Genre: Contemporary Romance
Tropes: Obsessive anti-hero, dark romance, stalking
“When you make someone fall in love with the darkest parts of you, there's nothing you can do that will scare them away.”
*Sigh* Okay, what to say about Haunting Adeline. First of all, I went in completely blind. Aside for knowing about the infamous 🔫 ➡️ 🙀 scene, I had no idea of the characters or the plotline. Here are my unfiltered thoughts…
Haunting Adeline is a dual perspective story about Zane (AKA Z, Kitty Cat, The Shadow) and Adeline (AKA Addie, Little Mouse, The Manipulator). Zane is a hacker turned vigilante murderer — an interesting combination, I have to admit. He also has a penchant for stalking. Now, with someone who has murderous impulses, obviously a high IQ and stalking tendencies, would it be safe to assume that this individual also happened to have a shitty childhood that featured extensive trauma? Abso-fucking-lutely. Does Zane? 100% NO.
Perfect childhood.
Perfect parents.
WTF?
Which was my sticking point. As far as a character’s motivations and drive go, he makes absolutely no sense. He talks about hating to see women and children hurt, but he actively hurts Adeline, pushing her limits just to see her pain. He’s a fucking hypocrite.
And then there’s Adeline… trite, little Adeline who is a trite little indie writer and who lives alone in a mansion in the middle of nowhere—the perfect place for a slasher film… or for a stalker to watch her when help is miles away. She has an interest in the occult, and enjoys being scared. She sounds like the perfect target for a stalker then… and she was! Clearly, she didn’t have a sense of self-preservation either because when said stalker tells her not to do something, she went ahead and did it anyway. *insert eye roll* Fuck me.
Okay, can we just address the elephant in the room… or should I say the gun-f*cking? This scene was spoken about so much, and it does deliver on all the things readers crave when it comes to a dark and twisted stalker romance, but for me, all I could think of was how unhygienic it all was. Do you know how many germs would be on that muzzle, then he just shoves it on up her kitty?? *cringe* I feel sorry for Adeline dealing with the yeast infections & aftermath of that shit.
In my opinion, the were two redeeming features of this book:
The first was the smutty scenes. That shit was taken to the next LE-VEL. Although, the huge size of his cock was a little bit of an overcompensation. Maybe that was Adeline’s reward for being stalked and terrorised for 3 months straight?
The second was the mirroring on the plotline between the murder mystery of Adeline’s great grandmother and her own stalker situation. That was clever, and a nice parallel between the past and the present.
Overall, this book didn’t hit the mark for me. It ends on a cliffhanger (one I have no intention of following up with Hunting Adeline) but that’s still not enough of a reason for me to read book 2 in this duet.
K xx