By the time she started falling in love with him, I already hated him, and saw no justification for the way he treated her. But one of the hard limits is trying to excuse the behavior, and that's what this book does at every turn.

Pedophelia is one of the worst crimes out there but… The books idea about how pedofile rings work are just weird and wrong in so many ways. Yes, there's triggers, we get it, but everyone can make their own decision on whether to read it or not and people seem extremely focused on that for a book that's been pretty open about the fact that this is not one for the faint of heart.

She begged him to stop, talked about how it hurt, and he left her crying in a ball after he fucked her. This review contains minor spoilers, nothing unpredictable or what you haven’t already seen on booktok. the book can be split up into three parts: 1, crazy stalker; 2, learning more about crazy stalker, 3, falling in love with crazy stalker. Way too long and drawn out, yet with a f*ing cliffhanger and dont get me started on the irony of working towards rescuing abused women and children but still abuse the person you want to be with. I-cant-bear-to-see-innocent-kids-raped-at-the-hands-of-powerful-men-and-I-have-to-save-them-with-my-chiseled-jaw-and-ugly-scar, RAPES THE MAIN CHARACTER WITH A GUN.

There’s a parallel story where our dark knight is also a hero chasing pedophiles, witch, u know, is a good thing! HD Carlton does a wonderful job bringing up all the reasons why it’s wrong and blah blah but she’s also very good at getting us to ask ourself why we think it’s wrong. Meanwhile, here he is, going into this girl's house, forcing himself onto her, justifying it because of the girl being turned on, and then leaving her there lying on the floor curled into herself and crying. Like I’m pretty sure with all the high tech gear and crazy stunts they pull that it cannot be cheap. She's a sassy, non-nonsense kind of woman that knows her worth and isn't ashamed of who she is in the slightest, and I love that about her.These scenes are so corny, I mean there’s these senators who are doing it and Z and his group are trying to hack into their society which hey?

I am so thankful for the popularity whirlwind that these books and HD Carlton got sucked into because I can’t remember who I was before I knew what all the hype was about! Adeline is better than me because i know if a man that looked like Zade approached me, i’d fold instantly.People excuse this by saying it was cnc and even though I never kink shame, it was just not something i could easily fathom. The plot is fantastic and never leaves you wanting, with mysterious and sharp twists and turns that build higher and higher with every page.

There was another sex scene that involved Zane "catching" or "chasing" Adeline, which seemed fun, I was totally down. But, I think building up to the first encounter more would have created more suspense for the reader and allowed us to really feel his obsession and what led to him having to stalk her. Thank you to Neela for not only rec'ing this book, but for all the funny ass texts about this book that hopefully never get out.I stare at the flower like it's a live tarantula, staring straight back at me and daring me to come closer.