Hunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton

“I may own every breath in your body, but make no mistake, Adeline, you own mine, too. I am yours to command. To bend and break. To mold and manipulate. Do you think that makes me weak? Or do you think I’m strong enough to admit that even though my body can physically live on without you, I would never get my fucking soul back?”

This novel picks up right where Haunting Adeline drops off. Adeline’s life takes a sinister turn when she becomes the prey of a relentless hunter. Carlton’s writing is razor-sharp, delivering a suspenseful narrative that will keep you on the edge of your seat. This book doesn’t just give up a happy ending for us readers. We are forced through every single struggle that takes place and the challenge, that is, to get out of them on the other side, broken but willing to fight the mental and physical traumas to come out stronger.

I have no words. Brace yourself. If the first book was enough to bring you here, the ride has just begun and you’ll be begging for the…. climax long before you get there. I’m telling you now, the triggers in this book are nasty! If you were triggered in Haunting Adeline, this one is absolutely going to be worse. You’ve been warned. Especially considering how the first book ended. The way the H.D. Carlton deals with Addie’s trauma and then her journey feels deeply cathartic, even though that journey is not at all mine. You know how sometimes it feels like an author poured their soul out into a story, that’s exactly what I felt here, like she cut open a vein and let her soul bleed out until it was all on the page. Painful, messy, heartbreaking, and eventually, healing. Yet still she brought a lightness to it no matter how bleak things got, less funnier than Haunting but with enough humor to remind you that the only way to survive this life is with laughter.

I gave this one a 4.5 star rating. The copious amount of toxicity that exists between Adeline and Zade relationship can only be measured by the blinded determination and dedication that Zade has towards Adeline. How I was able to push thru this, I don’t know. This book made me question my fictional morals. The dedication to strengthen Addie mentally, emotionally, physically is boyfriend (toxic) goals. This was one of the most difficult books I’ve ever read in my life. It was heart-wrenching, cruel, evil, but healing in ways I didn’t know I needed.