Book Review: Haunting Adeline by HD Carlton
A creepy stalker, Stockholm Syndrome, and a lot of cringy “love” scenes, Haunting Adeline is not for the weak or the seasoned, intellectual reader. Especially if you don’t like dirty talk (and not even good dirty talk at that). Read on below for my review of Haunting Adeline.
Book Information
Adeline is a successful writer and is moving back to her late grandmother’s gothic mansion. There, she finds out secrets about her own great grandmother. Not only that, but she realizes she has a stalker. One who is not willing to give up until Adeline calls herself his through whatever means it takes.
Review | Heidi Dischler
Can someone please erase this book from my mind? I mean, seriously, what did I just read? I would have marked it as DNF (“did not finish” for my non-book nerds out there) at like 10% through the book had I not been determined to write a review on my blog. Everyone was talking about this book. I thought, you know, that it would blow my mind. Well, it kind of made me want to vomit to be completely honest because of how cheesy and absolutely cringeworthy it was.
The writing was horrible in my opinion and so repetitive at times. For example, I get that Adeline was thinking about her great grandmother’s murder, but then seconds later she’ll say something like, “Well, I was thinking about my great grandmother’s murder.” It made me want to cry. I’m assuming that everyone raves about this book because of the steamy scenes, but good Lord they made me have secondhand embarrassment. I skipped through a lot of them if I’m being honest….
I don’t think I’ll be able to talk about this anymore without spoilers, so this review is literally all spoilers.
SPOILERS AHEAD.
Let’s start with this: it was completely unrealistic and everything was convenient. First, the main male character, Addie’s stalker, Zade, runs his own company to stop sex traffickers and rapists. But get this, he stalks Adeline and SEXUALLY ASSAULTS HER. His whole entire character is a contradiction. Like, dude, stop acting all high and mighty because you stop traffickers and rapists when legit all you fantasize about is being one. Hated everything about his character. Don’t even get me started on Adeline because she legit was just like “let me tease this guy who is stalking me and could probably kill me”. Like, no. I can’t imagine any sane person doing that. And even though I did say Zade assaulted her, Addie thought about how much she liked being taken advantage of, which, I understand is some people’s fantasy, but it isn’t mine.
More on how unrealistic this book is. Where the hell does Zade get the money to run this company? Is he just a billionaire and it’s never mentioned? Like I’m pretty sure with all the high tech gear and crazy stunts they pull that it cannot be cheap. Makes no sense to me. Secondly, they legitimately solve Genevieve’s murder using blood DNA testing. I’m not an expert in DNA testing or anything… but you have to have something to run the sequence against. I’m pretty sure DNA testing wasn’t around when Genevieve was alive in the 40s. What that means is they would have had to have a certifiable DNA sample that was hers that didn’t degrade. Yeah. Totally not realistic.
Overall, I am EXTREMELY disappointed in the book community for raving about this book. It really wasn’t for me, but it seems like it’s either you love it or you hate it. You guys know where I stand. I have no desire to read the second one or even find out what happens to the characters. That’s how disconnected I felt during the whole book…. While I haven’t read anything else by this author and really can’t speak on her other stories, I seriously didn’t like this one and probably won’t pick up any others. Please let me find a good book next to erase the bitter taste this one left in my mouth.
Source: Audiobook from Audible.
Same! 100%. I DNF. I found your review, solidifying my resolve to not continue it.
I’m glad I’m not the only one because people are just RAVING about this book and I can’t understand why 🫣😂
I am currently reading HA, and so far I totally agree with this review. Why is this book so popular? I’m still at the beginning if the book and I already hate the main characters. I got into dark romance reading Harley Lacroux’ Losers. I’ll think I might just reread those, because they were ac good. This is horrible. But glad to know I’m not the only one struggling to understand all the hype.
Sometimes I wonder if people hype up books just because other people hype them up, but I’m definitely not one of those people 🤪
Well, you are one of the few sane people Hun😊 a lot of us are actually insane and twisted, no shame in finding outlets for our darkness. LoL
Finally someone said it. I am currently reading HA and I’m finding it so disturbing like dude you don’t want any man touching her bt u literally raped her. I understand dark romance but this is straight SA and people out there are crying for Zade like why do u want a man like him who assaults u. SA can never be romance🤦.
I’m glad to know there are same people out there in book community.
Thank you! I honestly thought I was the only one hating Zade. Like just imagine if he was unattractive, no one would accept his actions. Talk about pretty privilege…
Omg pretty privilege is the perfect way to describe this 😂😂😂
I am not proud to admit that I read the Fifty Shades of Grey and even Anne Rice’s “Beauty” trilogy, and they remain guilty pleasures I will never read again.
This book made me ashamed of myself for reading it. The characters are paper-thin, and the sex scenes are just embarrassing. The violence is despicable. Don’t waste your time or money.
No literally. This book is scary and not in a good way.
I was reading this book because my granddaughter (35 years old) wanted someone she could discuss it with. All I can say is that this book has so many flaws in its execution, language, grammar, characters, just everything and the inconsistencies are too many to mention.
Adeline is supposed to be a writer but I know elementary school kids who have better vocabularies. I’ve been tempted to go back and count how many times she uses the word stupid. Are Carlton’s other books this poorly written.? Did her editor read this book or was it just spell checked?
I hate to disappoint my granddaughter but I really don’t want to waste anymore of my time on this book.
Yes i also agree with you on most of the things….the hype around this book is unreal… & it’s still #1 in booktok…
It got my attention because it was all over the place on instagram. At first I thought is was a crime-solving story, but then again, it had a dark romance hashtag, and it was my fault I didn’t get it until later. What can I say, I agree with your point of view. I have so many questions about where did Zade make all the money…what kind of books does Adeline write.. when does she write, if ever.. and, for the love of god, why does her relationship with her mother is so unreasonable..and what about the ghosts in her house??? I don’t get why people like Zade, he is savage and causing trauma over trauma. And Adeline, as a character, is simply stupid. The “pleeease” scenes are annoying – saying everytime that she doesn’t know what she is asking for..repetitive indeed.
I always thought that a writer loved their characters in thier books. Maybe H.D. Carlton really hates Adeline…maybe she likes women in pain, who knows?