“Hunting Adeline” #1 by H. D. Carlton

“Haunting Adeline” was my first disappointment of 2023 books related. Have you ever read a really popular book, which you were so excited to try on your own, but which proved to be nothing like what you’ve expected? It was a really interesting and enchanting-wanna-be story idea which turned to be only a commercial book with overused turns. I wanted something thrilling and quite unique. Well, the disappointment just kept increasing.

Title: “Haunting Adeline” (#1)

Author: H. D. Carlton

Genre: Romance

Trope: Dark romance, stalking

Recommended age: +18

Star Rating: 1.5/5 ⭐

Long story short

• Dual perspective story
• Way too exaggerated and creepy interactions and way of flirting
• The roses – my favorite and (from my point of view) the only deep and romantic aspect
• The characters’ personalities aren’t constant
• Clichés
• Ironic & playful (wanna-be) nicknames
• A commercial story
• Overused replies and motives
• More strange and weird than dark

“Haunting Adeline” is a dual perspective story and the first volume of the duology with the same name. The readers get straight to the insides of Zade and Adeline’s minds, The Shadow and The Manipulator. These two little nicknames were specific and nice, I must admit, but also kind of ironic. The idea of their building up was not straight forward… or consistent. Unfortunately, the aspects I found pleasant weren’t many or convincing enough. It’s the first book for which my star rating is this low, and as sorry as I am to “destroy” this popular story for you, I need to stick to my honesty you got used to. 🤍

The cycle

I initially thought it was nice, the protagonists’ theory about being meant to find each other, no matter the time and life. Always the stalker and the one stalked, meant to fall in love with each other. Pretty cute, right? The idea of a love that overcame life and death. This aspect would’ve remained cute and even romantic if it was not the so wrong timing. There were still many questions and suppositions that tied Gigi’s (Adeline’s great grandmother) stalker to her being murdered.

The idea of Zade and Adeline bringing in a new life an unsolved murder was super creepy! I forgot all the nice, romantic and warm vibes, because everything was too contrasting. Those two ideas were total opposites and, from my point of view, it shouldn’t have ever been put that close to each other in the action.

” ‘𝐅𝐨𝐫 𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬. 𝐁𝐨𝐭𝐡 𝐨𝐟 𝐮𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐬, 𝐢𝐧𝐡𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐬. 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐬, 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫, 𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐨.’ “

“Haunting Adeline #1”, H. D. Carlton

Call it love

I perfectly get it! It is a dark romance with the main idea of stalking. I expected nothing less than much tension and creepy stalking moments. Even so, I don’t think any part of this book was even close to “fitting” between some behavior borders. The sequences were exaggerated, the sky became the limit and even more. It’s a matter of taste, but, for me, what was supposed to be romantic was just non-realistic, exaggerated and really cringe. I couldn’t find even one single moment of interaction which I would’ve considered even close to romantic and playful.

The male protagonist was a hero in the world and so on, but his love proves were clearly wrong and ill. I repeat myself and say that it’s a matter of opinions and taste, but I actually was disgusted by the protagonists. Using guns in so unusual ways is not hot or catchy, but cringey!

The beginning note

The book started with a warning note about the trigger warnings present in the book which might strongly impact the readers’ mental health. Beside the horrific sequences of human trafficking and what the victims were going through, there was nothing, from my point of view, that dark so that it would really scare or impact the readers. The situations were cringe and pretty funny, the protagonists’ reactions being too clicheic and expected. I am so disappointed of this book! The online hype was way higher than the actual situation.

Adeline is, on one hand, very skeptical and self guarded about Zade, but she suddenly let everything go and accepted him using her. I know, we shouldn’t judge, but she seemed the composure of every cliche related to young women: drinking nights with her childhood best friend, looking for a good man to make her blood boil in her veins, she’s thrilled by the dark bad boy (whose identity is a mystery, which highlights even more his dark boy allure), she falls for him, in the end, completely ignoring the red flags.

I wanted more originality about their characters. Not to mention how the bad boy was actually a saint, saving human trafficking victims. It was a mix of too many contrasting elements, which just made my head spin ’till dizziness.

The Manipulator

I found Adeline’s “nickname” written at the beginning of the chapters from her point of view really ironic. It was explained that she felt like a manipulator with her words, but I think that toughness disappeared in her interactions with Zade. I am not talking about her initial fright of him, but her falling so easily for him.

Her own opinion upon herself was really poor and it strongly disappointed me. She was designed to show the feminine energy, a woman’s weakness near a dominant and dangerous man. Well, it was just weird. I didn’t fall for it:) Therefore, I think the nickname “Manipulator” was not a very right choice. It was meant for another part of her character, the author, not the beautiful woman and her love language, but it was still a poor choice. She was the same character, right? These two sides of her were too contrasting and didn’t match at all being “aligned” in the identity of her character.

A house with a story

Even though most of the time this book proved to be a disappointment for me, I felt grateful for the author’s great choice for the place of action. The house was surrounded by legends, ghosts and a really good backstory. It offered the story complexity and uniqueness, being a Victorian gothic house which actually highlighted Adeline’s dark side. It was a family legacy, with its own backstory, a witness to all the crucial moments that marked Adeline’s personal story, tying her to her grandma and great grandma’s mysteries.

Therefore, the place of action seemed to have its own identity, playing an important role in Adeline’s feelings and character development. The intrigue was highly provoked by the attic and its strange atmosphere that scared Adeline so much. It was a nice and inspired detail which I fell for, as well.

The roses

The roses were kind of aesthetic in the total overview. A usual symbol of love and care transformed into a sign of being followed and watched, never alone. Romance and creepy worked great together in those circumstances. In the end, it’s a dark romance, right?

I could sense Adeline’s inner development from being scared and hesitant to waiting impatiently to see that one rose. The fact that its thorns were always cut had a cute meaning and romantic gesture behind, which couldn’t get away unobserved. Zade wanted not even a rose thorn to hurt her. I also enjoyed how he sticked to roses because of his mother. The little detail got a deeper turn to the whole aspect of romance.

” 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐚 𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐲 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥, 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞. 𝐌𝐲 𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐬 𝐣𝐮𝐦𝐩 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐦, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐬 𝐦𝐲 𝐥𝐢𝐩𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐈 𝐬𝐞𝐞 𝐚 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐨𝐩. “

“Haunting Adeline #1”, H. D. Carlton

Falling in love with the worst

No matter my general opinion upon the characters, I admired incredibly much Zade’s mentality in loving Adeline. He wanted to show her his worst and darkest side. As long as she would’ve fallen for it, there would’ve been nothing else to scare her more or make her stay away. He wanted to show her another face of love, the dark and dangerous one. This sounded a bit of thrilling and exciting:)

” 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐝𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲. “

“Haunting Adeline #1”, H. D. Carlton

The narration

The author did a really amazing job with the narration and placing the action. It’s very clear for the readers to imagine the surroundings of the protagonists and each of their move. I sensed a lot of attention in this aspect and I really enjoyed its clarity. I consider it pretty thoughtful.

As you can see, there were good parts and worse ones. I was, most of all, disappointed in this book because part of it was so wonderful and unique, while the main story took a very unpleasant turn. Cringe interactions, dark romance which was clearly misunderstood and way too exaggerated were mixed with deep monologues, attention in the tiniest details and great original symbols. This series had a lot of potential, but I think it was not exploited properly.

I decided starting this book after a very long time of continuously seeing it on Booktok (so many positive reviews). I was aware that, according to its theme, this series was going to be different, not a very usual one and I was open minded to it. Well, my feelings about the book were exactly the opposite of what I was expecting.

I hardly finished this book, since there was 0 motivation to keep reading. Nevertheless, I wanted to, because a complete and honest review is written after the whole reading experience and feeling every emotion caused by it. For the good parts I could not add more than 0.5 stars, because it didn’t feel right. Those were only details, while the main idea and most of the action were totally disappointing.

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