Not once have I ever picked up a stiletto and said, you know, I wonder if this will fit in someone’s poop chute. Well, guess what, Adeline found out the answer to that question.
Hunting Adeline picks up where Haunting leaves off. Adeline has been kidnapped and sold into the skin trade. Without spoiling anything, the first half of this book is pretty intense, and there’s a lot going on between Adeline and Zade’s perspectives. Most of what we get is Adeline’s struggle with her situation and the physical and emotional abuse she has to endure in captivity.
This book addresses all the critiques I had regarding the first book. The stakes are higher, the intensity is higher, and the suspense is cranked up to eleven. Chapter 20 stressed me out. At one point, my wife looked at me to make sure I wasn’t having a panic attack. Even the dialogue between Zade and Addie was a lot less cringy. There were some cheesy lines, but not as many as in Haunting Adeline. The more I thought about it, though, I wonder if that cheesiness is needed to offset some of the tone. I also feel like Zade felt more human in this book. Like, he had more of a personality.
The character development definitely improves in Hunting Adeline, and we see a massive change in Adeline going from the first half of the book to the second. We get more of Daya and Jay, and Sibby is back for a good chunk of the second half. I should note that people have recommended that you read Satan’s Affair first, and I have to agree. If you didn’t read it before starting Haunting Adeline, definitely read it before going into Hunting.
As I said in my review of Haunting of Adeline, I love Carlton’s writing style. The pacing was great, and the structure had an excellent flow that kept me turning pages until the very end. As for the spice, it’s probably a two-and-a-half peppers for me. As a disclaimer, I don’t think anything that happens in the first half counts as spice. That said, it’s fair to say this is less of a dark romance book and more of a dark erotic thriller. That’s just my opinion.
I’d love to see H.D. Carlton further explore the horror genre. I feel like she could really shine in erotic horror and splatterpunk. Overall, I love both of these books, and now I see why they get recommended so much here on BookTok. I did pick up the other three books in the series, and I’ll be reading and reviewing those later. If you want to keep up with what I’m reading, follow me on Goodreads and Fable https://linktr.ee/rottenreads