DNF @ 25%

While this book has a promising premise, the writing style and the setup did not flow easily and were "clunky" to read. Perhaps the plot ended up making up for this, but I just could not connect to this book.

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity.

I really wanted to love this book since it sounded so good but the FMC really fell flat for me. I found her annoying and I really just couldn’t move past that.

I was looking forward to reading If I Stopped Haunting You by Colby Wilkens, but after about 100 pages in I was loosing faith. This was bad, despite trying really hard to enjoy the characters and plot.

2/5. ⭐⭐

Mk.

I went into this with absolutely high expectations, because romance and paranormal...horror..a retreat at a haunted Scottish mansion...how does none of that sound perfect? Unfortunately, it fell super flat for me. I think this is one of the only books that I only read a few pages, and had immediate distaste for the main characters....and it never got better.

Our FMC is simply toxic and whiny, and I truly could not stand her. The victim card is irritating to me, and I just didn't connect with either character. None of them.

The enemies to loves aspect didn't work for me either. We start off, quite literally in the first few pages, with the FMC physically assaulting the MMC, and the rest of the book is them being childish then magically becoming romantically involved. The romance just felt....lackluster. It was just sudden with nothing to back it up.

Also, this is not my idea of horror.

This had so much more potential, because the concept is such a great idea. Perhaps it just wasn't for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this arc!

Penelope and Neil are both Native American horror authors - but Neil is far more popular. Penelope is upset with Neil's success partly because he uses hurtful stereotypes and phrases, among other things, for Native people in his books. It all comes to a head (no pun intended but if it was, it would be a great one!) when the two are at a book conference on the same panel. Penelope is sure she has ruined her career, but decides to give writing one more shot at a writer's retreat in a haunted Scotland castle with friends. Turns out, Neil is is attendance as well and only he and Penelope can experience the ghosts and creepy events at the caste.

I really enjoyed "If I Stopped Haunting You". The chemistry between Penelope and Neil is apparent even (maybe especially) when they are angry with each other. There are several storylines happening in this book at once, and unfortunately I don't think any of them were fully realized. First, neither Penelope or Neil can write. It's discussed and they maybe end up writing a few good lines but neither really write anything substantial in the end. Frankly I don't care that Daniela wrote a book even if it is about Penelope and Neil, the story is about them. I found Daniela annoying and unnecessary. Laszlo would have served the purpose of being the friend sounding board and the person trying to bring them together. Second, Penelope resents Neil and his writing. I don't think Penelope truly gets to the bottom of this. During her internal monologues, she often talks herself around to just being jealous of Neil. Her reasoning eventually trickles out to Neil and I am glad she ultimately reads his original book and makes him see he can fight for what he wants to be published without the industry imposing their racist ideals on it. Three, the hauntings - the story is a bit too complicated. There are a lot of characters in the haunting and they don't really all serve a purpose. It felt like you only needed the two main characters in the haunting and not as much on the background of the others involved. Finally, the romance. That does get pretty well resolved.

I really did like the main characters and think if the book had been tightened up, it would be so much better. It doesn't all have to wrap up nicely in a neat bow but it feels as if there were a lot of loose threads that didn't even need to be started in the first place and it muddied the book.

I would give a 3.5 if I could.

4.25 stars

An Indigenous bi4bi romance with ghosts!

Pen Skinner and Neil Storm are both Indigenous authors at a panel where Pen calls Neil out and ends by throwing a book at him. Four months later, a mutual friend books them both at the same writing retreat at a haunted castle in Scotland.

I actually really enjoyed much of this book. Pen is human and messy and acts before she thinks. Neil is just trying to do his best in a system designed against him. Their banter is entertaining, the spice is spicy, and they both happen to be queer. The spooky parts got a visceral reaction out of me, which is always a good indicator to me. I also really liked the discussion points around difficulty of publishing as an Indigenous person, especially since Colby Wilkens is, I think, one of 4 or 5 American Indigenous romance authors?

I thought the shift from enemies to lovers was a *little* fast, but it worked out okay. I am not a fan of sex in the last chapters of a book, but I definitely recognize that's a me issue. I thought Daniela and Lazlo were great in the first half and then weirdly just not as involved in the second half. Pen should probably go to therapy to deal with her insecurities.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and will absolutely read Wilkens' next one! Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for the opportunity to read and review.

I enjoyed the overall story, but I felt that some of the writing was repetitive and other parts were somewhat confusing. The mystery of the haunting was fun to experience with them, but I felt like the why of it wasn’t super clear. I liked that there is an obvious ghost and both Pen and Neil experience things together.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.
If I Stopped Haunting You follows Pen who has a rivalry with fellow Native writer Neil Storm. After she throws a book at his head during a conference, her career as a writer feels like it is up in smokes. That is until she goes to a writing retreat in the Scottish countryside with Neil and finds herself embroiled in a mystery that could only be happening in a horror novel.
I gotta be totally honest, this was not for me what so ever. Whatever excitement I had about this book having two Native main characters and being set in Scotland with a horror vibe pretty much went poof out of existence.
First off, I found Pen and Neil to be two totally opposite characters from each other and not in a way that could work. She has this (very undeserved) one sided rivalry with him and physically hurts him, to the point he has a scar, with a book without listening to his side of the story or his reasoning for writing his book the way he did. Then when she does suddenly all is forgiven and now they're in love.
Their relationship moved way too fast in this book. It was one second they didn't like each other then the next they just want to be doing it all throughout the castle and anywhere else they can go to. It literally was about a day maybe two that their relationship developed. They become amorous in the most inappropriate of situations and those scenes made no sense to happen when they did. There was no relationship development that made me believe these two really did like each other for each other and not just for the sex. Also Pen has a problem with saying the word sex and just says "other thing" all the time which was giving little kid energy.
The horror elements of this book were not that scary either. I expected a mix of the horror and romance but it seemed to only pop up when it was convenient or to push the two main characters together. The reason for the haunting was just vague and easily waved away at the end to just wrap up the book.
Finally, this book had a great opportunity to talk about how publishing makes it hard for POC people and Native people to get published. It briefly mentioned that the industry does create this "we already have that one token diverse author" problem in it but it was a brief mention. The discussion of POC representation in publishing felt kind of hollow and like there could have been so much more there. I wish that discussion was more fleshed out in this.
Overall, just not a book for me. I didn't enjoy any aspect of it. If this does interest you, please do give it a try but it was just wasn't for me.

This is a standalone romance set in a haunted Scottish castle. It has a dual pov between our main characters, Penelope aka Pen who is a native horror writer who feels like her career is over. Our other POV is from Neil, who is a popular native horror writer. Pen and Neil are diffidently rivals in the publishing industry, but they are also Enemies do to events that take place. A few months later, Penn decides to join her friend on a writing retreat to Scotland. They decide to stay at a castle that is known to be haunted by the locals and little does she know someone else is joining this trip, Neil. We get lots of creepy ghost events that happen throughout the castle while they’re staying there. I enjoyed that there was a mystery element to this story as well. There’s a bit of a forced proximity trope with it being snowed in as well. I really enjoyed the banter between the two characters, had me laugh out loud a couple of times. I would say the spice level is 3 /5 ✨It was a pretty fun and fast read for me and I really think it’s gonna be perfect for this fall.

I decided to give this book a try because it sounds like what a Tim Burton movie would be. Ghosts in the backdrop of haunted Scotland, but instead of making it scary, make it silly. The ghost scenes were so campy I couldn’t take it seriously lol. Also, why did no one consider just leaving the haunted castle as an option? You guys don’t HAVE to stay you know?

Not gonna lie, I had my reservations going into this because of the other reviews. So maybe it was because my expectations were lower because of the other reviews, but I did enjoy this more than I thought I would, though I do understand the negative reviews too. It starts off strong with a fight between two horror authors at a book event and then switches to a haunted castle Edinburgh, where said two authors unfortunately run into each other once again. Penelope and Neil decide to make a temporary truce as for the sake of the writing retreat and they move into this haunted castle for a weeklong stay. But after a strong start, I did kind of get bogged down with boredom. It wasn’t even that it was filled with unnecessary filler, I guess it just was too slow moving to hold my interest. The romance wasn’t very interesting and I just couldn’t bring myself to care about the characters. It wasn’t badly written or anything, but the story itself just wasn’t interesting enough. Sure the characters were kind of ridiculous but to me, I interpreted that as something that was done on purpose because it was designed to be campy. Kind of like scooby doo.

I do applaud this book for combining ghosts and haunts with romance, which is something you don’t run across often, though this wasn’t technically genre combining because it wasn’t horror, it’s a romance. But this book has awakened a desire for someone to write a genuinely scary horror novel with a good romance also as a main plot point. Let’s combine the two genres because why not? Someone make a romance novel that is also full blown horror that is legit scary!

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s for sending me an advanced copy in return for my honest review.

To be frank; I hated this book. It was so disappointing to realize that, but I did. What makes it the most disappointing, I think, is that the premise sounds so great and intriguing and it completely fails to deliver on any of that. Penelope Skinner is an indigenous writer from the US that has managed to publish a singular book that also managed to accurately reflect her ideals to her satisfaction, but that few people seem to have actually read. Neil Storm is an indigenous writer from the US who has managed to write and publish many books that don’t reflect Penelope’s ideals (or, we find out later, his own), but is a best-selling author. At a panel for indigenous writers, Neil asks Penelope a question, to which she responds snarkily (so far so good). When Neil responds with bewilderment and snark of his own, chaos ensues. Again, so far so good. His fans begin booing her off the stage, which is pretty standard misogynist behavior that we’ve all seen when a woman dares to open her mouth in criticism of a man, so pretty believable. Then, Penelope decides to deal with this by using her stunning and eloquent writer powers to craft a narrative that lets everyone know how wrong and sexist they are and really makes everyone think.

Just kidding! She throws a book at Neil’s head, causing him to bleed a whole bunch and giving him a visible scar on his face. Four months later, they get invited to a writing retreat at a haunted castle in Scotland, forced proximity, yadda yadda yadda and oh look, they’re boning now. And sometimes there’s ghosts! Yay?
Except, not yay, because in that yadda yadda yadda, Penelope is so effing mean to Neil! I honestly could not stand her character and that’s what ruined the book for me. I am all for more unlikable female characters, but you can tell reading this that you are supposed to like her and she is the worst. I hate those people that are always like, “iF a MaN dId ThAt, WoMeN wOuLd StRiNg HiM uP!” and the like, but for real! If this book started off with Neil launching a book at Penelope’s head because he was mad at her (even if it was because he felt her book was sexist and stereotyped their collective background for a white audience), I would hate Neil forever and never feel bad about it. And then, if he kept whining the rest of the next hundred pages about how she ruined his life, I’d laugh so hard that it would hurt and tell everyone how dumb he was.
This, as you may have guessed, is exactly what Penelope does for the next third of the book. She even throws some (more) actual, physical violence in there because she keeps shoving him in the chest every time she gets mad at him, which is frequently! I honestly could not stand how nice Neil was being to her, either, after she was so terrible to him. I know that art doesn’t have to reflect reality, but it’s pretty obvious from the beginning that Neil has zero self esteem which is further beaten down by what I’m comfortable calling an abusive partner. I ended up just wanting to jump in the book and save Neil from Penelope and she is the main character we’re supposed to be rooting for.

The other parts were just boring. The dialogue was boring, the storyline was boring, Laszlo was boring and even the ghosts were boring. The whole thing was just a mess and I wouldn’t recommend it to anybody. I’m giving it an extra star because at least from a grammatical and narrative perspective, it’s well-written, but I really did not like it.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that Neil needs therapy. If I Stopped Haunting You comes out October 15 and is available for preorder now.

I just couldn't get into this book. I had a hard time with the prologue. I don't like that it starts out with violence. It made me not want to continue on with the book because I knew that I couldn't root for them as a couple. I'm so disappointed because I excited about the idea of this book.

I was so looking forward to this read considering it was a paranormal romance. However, I couldn’t connect to the characters or the story. I’m sorry but this FMC is just horrendous. Her behavior is just absolutely awful and inexcusable. I was struggling to finish. Overall this book was just not for me. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

This was such a fun premise and atmosphere, a great fall read! I found myself wanting a little bit more tension and depth but otherwise I enjoyed.

If I Stopped Haunting You had so much promise. The setup of a haunted castle, a bi4bi enemies-to-lovers romance, and a spooky atmosphere seemed like the perfect recipe for a cozy, eerie read. As a fan of all these tropes—forced proximity, writer rivals, and haunted settings—I was really looking forward to this one. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite live up to my expectations.

The atmosphere was there, no doubt about it. The Scottish castle added a moody, haunting backdrop that fit the vibe perfectly, and I loved how the ghost story intertwined with the plot. But despite the eerie setting, the haunting itself didn’t really grip me, and I never felt that spine-tingling suspense I was hoping for. The tension between Penelope and Neil also fell flat. Their chemistry felt forced, and while I wanted to root for them, the connection just didn’t feel believable. There wasn’t enough growth or development in their relationship for me to truly get invested, which is tough when you’re dealing with an enemies-to-lovers dynamic that relies heavily on tension and eventual payoff.

I also struggled with the writing. It felt repetitive and a bit awkward at times, especially when it came to the more intimate moments between the characters. The book leaned heavily on tropes—writers as rivals, forced proximity—but they didn’t feel fully fleshed out, and I found myself wishing for more depth. The story never quite captured my attention the way I wanted it to, and while it was enjoyable enough to finish, I wasn’t on the edge of my seat, racing to turn the pages.

That said, the setting was the book’s saving grace. The haunted castle in Scotland and the ghostly elements made for a perfect backdrop, and it did add to the overall spooky season feel. But ultimately, the lack of chemistry and character development kept this one from being a standout read for me. It had the potential, but it just didn’t hit the mark.

I was really looking forward to this story as it promised a storyline unlike any I’ve read before. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite live up to my expectations. While it was enjoyable enough, it often fell flat for me. The haunting never captured my attention and neither that nor the chemistry between these characters made my heart race or forced me to keep turning the pages.

Who doesn't need a ghost to help you and your nemesis to finally see you don't hate each other, you just need to have sex… in a hunted castle… where there are not one but TWO ghosts only you two can see… and definitely nothing creeping going on?!

The simplest way of describing “If I Stopped Hunting You” is by “not enough”: it's horror-like, but not very much; the romance part consists of a couple of sex scenes; it tries to speak about important topics, but mostly tells anecdotes; and the character’s arc regards the wrong one.
It's a nice mix of different genres and stereotypes, purposely put together in a light way, which would give the idea of a cute story if it weren't for one drawback: Miss Penelope Skinner.

Let's not talk about the useless, unexplained connections between her and the castle in which she found herself spending a week for a writer retreat - spoiler: no writing was done -, everything she has done, does and will do is explained as “I'm a young, bright woman, mad at the world”.
But she's not: she's just a self-centred bully, a bad friend, a coward, and I'll say an abuser but there were mostly accidents for which she didn't have a fault, she just didn't help him or prevent anything that happened to the poor guy.
She's not intentionally a “villain”, she feels she's in the right and portrays herself as a victim of our society like, girl, I am too, but I don't go around hitting the people I don't like - I'd like to, but still.
Also - and this is just the reddest flag -, she hasn't apologized once about anything that she did or said; Penelope loves pointing fingers but doesn't like when they are pointing at her.

Generally speaking, I liked the story and CW’s writing; I wouldn't have made the same choices on some things, but I see what she was trying to do.
Her next story is described as a “lesbian version of Indiana Jones” so I just have to give it a try.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley, who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

“I worried if I stopped hating you, things would change; I would change. But everywhere I went, you were there, haunting me, reminding me of every time I’ve ever been wrong, of every time I’ve ever failed."
•

Penelope Skinner is trying to quell her writer’s block when she agrees to a writing retreat in Scotland with her best friend. what she didn’t sign up for was her best friend’s other best friend to be there… Neil Storm is her enemy, and she’s made that perfectly clear. I mean, she did throw a book at him the last time they were together, so spending 24/7 with him in a haunted castle while trying to pen their next novels should be no problem, right?!

while I did find my mind wandering off at some points, I do believe If I Stopped Haunting You is a great read for people that enjoy a splash of spooky with their romance. you’ll find yourself fully immersed in a gothic Scottish castle, and don’t worry about the ghosts…they won’t bite…much!
•

this and that:
♡ dual pov
♡ enemies to lovers
♡ ghosts
♡ grumpy x grumpy
♡ haunted homes
♡ indigenous people rep
♡ old love letters
♡ open door spice
♡ Scottish castles
♡ snowball fights
♡ writer retreats
•

triggers:
☞ racism / discussion of racism

I was really excited by the premise but I think it fell a bit short in execution. The characters had potential but their growth did not read as very authentic

I'm a white reviewer and I just want to say that because of that there are some nuances of this book that are not for me to judge. Neil and Penelope fight a lot about what it means to be native and how to represent their people in their own work. I think other people could see Penelope as an angry and selfish character. I would argue that she, as a marginalized character, is trying to get her fellow author to see that there has to be a way to use the fame Neil has garnered to combat negative notions of native peoples. I enjoyed Penelope and Neil's back and forth. Penelope continually doubts herself as not native enough and Neil doesn't seem to struggle with that. I liked the fights they had, and I think both Penelope and Neil grew as characters. Penelope also grew past her initial assessment of Neil and apologized for her ire.

The paranormal aspect of this book was fun, but honestly this is where I had the most qualms with the story. The author really ramped up the ghost story and I thought there would be more of a connection to our main characters. But the whole storyline ended up flat for me. It was wrapped up too nicely; I felt like there should have been more conflict, and instead it was kind of sappy. I did like that the other two writers on the retreat (Laszlo and Daniela) are completely oblivious to the hauntings. It reminded me a little bit of Shelly Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House (which is ironic, because Mike Flanagan's Haunting of Hill House adaptation is mentioned in the novel). I also really enjoyed the little Outlander reference near the end of the book.

Overall, I liked this book. The plot was a little busy, but it was fun, and I devoured it in almost one sitting.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press Griffin for the advanced copy. All opinions are my own.