The premise of If I Stopped Haunting You was really cute, but the execution was not great. I wanted a little more "scare" in my haunted house. The couple went from enemies to interested a little too quickly without enough interaction to justify to swift change of emotion. Ultimately, the book was just ok. I would have given it a 3-star rating. However, since then the author has come out with a statement:

I have only ever created stories that are authentic to me and my life experiences. I am not enrolled, I have never claimed to be enrolled or to represent the viewpoint of an enrolled tribal member, as reflected in my stories and statements. I have grown up with family and in a home that shared this experience, which goes back to my Great-Grandfather and extended family, and has been part of our culture and identity.

I have always been transparent about my identity, and our struggle to gather the paperwork necessary to enroll because of bad record keeping and missing and inaccurate documentation. This is not unheard of and is a difficult part of forming family histories.

I am working hard alongside my family to find more documentation, which takes time, but until I can prove my ties beyond a shadow of a doubt and in alignment with the Cherokee Nation’s statement on Sovereignty and Identity, I will no longer be writing Native stories. My team and I have decided to pull “If I Dig You” from publication until further notice and “If I Stopped Haunting You” will be my last Native story. Thank you for your patience as we work through this.

Because of this statement, I almost marked this book as "I will not be giving feedback". If she had kept the Native American storyline, but not tried to bill herself as such, there would not have been an issue. It is that she was given a $250k bookdeal to write stories as an "owned voices" POC. Therefore I am giving this book a 2-star rating.

This book got a lot of hype, and I do not think it lived up to it. It is supposed to be an enemy to lovers Romance, but she threw a book at him! And then they immediately fall in lust without much reason. The character development is lacking. I know it's very cool these days to mix genres (Romance and horror or mystery in this case) but I think the book took on too much without being particularly good at any of the genres. The mystery doesn't seem that important to solve. I wasn't very scared by any of the spooky things that happened in the haunted castle.

I should also say that it was hard to read this book without thinking about the controversy surrounding this author. Colby Wilkens claims to be white and of Cherokee and Choctaw descent. The Tribal Alliance Against Frauds investigated her claims and found no Native ancestry at all. So much about this book felt not full fleshed out, especially the parts that were supposed to be about "Native themes." It is like she read some stereotypes of generalizations about Native people and decided to write a book employing them.

I do not recommend this book.

Thank you NetGalley for the digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was in the middle of working on this review when all the news came out about Colby Wilkens' identity. It puts a damper on the story as a whole for sure and is completely unacceptable.

When I began, I knew nothing of Colby Wilkens. At the most basic level, I knew this was touted as a romance with ghosts involved and that piqued my interest. Oftentimes, after reading the initial synopsis and gauging my interest, I won't delve too far into what I'm getting ready to read because I try to go in as unbiased as possible to form my own thoughts and conclusions.

Suffice it to say, the haunted house aspect of the story outshone everything else for me. I was more invested in that side story and the history than I was in Penelope and Neil. I could not get past Penelope's actions in the Prologue and her ensuing audacity to claim that she's the real victim when it was her own actions that caused her fall from grace.

This was the first book I had read by Colby Wilkens, and based on everything come to light, will more than likely be my last. I can even say that had this come to light before I read the book, I wouldn't have even picked it up at all.

I had high hopes for this book but it fell flat for me. This is an enemies to lovers/forced proximity romance that takes place in a haunted scottish castle during a writers retreat. The spice level was high but the spooky/Halloween vibes were just a bit too silly. This book was a miss for me but if you love these tropes/paranormal romances then this may be the book for you.

Thank you to St. Martins press and NetGalley for this Advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

If I Stopped Haunting You is a delightful paranormal romance featuring two main characters that appear to dislike each other based off a rather wild incident. I enjoyed the beginning where Penelope loses it a big over Neil not be "true" to his background. It made for some interesting key points later in the story. Loved how they came together not only romantically, but to solve the ghost mystery in the castle they were staying in.

I read an ARC of If I Stopped Haunting You. I was disappointed, to say the least, and more so now knowing everything that has come out about the author.

As I've said elsewhere, there is something that feels especially egregious that the FMC is physically abusive toward the Native MMC because she feels like he's writing books and profiting on stories that she feels he shouldn't be writing.

I'm not sure much more needs to be said.

Beyond the physical abuse, that happens on more than one occasion, the romance is hard to believe. Finding someone attractive is not an automatic pass to get to the steamy part of the romance but that's pretty much how it happens. Penelope starts thinking about how hot Neil is when they haven't even made it to the castle, even though she loathes him at this point and blames him for her own literary failure. The romance feels forced. Eventually they get to the point where they talk and she understands him better but the entire relationship aspect feels backwards.

Then there's the "horror" aspect of the story and oof, it's not great. Honestly, the paranormal aspect would've been better with a Scooby-Doo twist where it turns out it was the creepy house keeper trying to keep people away from the castle she was guarding. Why even have a castle keeper if she does absolutely nothing and can't even help in emergencies? Instead it was a ghost who was just around? The book makes you believe that there is going to be some big reveal about why this ghost was hanging around but it turns out she's just sad cause she died young. There was no foul play, no unrequited love, nothing interesting at all. When the scares weren't that scary I was hoping that there would at least be a good twist with the ghost and we didn't even get that.

I will say, the setting was good. The creepy castle and driving thru Scotland set the tone to be atmospheric- creepy and cozy. The rest of the book didn't live up to the atmosphere.

It's been brought to my attention that this author is pretending to be POC. Disappointing as I was really interested in reading this, but now this author has become an automatic pass for me.

Do better.

1 star because I can't rate lower than that.

This book made me uncomfortable in the prologue, where our FMC assaults the love interest. I kept reading in hopes it would get better and that there would be some growth, some self reflection, an apology?, but unfortunately this didn't fully happen (and when it did it felt like it was justifying the action).

I did find the story somewhat interesting, but I also feel like this book didn't know what it wanted to be and tried to do too much which ultimately made it unsuccessful in every genre it had a toe in.

Unfortunately I have decided not to read this book with the recent controversy. I hope the author learns from this and I would read future work.

This was a pleasant read, blending elements of Agatha Christie and romance, set during the holiday season. It provided a warm atmosphere that prevented it from feeling overly dark. I appreciated the two protagonists and the shifts in viewpoints, which offered a broader perspective on the mystery, riddles, and supporting characters. However, I would have liked a bit more background on Ethan, as he complemented Maggie well. This book is a comforting choice for those seeking a mystery to solve without violence, and it includes a hint of romance that adds to the overall warmth.

3.5 stars rounded down. I enjoyed this haunted castle romance; however, the haunted mystery pulled me in more than Neil Storm and Penelope Skinner's romance. I found it slow to get into their romance which was pitched as enemies to lovers -- the two are competing Indigenous horror novelists. Penelope's disgust with Neil's climb to fame through "selling out" his Indigenous background dominated the first half of this novel, despite his obvious interest in her (and reasons for crafting his stories the way he does). I loved the haunting of the castle -- it truly creeped me out.

I tried, I tried so hard. I got to 10% and had to DNF, with full intentions to try again at a later date. Every single time I picked it back up, I still hated it and DNF'd it again. I made it a total of 16% and nothing changed. There was absolutely nothing I could find that I enjoyed in what I read, so I am officially calling it and not wasting any more time trying to read what I don't enjoy.

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

fantastic read, amazing chemistry, beautiful writing! thank you so much to the author & netgalley for the opportunity

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for this ARC Copy!

I really had high hopes for this book, it looked like all the things that I could possibly want in a romance, but that is not at all what I got. This book fell flat on multiple levels.

Really wanted to love it but the characters really fell flat for me and it just didn't hold my interest.

While I don't tend to like an enemies-to-lovers romance, I rather enjoyed this one. While I did find their rivalry and arguments immature and annoying, their bickering was balanced with a lot of
gothic horror and eventually great banter.

This is such a good Halloweeny read with ghosts, romance and a spooky Scottish castle. Mix into that, two Native American authors being our main characters and I was sold on the premise of this book.

Overall, even if it's just for the spooky gothic vibes, I definitely recommend this book as a fun, not too serious romance.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press /St. Martin’s Griffin for the e-arc of this book!

This was a good read!!!
I loved the rivals to lovers aspect and the gothic elements! The overall plot for this book was so fun as well!! It’s genuinely such a cute fall read

DNF at 28%
I felt that the book was poorly written and when I went to read reviews to see if I was onto something I found out that the author is not actually Indigenous…
So yeah, I think it’s time to move on.

As the author has been pretending to be a native author claiming to write own voices stories I will not be reading, reviewing, or supporting her work.

I started this book but then put it down after recent events came to light about the author. I appreciate their decision to pull their next book, and I do not think it’s the publisher’s duty to look into author identities, but it felt wrong to keep reading when I could instead pick up a book by an actual indigenous author.