This is not a book for the faint of heart. Its not tale to learn from, or a romance to pine for. It’s a messed-up stalker that’s obsessed with a woman that gets off on fear. And if reading, 'I don’t want this'. followed by being chased until you are physically caught isn’t something you can stomach reading, then under no circumstances read Haunting Adeline. But eyyy that’s why we have trigger warnings. I’m not going to lie, even I became uncomfortable in one of the later chapters feeling like it went a little too far.

I could get very, very hung up on a body showing signs of let’s call it stimulation, whether it be a man or woman, does not imply desire, want or consent. And if you want to learn more about that I would highly recommend reading Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski. Just because a woman is ‘wet’ does not mean she wants to sleep with you. The day I come across a Dark Romance that address that, I’ll have myself a 5-star dark romance read. So long as all the other aspects of it are as gripping as this one.


Back to Haunting Adeline. Zade and those dam eyes, I have been waiting for a dark romance that contained one of my favorite features I’ve read in so many other books, but never a romance. And this delivered. Also, it was clear he was much larger in stature than Addie but it wasn’t harped on about, utterly refreshing when an author leans more into vibes and emotions than anything else to create desire and atmosphere. In other words, if a book tells me how tall he is and how petite she is over and over like it’s the only thing they have going on I’m going to throw it out. This though was all about the eerie atmosphere and electric connection. Yes, this particular vibe was set to make you feel like you where in a haunted house with goose bumps and sweat running down your spine the entire time but dam it was enthralling.

There was no putting this book down, first thing in the morning, lunch breaks at work and before bed, I devoured it. Zade might have eaten the soul out of Addie, but H.D Carlton fed mine. It had me stressing, it had me grinning and it may have also had me pissed off at times too.


My only other negative other than the above about a ‘body implying consent’. There where a few other moments when did not enjoy the langued used, never been a fan of the pet name baby, and nothing made me more uncomfortable than “pretty girl” being used when trying to reassure an assaulted/kidnapped child that she is safe. Finally (its feeling like a number of issues now) the mystery of the cold case murder, I’m not sure about anyone else it seemed pretty obvious from early on who did it. That along with Gigi’s diary entries, I could have gone without.


I wanted to included a quote because I had a surprising number of highlights in this book but I couldn't just pick one;


a quote that made me laugh

“I can smell you,” he says. And if that’s not the creepiest thing I’ve ever fucking heard, I don’t know what is.

a quote I appreciated 

So, you can either redirect all the effort you’ve been putting into acting like a brat and apply it towards something useful, or you can continue to be powerless in the situations life throws you in. You choose, baby, because I’m not going to keep making these decisions for you.”

a quote that made my heart race

“What you’re seeing now is what I see every day. No matter how far I run, how hard I try to escape you—you’re everywhere I go. You’re everything I see. Loving you is like being trapped in a house of mirrors, little mouse. And I’ve never felt so at home while being so lost inside you.”

a quote that I love for all the wrong reasons 

“I also love the possibility that I have fallen in love with you in each life. Fucked that sweet pussy of yours and made you fall in love with me as much as I am with you. What did I tell you, little mouse? That you couldn’t escape me. If it’s real, then I’ve chased you across time and space, and you’ve never been able to get away.”

 

In six months’, time if someone asks me what happens in ‘She Who Became the Sun’ all I will be able to recall is that in a very light romance book, an entire hand up to the knuckles enters Ma. 

The start was beautiful and expressive, in the Zhu family home you could feel the cold emptiness and the monastery was a world of its own. Even though it was slow, I was captivated. Then it just skipped years all of a sudden, the pacing was thrown out of rhythm, along with any kind of depth, detail and atmosphere.

Zhu started off as an interesting character but I didn’t enjoy her character arc. I liked Ma and her banter with Zhu early on, however like Xu Da their charters just stop developing and lost any kind of dimension that they had. 

  Once Ma pledged herself to Zhu, after she killed the Prince of Radiance, I lost whatever care I still had for her. 

 

Ouyang from his first introduction intrigued me and it didn’t take long for him to become the only character I really cared about, he was complex, layered and continued to add to the story. That being said… even though Ouyang ended up being the most interesting charter, half of his POV were just tedious, riddle me that.

In the end, some elements including the unique concepts and execution of the battles were ok. The charters overall were pretty lackluster. And I did not connect to the writing style, jumps in time or stale of atmosphere. This novel didn’t have to have ‘more’ things going on it just need depth, and complexity added to the right areas. 

 I haven’t read a Poetry Novel in a long time. And to come across an ARC on NetGalley with a collection such as this I couldn’t resist. It truely was as the description details; deeply personal yet collective.

I’ve since ordered the physical book, to be able to highlight particular poets entries that I found particularly stunning and moving.

The collection of voices, writing styles and topics are extremely wide. As such, and to be expected, I did not love all the entries. And had a very hard getting into the rhythm and flow for the first 30% of this collection. After halfway however, I could not put this down, and ever so subtly started to lean closer towards four stars than three on average. 

“Fist my bump”

I consider a book that makes me laugh, great, a book that causes me to weep, stress and pace, brilliant. But when I book does both of those things plus stir inner questions of situations far beyond my grasp on reality, cause me to question my own morality and what decision I would make. Along with questioning the world and our volatile history. That is extortionary. Connection in life is everything and this book although set is lonely isolated space has it in spades. 

Even if you’re not into Sci-Fi, this is so much more than that, it’s about relationships, and hope, and fighting for your life and the lives of others. Its about the environment and politics, working together and just getting shit done. Engineering and building machines, and working with unreal science experiments that even the utmost novice can somehow understand with the way that Andy Weir writes. It’s about falling down and getting up and trying again and again and again despite all the odds.  

 I was going to give this 3 stars. However after re-reading in detail the description of the book and my reasons for three stars don’t overly seem justified considering it clearly states that this the history of women and queens - from a Christian Ruled and Governed Perspective.

That being said it still does very much irritate me that the direction and tone was some what negative towards Islam. And shone the Crusaders in a positive light at nearly all times. Although some individual Crusaders where called out for being overly brutal it was skimmed over and put down to their own personal misconduct.

It was very interesting regardless, and I nearly used and entire sheet of tabs making notes. It wasn’t overly in-depth but a good simple and short summary for a period of time during the Crusades, when women fought to rule and have control of their people and their own lives.

I’m pleased to have read it. It is important that authors and historians are writing texts that breakdown the often prejudice recordings of women in history.