If I Stopped Haunting You by Colby Wilkens is a terrible read. Do not read this. The book starts with the FMC assaulting the love interest, like wtf???? Also, the author is pretending to be indigenous. This book sucks, and so does the author.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I went into this book a bit hesitant after learning about the recent concerns surrounding the author’s background, but I decided to approach it with an open mind and separate the story from its creator. Listening to the audiobook, courtesy of @librofm ALC program, I was happy to discover that both narrators are Indigenous, which added authenticity to the performance. They brought a lot to the table, but even good narration can only do so much.

The story follows four writers on a retreat to a castle in Scotland, where their history and turmoil will be brought up constantly throughout the book. We experience the story through two Indigenous characters: one a widely recognized horror author and another whose lack of tribal connection makes her feel less than an author. Each writer specializes in a different genre—romance, horror, thriller, and mystery—which is a cool idea in theory.

However, the book struggled to balance the romance, mystery, and horror elements. Instead of blending, it felt like no genre got a chance to shine. The romance felt underwhelming, with forced chemistry between the main characters, while the two other friends felt like they were just along for the ride.

When the ghostly horror aspects finally arrived, there were a few intriguing moments, but the suspense fizzled out quickly. And the mystery aspect? It felt more like a side note than a driving force. Penelope, the main character, also often breaks into intense "soap box" moments, especially when addressing the love interest, Storm. These moments became very repetitive and detracted from the story.

Ultimately, I finished it, and I didn’t hate it, but I felt like it needed more focus. It tried to be too many things at once—romance, lit with a message, and a mystery ghost story. I wish it had settled on one and let it shine.

This was unfortunately not for me. The concept was great but the execution was awkward and unrefined.

I'm grateful to have had a chance to read it though!

I really cannot recommend this book to anyone. The main characters are unlikable. Nothing even remotely interesting happens until about 65% of the way in. I wanted to like the spooky vibes of the haunted castle, but the story felt very disjointed and the spicy scenes were lacking.

After reading other reviews I have also discovered that this author was pretending to be indigenous; will not be reading anything else of theirs.

was not able to get into this book at the time it was due to be reviewed and was not able to finish reading. i am grateful to have been given the opportunity to read this book early and have heard nothing but good things about this author.

This book fell flat after having a great concept. The FMC was immature and the MMC was lacking and they appeared to have no real chemistry. The storyline held so much promise and was right up my alley but ultimately left me disappointed.

I am no stranger to a good ghost story which is why I was so drawn into this book. The cover art was done so well! I think the premise of this book was a nice idea but I am nottt a fan of insta love even if it comes from an enemies to lovers view it happening so quickly without a deep dive into why her feelings switched up was confusing to me. Overall a good book but would have benefitted from a little more fleshing out of ideas and such.

I tried and I simply couldn’t keep going. The characters fell flat and the awkwardness of reading a non-native person writing about the struggles of native writers was just too awkward for me. Then, when I did some more digging the information I found out about the author told me I wasn’t wrong for feeling “weird.”

To be honest, I wanted to love this more than I actually did. This was like part rom-com, part-horror, and part rivals to lover’s romance. I loved the rom-com and the rivals to lovers’ aspect; the horror didn’t really come across horror to me, it was more mystery/thriller which was kind of meh for me as I’ve been trying to get out of my reading comfort zone and try horror, so I thought this would have been a perfect way for me to ease into it by combining other themes I like. Sadly, just disappointed on that aspect. I didn’t really understand the reasoning behind the FMC being rivals with the MMC, it seemed super trivial and childish but once they got together, I was happy about that. They were so cute together. There were a few moments of eerie creepiness that I loved, and I wished that the whole ghost mystery had been fleshed out more, maybe a tie-in with the FMC actually being related and that’s why she could see the ghosts…that would have been awesome. Overall, I wasn’t too impressed with it but I did like it enough.

Actual rating 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.

This book was a pleasant surprise.
I thoroughly enjoyed it, as it was a quick read and a good time.

I will be leaving a 3 star review for this as I do not wish to rate and review the book after discovering that the author does not have any ties to the Indigenous community.

Thank you.

This book opens with the female main character verbally and physically abusing the male main character in a very public venue, leaving him with a facial scar. Then, when she gets canceled because of it, she blames it on the MMC. It's absolutely absurd. And then we come to find out she was hating him in the first place because he once called her Penny, in a dedication (instead of Penelope or Pen). I understand being particular about your name, as folks have the right to be, but for so many hate to stem from such a small one time thing is ridiculous.

So, bad start to the book. But I started to enjoy other pieces of the book, like the strong Native American themes, and the FMC being very open about her Native heritage, even though she wasn't registered with a tribe. So I'm thinking, okay, valid emotions. What a great point about identity and heritage. The idea of not being "Native enough" or "[insert culture/race/ethnicity here] enough."

But then I start getting really aggravated with the book. These mortal enemies are in close proximity for less than 24 hours when they start feeling different emotions for each other. The MMC has obviously had feelings for the FMC for a while, even if he wants to deny it, but the FMC actively hates the MMC, so her emotions just aren't making sense or aligning with her perspective at all.

They're in a haunted house with some terrifying things happening, which is something I was excited about for this book - the mix of horror and romance. But they keep wanting to get freaky while horrifying things are actively happening, which makes no sense. And I don't know what it was about this book, but the s*x scenes made me uncomfortable. They were exciting and tension-building like so many of the romance books I love. These felt *creepy*, and not in a haunted house sort of way. I did find the horror to be pretty scary at points, though it did fall flat at some points, as well.

As I'm finishing the book, I start looking into the author and realize there's cases against her pretending to be Indigenous, when she's not. So there's some alignment with the "not being Native enough" storyline, but as I read into it, it seems that the ancestor she's claiming is her great-great-great grandfather, or whatever, would've have only been one when the next ancestor was born, which makes it impossible that it's her relative. It's all just too much, and it's so disappointing to think you're supporting BIPOC authors, to only find out your supporting white folks appropriating cultures to make money. This entire book is marketed as being Native American, and the storyline reflects that, but the author herself does not.

I was really disappointed to know I was here supporting just another white person using the identity of others for fame.

Fun idea, but the overall execution of novel fell apart in the third act. Cute romance, but the horror elements left a bit to be desired.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins Griffin for this free eARC!

I really liked the concept of this book, and the characters were interesting. The haunted castle is what caught my attention the most, and I enjoyed the moments when they saw or interacted with a ghost. However, despite my high expectations, I ended up feeling bored overall.

The characters are awful, and not in a fun way. The plot is all over the place doing too much and commiting to no direction at the same time.

Apparently this author pretended to be a POC while writing this book.

The author pretended to be Cherokee and NYT did a cover / expose on her.

Because of her lying, and that this book was getting crap reviews to begin with, I am not going to read it.

This is a super fun story, great relationship between the characters and an awesome read for the fall!

This was a fun read! I liked the bipoc rep and the enemies to lovers trope. I wish there was a little more depth to the characters because they didn’t feel completely flushed out. But the mystery and the setting was great!

I was really hoping that this book would be the one that got me into romance novels, but just like all of the rest this was just cliche and boring.

I was disappointed by this one, it had a good idea I think but it wasn’t well executed in my opinion. The idea of a writers retreat with your rival/ enemy was what sold me on this one. But it just felt clunky and some situations or things the characters did just didn’t make sense to me.

The spice scene felt so out of place too. I did enjoy the fact that it was in a hunted castle and that could have been explored more thoroughly and maybe used the location more to push or even expand on the idea or even the story. I felt it was too confined and definitely more character driven.

This definitely had potential but it just didn’t hit like I hoped it would.