Penelope and Neil are Indigenous authors with a tumultuous past; at a recent BookCon panel, Pen wound up pelting Neil with a book after berating him for betraying their people with his writing. Since then, she's gone into hiding and neither have had any success getting work done. So when a mutual friend sets up a writers' retreat in a haunted Scotland castle, they both accept...not knowing the other is there.

This book is part romance, part horror/thriller. At the castle, Pen and Neil both pretty much immediately start having strange experiences, while the other two writers don't. (Also, I always assumed writers retreats were more formal, with more people? I don't know.) There's ghosts and then there's Neil and Pen thinking about how attracted to each other they are, with Pen spending a lot of time being like, "But I hate him!"

The premise of the book isn't bad, but the execution isn't really there. Pen has complicated reasons for disliking Neil, but I spent a lot of time thinking that the backstory didn't fit her actions. Neil I liked more, but still found their relationship...off. And I got a bit of whiplash going between their story and the ghost story. The ghost story was also not great. The "mystery" of the ghosts was fairly obvious, and I was annoyed with the characters for just, like, putting aside the journal and letters they found. And the conclusion of the ghost story was both underwhelming and completely bizarre.

That said, I really appreciated the discussion of the issues facing BIPOC authors in publishing. That was great.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC.

2.5 stars

I wanted to love this one. Buuuut I just didn't.

It was meh. It was very repetitive and pretty predictable. The pacing was slow and didn't really grab you at any point of the story. The ghost aspect of it was a bit... lame lol. It was very anti-climatic. The romance was also lackluster and just seemed very unrealistic. Which is unfortunate because I love a good enemies to lovers. There was barely any build up to the relationship and they lacked any chemistry between them. Felt like they skipped a couple steps haha.

I absolutely hated Pen for the first 60%. She acted like a child throughout the whole book and was just annoying and downright abusive. She acted like such an asshole for what? Just a jealous child throwing a fit (I think she literally says she is mad at him because he has the success she wants...🙄). She also resorts to physical violence half the time or belittling him the rest which rubs me the wrong way. Literally tries her absolute hardest to make him feel like a piece of shit just because she's jealous. Just... no.

If it wasn't for Neil, I would have hated this book. I wanted to take him away from that castle and Pen. She doesn't deserve him.

This may be someone's cup of tea, but it wasn't mine unfortunately.

I really wanted to love this book, but after finishing it and thinking about it for a few days, there were more than a few elements in the book that either confused me or I just didn't enjoy.

To start, it felt like the two MCs didn't have a background or a 'life' before the start of the book. I didn't get a sense of what life was like for either of them as children, young adults, early adulthood, etc, - all the formative years that result in them being who they are. It just felt like they were born at the age they were at the beginning of the book, fully formed adults, and that's it. There were references to parents and pets, but no details to really help me understand how these characters are fully fleshed out.

I did not understand why the MCs were attracted to each other. It felt like it was out of convenience moreso than actual attraction.

The haunting storyline felt a forced and that it only existed as a means to keep forcing the MCs to spend time together. Yet, I was more interested in the haunting plot than the MCs romance. I just didn't care about the romance.

At the end of the day, the book just isn't for me. and that's okay. I'm sure it will find many readers that do enjoy it, which is great for them!

Thanks to the publisher for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

The premise of If I Stopped Haunting You was a unique blend of paranormal and romance. I can't say I've read anything like it! There was everything I love in a romance - rivals to lovers, forced proximity, a man obsessed - plus ghosts and a mystery. After the "incident," Pen and Neil are both struggling with writing, while also having a lot of animosity towards each other. They're tricked into traveling to a haunted castle together for a writers' retreat and they are not happy about it. The animosity is quickly replaced with attraction, which then turns into understanding and a relationship. There's no third act breakup, so the conflict is really centered around the ghost haunting the castle and how Pen and Neil resolve that.

Overall, I enjoyed this story. I did feel a bit of insta-love from both Pen and Neil, which was a bit surprising, since the prologue opened up with so much conflict. That being said, there is a fine line between love and hate, so I understood it and enjoyed getting to see both of them struggle with their attraction. I also loved the dedication at the beginning of the book from Daniela. She is a side character who ends up writing a romance novel inspired by Pen and Neil. Neil commits to blurbing it and the epilogue ended with them at her first reading. I loved this addition and hope we'll hear more from Daniela in the future.

I already have an early copy of Colby's next book, If I Dig You, and I am excited to read about Louise and Isadora!

This book did a lot of things right
*Rivals to lovers
*ghost stories come to life
*Steamy scenes
*Mystery subplot
*PNR story with actual paranormal elements
*Native American rep
*queer rep

There were a lot of really swoony moments and the enemies to lovers always hits BUT unfortunately there were some red flags as well.
The relationships went from hate to love a little *too* fast. And Pen was a walking red flag all on her own. Manipulative, victimizing and borderline abusive I almost wants to scream at Neil that he deserved better. I can't help but this if the gender roles were swapped we would be calling Neil every name in the book and questioning why Pen would degrade herself to be with him. The ending makes it up to use with some character growth and the subplots in the story shining bright but the romance was unfortunately not my favorite part and this is a romance book so for those reasons it affected my overall rating.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review

3.5 Stars, rounding up to 4.

I really enjoyed this book overall! The story was fun and the ghostly haunting was chilling. The two MCs, Penelope and Neil, are fun and nail that Enemies to Lovers fun. However, it felt like they went from hating each other to being hot for each other a little too fast for my liking. I'm more than happy to forgive it, though as they had more important things going on. The side characters were very fun and them not noticing anything to do with the haunting was a fun mixup.

The ghost part of the story is what actually took this down some. I will talk more about that below, so just stop here if you want to avoid spoilers.

Overall, I do recommend this book and think it's a good, fun read for Halloween season or if you want some spice in your ghost stories!






*** SPOILERS ***

When Penelope and Neil finally encounter the lady in white she goes on this monologue about everything that happened. I think I would have preferred her not to speak, but just be given peace when they discovered the truth on their own. The haunting was chilling and scary, but that took it down a good portion from scary to meh.

2.5 stars

Penelope and Neil are two authors hoping for inspiration to strike as they head to a haunted (?) castle in Scotland for a writers’ retreat. But as things close in around them, and their chemistry becomes undeniable, could it be that the best thing they can do is put the past behind them and join forces?

I loved the gothic setting of this story, especially at this time of year! The tension is there, not only with the spooks, but with the spice! I found it fascinating to see writers’ block from the main characters’ points of view. I found Neil to be quite a lovable hero!

Our heroine, Pen, was a little rough around the edges for me. They played up the enemies portion of the book more than I would have liked. I prefer my spice with a bit more emotion, as well. More spookiness would have rounded out the story for me.

Trigger warnings: claustrophobia in close quarters, racial slurs/racism against indigenous peoples, mentions of death

I'd like to thank St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the eARC of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

"They could hate each other all they wanted, but he couldn't deny the sliver of something."

Looking for a romance in spooky season? Try this one. With a combination of a steamy romance and a good ghost story, this book is the epitome of going on a date at a haunted house. Except it's a haunted castle in Scotland, because why do anything half-assed? The enemies-to-lovers bickering was rooted in differing perspectives on what it means to be a BIPOC voice in writing, and I appreciated how much of Wilkens' lived experience informed both Neil and Pen's POVs (note: I hope that publishers treat Wilkens with more kindness than Neil's did, the world needs more unapologetically Indigenous stories). The gothic atmosphere and the slow unraveling of the ghost story will satisfy those who like a healthy dose of spook without alienating the readers who get too creeped out.

Were there some things that bothered me? Of course. The random excerpts from the authors' novels felt out of place and unnecessary, and the amount of times Pen threw things at Neil was a bit bothersome. There was definitely more lust than love, and I would not be shocked if this couple breaks up in the future. But if you want a happily-for-now with a couple of good creeps, take this book for a spin.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, NetGalley, and the author for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for letting me read this book!

I really didn’t care for the male lead of this book and the story was very slow to start. Overall isn’t my favorite romance story that I’ve read.

I really wanted to enjoy this book, but I just couldn’t. What really tripped me up is my pet peeve with books that tell me over and over what characters are thinking rather than showing me through the action in scenes and descriptions.
For me, this is the difference between telling a story and showing the story.
I appreciate the opportunity to read the book (I was looking forward to paranormal that didn’t include vampires!). But I won’t be leaving reviews for this.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s press for the ARC. Unfortunately, this was not the book for me. I had a hard time getting into the story and once in the story I just could not like our main character. I’m not sure if it was just not the book for me at the time of reading it but I had a difficult time finishing it.

If you can't decide between a fall romance or a spooky haunted house book, pick this book, because it has both. I don't think I've ever read a book that combined romance in a haunted house, with maybe the exception of the movie, Casper, but I really enjoyed this one. I think this is one that is a perfect read for a crisp, cozy fall day, and readers will fall in love with the main characters. It was definitely fun to go along in their adventures, and I was anxious to see how their love story was going to play out in the midst of an unusual situation. Thank you to the publisher for giving me the chance to read an early digital copy of this book!

If I Stopped Haunting You takes place at a writers retreat in a haunted castle in Scotland. I really enjoyed the thoughtful reflection on identity, and it was a bit more spooky than other paranormal themed romance stories, which I liked. For me, some of the scenes seemed somewhat (unintentionally) awkward and repetitive, and I didn’t feel part of the storyline was fully resolved, but I thought it was good overall and look forward to reading more by Colby Wilkens.

Nope nope nope.
The premise of the book showed promise. The native rep was beyond welcomed. But holy cow I cannot stand behind an FMC who is so abusive, so demeaning, and so arrogant as to say that everything going wrong in her life is everyone else's fault and nothing is her own. I appreciate the realistic view of publishing and trying to get something that isn't mainstream out there. I get the competitive nature of the industry. But honestly, for me, everything that was right with this book was overshadowed by everything that was wrong.
2 stars for good overall writing.

DNF. Domestic violence is a hard pass for me.

Thank you to netgalley and St. Martin's Griffin for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I just couldn't get into this. I didn't like the main character, and put it down pretty quickly. There are too many romances for me to read one that doesn't reel me in immediately.

I’m settling on 3 stars because the writing IS good.

But the FMC made me…uneasy.
She came across as almost narcissistic.
The things she did to the MMC!!!
Like, what???
She blamed everyone but herself and instead of being mature she tried to destroy an innocent man.

I felt like this was a heavily anti-male love story and it just wasn’t for me.

Arc provided for an honest review

Thank you so much to Netgalley for access to the eArc in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately I had to call it quits around 45-50% percent?

There were so many issues with this book: the haunting atmosphere was where? i was promised ghosts and spooky atmosphere and chills, and i could get more of those watching casper the friendly ghost. casper had a better romance too.

also did not love the gimmick of the Scottish dialogue. it was overused and not implemented in a way that benefited the story. You want a good example of regional dialect being used to enhance the setting / characters of a story? read Snake Ropes by Jess Richards.

Onto the characters. Oh boy where they horrible. The FMC was violent, rude and extremely unlikable. i couldn't even find a single trait that i liked and that is not what a main character should strive for. The MMC was there. That's about it. I honestly hate this trend of making the fmc the rudest person in the room because quite frankly, no one like rude people.

Do not recommend.

I’d say this one was a bit closer to 3.5 stars for me! I will forever eat up the enemies-to-lovers trope, and oh did Pen haaaate Neil at the beginning! When they both end up on the same writer’s retreat, they’re more or less forced to face those feelings and figure out how to survive. The more time they spend together though, the more those feelings develop into something more! This one definitely has the creepy haunting vibes down. There were a few moments where I got a bit confused with the backstory ghost, but I felt like it all came together in the end. Overall, I enjoyed this one from the spooky ghost vibes to the flirty enemies-to-lovers tropes!

There's a huge difference to me between enemies to lovers and just straight up toxic BS. The main character's weren't likeable and I couldn't even bring myself to finish it to see if they got better.