HOLLOW
Series: A Gothic Shade of Romance #1
Author: Karina Halle
Genre: Gothic Romance
Release Date: September 28, 2023
From the New York Times bestselling author of River of Shadows and A Ship of Bones and Teeth comes a smutty spooky dark academia gothic romance retelling of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, where Kat Van Tassel doesn’t have to choose between Brom Bones and Ichabod Crane, and there are worse things haunting them than the Headless Horseman.
Ever since she was a child, Kat Van Tassel knew that her parents had arranged for her to marry her best friend, Brom Bones, when she became of age. That was until Brom mysteriously vanished from the secretive village of Sleepy Hollow when he was just a teenager.
Now, at nineteen, Kat is fulfilling the tradition of attending Sleepy Hollow Institute, a shadowy and prestigious school that is run by her powerful family. There she starts to fall for her new teacher, the enigmatic, smart, and much older Ichabod Crane, whose fascination with dark magic and the occult brings out a new side of Kat—in more ways than one.
Until Brom Bones suddenly appears in her class. Her childhood friend doesn’t remember what happened to him in the four years that he’s been gone, all he knows is that he’s back in Sleepy Hollow for good. The only problem is, he’s not the same man that Kat knew. Cocky and brash as a youth, this Brom is violent and prone to bouts of madness. It doesn’t help that his reappearance coincides with gruesome decapitations that are plaguing the town, with rumors swirling about a vengeful ghost called The Headless Horseman.
Determined to get to the bottom of the murders and Brom’s volatility, Crane takes Brom under his wing to study him, and they begin to grow close, just as they do with Kat. But the more that the threesome submits to their sexual desires on the path to the truth, the more dangerous Sleepy Hollow becomes. The Headless Horseman might claim them as his next victims…if something even more terrifying doesn’t get to them first.
Hollow is a standalone book of aprox 90K words and may contain some triggering situations, even though this is NOT considered a dark romance. You can view the content warning when the book is live by using the “Look Inside” feature on Amazon. Hollow has foul language, graphic sexual situations including mmf, and is not suitable for those under 18.
A perfect gentleman would have told her that he’d prefer to walk, to keep space between them.
But I am not a perfect gentleman.
Truth be told, I’m not a gentleman at all.
I’m a deviant.
Being in my spooky season era, I was desperate to get my hands on this book. So it’s no surprise that I basically read it in a sitting, right? Right.
Now, this is either a book you will click with or you won’t at all. I fall into the former. Sleepy Hollow is one of my favorite spooky season movies. So a retelling where Katrina doesn’t have to chose between Brom or Ichabod? Sign me up! But keep in mind that this is a book set in the 1800s, so if you’re applying modern morals to it, it also probably won’t be your cuppa. But I digress.
This book had such a vibe. A dark and spooky vibe. I will admit that while I am a whole a$s grown woman, there are parts of this book I had to read with all the lights on and every door open with my dog by my side. What? I may be grown but I’m still a chicken, okay? But I digress again.
This story is basically a retelling of Sleepy Hollow but with a twist. Ichabod Crane is a professor at an illusive school that has some dark secrets that never leave the grounds. Katrina has just entered her first year of the school even though it’s the last place she wants to be. But after the death of her father, her mother’s wish is for her to do her duty and attend the school. And Brom? Well, that’s a plot twist and then some. Brom and Katrina are promised to each other in marriage when they are just babies. Kat has been in love with Brom for years. But after a fateful night together, he disappears and no one hears from him for years. Only for him to turn up with no memories of where he’s been and a unique connection to Ichabod. And I won’t tell you more than that.
I can definitely see why this is now split into two books, where there’s a lot of story to unpack here. Hollow read so quick because I was desperate for answers that I only seemed to get small kernels of teasing about. The mystery, the horror vibes, the spooky setting, all of it combined for a deliciously addictive read that I can’t wait to read the conclusion for. We get a small peak into the MM side here so I’m very hopeful to get more in book two because these two definitely have a ton of chemistry to be peeled back and when you add Kat to the mix it just gets better.
DEVIL IN DISGUISE
SEA OF RUIN
Two words: FUCKING. EPIC.
CHASING CASSANDRA
THE BEAST OF BESWICK
HOW TO LOVE A DUKE IN TEN DAYS
Spoiler alert; it was me.
THE WALLFLOWER WAGER
See that pile of satisfied reader goo in the corner? The one clutching her kindle to her chest and making moon eyes at the sky? That, my friends, is this girl after downright binging on the absolute perfection that was this story.
A KINGDOM OF DREAMS
THE SCOUNDREL IN HER BED
I’m a sucker for a good second chance romance, and this book definitely delivered on that front. Vivi and Finn’s story spans the course of several years. They meet when Vivi is just fifteen, fall in love when she’s seventeen, and fall apart in a devastating fashion only for their life to cross paths eight years later. But neither of them are the people they once were.
DEVIL’S DAUGHTER
“If you have any misguided thoughts about taking me into your bed, you would find it a vastly mediocre experience. I’d be on you like a crazed rabbit, and half a minute later the whole thing would be over. I used to be a proficient lover, but now I’m a burnt-out libertine whose only remaining pleasure is breakfast food. Speaking of which—”
I feel myself fall into a perpetual state of bliss each time I crack open a Lisa Kleypas book. And this time was no different. I’ve been eagerly anticipating this book, and now that I’ve finished it, quite frankly, I don’t know what to do with myself. Devil’s Daughter was everything I had hoped it would be, and trust me when I tell you that I hope a GREAT DEAL.
New York Times bestselling author Lisa Kleypas graduated from Wellesley College with a political science degree. She’s a RITA award-winning author of both historical romance and contemporary women’s fiction. She lives in Washington State with her husband Gregory and their two children.
