Thank you to St Martin’s Press and NetGalley for a copy of this ARC. Rounded up from 3.5 stars. I loved the premise of this book and the setting. The storyline felt fresh and I loved the mix of horror and romance. I will say that the spicy scenes felt crammed into the book and made it seem a little odd at times. I liked the characters and the haunted storyline was fun to follow. It was almost Haunted Mansion-y. The ending felt rushed to me and I wish we had a little bit more exposition into the conclusion of the paranormal aspect. Overall, this was such a great read especially for spooky season so I would definitely recommend it!

DNF at 20%. I instantly disliked the main character and the dynamic of the relationship. I gave it til 20% to see if things would change but at that point I had to stop.

I unfortunately had to DNF this read. Although the premise originally captivated me, I did not feel connected to the characters or story enough to continue. Thank you for giving me the chance.

Penelope Skinner hates Neil Storm (for reasons that were never entirely clear to me), so when they both end up on a writer's retreat in a haunted castle they find that proximity and a mystery can change the way they see each other.

There were a lot of storylines in this novel: the enemies to lovers romance, both protagonists dealing with writer's block, the writing retreat, and the haunted castle. It left me confused on what was really going on throughout the book. I enjoyed the ghost story, and wished there had been more focus on that storyline; though, I felt the ending of it was a little unsatisfying.

I really enjoyed this story! Two writers who despise each other, yet can't stop thinking about each other, wind up at the same writers retreat. They write horror, so what could be better than staying at a haunted castle in Scotland? Oddly enough, the two are the only ones who can see and experience the ghosts. Neil and Penelope have to solve why the haunting is happening and why the antipathy for each other.

1/5 ⭐️ 1.5/5 🌶️
I just...wow.
At this point, I just hate-finished the book. The writing was sloppy and the story needed a formal outline with major changes. Where is Wilkens' editor? How did THIS get traditionally published? This is writing I would expect out of a Kindle Unlimited author who one day decided they wanted to be an author and now puts out 6+ books a year.

This had the potential to be SO GOOD. Like soo good. The synopsis and cover art reeled me in, but literally not even after the first chapter ended, I knew this one was going to be hard to finish.

#1. Penelope is insufferable. Yes her reasons for hating Neil are justified, but she needs THERAPY. She has like, zero redeeming qualities. And then once Neil realizes he likes her, he just completely bows down to her and barely thinks for himself. Both of them suck, like majorly.

#2. Penelope and Neil have zero chemistry. It's like Colby Wilkens was wondering: how do I make a paranormal romance spooky and sexy? And she failed to achieve either of these goals. "Enemies" to lovers except both have been lowkey obsessed with each other for months/years? BORING. Also, their relationship actually started in the process of 24 hours. I'm not sure if it's because Wilkens shot herself in the foot by giving them a strict timeline (one week at the castle), but it definitely lessened the impact of their relationship.

#3 The paranormal "mystery" was contrived and Wilkens failed to make any sort of atmosphere of a horror novel. The descriptions were so bad. Like, no originality. I could see what she was trying (and failing) to do, but jesus. The fact that this is getting published. Honestly, if Neil or Penelope's writing is anything like Colby's, they would be FLOPS.

I REALLY wanted to like this more than I did. The best part of this book was the enemies to lovers storyline and the sexy parts. BUT in concept the rest of the book fell flat. I don’t feel like the ghost story elements ever really came together. I obviously kept reading to see if it did but i was sorely disappointed. Was hoping for a fun romance/ghost story and left without feeling scared or even spooked! Where’s the ghost story in that?!

This was such a cute cozy romance with a little mystery with a haunted castle. It has a lot of heart and sheds a light on the difficulties that bipoc authors can go through. Really loved that both the MMC and FMC are Native Americans. Enemies to lovers and rivals to lovers with forced proximity is a favorite of mine for sure and this one did not disappoint.

This was a bit of a lackluster read for me. I think I liked the idea of the story more than the actual execution. The rivals to lovers was fine, but I didn't get the spark I wanted. The side characters all blended together for me and didn't really add much to the story. I like the spooky haunted castle setting - prefect for the tart of fall, but not really caring about the romance or characters limited my enjoyment.

This was just meh for me. I didn't hate it and I enjoyed the indigenous representation, but I'm still perplexed as to WHY Pen was so darn put-out with Neil in the first place.
Penelope Skinner is a horror writer who has an enormous grudge against fellow horror writer, Neil Storm. She feels like Neil is a sell-out and honestly, he is, but there's a reason and I'm still confused as to why Pen is SO angry at him. Anyway, she chucks a book at his head a writer's panel and she becomes this pariah of the author world.
Neil and Pen have a friend in common, Lazlo, who has booked them into a writer's retreat in a haunted castle in Scotland. Neither of them know the other is going until they are forced together and cannot leave as, of course, a blizzard is taking place. They get mixed up in the ghost story of the castle, unbeknownst to the other writers present, and end up falling for each other. There is a fine line between love and hate because the forced proximity and the passionate feelings lead to some saucy interactions. And of course, the ghost story becomes a love story.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this e-arc.*

I was really excited for this book, but it fell flat for me. It reads kind of like a stream of consciousness, there’s no real structure, and it’s hard to follow what’s going on or who the characters are. It’s also hard to dig into what’s happening - I was constantly aware that I was *reading*, rather than being sucked into the story myself. This also made the “scary” element fall short, and felt instead rather dramatic and ridiculous.

**Minor spoilers ahead**

This is also billed as an enemies to lovers romance, but the enemies stopped VERY early on in the story. The prologue to the book has a heavy hating scene, where the main characters fight in a public forum, and the FMC throws a book at the MMC’s head hard enough for him to bleed and scar (which should NOT be romanticized, this is glossed over and even praised, when actually this is fairly violent behavior). Despite such an aggressive start, 5 minutes into the next time they see each other, there’s a bunch of lust and feelings of connections popping up. In less than a week, they go from “you ruined my life” to “you’re the best thing that ever happened to me.

DNF @53%

This was insufferable to read. The setup of why the characters hated one another was good, but the FMC is soooo preachy and her ideas were shoehorned in and didn't feel natural. I felt bad for the MMC because she was lecturing him allll the time.

I didn't believe there were ghosts which is a part of the story I was really excited for.

But the thing that made me want to DNF this book (I still stuck it out for a while, but this was sooo gross to me), was the description of the FMC after she woke up one morning. I'm not going to put it here because it made me uncomfortable. It was used a couple of times and was ew.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for my honest review.

DNF

Thanks to NG for an ARC. I really wanted to like this one. It has things that I love in it, but I absolutely could not stand the main character in this book. I gave it to 20% then I put it down.

I wavered between 3 and 4 stars on this book, What landed me on four was how much I liked the way the relationship between the two characters was legitimately messy and lended itself to nuanced thinking about how to deal with complicated issues surrounding representation of marginalized characters. What the story lacked for me was emotional heft; I didn't get pulled into the romance as much as I would have liked. I love a spooky Scottish setting though!

I wanted to like this, but I did not at all.

The characters felt so one dimensional - I need some layers to the characters. I feel like the romance got lost in the haunted mansion stuff as well. There was just too much going on, and nothing got enough attention.

I didn’t like this book. I loved how it started I felt like it had a lot of potential, but it sadly didn’t keep my attention, and most likely due to that it felt like the book jumped around a lot. The main characters were kind of one noted. They start out enemies and turn to lovers. That happened incredibly quickly, too quickly for me to believe. What I did like was them talking about them coming to terms with their community and identities vs the publishing world and its expectations. I thought that journey was very powerful and eye opening. This book as a romance and overall was a miss for me.
Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this book.

Technically, I have DNF'ed this one, but if I had finished it would have got a very low rating.

I was sooo excited for it – it's a romance/horror mashup featuring rival writers trapped together in a haunted castle. I've never heard of a book made more for me. I adore the cover, and it's also written by an Indigenous author featuring Indigenous characters, and I was looking forward to the representation.

The rep was my favourite part of this, but unfortunately, I just thought the writing was amateurish, and I found myself skimming pages looking for something interesting to grab onto. Things moved way too quickly overall, including the relationship, without leaving room to develop the setting, scene, and characters.

There's also a concerning scene where one character throws a book at another character, drawing blood. I had hoped there would be some redemption for or remorse from the character as I read on, but I don't think that's where things were headed.

I wish I could recommend this, but I would say look at the reviews and make your own decision from there.

I unfortunately have to DNF this one. The author’s note provided warning of what was to come, which already had me feeling unsure if I wanted to continue, but then the FMC “watched gleefully” as she threw a book at the MMC’s temple so hard that blood blood dripped down his face and he “flew out of his chair”. And all of this because she’s jealous of his success? It was a lot right out of the gate. I have to draw a line somewhere and physical assault is for sure past that line.

This is a great ghost story. Penelope and Neil are two writers who start out not liking each other. The setting is a Scottish castle haunted by a ghost couple. There are some interesting and funny moments as the characters interact with the ghost. It also has some sexy and steamy scenes. Readers will enjoy getting to know these fun characters.

This made me not want to read any other spooky books this year. How does something like this go through editing and publishing and it’s still this bad?

First off, I wanted to DNF for homegirl’s violence against her future love interest in the freaking first few pages. If the man had thrown the book at the woman’s face and made her bleed, people would be sharpening pitchforks. Men should have the same protections against violence. It did nothing to help the story, and could have easily been left out. Speaking of, story? What story? I couldn’t even remember this plot an hour after I finished the book. I’m sure part of that was the trauma I suffered but also, it’s because the story isn’t good. Homegirl (I cannot be bothered to remember their names at this point) is an abuser, a gaslighter, and a conceited jerk. Homeboy has no spine, and she basically spends the entire book tearing him apart until they get together. These two are supposed to be enemies to lovers/competing authors, but there was no competition. It was rushed abuse and then a “happy ending” was forced in there at the end, if that’s what you want to call it.

The sex scenes were bland. The horror elements were stupid and boring. The characters are awful. The plot is non-existent.

I started telling people not to read this when I was 10% of the way into it, and that did not change. Please, for the sanity of us all, do not read this book. Enough people have suffered.