Haunting Adeline – H.D. Carlton

Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton
Published:  August 12, 2021

TW: Sexual Assault, Stalking

I have never DNF’d a book. I usually take breaks or take them time to slow down and really try and give it a proper try, but my goodness. This didn’t deserve that, this book first of all, was way too long for what it was. Second, it was just highly problematic in the relationship between the two main characters.

Adeline first of all was extremely flat to me as a character, and then Zade, although apparently being a government hacker and helping take down sex trafficking rings, doesn’t redeem the fact that he’s stalked Adeline, broken into her house, sexually assaulted her and continuously pursues her after she’s told him she’s not interested.

I stopped reading this at about the 52% mark. Once Adeline and Zade saw each other face to face and started reacting outside of the “cat and mouse” game they had going, I gave up. Mostly because Zade had begun showing Adeline into his world of what he does and she MAGICALLY had all these feelings about how terrible the upper class was and how sex trafficking was terrible etc. But the fact that Zade is trying to be redeemed as a good person through his stance and what he does, is also problematic. Hell, he technically rapes Adeline with a gun in the first like quarter of the book.

I just couldn’t with this book. The length was too long, the weird coincidence that she’s in her grandmothers house and her grandmother also had a stalker didn’t do it for me, the sexual assault was too much and the attempt to redeem his sorry ass with the fact that he has this vigilante job just wasn’t enough.

Sorry, not for me, but I literally don’t understand why this book has been hyped up so much, it’s extremely problematic with the depiction of an extremely toxic relationship.

Rating: 0/5 Stars