Haunted Halls

Rating: 3.75 stars out of 5 (rounded up to 4)

Evan is away from home for the first time in his life as a freshman at Rove University. He should be excited about being independent and the prospect of meeting new people and making friends. But Evan is miserable. Homesick and feeling more alone than he's ever been, the only reason Evan is at Rove instead of a commuter college is due to his parents insistence. Evan is trying but nothing is working.

Then Evan notices a young man sitting high above the courtyard where he is eating. Long dark hair and lean, the student seems without fear as he leans far out over the ledge. But at next glance the student is gone and Evan is left to wonder at exactly what he saw. Then he spots him again when Evan walks down to the pond near the university. The young man, Gabriel, warns Evan not to fall asleep on the rock,otherwise he might drown. Then with a smile, he vanishes once more.

Who Gabriel is Evan isn't sure, he only knows that when he is at his most miserable and defeated, Gabriel appears to talk and make him feel better at being away from home. His classmates and some teachers say the university is haunted and that the ghost roams the campus at night, playing pranks and sometimes helping those in need.

Evan doesn't believe in ghosts. Maybe he should.

Haunted Halls by M Raiya is a sweet, unusual paranormal romance whose characters, especially that of Evan, are the real draw here. Evan is that true homebody. He adores his parents and the only place he wants to be is back home in his small town in Vermont. But his parents worry about Evan limiting himself at this age so they send him off to Rove University hoping that this unwanted separation and independence will be good for him. They extracted a promise that he will stay there a year. If he toughs it out and still wants to come home after that then they will let him. Such a normal situation and the parental concern is so very realistic. I am a fan of this author and this set up is exactly the reason why. A typical introverted teenager who is always on the outskirts of high school social circles and with very different interests from the popular kids is leery of the unknown that is Rove University. This starting point is one that almost everyone can relate to. And then Even arrives at Rove and everything changes.

It's hard to go into too much detail because of the chance of revealing story spoilers, but to say the least this is not exactly the ghost story that you are expecting. M Raiya has a few twists in store for the reader. Just when you have anticipated the reveal, Raiya shows she have something very different in mind. And that's both the best and most frustrating aspect of this story.

Haunted Halls takes its name from the clever idea that a student marked through the words Hallowed on a plaque to change it to read Haunted Halls after the campus ghost that is said to haunt this university. Raiya has two congruent plot threads going that will eventually converge as the story heads towards its dramatic resolution. The first concerns Evan during the first weeks of his arrival at Rove. Depressed and lonely, he is in a delicate mental and emotional place. And that's when he meets the mysterious Gabriel. Each time Evan is at his lowest, the ever elusive Gabriel manages to appear, almost out of thin air, to bring Evan out of his dark place and make it better. The second thread appears when Evan meets two students who are interested in the campus legends and together the three of them start to investigate in the ghostly appearances and past history of the university and town. As the story draws down to a conclusion the closer the two threads become until they connect in one shattering moment.

I really loved this short story and only a couple of things kept it from being a perfect little gem. The first is hard to explain but the reason behind Gabriel's appearance and the ghostly rumors is one of the most interesting and least fleshed out elements of this story. The fascinating idea behind it just begs for a deeper explanation for it as well as more plot time. Raiya only gives out small bits of the past, the pivotal surprise at the heart of this story, and its nature. So the idea is never framed out completely to the readers frustration, especially as it plays such an enormous role in its impact on all the major characters here. One of the problems behind that lack of substance to this segment of the story is the word count. The promise of this complicated story line would be hard to fulfill at a larger page count let alone 21,000 words. And the fascinating concept here is such a great one that I wish Raiya had given it the spotlight in the story that it deserved.

But those issues aside, I throughly enjoyed Haunted Halls. Growing up I grabbed up all the ghost stories I could find, and this short story brought back all those happy memories of romance, and ghosts and unlikely endings that would ever be my favorites. It's a quick, charming tale of love and the unexpected. Pick it up for a fun, fast read.

Cover art by Aisha Akeju who is quickly becoming one of my favorite new artists. Great cover. Its perfect for the story inside.

Book Details:

ebook Expected publication: May 7th 2014 by Less Than Three Press LLC original titleHaunted Halls ISBN139781620043554

Buy Link at LT3 Press edition languageEnglish

Translation of my German review:
Evan is shy and quiet and terribly homesick. He avoids the partys of his college roommates, sleeping under the stairs at the dorm on his first night at the new place because that's the only quiet place he can find. He wants to go back home, but his parents make him realize that he can not give up after a only one day. Only a strange man who appears suddenly and disappears again, and which others do not see or hear, arouses his interest. Evan is curious which secret surrounds the stranger, but also is interested in a romantic sense. Is Evan gay maybe, nevertheless, even if he may not even admit it to himself? And who is the mysterious stranger?

While Evan tries to get to know Gabriel better and to find out who or what Gabriel is, he also understands some things about himself. It is enjoyable to watch how he becomes self-confident, finds friends, and approaches Gabriel. Besides we get a ghost story about the haunted halls, which are guarded by a college ghost.

This is a sweet and quiet love story, absolutely sex-free, which would not fit to the mood of this story at all, but is full of romantic feelings. The reader is sucked into the mysterious mood, very well entertained and left behind with a positive feeling.

This book was definitely a surprise which shouldn't make me wonder at all considering the title. It was a nice and sweet novella, to be read in one sitting.

I know that novellas can only cover a short time span so it's very hard to suck up all those huge feelings and believe their authenticity when they've only developed over a few days. But other than that, I really enjoyed this story.

It was like a modern day ghost story combined with a fairytale mixed up with some Frankenstein spice. Evan was cute and shy and I could feel his loneliness at this new place. It was so heart-breakingly sad how he slept under the stairs. But then he meets Gabriel, and this encounter changes him and his whole life.

Haunted Halls is a paranormal m/m ghost love story which isn't sexually explicit, only sweet and romantic, quiet and full of wonder.

It’s not even a week into his first year of college and Evan already hates his life. He’s homesick, lonely and feels abandoned. He doesn’t want to be at college that’s hours away from his family. Miserable doesn’t even describe how he’s feeling but when he meets a boy that he feels an instant connection with, he starts to think he’s crazy when he discovers the boy looks exactly like one of the students that died at campus over a century ago. Scared but determined to find out the truth, Evan may not exactly be ready for all that comes out of his encounters with the mysterious Gabriel.

Wow, can I just say that when I picked up this book, I really had no idea that it would pack such a punch. Okay, so it’s not very suspenseful or action packed or anything that’ll leave you on the edge of your seat BUT the writing is so smooth and sucked me in from the beginning to the point that I didn’t even realize how much I read until I was almost finished! Evan is such a gloomy character that isn’t too happy with his life at the moment, although things start looking up when he makes a few friends. Gabriel is the opposite in that he likes to have a bit of fun but he’s also serious and altruistic. Gabriel does his best to save as many people on campus as he can and, unfortunately, Evan is one of those people and it turns out Evan is way more to Gabriel than just another student.

I adored this story but I won’t deny that it has some faults. Mainly, the length of the story really hinders it because while the book progresses nicely, towards the end it starts to get rushed and then, before I knew it, it was over and I was a little confused on HOW certain things were possible. I would have really liked to get more in-depth explanations about how Gabriel is where he is and what exactly happened to Evan. Also, I felt like I didn’t get to know Evan and Gabriel as much as I would have liked, especially with the level of their feelings. I really wished we had gotten a little more depth to their interactions that would have better justified what they felt.

In the end, though, this was a nice little gem of a read. It’s a little depressing at first because Evan is so miserable and alone but it quickly turns around and turns into a very sweet story filled with hope, love and possibility. It was an interesting concept and I sincerely hope there’s more to come of Evan and Gabriel because it would be nice to explore them a little more in the future. If you like a good story about a human and a ghost falling in love, definitely check this one out because it’s worth the read!

This was a short fun read. I’ve always had a thing for ghost stories. Even the word ‘ghost’ is so mysterious and intriguing. So it was no wonder I wanted to read it, and it delivered what it intended, a fun quick read of romance between a loved yet lonely living boy, and a long ago dead ghost of a gentlemanly young man. I liked the main character, Evan, immediately. He was a college freshman and he represented one side of what we all felt at that age and stage of our lives. First time away from his home, he felt a sort of loneliness that only time, and a few good friends you can find, could help him overcome.
The good looking mysterious ghost, Gabriel, I also liked. He was a true gentleman, a ghost I wouldn’t kick out of my house. He was kind, gentle, very considerate of Evan and other living people.

The relationships weren’t as detailed as one could find in a romance, but then again, considering they all had a limited number of pages for things to develop, I can’t blame it. In fact, I wouldn’t have minded this story to be longer, so that I could’ve gotten to know more of Evan’s friends, Gabriel’s past, and even the hillside school they were attending. Description of a haunted setting can add so much more to a story.

All in all, I liked this story, the shortness didn’t bother me, except for wishing it was longer so I could spend more time with the characters, and the ending was satisfying enough. I think I’ll be following more from this author, and hopefully catch more fun reads like this one.

I’m adding three spoonfuls and a pinch of this sweet story into my hodgepodge.