4.5 stars rounded up to 5!

If I Stopped Haunting You follows Neil and Penelope on a writers retreat at a supposedly haunted castle in Scotland. Both are suffering from a serious writers block because of an endless (and violent!) rivalry between them. Will the castle help cure their writers block? Or leave them with more ailments than they arrived with.

I really, really enjoyed this. Admittedly, it was not at all what I expected but that’s because it was better! I loved the main characters and while Penelope was flawed, I think that made her a lot more human and well-fleshed out. I appreciated seeing both Neil and Penelope’s perspectives on being Indigenous as writers, I thought that was an incredible aspect of the story. (Also I really want to read Neil’s first draft of For What Savages May Be!!) I found the paranormal aspect so interesting, I love gothic period ghost stories and this was a nice little addition to the romance. Overall, I really enjoyed this story!

I can’t wait to read more from Colby Wilkens!

I wanted to love this book but it didn’t work for me. The premise sounded amazing and the atmosphere was definitely creepy and leaned into the horror vibes, but the characters fell flat. I could not like the FMC. I tried so hard to like her and gave her chance after chance, but she never got better.

2.5 stars

The bones for this were really good! i just think the story could have used a little more fine tuning before heading off to the publisher. I really loved the idea of a haunted castle romance, being a steamy romance and horror novel enjoyer separately. The characters were really difficult to relate to and the plot just seemed kind of all over the place. Definitely not the best I’ve ever read but I’m looking forward to seeing what this author does in the future!

Penelope Skinner, Pen for short, is a half white, half Native American author. In a publishing industry that is whitewashed, she struggles to find her place among the novelists. Insert Neil Storm, another Native author and in Pen’s opinion, a sellout. After an unfortunate appearance on a panel at BookCon, Pen feels even more ostracized by the novelist word and finds herself fighting with writer’s block. Her best friend Lazslo convinces her to join him on a writing retreat to a haunted castle in Scotland. After he promises that Neil won’t be anywhere to be found, she agrees. After landing in Scotland, none other than Neil shows up at a bar, seemingly part of their group for the retreat. Neil and Pen decide to set apart their differences just to get through the week. As they get to know each other, Pen starts feeling things she’d rather not for him. Meanwhile, they keep seeing a ghostly woman in the halls and through the windows. Despite it all, Neil and Pen decide to team up and get to the bottom of the haunting.

Will they make it out alive?

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me a free copy to review!

Like the majority of other reviews, this book isn’t for me. Difficult to read. Hated the main character.

There is so much to love about this book, and I think my favorite part was (very unexpectedly) the horror. I'm not usually a scary book person, but the spooky bits gave it a Goosebumps vibe that was really fun and refreshing. I also thought the rivalry between Pen and Neil, and the subsequent thawing between them as they're trapped in the castle together, was very compelling. It was also very interesting to learn how each of them felt about their Native identities. I would have loved to see a little more development of the romance between them, and there were some loose ends that didn't quite seem to come together, but overall this was a very fun read that kept me turning the page. I can't wait to see more from this author!

I really hate to give negative reviews, but this book was definitely a no for me and I struggled to get through it. I had high hopes based on the premise of the book, a little romance, a little horror.. it missed the mark on both and I struggled to find really much of anything memorable and enjoyable.

The main character, Penelope, assaults the mmc, Neil, right from the start and she tries to justify her actions by saying she was jealous of his success and gaslights him into believing he's the reason her career as an author went downhill. Then their relationship jumps right into lust and there's no development in their feelings. I have no idea why they liked each other, or were even attracted to each other, when they hated each other so much and their relationship was abrupt, toxic, and confusing to say the least. I feel like the author was trying to rant about the lack of native representation in a way but the approach to this was all wrong. Penelope was so manipulative and none of her reasons justified her physical assault. She literally leaves a scar on his face by throwing a book at his head and making him bleed...

None of the characters were likeable and they didn't add to the story at all. I don't consider any of the romance at all because it was straight up lust and there was no depth to their conversations. The author does a good job with the creepy vibes and there was definitely some eerie imagery but overall, there storyline was bland and the characters were terrible.

I am not completely sure what genre If I Stopped Haunting You falls into. I felt it was a mix of cozy, spicy romance, and horror all mixed together. The premise of the book sounded very interesting and I enjoyed the isolated castle setting as well as the paranormal elements throughout. Our two main characters are rivals Penelope Skinner and Neil Storm. The book starts off with an epic public fight between the two cementing their position as enemies. The author dips into the struggles of BIPOC writers and uses them as the foundation for the two characters' antagonism. I would have liked their culture to have played a larger part in the overall story. I found the romance jarring at times and it distracted me from the paranormal and mystery elements which I personally enjoyed more.

Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for the advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

Spooky, sexy, thoughtful. The book more than fulfills its promises of chilling supernatural mysteries and ceaseless romcom shenanigans. It also unflinchingly grapples with the tokenism rife within the publishing community as the protagonists work to overcome their feud and find their way back to the root of their craft.

I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and rate this book.

Despite the wonderful opening, this took me a while to get into. I found the FMC to be a little too emotional. The reason she hates the MMC was eye rolling until the end. I loved the sppoky scenes! However, while some will enjoy the mix of creepy and spice, I felt like it was too choppy and pivoted between the two way too quickly.
The spice was decent, but I felt a whole chapter of it was overkill. Especially when I only got a page or two of the creepiness at a time.

This is such a cool premise! I really liked the mashup of horror and romance here, and it was a new experience for me to read a story with solid Native American rep. The casual bi representation was also really nice.

I was really looking forward to this one and absolutely adore the cover of this book. The premise sounded fantastic, but unfortunately this one fell a bit flat for me. The author did a great job with the characters and I liked their enemies to lovers vibe, but felt like Pen was a little much at times with how she treated Neil in a way that had me rooting for them to separate because they felt toxic for one another. I did enjoy the overall premise and the cozy horror feel of the book, but it wasn’t my favorite of the year. 3.5 stars rounded to 4.

A haunted castle in Scotland? Sign me up! I liked this one a lot; the pacing was good and the setting was so fun. Typical enemies to lovers, but the setting gave it a fresh vibe.

This just didn’t work for me…
I really wanted to enjoy it, but it just fell short.
I also just really didn’t like our two main characters and the “horror” elements left something to be desired.
I hate giving negative reviews, but this one really wasn’t it and I struggled to finish.

I want to start by thanking the author and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this. I wanted to read something out of my typical genre and I found it to be too much of a stretch for me.

Lovers in a horror movie are guaranteed to be separated but, in this romance, they turn a haunting into a happily ever after. After an incident where Pen hits Neil in the face with a book, the two authors are snowed in together during a writing retreat in a haunted castle. The pair overcome their disbelief in ghosts after braving a spooky painting, the smell of decay, and terrifying visions. For fans of gothic fiction mixed with steamy chemistry.

The premise for this story is very unique and intriguing, but the execution left me a bit underwhelmed. It felt like almost every aspect of this story (setting, character development, romance, and the ghost story) were half baked and rushed. I wish the author had taken more time to really flesh things out. It was a lot of telling and very little showing.

I really enjoyed reading this one! I was totally sucked into the paranormal plotline of this book. I am normally not a huge romance reader and while I wasn't really interested in seeing the main couple get together, it was still nice to read about them overcoming their differences and starting to work together. This book was inclusive and I am looking forward to the authors next release.

ahh this was so much fun! i cant wait to read closer to spooky season. she was cute, with so much heart and easy writing to get into. i would love to read more from this author after this!

This book is advertised as an enemy to lovers with a paranormal twist. Well it is not that. We have two main characters, Penelope who is referred to as Pen and Neil who is referred to as Neil. They are both authors in this author friend group and they have a hate-love relationship. This ‘relationship’ is the definition of abusive and toxic. They are constantly at each other's throats and fighting but then it’s okay because they are basically having hate sex because they are attracted to each other.

The story starts with them at a book convention where Pen is there with one copy of her book because nobody likes her really and she gets so irritated at Neil she throws her book at his face because she disagrees with him. This action essentially gets her canceled and she goes on to mope about it for quite a long time. Talk about the consequences of our actions. She gets invited by her friend Laszlo to go on a retreat in Scotland with a bunch of authors to try to get out of their writer's block. She agrees and Laszlo conveniently doesn’t mention her invited Neil. They go to the castle and some spooky ghost stuff happens which is way more interesting than this abusive toxic ‘romance’ that is going on between Neil and Pen. They both are suffering from writer's block and both are like well this person is attractive. I'm gonna sleep with her even though she threw a book at me and we are constantly fighting and hate being in the same room.

The whole book is basically “woe is me” from Penelope and how she has had such a hard time after the book throwing incident with Neil at a convention and the romance honestly it shouldn’t even be called that. There is no wooing, there is no flirting, it's just sex. Like that’s fine and all but at that point don’t advertise it as a romance and even then the sex scenes were mildly interesting and I just skimmed them because they were nothing special. I think this book had the potential to be something good but it honestly just fell flat in every aspect.