Haunting Adeline Book by H. D. Carlton Book 2

 Review 





Read the trigger warnings before you read. Don't pick up this book with the intention of anything kind or heroic happening. If you do, you have no one to blame but yourself if you dislike it. This book is not a romance book. It is a dark horror that delves into the bowels of humanity and will remake your own moral compass. THIS BOOK IS REALITY. TWS: R@P#, Explicit Violence and Details, Murder, Blood, S*x Trafficking, PTSD, Psychological torment, Trauma, Dubious consent, CNC



Hunting is as enthralling and real as Haunting was. It is completely different but just as enthralling. It is dark, it is unhinged, it is the worst of humanity, and it is unapologetic. There is also strength and resilience.

This book hurt and you bled when Addie and Zade bled. You cried for them and you felt for them. I have my own traumas and this was as close to reality as I have ever read. This book broke open the heartbreaking reality of what happens to women and children around the world every day and that reality deserves to be unpacked and witnessed. Having to witness it through Addie hurt more than I can say. We all need to take a page out of Zade's book and adjust our moral compass when it comes to fighting for the freedom of the reality that is outside this book.


This book broke me and put my jagged pieces to fit with Addie and Zade, and I was okay with that. Addie's experience is painful. I liked that HD didn't shy away from that and put it to paper. Usually, the hero saves the heroine before the trauma occurs or the trauma is light in comparison to what Addie experienced. A small part of me hoped she would follow that plot line but then I realized this book mirrors reality and the hero doesn't always show up or arrive in time. I cried for Addie. There was no mercy for Addie. She tore her moral compass to pieces, broke her own heart, took a life, and contemplated the end. HD gave her a real experience with real thoughts and reactions. I have never had an author write such an authentic character with real-world experiences and reactions

Rio, our new character and participant in Addies horror show, has me conflicted. He has his own moral compass and like Addie, I'm blurring mine when it comes to him. Rationalizing his choices, his actions, and his treatment. I can empathize with him though. Is it not the same thing that many would do to save their own sister? I can't wait to unpack his story when HD writes it.





<<<Fast forward to after her escape>>>>

The psychological and physical trauma that Addie has experienced wrecks both her and Zade. There is no happily ever after or easy ride into the sunset. It is raw and devastating. Addie is not the little mouse Zade tried to tame in book 1. She's a broken shell. I have experienced all of the emotions Addie did and all I wanted to do was scoop her up in my arms and remind her that one day in the future it will get better. One day the darkness will lighten and you will be able to take baby steps. Then those baby steps will lead to bigger steps until finally (however long it takes) you can stand in the light again and breathe.




We see the side to Zade we knew was hiding in there. Addie hadn't seen that side of him yet, she had only seen his jagged pieces. Zade stands strong behind her and holds her up when she falters. He is patient, he is loving, and he will wait until the end of the world for her if he has to. There is no force or pressure. The Zade from book 1 regarding their s*xual encounters is gone. He doesn't take and watch her body for responses he lets her set the pace. He said in book one that she "holds my life in the palm of her hand, she’s just incapable of seeing it that way" and this is proven in this book. He lives for her and slowly she starts to see that no matter what her inner thoughts and feelings tell her from her trauma he will never leave her.

Zade helps her take ownership of her trauma from her time with Xavier. One of my favorite scenes, which he does only with her consent (such a change from book 1), is when he uses a knife over the scars Xavier left giving her a new experience and new emotions to tie to them. He helps her heal through s*xual, physical, and emotional needs. He molds himself into whom she needs and what she needs and my heart beats for him more because of it. He helps build her up and heal her into the new version of Adeline. The version that matches all of his jagged pieces.

I am in love with Zade and Addie. I am in love with their story. I am in love with the reality and truth that shines from this book. I am grateful to have read it and for HD for bringing it to life.`




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