Thank you Titan Books for the free copy of this book to review! 

 

Miles Warren comes from a long line of psychics. When he’s not attending high school or doing homework, he’s helping out the family business by wrangling ghosts and providing peace to haunted families using his empathic powers. But when Miles has an unexpected vision predicting the death of Gabriel Hawthorne—the son of his family’s rivals—he adds another responsibility to his plate: Work with the ill-tempered Gabriel to solve his murder before it happens … if they’re not too late. 

 

THE HOLLOW AND THE HAUNTED is a fun, atmospheric, queer fantasy romance. To be quite honest, I think I read it at the wrong time this year and didn’t have the energy to put into it, so I didn’t get as much out of the story as I had hoped. Even still, I had a pretty good time with it. 

 

Raines does a good job fleshing out this world where psychics and magic (though they hesitate to call it that) is common, with several prominent and powerful families offering services in varied ways. The dichotomy set up between Miles’ and Gabriel’s family made sense—the Warrens offering help for very little in return, just enough to get by, and the Hawthornes using their powers to climb the social ladder and cement themselves in wealth and prestige. I liked that there was backstory going back generations that we got to help uncover as the story was told. All of this was a solid backdrop for a pretty straightforward story of two rival lovers finding each other and solving their shared supernatural mystery. 

 

 

On the negative side, I found the main action scenes to be super fast, and despite the premise, I never felt like there were high stakes, which made me less invested. The book also ends on a massive cliffhanger, but the arc of book one didn’t feel totally complete. I wish that this story had wrapped up a little more fully with a few more chapters and then set the stage for a larger plot arc in the next book. 

 

THE HOLLOW AND THE HAUNTED has a slow burn M/M romance, queer awakenings, family secrets, atmospheric spooky stuff and more. If you liked CEMETERY BOYS, this might be your kinda thing.