Reviewed by Lady Macbeth
TITLE: Hollow Heart
SERIES: Northern Roots: Atlantic
AUTHOR: Eve Holmes
PUBLISHER: Self Published
LENGTH: 422 Pages
RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2026
BLURB:
Not everything that looks broken needs fixing — it just needs the right conditions to grow.
Growing up on the red sand beaches and farm fields of Prince Edward Island, Silas Gallant and Levi Campbell were each other’s whole world. They were best friends who understood each other in a way no one else ever could.
But as the easy freedom of childhood gave way to the weight of expectation, the life they shared slowly began to shift. Levi left the island to chase a future in agricultural technology and a world bigger than the fields he grew up in, while Silas stayed, rooted in the safety of his family’s potato farm, and in the belief that people will always leave.
Years of silence and hurt pass before their distance closes, when Levi finds himself contracted to support a farm back on PEI — on the same red soil he once ran with his best friend. Old hurt lingers, turning familiarity into tension neither of them knows how to navigate — until slowly, they begin to let each other back in, and question if they ever truly split apart.
Among summer sunsets, red sand beaches, lighthouses, and open fields, Silas and Levi begin to find each other again — learning that they were never meant to stand on opposite sides of the same ground.
And that without each other, their hearts could never be whole.
Hollow Heart is a standalone MM romance with an HEA.
Books in this series do not need to be read in order.
REVIEW:
The fourth book of the Northern Roots Atlantic series is a deeply emotional and beautiful love story. I cried a lot while reading it, but it was worth every tear and every heartbreak.
Silas and Levi met for the first time when they were both 3 years old and they became inseparable, They were also neighbours, so they basically grew up in each other’s home.
Silas had a rough start at life: he was adopted the year before after his biological mother abandoned him, he carried the weight of the trauma that prevents him to trust people around him through all his life and he also has serious learning disabilities that made his school years very hard on him.
During all these struggles, the only constants have been his father’s unwavering love and Levi’s friendship and support.
Throughout the first part, we see the two of them spending all their free time together, going on adventures, being close and creating their own safe world, where no one could touch them. Levi helps Silas going through his parents divorce and his mother moving away, the bullying at school, the frustrations and the anger that often overwhelm him.
Their world is shattered when Levi leaves for college and, in the next four years, he will come home less and less, until he’ll get a job in Toronto after graduation and they will stop talking altogether.
I don’t know how many times I cried reading about Silas in this part of the story: all his deepest fears become a reality when Levi abandons him too. The feelings of inadequacy, wrongness, unworthiness are so strong and they cut so deep that Silas, already being hurt too many times in his life, stops hoping to ever have something good and he lives almost as a recluse, working in his dad’s farm and grieving the loss of his friend.
In the meantime, Levi is living a good life in Toronto with his adorable dog and his dream job. But not a day goes by that he doesn’t think about how they both handled their separation and regret the loss of their friendship. He’s not the villain in the story and he had his own heart broken too.
Things change, when Levi comes back to the island and accepts a job at the farm and they see one another again after being separated for a long time (they’re now 26).
The rebuilding of what they had is slow and hard because they don’t know each other anymore and they struggle to find a way to reconnect.
I found this part incredibly painful but also very good, the author did an amazing job in writing about their emotions, I loved how honest Silas and Levi were to each other, when they finally were brave enough to speak about what happened. It takes time, there’s no easy way out from the pain and the hurt from the past, but they work hard every day to fit in each other’s lives again.
Their bi awakening was slow too, but it fit them perfectly! The shift from being friends again to yearn for more was subtle, just little hints at first until their wonderful first kiss. The physical scenes are extremely intimate and emotional, their bodies and their heart were totally in tune
A big shutout for Scott, Silas’ dad who deserves all the awards for Best Father Ever: his love for his son was big, strong, solid, he never ever treated him like a burden or an inconvenience, he adored him the moment he saw him and he never let him go. I think he deserves someone to make him happy too.
Kudos to Winston, Levi’s dog, who, unconsciously, brought Silas and Levi back together several times and made home with them, before they even knew what was happening.
My petty self was waiting for a bit of retaliation for Silas’ “mothers”, but maybe it’s best that they fell into oblivion.
This book was an absolute delight, I can’t wait to read more from this author!
Highly recommended.
RATING: 
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