BIPOC Literary rivals, an Incident, and a retreat to geybaway from it all. Not to mentiotin a semi-meddling friend.

If I stopped haunting you was such a fun read Pen commits career suicide and doesn't have the motivation to write. Neil hasn't been able to write since "the incident" and feels like he's sold out. Together they wind up on a retreat that will have more than their fair share of other worldly events.

Rating: 2 stars!

The premise of this book seemed like something I would absolutely love. A haunted house, writers, forced proximity.. But this book fell flat on so many levels. It took me 5 months of refusing the DNF the book that finally led me to the two stars.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book. I consumed it within one day. However, this book needs to be read from the perspective of the romance genre. There could have been more horror, in my opinion. None of the scenes were very scary. Yes, the castle is haunted, but the ghosts were not very innovative. You always seemed to know what was going to happen next.

The only part that I thought was iffy in the story, was when the male main character wakes up from an accident, and immediately starts talking about issues in the publishing industry. While the points are correct, I don't think he would be launching into that speech at that particular moment.

Overall, a very enjoyable read. Perfect for romance readers looking for something a tiny bit spooky for fall, but still cozy.

The premise sounded amazing, but this did not work for me. I did not get the blend of horror and romance and the relationship felt toxic due to the MC being a gaslighter.

I enjoyed this! I really enjoyed this author's writing style, and I thought she did a good job differentiating between her own writing and the writing samples she included by the characters. The romance was mostly convincing, and the hero and heroine were really sweet together. I really enjoyed one of the side characters, Laszlo, but the other, Daniela, felt a little half baked. The ghost story was also pretty fun, though I don't know that mystery writing is this author's strong suit.
There were a few things I didn't love. I think the pacing was a little strange, the romance was kind of thrown at us at halfway through after both characters insisting they could barely stand to be in the same room as one another but then suddenly revealing they've always had feelings for each other and it was easier to hate each other because of that. It felt like the author could only juggle one plot line at a time, so once the romance was established, then we got the rest of the ghost story, and I felt like it could have been weaved into the story a little better. It also was never explained why the ghosts only ever show themselves to the hero and heroine, so I can only assume it's because they are the main characters and that's all the author really cared about (because Penelope, our hero, was most certainly a self insert after stalking Wilken's socials, which is fine!)
Anyhow, it was overall a cute story and definitely a fun fall read, and a pretty good debut. I'll be interested to see what people are thinking about it when it's released!

I loved the entire premise of this book, and I can't resist a good enemies to lovers trope. The added layer of commentary on Native author representation and the whole premise of the conflict between Penelope and Neil made this book even better. I'm not usually a horror girl, but the combo of spooky and rom-com was really great. That being said, I did wish there was a little more character development. There were times where I felt really frustrated with Penelope and struggled to like her as the FMC. I also felt a little let down by the ultimate 'explanation' for the spooky goings-on, and thought it didn't quite fit for me. Still would recommend this book though! The writing was beautiful and descriptive and it was a quick read and kept me wanting to know what would happen next.

I wanted to love this and yet, twas not to be.

- Pen (our female mc) was just so cruel and mean for no reason. I've seen other reviews mention this too so it's not just me. But she was kinda dead to me after she threw that book. Especially when I learned she scarred Storm. Ridiculous. AND SHE DIDN'T EVEN APOLOGIZE *side eye*

- The tension between these "enemies" was so unrealistic. There needed to be more than just the prologue to build their anger towards each other. This is really was just "insecure Pen artificially creating a rivalry against Storm" to "awkward infatuation"

- The writing and characterization really just got on my nerves. The dialogue didn't work for me, the scene jumps were chaotic, and the storyline was a biiitttt too silly

Absolutely loved this story. Really great timing since it is the start of spooky season. The dynamic of the characters is great, and the little things that are dropped throughout the story are also very cute.

If I Stopped Haunting You-Colby Wilkins This book has such a fun premise and goodness knows I love enemies to lovers but I struggled through this one. I didn’t feel the chemistry and the storyline was a bit too slow.

I thought this was a cute romance with a great setting but there were some things I found problematic. The first being the way she hit the MC with a book right at the beginning. This was off-putting to say the least. But this is fiction so I can look past it. I do however think that if we're going to assault someone in a novel it shouldn't be insta love. She had a lot of groveling to do and it just wasn't there.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the e-ARC of this title to read and review. There were a few elements of this book that really worked for me, like the commentary on Indigenous authors in the mainstream publishing industry, which was so strong. It was really compelling to see these characters grapple with wanting to have their words, their stories out there - but not so condensed or sanitized for market appeal. Also strong - discussions on feeling "Native enough."

But overall, most of this story didn't click with me - neither the romance nor the paranormal elements were particularly gripping. Penelope feels toxic and off-putting. The ghost sightings and storyline of a haunted mansion felt exactly as cliche as you'd think reading that sentence, and had seemingly little to do with anything we'd learned about the characters/their author worlds or books earlier in the story. (The leads, and other characters were briefly described as horror writers but honestly all of the non-leads ran together and seemed like filler background more than well-rounded friends.) There was truly no good-ol-fashioned horror to be found, and the only fright I had was reading the phrase "ghost cum."

If I Stopped Haunting You was not for me.. The relationship at the core of the story was toxic and annoying. The sex scenes were poorly written. Overall I did not enjoy this book.

First off, thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for granting me access to this book in exchange for an honest review. I am going to keep this review simple, short and sweet. This book was not what I expected or my cup of tea! Sadly, I cannot recommend this book.

I couldn’t get past the first chapter. I immensely disliked the main character in the opening scene and the way she acts during the panel. Not sure if her character arc made her better later in the book, I ended up DNFing it.

I really wanted to like this book more than I did. The premise of the story is great but the characters felt shallow and had little development over the course of the story. The main character was unlikable in an unredeemable way and the "rivals to lovers" plot was simply an unhealthy relationship.

I did enjoy the author's writing style so will be checking other books that they have written!

This is paranormal romance, with its gothic atmosphere and fiery chemistry, between the main characters promises an enjoyable reading experience that I highly recommend.

The premise to If I Stopped Haunting You sounded like it would be something I would enjoy, plus I wanted something to bolster my spooky season reads, but nope.

If this book hadn't had the element of horror, I think it would have been a good contemporary romance with about two horror writers trying to find common ground in how they navigate their Indigenous identitites in the world of publishing. However, the inclusion of the in-world supernatural horror felt out of place in the narrative - I didn't feel that it added anything particularly interesting to the plot, and felt like it was only useful as a convenient plot device to throw the protagonists together (which could have just as easily been accomplished through creepy gothic manor shenenigans). On the upside, I really appreciated the author's work to present the two love interests on opposite ends of "marketability" with respect to their Indigeneity, and the critical banter on the subject.

E-Galley provided by NetGalley

Unfortunately this one did not do it for me which sucks because I was really looking forward to it. I could not get past the fmc physically assaulting the mmc at the beginning of the book and then constantly blaming and gaslighting him into having him believe that HE is the reason SHE is failing as an author. It felt very manipulative in a very bad way. Mmc was too forgiving and deserved better.

This one wasn't for me. I loved the concept of a romance with a ghost story, but I couldn't get into the characters. The heroine's behaviour seemed abusive, and unless it's explained later (I didn't finish the book), completely unwarranted. I just couldn't get past it and understand her character, unfortunately.