lili_victoire's reviews
48 reviews

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I don’t usually post spoilers in my reviews but I feel I need to in order to comment on this book, so here we are! *Spoiler warning for the below*

I struggled to rate this one because I only liked half of it. To start, I can’t stand separation plots, like to the point that I don’t even want to read the book when that’s a factor, but everyone kept saying this one was amazing, so I read it. I also don't like when the romance plot gets pushed aside for a different main plot to take focus (Addie's survival in this case). I just prefer the romance to always be the main plot driver and focus and other events to occur around that- I wasn't really interested in reading Taken, the novel. With those 2 things said- this book wasn't really set up as an ideal read for me lol so this definitely affected my opinion but I'm aware of that!

The first half made me super frustrated because I couldn’t relate to Addie’s behavior in captivity at all. I would have acted how she does in Part 2 just at the mere threat of kidnapping me, you wouldn’t even have had to come near me for me to snap like that and be ruthless, that’s self defense. Maybe my personality is a little closer to Zade 😬 lol. I think she had a lot more opportunities to escape before anything crazy happened if she just blacked out and went for it like she finally did in the end. She could have done that at any time, there was no reason in the plot to wait, the timing was totally random in terms of circumstance. The scene with her hunting down Francesca, Rocco and Xavier, girl you had a crossbow dropped by a hunter at your disposal during the Culling, you could’ve picked it up then and done all that too (and used an arrow to cut your tracker out)…just my opinion. I felt Part 1 really dragged on too long, I wished more of the book was like Part 2.

With all that said, I enjoyed the second half of the book and wanted more of that. I like the dynamic between Addie and Zade (and love Zade as a character!) overall and liked seeing their connection deepen in Part 2 and seeing them become true partners rather than just lovers. I wanted more of them as a duo taking down rings, I personally think that would have been a better storyline than wasting so much time on Adeline being taken, but again, just my opinion. I also get that the way it's written, Addie wouldn't have had the ability to seek revenge that way had she not been kidnapped and abused and antagonized but I guess for me it was just a bit too much of her suffering when that time could have been spent on her and Zade together...again, I hate separation plots! lol

I'd give this one 3.75, the pros are Addie and Zade together and part 2 which I really enjoyed, but Part 1 just pulls this down too much for me to give it a higher rating. I preferred Book 1!

Content Warnings

Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I enjoyed this book and am looking forward to reading part 2! I love Zade as a character and love the dynamic between him and Adeline. The spicy sections are top notch!

I also loved the setting of the old house and the added touch of trying to solve the mystery of her grandma’s death paired nicely with Adeline’s own story. The overall themes are definitely more macabre and the book in my opinion does dip into horror novel territory at times during Zade’s parts.

My criticisms would be that at times, the writing felt very clunky and abrupt. I also found some of the plot to be a bit over the top (the whole super number 1 hacker vigilante defender of innocents is a little like…ok girl, calm down, we get it lol)

4 stars from me

Content Warnings