Smashing Pumpkins: A Sexy Sleepy Hollow Short

Sexy Sleepy Hollow #1.5

by Molly Likovich

Arletta's keeping secrets.

The God of Death doesn't like that a living witch is residing in a realm of spirits alongside The Headless Horseman. In order for Hesse to keep his power he must make the ultimate sacrifice. Meanwhile Arletta is determined to uncover the truth behind her own past as well as the mysterious past of the man she loves.

Set in the world of the Sexy Sleepy Hollow series, takes place AFTER Riding The Headless Horseman.

Genres: Paranormal, Halloween, Romance, Paranormal Romance, Novella, Smut, Witches

32 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 24, 2024

About the author

Molly Likovich is a romance author, poet, and Beetlejuice enthusiast. When she's not writing she can be found lurking around the local graveyard.

Reviews

[♥Milica♥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starting off spooky season early with this lovely read <3 It's a little novella that bridges the gap between books one and two, and yes you gotta read everything!! We see more of Arletta and the Headless Horseman, the plot is also...plotting, and I once again wish this was longer, but it's all good because book two is finally out. Yayyyyy!!!

[Becky (romantic_pursuing_feels) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Note: Some of my goodreads shelves can be spoilers

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Readability: 📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑 (maybe a 3...these are pretty short though)
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥
Humor: A bit – it’s on the sarcastic side
Perspective: First person from the heroine
More character focused or plot focused? character
How did the speed of the story feel? fast
When mains are first on page together: pretty soon into the story (about 21% but it’s basically immediately after the flashback prologue)
Cliffhanger: They are in a relationship and are happy but the plot does end on a cliffhanger and it will continue in another story.
Epilogue: No
Format: read on kindle unlimited in e-book form
Why I chose this book: I read book 1 and saw this one was a short read and I love the cover!
(Descriptions found at end of my review)

He takes my chin in one of his large hands, his blue eyes burning into me. “It’s rather hard to find a punishment that you do not enjoy.”
“Well stop making everything so sexy.”

Should I read in order?
Yes! This is a continuation of Riding the Headless Horseman, so start there.

Basic plot:
Hesse and Arletta try to find a way to exist in the realm of the dead.

Give this a try if you want:
- monster romance
- Sleepy Hollow vibes
- witch heroine / headless horseman hero
- mid steam – 2 full scenes in a very short page count – but the scenes are definitely short

Ages:
- heroine is around 28 and hero is a few hundred years old (taken from book 1)

First line:
When I cry it sounds like smashing plates.

My thoughts:
I guess this short story wasn’t anything like I thought it was going to be? I thought it was going to be like an extended epilogue of the couple, or maybe tie up some loose ends from book 1. I wasn’t thinking it would be more of a teaser and leave you on another plot cliffhanger.

I started this series because I really wanted to try book 2 though so that’s okay as this has all led me to that point.

I definitely recommend you read book 1 before reading this one. This continues a bit of mystery in the realm of the dead and how a living witch and the headless horseman (Hesse) can find happiness together.

Few random reading stats for this author
# of books read: 3
Average rating: 3.66 stars
Favorite book: Maybe Riding the Headless Horseman?

Content warnings: (This should be taken as a minimum because I could have missed some!)

- scenes of an abusive relationship including verbal abuse and physical violence on page
- elements of death are a big focus
Author given content warnings: I believe Molly has content warnings on her website.



Locations of kisses/intimate scenes, safe sex, consent, pregnancy/child in the story:

Safe sex: No
Hows the consent? It’s good
Pregnancy/children in story? Nothing mentioned
46% - 🔥 missionary
59% - 🔥 fingering for her, her on top


Extra stuff like what my review breakdowns mean, where to find me, and book clubs


Full break down on what my ratings above mean here:
Overall: How I felt about it everything considered!
Readability: How ‘readable’ was the book? Did I fly through it? Did I have to tell myself to pick it back up repeatedly? Were any passages confusing? (I will probably score like (1) is literally unreadable due to formatting/typing errors, etc (2) There were lots of errors that made it difficult to read OR It was extremely confusing and I had to reread passages to make sense of it OR I disliked it so much I had to bribe myself to keep reading (3) I didn’t really want to keep reading and would have preferred to abandon the read and start something else OR some minor continuity issues/confusion (4) I liked it fine, maybe a minor error or 2. I was happy to pick it up when I had time. (5) I never wanted to put this down. I thought about it when I wasn’t reading it. I hid in the bathroom from my kids to read. I threw inappropriate food at my children for dinner so I could read instead.)
Feels: Totally subjective to each person but did the book give me any tingles? Any butterflies? Did it rip my heart out (in a good way?)
Emotional depth: How well do I feel I know the characters at the end? How much did I feel their emotions throughout the story?
Sexual tension: Again, subjective, but how strong was the wanting and longing to me between the characters? A book might have strong sexual tension without a single touch.
Romance: Was there romance? Did romantic things happen? This can be actions/words/thoughts of the characters and again is subjective.
Sensuality: This is how the intimate scenes are written. Kisses and sexual scenes – how sensual were they? Were they on the mechanical side? Was there emotional pull tied in? Were the details explicit or flowery? These are subjective but generally (1) too short to get a good judgement (2) not all what I'm looking for - very vague or flowery prose (3) either not explicit enough or not enough emotional pull (too mechanical/physically descriptive without the emotions) (4) what I love in a scene (5) absolute perfection - perfect balance of emotional longing and explicit descriptions
Sex Scene Length: How long the bedroom scenes are (generally (1) is 1-3 sentences (2) is a few paragraphs to a page-ish (3) is about average, a few pages (4) more well developed scenes, quite a few pages with descriptions (4) the majority of the book takes place in the bedroom. This is always hard to tell for me on audio!
Steam Scale: Generally, each flame is a scene. If scenes are super close together I sometimes combine them. If a scene is super short or so vague I don’t know what’s happening, I don’t count it. There’s some levels of grey but generally the number of flames is how many sex scenes there are (I max out at 5 so I’ll put a + after if there’s more than that)



Find me
Instagram || The Storygraph || Bookbub

Book Clubs
The Ton and the Tartans (Historical Romance)
Upturned Petticoats and Undone Cravats (Historical Romance with Steam Requirements)
A Love Less Ordinary (Science Fiction, Paranormal, Monster, Fantasy Romance)
Modern Manuscripts (Contemporary Romance)
Words for the Wicked (Contemporary Romance with Steam Requirements)
Vintage Romance (Old School Romance – published 2000 and prior)

[Gracie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s good to see these two again and now I want more 😍😂

[Charlotte Trimble-Harris · Rating 3 out of 5]

okay i am way to invested in this story now and it’s not even been 100 pages all together. give me more

[SJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

the story continues

This leads on from the first book in the series, Arletta and Hesse have been living in the vale for a year and how we find out more about their pasts and more about their stories, well written and exciting I really loved this follow on

[Kimberly R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved getting more of Arletta and Hessie’s story in this short read. Definitely recommend to read after the first book

[Drii · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cliffhanger that I didn't mind, cant wait for more of Hesse & Arletta.

[Serena · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

This is a great quick Halloween read!

I loved getting a little more of Arletta and Hesse & I’m so excited to see they will be back for more!! Can’t wait for it.

[BETH Ratcliffe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Again a cute, funny story I enjoyed reading!

[Maisie Dickson · Rating 5 out of 5]

So have you seen her?

She's the greatest

For super-magic

Call Arletta!

Here comes the fun now

Are you ready?

Come on everybody

Get happy

[Mikaela Jade · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cute little continuation of the first book but we need more after that cliffhanger!

[Rae Faith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before the halloween season ended I wanted to make sure I read at least one Molly Likovich book. I honestly loved this little novella more than the first book. They are so cute and I love this story. It’s absolutely perfect for halloween. I can’t wait to read the next one and see what happens.

[Samantha Menzie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely not as good as the first I would say

[katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

i like these two a lot. can’t wait for more

[Effy Wolfsdottir · Rating 5 out of 5]

Give me more immediately.

[Another hopeless romantic ^^ · Rating 3 out of 5]

”…My sweet thing. My good girl. My wicked witch. How I love you.”

Tbh I don’t remember what happened in the first book so I was low key confused af but um, the spice was good and the story seems interesting so it’s good I guess lol

Hoping the author just goes ahead and make this a full fledged novel/series instead of short stories

Spice: 🌶️🌶️/5
Reaction: 😨👏👀😳😅🥺
Cw: verbal abuse (not hero), domestic violence (not hero)

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really short story that seems to be a bridge (haha) between books 1 and 2, with a little spice thrown in for fun. It raises far more questions that are unanswered here, and nothing really gets resolved. Curious to see what happens next!

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ebook

[Kathryn (kathsbooknook) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Again, don’t judge

[Tori P]

Dnf

[Angelica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm so invested in this gothic, sexy story. Give me more!

[Kayla Stewart · Rating 3 out of 5]

alot of "master" this and "master" that . and swimming in a lake .

[Michaela · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m such a fan of Arletta & Hesse’s relationship. ❤️ It was a treat to get to see more of it in this book, and I’m excited to read Getting With The Ghoul to find out what happens next. 🥰

[Bookieharley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really really liked it again! I love Hesse and Arletta, what he did for her.. What she did for him, they are perfect together! I'm looking forward to read more novellas by Molly! 🧡

[Brittany Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

“You’ll be the death of me, little witch.” “You’re already dead.”💜

Love me a retelling of the headless horseman and make it spicy 🥵 sold 📖🥰

[Riya &#x1fac0;⋆&#x1065a;₊˚ · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really don’t know anymore