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CONTENT WARNING: This piece contains mentions of sexual assault and engages in discourse surrounding this topic.

I have good news and bad news. Which one do you want first?

Trick question– I already know you want the bad news. The truth is, this week’s read was a one-star. I could not have hated it more. But the good news? Because I was tortured while reading this book, you won’t have to be.

TikTok has lied to you. Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton is a failed attempt at a dark romance that comedically attempts to force a young woman into loving her stalker. Her brutal, sexually violent stalker. 

Blog over.

Just kidding. We’ve got to talk about how harmful Haunting Adeline is, especially because it’s marketed as a BookTok favorite. Many of my friends have told me that they started reading smutty romance at twelve. This means, in the age of TikTok, twelve-year-olds are reading this horrific excuse for a romance novel. So today, I’m putting the rumors to bed– this book is NOT worth gathering dust on your TBR (To Be Read) let alone spending $20 on.

Haunting Adeline, the first book in the Cat and Mouse duology by H.D. Carlton, follows Adeline Riley (Addy) as she moves into her late grandmother’s mansion: Parsons Manor. Addy hints that there’s substantial paranormal activity in Parsons Manor but, of course, doesn’t elaborate on this. Throughout the book, H.D. Carlton loves having ghosts brush up against characters… just because. It doesn’t add to the plot or further characterization, it’s just… there. 

Addy finds a mysterious box in the attic, which happens to be filled with her great-grandmother’s diaries. And when Addy tears into the pages to learn more about her great-grandma, Gigi, she finds out she had a stalker. That’s right, stalking runs in the family. But it doesn’t stop there– her great-grandmother was having a sexual affair with the man who had been stalking her. 

H.D. Carlton attempts to set up a larger sub-plot when Addy discovers her great-grandmother was murdered. Addy assumes it was Gigi’s stalker, but there’s some confusion around how Gigi died that leads her to be suspicious. In the end, it was the police chief of whatever town Addy lives in. Boring. Moving on.

Addy has a stalker too; his name is Zade. He’s a murderer but he’s also anti-sex trafficking so that’s good I guess? Guys, I don’t even want to get into this man. He’s not sexy, he’s not attractive, his dirty talk is weird, and he calls Addy his “little mouse.” I think H.D. Carlton was trying to illustrate Addy and Zade’s relationship kinks through his need to hunt her before sex, but it just ended in weird dirty talk and Addy hiding in closets throughout the mansion. Also, H.D. Carlton tries to justify Zade assaulting Addy (twice!) at the beginning of the novel by giving Addy a fear kink. Addy gaslights herself into thinking she wants Zade to have sex with her by reasoning she was aroused… but she was still assaulted.

It’s disgusting to twist the narrative of Addy’s experience with Zade as consensual or enjoyable, especially when young girls are consuming this story.

This book had no plot. Zade was chasing a child-trafficking ring that sacrificed little children and Addy found this redeemable but, need I remind you, he’s a serial sexual violator.

If you want to read Haunting Adeline to dive into a darker romance, please read J.T. Gessigner instead. Start with Ruthless Creatures. It’s a sexy mafia romance about a man who’s sent to kill a woman but ends up falling in love with her. It’s suspenseful, intense, and dark. Also, no one has non-consensual sex. My favorite part about J.T. Gessinger’s Queens and Monsters series is that the mafia men state out loud that they’re horrible killers, but draw the line at having sex with someone without their consent– consensual kings!

In conclusion: Fuck sexual violence. And fuck you, Zade.

See you next read,

Charlotte