktok.
I dnf’d Haunting Adeline for a few reasons, spoilers from here on out:
-The author will not allow the villain to be a villain, and the absolute dissonance between Z’s actions and his internal monologue, day job, and his behaviour towards Addie is insane. He saves women and children from human trafficking regularly through his company, of which he built from the ground up, and in the same sentence where he saves a child from a life of sexual assault and goes on to say how he abhors the idea of women suffering/lack of consent, he goes on to fantasise about forcing Addie and sexually assaulting her. It’s insane. It doesn’t work, at all. I’m sorry, but this seemed like a poor attempt from the author at making Z morally good as they were too scared to commit to the bad guy archetype. And that’s understandable, given that Z, where Addie is concerned, is a bad guy. So they instead shoehorned a hero day job into Z’s character, to make his SA more palatable, I guess?
-There is barely a good reason for Adeline to stay in the house. Legit, every single attempt to give a half-arsed reason for Addie to stay in the house is lazy writing at best, and multiple times it seems like the author agrees. Any sane person, even in the most gratuitous of situations, would have left the house, fear kink or not. We then have to read various poor attempts of the author desperately trying to justify the main female character staying in the house and flirting with danger.
There also seems to be a superatural element going on? The characters are regularly bothered by a ghost in the house and none of them seem that fussed about it? Like, at best Z appears to be annoyed for a moment, but that’s it, no one is weirded out by ghosts, in a book not about the supernatural so far (I think, it’s hard to even specify what the book is trying to do)
- Character voice is nonexistent in most cases. Many times the POV switched and the only reason you can tell the difference between Addie and Z (beyond chapter title) is the fact that Z says ‘fuck’ a lot more, is a poor attempt at masculinity in some cases (but arguably could be Addie if she decided to go on a mini killing spree), and completely undeservedly obsesses over Addie. Seriously, the obsession is wild. The reason he is obsessed is because he saw her at a book signing after randomly walking in. That’s it. No conversation. He thought she was beautiful. To be fair, I can forgive this. But the absolute lengths he goes to immediately, and the infatuation goes to 100 instantly, it just isn’t believable.
-The day job of her best friend seems wild, and I don’t know if it’s just me, but didn’t seem believable. Everyone in this story is a world class hacker. Z is obviously the best because why not, and her best friend is also a hacker and oh by the way she actually works for Z but had no idea the entire time that the ceo of her vigilante company is actually Addie’s stalker. Forgivable in the grand scheme of the book but it’s so out of place.
-The plot line on the murder of her great grandma doesn’t resonate well, it gives Addie something to do I guess? But it feels more like the writer got a chunk of chapters in and realised they needed to tether Addie to the place beyond the fear kink, so added it in. I also think it’s perfectly reasonable for her mother to hate the house, considering her great grandma had an affair with her stalker and was murdered in the house (no idea what happens, DNF’d so this may change). It even states their great grandad wanted to leave after but Addie’s grandma (the murdered great grandmas daughter) refused to, which in my opinion is awful and selfish.
Addies mother tried to get Addie to see how creepy the place was and she dismissed her because she just hates her mother, and it’s not really touched upon why properly, beyond basic “bitchy mother” stereotypes which don’t hold up when the mum drops by to ask Addie to leave.
- This one annoyed me and I just wanted to add it in. Addie and her friend go to a club, are invited by “bad boy” men up to a VIP area, and the entire vibe is giving Mafia, danger, all the things we all tend to enjoy. We’re introduced to a new, hot guy (Arch, I think?) who is into Addie, and it’s being sold well by the author. He is charming and dangerous. Addie is threatened over text that if she takes him home, Z will cut his hands off and kill him. Z so far has shown to be unhinged, so not unbelievable.
So, what does Addie do? She takes Arch home and begins to have sex with him in a glasshouse. Where Z can clearly see. And this guy, he’s amazing. He’s handsome, appreciates the house, her, is smooth with his delivery of lines, and genuinely shows her a good time. Then they’re obviously interrupted. He goes outside to check, telling Addie to stay inside, and that’s the last Addie sees of Arch intact. It’s then revealed, in a poor attempt to villainise Arch and justify Z killing him and mailing his hands to Addie (yea, he cuts off his hands as promised and delivers the next day), that Arch is actually a woman beater and all that horrible stuff so it’s okay we killed him off, even though up until he was nabbed by Z, he was written like the perfect gentleman, and it’s only after that the author paints him horribly. I don’t understand. It gave me whiplash. I think it genuinely was just put in to make Z’s killing justified once more. The mafia group are bad guys, clearly, but come on.
There’s a bunch of other stuff but I’m writing this at 4am because I can’t sleep and needed something to do. The book was okay in its attempts at humour, however, and Addie is somewhat likeable when she isn’t being silly in trying to justify many, many poor decisions. A bit more forethought on plot would help this massively, just to give her a better reason to stay. I do think Z could also benefit from having his own voice.
I dnf’d Haunting Adeline for a few reasons, spoilers from here on out:
-
-
There also seems to be a superatural element going on? The characters are regularly bothered by a ghost in the house and none of them seem that fussed about it? Like, at best Z appears to be annoyed for a moment, but that’s it, no one is weirded out by ghosts, in a book not about the supernatural so far (I think, it’s hard to even specify what the book is trying to do)
-
-
-
Addies mother tried to get Addie to see how creepy the place was and she dismissed her because she just hates her mother, and it’s not really touched upon why properly, beyond basic “bitchy mother” stereotypes which don’t hold up when the mum drops by to ask Addie to leave.
-
So, what does Addie do? She takes Arch home and begins to have sex with him in a glasshouse. Where Z can clearly see. And this guy, he’s amazing. He’s handsome, appreciates the house, her, is smooth with his delivery of lines, and genuinely shows her a good time. Then they’re obviously interrupted. He goes outside to check, telling Addie to stay inside, and that’s the last Addie sees of Arch intact. It’s then revealed, in a poor attempt to villainise Arch and justify Z killing him and mailing his hands to Addie (yea, he cuts off his hands as promised and delivers the next day), that Arch is actually a woman beater and all that horrible stuff so it’s okay we killed him off, even though up until he was nabbed by Z, he was written like the perfect gentleman, and it’s only after that the author paints him horribly. I don’t understand. It gave me whiplash. I think it genuinely was just put in to make Z’s killing justified once more. The mafia group are bad guys, clearly, but come on.
There’s a bunch of other stuff but I’m writing this at 4am because I can’t sleep and needed something to do. The book was okay in its attempts at humour, however, and Addie is somewhat likeable when she isn’t being silly in trying to justify many, many poor decisions. A bit more forethought on plot would help this massively, just to give her a better reason to stay. I do think Z could also benefit from having his own voice.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Stalking
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
ratio
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting
Minor: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Suicide, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Classism
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Please don’t read this without reading the trigger warnings because this is HEAVYYYYY with those bad boys
Pretty addictive read though. Spice is spicy, story is story-y
Pretty addictive read though. Spice is spicy, story is story-y
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Stalking, Murder, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Blood, Alcohol
Minor: Addiction, Body shaming, Cursing, Car accident
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, Stalking, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
dark
emotional
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
No matter which corner of bookish social medias you frequent, if there’s a certain darkness to your reads there is no way you haven’t come across Haunting Adeline. I’ve read the name so many times, I saw so many different people read it and have as many varying perspectives and opinions to and of this that I had no clue if I really wanted to dip my feet in. Especially because the Stalker theme is one that particularly scares, disgusts, and terrifies me. Not wanting to let go of spooky season was the final push I needed to tackle this and I’m actually glad I did because this was such a good read.
Was it dark? Yes, sure. Did it contain very explicit scenes? Absolutely. Did it make me feel comfortable and cozy? Hell no.
But the vibes were amazing. The characters are intriguing and I’m not only speaking about our FMC and MMC but also those surrounding them. There was an overarching plotline and several subplots keeping it interesting and to all those complaining about the smut scenes in particular: you had been warned. Start taking warnings written by authors at the start of books seriously.
One other thing before we dive in: This is a work of fiction. Treat it as such. Just because “women*” swoon for a guy like Zade doesn’t me any of his doings would be appreciated in the real life. I also swooned for Bane in the Batman stories and still prefer my S/O not to be a terrorist unleashing several different threats to humanity on the world. To be less drastic: Most of the traits we find appealing in fictional men, such as a certain possessiveness, violence or villainy would also not be appealing in the real world. It is a retreat, not a wishlist for a significant other.
Starting off with the characters: I enjoyed them a lot. I prefer characters to have rougher edges and things to like and dislike about them. Adeline is a perfect example, she’s described as beautiful but there’s a ruggedness to her character I appreciated, sprinkle on a bit of social awkwardness and typical traits of an extroverted introvert (or … just a very well masking introvert who adapted to the rules of society and reads people like children’s stories) and we have ourselves a female MC that is not perfect, is not an innocent little bird caged in a golden aviary and takes glimpses into the darker parts of the world. She also doesn’t make the best decisions all the time, struggles with what she does want and is overall a character I found very easy to relate to.
Zade is a very intriguing character. He has a ton of layers to be peeled back and there is so much to discover around him and even though I’m not a fan of the first look and boom in love trope, it does make sense here. I enjoyed his pov a lot because there were more glimpses into him than Addie has at most times and it proves there is more to him than his addiction and obsession to Addie. Is he morally acceptable? Of course not, do we still want a villain to burn fictional worlds for us? Yes, absolutely we (I) do. And his humour? Top tier.
The supporting characters surrounding both MCs seem to be perfection. I enjoyed Jay a lot, because he seems to be the friend Zade needs at times (even though our boy might still need to find that out for himself) and Daya is the personification of a great friend: coming over with booze for daydrinking renovations is something every good friend should offer, in my opinion. They also don’t seem to hold grudges unnecessarily long and are what actual friends should be.
Going on to the plotlines: there seems to be an overarching plotline that is bigger than this book, which I appreciate, because that usually means the sequel isn’t just full of filler chapters and an author actually having a plan instead. The smaller mystery subplot did offer a connection to Addie, her family history, and her own destiny, yet wasn’t that heavily weighed, that I probably wouldn’t have missed it, if it weren’t there. It did provide with a bit of mystery, and it also didn’t disturb the feeling of the book, but rather supported it.
One thing I absolutely loved about this were the vibes: It has such a perpetual Halloween vibe to it, I just adored it. The Manor is pure and utter perfection, the descriptions are well done and transport the reader right into the midst of it and I appreciated the woven in horror parts a lot. If this were a movie, I’d be scared shitless, not gonna lie. I loved it.
Moving on to the one thing that probably divides the readership: the smut and spice scenes. I’d like to reiterate my claim from the beginning of this review: this is a work of fiction. It’s not supposed to coddle you, make you comfortable and tuck you in a fluffy cloud of morally perfect decisions while writing a check list for your potential lover. It’s maybe even supposed to make you question your own morals, your very own, very personal limits and the deep, dark well of “why the hell am I intrigued by this”.
Things we appreciate in fictional men are red flags in real men because fictional men are more capable than real ones. Don’t take offense to this, but it’s the way I see it. Fictional men are able to read the bodies of fictional women and as long as a majority of real men are not able to find pleasurable spots of their partner, I don’t trust them to tell the differences between saying “no” and meaning “no”. So, no, this is not something enjoyable in a real setting but it is not supposed to. It’s a fantasy sold, with fictional characters having fictional abilities and fictional intercourse, for fucks sake. Don’t shame people because they enjoy the fiction of men actually knowing what they’re doing.
Adding to this: We see Addie struggle with this a lot. We watch her conclude she is intrigued by what Zade does as much as she’s scared of it and thus struggle with her reaction to it. It is actually tackled IN THE BOOK that the main female character is torn between knowing that’s wrong and still wanting it. Furthermore, Zade not being pretentious about his actions, morals and wants is a big plus. He never pretends to be a good man; he doesn’t want to present that side to Addie and make her fall for a version of him, he not actually is. There are extremes in this book and yes, not everyone is going to like that. As well as not everyone sharing the same preferences Addie (maybe subconsciously) has and not being intrigued or being intrigued to a different level by the scenes. That is normal. And not everyone has to like what is portrayed.
To me, this spice was top tier. It was dark, dominant and had moments that did challenge my own morals and made me stop and think, why this was intriguing me or why I drew the line somewhere. Another thing I appreciated a lot was the way Carlton depicted Addie’s inner struggle in those moments and the powerful quotes that other authors aspire to pull of, but never managed to quite so beautifully as Carlton does.
I expected to be very uncomfortable during this read and at points I was, but never to the limit of me wanting to stop. In all honesty: I could not put it down. Being told multiple times it might drag on at some points, I didn’t feel like that at all. I enjoyed the overall pacing, the small, slow moments as well as the rushing of the plot at times. All in perfect balance to me. The only thing I’d criticise is the mystery subplot being not that deeply crafted and that is basically it. I enjoyed a book challenging me to rethink my own limits, convictions and morals while being scared, uncomfy, tucked in and in awe. My favourite moment of the whole book? The vulnerable night scene, we all know which I mean. I’ll hold that one in my heart forever.
And now, … I am utterly terrified to continue.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Stalking, Car accident, Murder, Sexual harassment