Hunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton

 Jesus Christ.

Okay.

Umm.

Why am I crying?

Okay. Let's try to write this review.

Haunting Adeline, book number one of the cat and mouse duet fucking terrified me. It was darker than anything I had ever read, filled with smut that still managed to affect my desensitized brain and body and dark as fuck. I read it simply because one of my friends (who upon further reflection literally is the queen of smut and dark romance, so I should've known better) asked me to read it. Said it was a good stalker romance to get me started. Honey, no, it was like dropping me into a bath of ice water. Like forcing a kitten into a bathtub. Like taking a fish out of water because it can just breath the oxygen... right? 

Now. Hunting Adeline. So it begins right where the end of Haunting is, obviously, with Addie being taken by two men, Rio and Rick. We assume that it's because of Z, hot, manipulative, literally ethical conundrum.... I hate him... I wish I was his girlfriend... I hate him... UGH! So, she gets put into a sex trafficking ring (aka skins) and is extremely sexually abused. Raped by multiple men, later in the book we find out that she has chlamydia from one of the men. These people rip away her humanity. Now I struggle with this book because much like Co-Ho in Verity, It Ends With Us and Ugly Love I feel that most of the details on abuse were overused and purely for shock factor. Abuse shouldn't be a falling back point for authors to get reads and sells and whatever. It's a gross and disgusting, disturbing thing to do, which brings me back to.. this book put every last one of my morals on trial. I kept telling myself it's just a book. But, when it comes down to it, how far would you go to please your partner? Could your partner differentiate between consensual and "non-consensual" consensual? Would you be okay with him/her killing for you? Would you kill for them? How much could you take? Could you fall in love with a stalker? Could you believe in your love so much you'd let him brand you? Would you stay with him after harm comes to your family because of him? When your dad comes to hate you because of him? Could you? Would you?? Would you survive.

Yeah, you guys can see the inner turmoil this left me with.

Onto the characters

Addie

Writer girlie. In the first book she's really weak and I despise Carlton for writing her as such because we need strong female leads. They exist. God damn it. But the HUGE character arc that she had entirely impressed me. She becomes such a strong woman, yes with Zade helping but MISS GIRL GOT THROUGH A GOD DAMN HUMAN TRAFFICKING STUNT AS THE MAIN FOCUS OF CLAIRE AND I'M JUST SO FUCKING IMPRESSED (and no, human trafficking should not be fucking glorified and I am not doing so. I am... so... I can't express it. She is so strong. She recovered when so many couldn't and them not recovering doesn't make them less strong it's just... I can't explain so I'm going to stop.

Zade aka "Z"

My stalker bae. He's scary af and he knows it. He's a machine, killing men and very fucking conflicted. He runs an underground organization breaking up skin rings and killing a lot of people. He's possessive af. Someone looks at Addie the wrong way, they're dead. I love him. He's everything I'll never fucking have lol. But this book was a nice fantasy, their romance I mean. He's dark. He fucks her with a gun, he fucks her against a tree, he chokes her and bites her and carves her with his knife. Like damn.

Rio

I hated this man. He watched while my girl got raped. But I failed to see the bigger picture through my love with Addie. He saves her. He really does in more ways than one. Having your body used against you and abused and just fucking traumatized and having nothing but the psycho bitch known as Sydney to get you through it? She would've gone insane. But no, Rio took care of her wounds and eventually was the person to kill the guards so she could be free. He knew she killed Sydney, he knew that everyone else would try to kill her and he'd have to act like he would want to too, becasue of his sister. And the beautiful beautiful thing that happened that Addie and Z got Katerina out of that god forsaken place and that Rio got away and that Addie and Z spared him... I'm in love. 

All in all, this book was terrifying. I have never read and enjoyed something so dark. When I say dark, I mean the pits of hell. If you decide to read this, know you will be empathizing with the devil himself. You will feel just as helpless as Rio and just as in love as Z. You will want to be Daya and you will want to see the end of Addie and Z's story... because it's that fucking good

*mic drop*