Hollow
Karina Halle
A Gothic Shade of Romance #1
Welcome to Sleepy Hollow. May you never leave.
Cover and Synopsis
Hollow Cover & Blurb
Welcome to Sleepy Hollow. May you never leave.
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.
Book Information
Hollow
Independently published September 2023 by Karina Halle.
Pages : 362 pages, Paperback
hollow Trigger Warnings
Drug use, attempted sexual assault. same sex coupling, violence, domestic violence, breath play, praise and degradation kinks, bdsm, and mental health struggles.
Hollow Dedication
For the readers who wait all year for spooky season: this one’s for you.
hollow Tropes
Student x Professor
Age Gap
MM/MF
Dark Academia
Multi-POV
Prophecy
Witches
Review
Hollow by Karina Halle
I have been wanting to read Karina Halle’s Gothic Shade of Romance series for awhile now. Big Sleepy Hollow fan over here and I generally enjoy Halle’s writing. So here we are, I read this series back in late September gearing up for spooky season.
Jump down to my final thoughts to avoid any spoilers.
- This school is fishy af.
- I’m not sure the dad did die of heart failure.
- What are the aunts up to?
- I don’t think it was suicide.
- One in the same. Oh my.
- Where oh where have you been Dear Brom. Besides Crane’s pants that is.
- Who is in there? Mr. Horseman?
- Won’t be. The mother is infuriating.
- These people are desperate for Kat and Brom to be together.
- Weak because she had no one to siphon magic from.
- Well this guy is dead.
- Professor!
Hollow: A Gothic Shade of Romance Review
Minor Spoilers
Hollow by Karina Halle is the first book in the Gothic Shade of Romance Duet. A dark academia, why choose, retelling of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The duet follows Katrina as she begins her enrollment at the secretive Sleepy Hollow Institute for witches. Run by Kat’s family, the institute harbors darker, more sinister threats than simply teaching advanced witchcraft. The dark, gothic atmosphere was exceptional. If there’s one thing Halle can do, it’s bring the vibes. The Gothic Shade of Romance Duet is perfect for spooky season.
But here, with the lantern swinging in my hand, on a quiet night in this old building, I feel fear like I’ve never felt it before.
Kat has been in an arranged marriage to Brom Bones since birth. The two grew up together and were best friends. In fact, Kat’s entire life revolved around marrying Brom. It is her life’s purpose. After a wild night together in Kat’s barn, Brom disappears from Sleepy Hollow. No one knows where Brom has gone, or if he is even alive. Devastated and heartbroken, Kat picks up the pieces to her broken heart and forges a new path for herself.
Student x Professor
One minute, I was being pleasured by Professor Crane’s fingers as we rode on my horse together; the next, we were about to be killed by a horseman with no head.
When Kat begins classes at the institute, she strikes up a relationship with its newest professor. The mysterious, and much older Ichabod Crane. Crane is haunted by a dark past and suffers from a serious God complex. Both new to the institute, the forbidden desire between the two is undeniable. They quickly act on their feelings. Our dear Ichabod is a dominate man. Halle weaves bdsm elements into the spice, taking full advantage of the student x professor trope.
Brom Bones has been missing for four years.
When Brom shows back up in Sleepy Hollow, it is with amnesia and a darker, more volatile personality. The one thing he remembers? He loves Kat and she is to be his wife. Brom is promptly enrolled at the institute alongside his soon to be wife. Because yes, both families expect Brom and Kat to pick up where they left off and get married.
As it turns out, Brom has met the enigmatic professor Crane before. Although he doesn’t remember, they were in a sexual relationship for a time. Both Kat and Crane are tormented over the sudden arrival of their ex-lover. Complicating their relationship and feelings for each other further. I enjoyed all three of the main characters in Hollow but this is a story fueled by plot and smut. There’s no real character development or depth, it’s all very surface layer.
Because this man isn’t the same man that I had once been intimate with.
That man had been on the run because he’d been hunted.
This man is one who has finally been caught.
While the three characters navigate their complicated feelings for each other, they also work together to uncover the mysterious beheadings around town. Beheadings that just happen to coincide with Brom’s return to Sleepy Hollow. Oh and there’s the fact that the school is weird as fuck-Crane is being haunted by his dead wife. Kat’s aunts? Strange, unusual and up to something sinister. The mother? Horrid and also up to something.
A black horse leaps across the void, on its back a horseman with no head. It smells of decay and brimstone, and it’s coming to me, bringing with it a world of evil. A world where souls are trapped and screaming to die.
Hollow ends on a cliffhanger so be prepared to jump right into Legend, the conclusion to Halle’s Gothic Shade of Romance.
Quotes
Hollow Quotes
Spice
Hollow Spicy Chapters
1, 14, 16, 24, 26 & 29
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