'Sixteen-year-old Miles Warren hails from a long line of psychics. Resigned to a life in the (not especially profitable) family business, Miles is perfectly happy, thank you very much―except for the part where he's constantly exhausted from long nights digging up graves, hiding his sexuality from his family, and unable to fulfil his dream of going to art school one day. Perfectly happy.
'But Miles' comfortable routine is interrupted when has a premonition of a violent supernatural murder. He soon discovers that the victim is none other than Gabriel Hawthorne, whose family have a mysterious, decades-long feud with Miles' own. Gabriel is everything Miles expects from a Hawthorne―rude, snobbish, and irritatingly good-looking―but Miles isn't just going to stand by and let someone murder him. The two form an uneasy alliance, trying to solve Gabriel's murder and prevent it from taking place.
'The odds are against them; death premonitions are notoriously hard to alter. As they uncover secrets about their families' feud and dark magic swirls around the pair, Miles is horrified to realize that he doesn't hate Gabriel as much as he's supposed to. He might even like him. Too bad Gabriel is almost certainly going to die.'
Miles Warren is part of a very special family, one where those born into the family have psychic gifts. In fact, a few of the people in his town do, with various families using them to help others and build a stronger community. His family help people with supernatural problems, things such as hauntings, demonic possession, or cursed objects that need dealing with. There's one family in town however, the Hawthornes, who have used their gifts to make themselves rich, and the Warrens and Hawthornes do not get on; even if Miles isn't exactly sure why.
When Miles gets a death premonition, a vision that shows him how someone will die, about Gabriel Hawthorne he's put in a troubling situation. The families don't get on, so he's worried about going to his parents for help, but at the same time he can't just sit back and let something as terrible as murder happen to Gabriel, no matter how bad the family feud is. So, Miles sets out to find out who wants to kill Garbriel and stop it, something that's far from easy as most death premonitions cannot be altered. Thus begins a series of events that will bring Miles and Gabriel closer than he could have ever imagined.
The Hollow and the Haunted is a rather fun and easy to read rivals to lovers supernatural romance novel designed for younger readers. It's got a lot of tropes in it, almost to the point where you can tick them off a list, but manages to be so well crafted and delightful a read that you don't really care how familiar the book feels.
A lot of the enjoyment of the book comes from the two leads, Miles and Gabriel. Miles is a very likable protagonist, and you very quickly come to enjoy spending time with him. He's part of a life that he doesn't really enjoy (we meet him literally digging up a grave) yet does so to help his family out and to not rock the boat. He has psychic gifts that he doesn't particularly like, yet uses them to help others because he knows it's the right thing to do. He's also hiding a secret, that he's gay. Having seen a number of rivals to lovers books for teens before I realised whilst reading this that I don't think I've read any with queer characters, and as such this was a delightful twist on the trope.
Miles' relationship with Gabriel is a main focus of the book, and is a fun one too as they don't exactly get off on the best foot. Raines injects a ton of character and humour into these scenes, as the two of them argue and snark at each other in equal measure. Over time the two of them begin to work together better, and you can see that their very different personalities compliment each other well, with Gabriel being the one to keep Miles focused, for example.
The Hollow and the Haunted ends on a cliff-hanger, meaning that there will be more to come with these characters, and by the way things end you'll be wanting to read the next part straight away.
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