A review by nineinchnails
Hunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

i really wasn't sure how to rate this just because the content is so heavy - definitely check the triggers beforehand, and be very aware that all of the very graphic
sa/r4p3 isn't done by the mmc like in most dark romances
. i definitely consider this more of a thriller (a la gone girl) than a dark romance but i actually preferred this to the first book. 

it feels like there's much more depth to the characters now (plus i got to see more of sibby and i love unhinged women personally) than in it's predecessor and i might be imagining it but there seemed to be a jump in quality in general from haunting adeline. i can imagine a lot of readers would have wanted 
addie and zade to reunite much earlier than they did but i actually appreciated their time apart, and i think it gave a lot more depth to
addie. i think it was more "realistic" too, considering how 
gritty the first half is, and it would have felt really flippant for her to just be rescued straight away from the tone of
the first part of this book. she was learning
how to "survive" without zade coming in on his high horse every time someone even thought of hurting her, which i think was really important for her development and her confidence in her own strength. technically, yeah, he did rescue her after she escaped but the fact that she managed to escape that horrible place by herself (knowing what she was risking if she failed) is impressive of its own accord
.  

zade also showed a different side to himself in this book, which was unexpected. he'll always be an antihero but i don't think he's as irredeemable as he was in the previous book. more importantly TO ME 
addie got to have her revenge arc - again, a la gone girl (one of the best movies ever put on this earth). it might just be the books i come across but i find it rare for the fmc in a dark romance to actually get to carry out true revenge and i need more of it personally. while the book is very dark, it sets up for a very satisfying deliverance of karma and i wasn't disappointed. i did think it was odd that addie was umming and ahhing over whether to ask zade not to kill rio even though zade himself did worse to her but i'm just relieved he survived in the end he was my favourite new character
:p
Expand filter menu Content Warnings