I heard about the two book series “Haunting Adeline” by H.D. Carlton on social media and decided to read it based on many raving reviews. However, upon reading the series I found myself feeling misled by the praise it received from other readers. Even though I was disappointed by the first book, I went on to read the second one to give the series the benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately, it only made me dislike the series even more.

The author’s writing style was not terrible by any means. I think the storyline had great potential, but in the end fell very flat to me. The story started off very strong and inticing to get into, but I had already begun to lose interest only ten chapters in. One of my biggest qualms with these books is how all of the characters are supposed to be these intelligent and wealthy late twenties to early thirties adults working in high tech operations, yet they all speak and think like young teenagers.

The phrasing and behavior of all, but especially the main characters, completely took me out of the story. There are very serious scenarios all throughout both books, and their reactions and how they view themselves and others through their individual monologues portrays them as immature adolescents.

The main character, Adeline, is a famous author in the story. But the author tells but doesn’t show the reader that writing is actually an important part of Adeline’s life. Her career and any other special interests become irrelevant and lost in the story all because of her obsession with her stalker/boyfriend, Zade. She becomes a very two-dimensional character because of this beginning only a few chapters into the first book.

Zade himself is also a problematic character. He is portrayed as a white-knight hero type of person after his true identity is revealed to Adeline, yet his actions and self-centered ideation completely void him of that to me as a reader. He repeatedly disregards consent even though his job within the story is to save women from trafficking. One chapter shows him as the good guy saving people, and the next he is manipulating and abusing his girlfriend that he has an absolutely unhealthy obsession with.

Adeline is completely dependent on Zade for every emotional and physical need, which I believe portrays a very unhealthy relationship for more than the aforementioned reasons. What the author tried to portray to the reader as a hero-and-damsel type of situation came off as uncomfortable advances and numerous red flags.

Side characters like Jay and Sibby were unnecessary and distracting to me. Jay is a character whose sole purpose seems to be obsessed with Zade and compliant to his every command. He truly has no other plot purpose than that. And Sibby is a very poor portrayal of individuals with mental illness. More than anything, she seems like a prop to be used as a makeshift child that Zade and Adeline take responsibility for. Daya, Adeline’s best friend, is truly one of the only characters with redeemable qualities to me.

Although the plot, storyline, and characters were all over the place and not doing much to make the story enjoyable in my subjective opinion, I will say one good thing about this series is that it brings awareness about human trafficking and assault. This is a very real issue in the world today, and despite me having many issues with the Haunting Adeline series, I can certainly give it praise for that.

As I mentioned before, I do not understand the hype around this series and part of me worried that impressionable people who read it will think that relationships like Zade and Adeline’s are admirable when in reality, they’re extremely harmful and toxic. There is a lack of realism in this story, but I would be willing to read other works by the same author to see if any of her other books or series are something I can enjoy.

– A.B.