This amazing story stole my breath and had me on the edge of my seat the entire time I devoured it. The author has created a world like no other that captivated me and characters that are so different from what I have read before. In the town of Weeping Hollow, we have a group of guys that are cursed called The Hollow Heathens and each guy is cursed with something different. In this book Julian is the one that we are following, and he is cursed with a face that will cause people to see their deepest and darkest fears eventually killing them. He thinks that he is a monster and tries to his best to do things by the book and loyal to his coven, but the only one that sees there is more to him is Fallon. After spending her whole life away from Weeping Hollow, she is back to help with her ailing grandfather, there are so many secrets and mysteries surrounding this town, but she is drawn to it. Fallon has always felt different and like an outcast looking for a place to belong so she doesn’t intentionally set out to be attracted to a Hollow Heathen but I felt like her outcast feelings made her empathize and become attracted to Julian. She sees the guy he truly is and not the cursed monster the others think he is and as they try to fight their attraction they can’t seem to stop being drawn together. This town has so many secrets and the Heathens are trying to find ways to break their curse, but it seems helpless. They may be outcasts but they each have a uniqueness that makes them seem like they are not as bad as they seem. I loved everything this book had to offer because it has so many elements that make it a great story. This book is full of a lot of action and steamy moments and I can’t wait to read more because the author has created this place I absolutely fell in love with. ( )

This amazing story stole my breath and had me on the edge of my seat the entire time I devoured it. The author has created a world like no other that captivated me and characters that are so different from what I have read before. In the town of Weeping Hollow, we have a group of guys that are cursed called The Hollow Heathens and each guy is cursed with something different. In this book Julian is the one that we are following, and he is cursed with a face that will cause people to see their deepest and darkest fears eventually killing them. He thinks that he is a monster and tries to his best to do things by the book and loyal to his coven, but the only one that sees there is more to him is Fallon. After spending her whole life away from Weeping Hollow, she is back to help with her ailing grandfather, there are so many secrets and mysteries surrounding this town, but she is drawn to it. Fallon has always felt different and like an outcast looking for a place to belong so she doesn’t intentionally set out to be attracted to a Hollow Heathen but I felt like her outcast feelings made her empathize and become attracted to Julian. She sees the guy he truly is and not the cursed monster the others think he is and as they try to fight their attraction they can’t seem to stop being drawn together. This town has so many secrets and the Heathens are trying to find ways to break their curse, but it seems helpless. They may be outcasts but they each have a uniqueness that makes them seem like they are not as bad as they seem. I loved everything this book had to offer because it has so many elements that make it a great story. This book is full of a lot of action and steamy moments and I can’t wait to read more because the author has created this place I absolutely fell in love with. ( )

This review may contain spoilers, so fair warning, upon reading the review.

Book Evaluation:
Plot: 🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️🎞️
World Building:🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎
Cover:📔📔📔📔📔
Hero: 🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻
Heroine:🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️
Intimacy Level: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Relationship Building: 💒💒💒💒💒
Heart & Feels:💞💞💞💞💞
Witty/Banter/Reaction of Laughter: 😂😂😂
Page Turner Level:📖📖📖📖📖
Narration:🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧
Ending:🧧🧧🧧🧧🧧
Overall View: ✨✨✨✨✨

I loved her, and perhaps it was a kind of love that wasn’t normal. Perhaps love wasn’t supposed to move something like her, quiet and gentle. Or maybe it wasn’t supposed to move something like me, cruel and unusual. Ours was different—a strange love. A mixture of us. Quiet and cruel, hiding in the depths of darkness before plunging a sharp blade into our hearts.

First Impressions
Hollow Heathens is the first installment in the “Tales of Weeping Hollow” series. This is also my very first Nicole Fiorina novel. This is a novel that I have been wanting to get it, and to be honest I hear “Bone Island” is epic but due to the world-building, certain aspects make more sense upon reading “Hollow Heathens” and I was so intrigued by this one and I knew I wanted to save it for this time of year. And if you are looking for a highly atmospheric read for fall time, this book must be on your list. In fact, if you love real writing talent, this is an author you need to pay attention to. I was completely floored by this book and the writing style that was portrayed within this story. I have never read such writing like this that has such attention to detail, the world builds so intricately and the chemistry between our couple is vibrant and real. Hollow Heathens is a gothic paranormal romance. It’s set in a small town and has a forbidden touch to the romance. It’s a story that is epic and packed with lyrical meaning and packs such an intense punch and will literally spook you within each chapter. It’s a book I can’t recommend enough and I admire the author in what she was able to create in this timeless romance.

Heart failure. The organ I would follow anywhere, without question, without reasoning. When lost or confused, it was our hearts we were told to trust completely. The speaker of desires, deliverer of feelings, and giver of hope. Yet it still had the audacity to fail us

First Line
Things that lurk in the darkness; monsters, ghosts, ghastly supernatural beings tethered by bottomless energy to keep them there, pinned to the earth and walking without direction.

Summary
Fallon was taken away from her childhood home as a form of protection and has lived away from Weeping Hollow majority of her life. She has now returned after exchanging letters with her grandfather who is in need of her. Her grandfather is her only family left and she is determined to get the answers to what happened to her mother and the mystery behind her past but also hopes to find herself and find a place of acceptance. Fallon has always been different which sets her apart from everyone else. When she comes to Weeping Hollow, there is so much mystery surrounding the people who live there. There is a magic in the air that is sometimes dark and twisted, and she is drawn to one of the four Hollow Heathens, Julian, who is forbidden to her. Julian is cursed as is his fellow Heathens and has to wear a mask over his face or those who see his true face will die. The coven has determined that Julian is too dangerous and he can’t get near Fallon. But Fallon is the only one who truly sees Julian as more than a cursed Heathen, she sees the man he is on the inside and quiets the turmoil in his head. But Fallon and Julian were never meant to find each other, but can their connection be the key to freeing Weeping Hallow and his closest friends from a curse they were dealt?

There was a serenity lurking behind the walls of his madman illusion—a false imprisonment of a wonderland I wanted to wander in. A place I could get lost in.

What I Loved
Hollow Heathens is a story I wasn’t expecting to be as good as it truly was. I do recommend if you can, getting this in audio. I am telling you the experience will be even more elevated. There is a very strong lyrical feel to the writing that Nicole Fiorina implements within her story here, and the narration really brings out that quality so well. So Hollow Heathens is a story that will instantly captivate you. I was so quickly drawn into this story and the mystery behind it all. I do think this is a book you need to take time with in order to get the full scope and vibe of the story. I read this one all day because I knew I wanted to get more time with it. I am really happy that I took the time reading this one and didn’t rush it because its not a story that is a quick read, you definitely want to ease into it. I even kept my audio narration at 1.4x speed to just really enjoy it a bit more. The story is captivating and we get multiple POV’s in this story. Mostly from Fallon and Julian, but we do get a sideline story of the origins of the curse and why its so vital to the story. This POV is short, really only a couple of pages a few times throughout the story and added such dimension into the background of the curse.

They are of formidable beauty, both love and death. Within them lies their immortality.

I think what I was drawn to the most is the atmosphere of this story. If you want a story that will literally awaken your senses, then this book will do that. I guarantee that it will take you on a ride you won’t be expecting. There is a talent that this author has that is so different from what I was expecting with this one here. What this author writes in the attention to detail is so crafty. The world-building is such that is so complex but not too complex that you get lost in the story. It’s slowly built with such detail that it’s an enriching experience. Then we have the cast throughout the story. I will say that it can be overwhelming for all the characters that are involved here, my best advice is to be patient with it and take time to learn them all as they all have roles within the story. The primary characters Julian and Fallon are so vibrantly portrayed. Their journey together was intimate and so haunting. You immediately feel the connection that these two have together. And even though Julian has such mystery surrounding him, you also sense his tortured past and the way he gets treated is so heartfelt throughout the story. Fallon is a heroine you can easily get behind. She is a fighter for the relationship and will do anything to protect Julian. Julian is very protective of her, but he is also in a tough spot because he knows his future fate and doesn’t want to take Fallon down with him. He also knows that their love has been forbidden. He isn’t allowed 50 feet within her space but they have a bond that is worth fighting for. There is a intense magnetism that rises between them that borders the line of life and death.

I would go to him, and I would love him. All of him. Over and over … on repeat. Because I was certain all these things he was made of were the very parts missing in me.

There is also a beautiful captivating mystery that is implemented and the paranormal elements that are drawn into this story is so mystical. I was so enraptured by these darker magical elements and seeing what our characters are having to deal with and the dark forces that are trying to destroy them and Weeping Hollow. The different events that build up to the crescendo and climax of the story just add to the tension and conflicts that arise within the story being told. And the ending that we have, well I couldn’t have written a more epic finalizing ending that delivers all the heart and feels and capitalizes on the built-up storytelling and the author definitely delivered a true masterpiece here.

she buried her face into my neck. I held the back of her head, keeping her here with me. She held on to me. I held on to her.

What I Struggled With
Nothing really, the writing can take some getting used to, but keep with it and take it easy and slow and you will be captivated!

He replaced the darkness with his own kind. I stilled, utterly dependent on him, yet trusting him. He was everywhere, a severe and passionate force of a shadow.

Overall View
Hollow Heathens is a timeless romance that stuns the reader with heart-achingly sweet intimacy, gothic mystery, and magic that is woven within the pages of a brilliantly mastered story to captivate the heart and deep abiding truths of the soul…

So, I kissed the night, got lost in his sky and suspended in his time. I kissed the darkness too, as if it was all I knew because it was a part of him.

Book Details (also in my shelves)
Sub Genre: Paranormal Romance, Gothic, Dark Romance
Character Types: Alpha Male, Bad Boy
Themes: Small Town, Gothic, Magical
Tropes: Forbidden Love

Book Perspective
Multi POV's

Relationship Conflict vs Plot Conflict
A Mix of Both

Song This Book Inspires
Middle of the Night by Elley Duhe

Recommendation For Reading Order
Yes

Steam/Spice Explanations

Steamin' up the room -the sexual content is more explicit in the language and tone, heavier amount of sexual scenes.

Narrators:
Lilly Drake
Vincent Skye
Zara Eden ( )

Greatly needs an editor. Has the bones for something good but needs better direction on getting there. ( )

A forbidden, timeless, and haunting love story.

Once upon a time, there lived a girl named Fallon who was taken far away from home shortly after she was born.
A home that held more than strange traditions and bizarre superstitions.
Twenty-four years later, she returned to Weeping Hollow, a town she’d only heard about in stories during restless nights under a marble moon, in the middle of the night to take care of her last living relative.
They called the nosy mortician a freakshow–a ghastly thing.
They said I couldn’t go near her.
Still, there was this aching pull to Fallon Grimaldi that I couldn’t escape.
A nostalgic pull as if we’d been here before.

Once upon a time, there lived a mysterious boy named Julian with a curse as old as centuries wrapped around his soul.
He was one of the four Hollow Heathens, the very dark creatures who caused the town’s people to live in fear.
And the Blackwell name was stained with darkness and death.
They called him a monster. Cold and hollow.
They said I shouldn’t go near him.
Still, there was this aching pull to Julian Blackwell that I couldn’t escape.
A nostalgic pull as if we’d been here before.