Thank you NetGalley for this ARC. This book is about enemies, who are competitors in their field, who are indigenous, who are also fighting to create better awareness around their culture, who end up at a castle in Scotland, which ends up being haunted and ghosts are trying to communicate with them, whilst the MC’s fall in love….. yea there was a lot going on in this book. I found it hard to keep my attention from wavering while reading this because there was so much happening. My advice to the author would be to simplify the plot in the future.

dnf @ 10%

I really wanted to give this book a try because the premise sounded so interesting, but I absolutely couldn’t do it. I don’t dnf books lightly but this just was not it for me. Pen character is inexcusable and borderline abusive and this just isn’t what I am looking for in a character when reading.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an early copy of this book in exchnage of an honest review.

This book is the perfect mix of romance and horror. Wilkens has a gift for writing scenes that have me on the edge of my seat and describing the haunted castle, but also writing such a fun rivals to lovers romance with tons of banter and spice. I love Pen and Neil, and I love the side characters and I can't wait for more in this series.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins for the ARC!

I had really high hopes for this book, and it was a fun read, but it fell slightly flat for me.

Native writers Pen and Neil hate each other... for no real reason. There is a lot of talk about jealousy and selling out to the white publishing world which I think is a totally realistic reason to hate a rival author, but the way it was told here just made the characters seem mildly unhinged-- especially Pen. I kept expecting there to be more backstory revealed as to why she hated Neil, but it never came. I liked Neil and I wish his struggles with being forced to "whiten" his book were fleshed out more. All in all, I think the "enemies" aspect of the relationship was kind of disappointing.

Once they got past that, the romance was great. Did I mention all this is happening in a very, very haunted castle in Scotland? The ghost story was fun, if a little simple, and I did love that their fear of the ghosts did not go far enough for them to NOT have sex in like every room in the castle. I appreciate the dedication.

The romance and the plot points about the publishing industry were the highlights of this book while the rest fell a little flat for me. Pen was blacklisted from the publishing industry by Neil, but they end up at a writer's retreat at a haunted castle together. They go from enemies to lovers and stay in the castle alongside ghosts. I did like the concept of the ghosts having backstories that Pen and Neil have to uncover, but the characters overall felt underdeveloped and surface-level. The spice level was high, but the romance happened too quick for a true enemies-to-lovers in my opinion. The discussion on the darker side of the publishing industry gave me Yellowface by R.F Kuang vibes.

I had to stop reading this one. It was incredibly flat. The characters were one dimensional and unlikeable and the story just wasn't interesting at all.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press for the ARC.

Thank you to St Martin’s Press and Colby Wilkens for the arc! It was an uncorrected copy, just to take into consideration with my review—
—-
Penelope Skinner, a blacklisted author, goes on a writing retreat in Scotland with her friend, Laszlo. When she shows up, she finds that her main rival in the writing world, Neil Storm, is ALSO on this writing retreat, along with another author, Daniela. The four of them rented a haunted castle to stay in for their retreat, away from any civilization. Things take an unexpected turn when Pen and Neil realize they’re the only two whom are being haunted by the woman in white. They decide they need to help the ghost and find out how to bring her peace. Along the way, Pen realizes she doesn’t hate Neil as much as she thought she did.
—-
If you’re a fan of the Glimmer Falls series or anything remotely similar to that, you’ll definitely enjoy this book.
At first I was a little skeptical about the book because of some of the reviews on Goodreads, however, I don’t agree with several of them. I thought the plot was fun, the romance was cheesy and I enjoyed reading it.

Now, was I attached to the characters? Not at all, however, I resonated with Pen a lot throughout the book. She feels like she is an outcast in her own family and her own culture, not fitting in with her Native American family. She feels like she has to work twice as hard to get recognition and respect from people. Which is why she has a vendetta against Neil. Neil doesn’t have to fight for his position in his community, because he looks Native American and his bloodline /DNA has been claimed by his community. However, Pen believes Neil uses his platform to promote colonialism and use a lot of Native American stereotypes to stay in favor with the white community, which happens to be a majority of his audience.
Laszlo and Daniela were decent side characters, I don’t have any major feedback about them. I do wish we had a bit more information about Fanny and her family!!
The plot: I felt the romance might’ve been a little rushed, I personally like seeing a little more prolonged enemies stage in an enemies to lovers story. I loveeeeeee that he never hated her, he tried to not like her but he just couldn’t do it.
The spice level, I’d give it a 2.5-3/5 stars. It was okay, I liked Neil’s POV in those scenes because I feel like he’s liked her for longer and waited for this moment more than Pen has.

I’m not a fan of major world building, and sometimes I don’t like having a lot of background information thrown at me. This novel gets straight to the point with the plot which I liked. I wasn’t really looking for plot holes to be honest, but I can’t think of any, off the top of my head. I did like the ending, it reminded me of the original Disney movie the Haunted Mansion with Eddie Murphy, where the ghost remembers who they were and is reunited with their love.

Bipoc representation, queer representation, spooky romance stuff. We love to see it.

Overall, knowing this was an uncorrected copy of the book, I’m giving it a 3.5, but because Goodreads doesn’t do half stars, I’m rounding up instead of rounding down. I feel like with some editing, the finished product will be about a 4 for a romance novel.

Writing retreat in a haunted castle where two writers who hate each other are forced together by their meddlesome friend.

The premise of this book is cool. It started to feel reminiscent of The Haunting of Hill House book, which was kind of funny since they reference the TV show. There is mystery in the story. But I personally felt it was missing something to hold my interest.

There is dual POV in this book. However, you don’t get the pining and longing that makes me love dual POV. It felt a bit insta-lust and the FMC was pretty unlikeable.

Love the BIPOC representation. It was interesting to see Native writers POV of the publishing world in a book.

I couldn’t get into the story just as I thought. Not disappointed but need more depth, I think. I can't remember when was the last time when I read a book in which the whole plot was 100% equal to what was written in the blurb and nothing more. There was no surprise there, no resolution to any of the plot threads and the whole story was blatantly predictable and painfully dull.

Unfortunately, I had high hopes for this debut but I just wasn’t the right reader for this one. I enjoy paranormal romances and enemies to lovers is my favorite trope, so I thought this would be a home run. However, I found the writing would benefit from additional editing and the plot left something to be desired. Ultimately I just wasn’t the right reader for this book. Hopefully others will enjoy it more!

Thank you to the author and publisher for an advance digital copy of this book and opportunity to review.

This was just not very good. The romance was weird, shallow, and unsexy, and the main character sucks a little (a lot). The horror was cheesy - I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to take it seriously or if it was supposed to be camp? Honestly the only thing that kept me reading was mild curiosity and the mystery ended up being so lackluster and unsurprising. It seemed like the author was trying to do too much and all aspects of the story ended up lacking depth. It was boring but at least it was easy to read.

"If I Stopped Haunting You" by Colby Wilkens was extreme;y a,biotious but fell short. This book blends horror, romance, rivalry and native culture. I also could not stand Penelope - and wanted to save Neil from her.

An absolute delight and stunning debut. Wilkens seamlessly blends romance and horror together giving readers both genuinely steamy and scary moments.

When I read the synopsis of this book, I felt like it had all the components to make me love it, but it didn't quite hit the mark. I love the premise, and I liked one of the side characters (a mutual friend of the FMC and the MMC), but the main characters themselves, and their other friend, were rude and insufferable, and really hard to root for. They bickered over the most ridiculous things, and I couldn't figure out why they ever wanted to hang out with each other. I usually love reading friend to lover romances, but these two didn't give me the feels at all.

All in all, unfortunately, I didn't feel like this book was my cup of tea after all.

2/5 stars.

*** I would like to thank NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Colby Wilkens for the opportunity to read and review If I Stopped Haunting You.

If I Stopped Haunting You was unfortunately not my cup of tea.. It is a debut novel and there is potential there but I can't say this was enjoyable. Pen (the FMC) was absolutely annoying and incredibly childish - truly terrible. The MMC was also not super likeable. I typically LOVE enemies to lovers but these two were not worth the journey. Unfortunately the writing just wasn't strong enough to make up for the characters.

Thank you to Netgalley and St Martin's Griffin for an advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review.

I feel bad giving a debut three stars, but the FMC in this book was insufferable. The romance was lackluster, and the writing itself was basic and amateurish at best. Will not be picking up another book by this author.

I really wanted to like this book. The premise sounded like a fun book.

It was not. I hate leaving negative reviews. I’m sorry, but this has to be an honest review.

First, this book has way too much fluff and no point. It’s repetitive. Very slow burn on the character building and building the relationships.

The characters are not great either. Pen is extremely immature, abusive, and down right awful..

I stuck through because of Scotland and haunted castle tours. But all of that got lost.

This book was rough. I did not like it one bit and I’m sorry to the publisher for this review.

{3.25/5}

CW: spice, some horror elements

Read via NetGalley. “If I Stopped Haunting You” releases October 15, 2024.

If you’re a seasoned paranormal horror reader, or one of those people who fear absolutely nothing you read, then this book probably isn’t going to hit enough of the ‘horror’ notes to satisfy your ghostly desires. For those of us who are big scaredy cats, though, it was a fun little ride.

Ever since the Incident (the one where she called super-popular author Neil Storm a sellout and threw a book at his head), Penelope Skinner hasn’t written a single word. In fact, she’s completely retreated from the world, hiding from the vitriol she knows flew her way immediately after the Incident. When she agrees to join a writer’s retreat her best (and only) friend is putting on, it seems like a good chance to jump back into the writing game. The only problem is that Neil Storm is also on this retreat. Oh, and the castle where they’re staying is super haunted. So, you know, everything’s going great.

This was a really fun, really cute read with just the right amount of creepy horror lurking in the background. Told in dual 3rd person POV and switching focuses between our two MCs, we get a wonderfully well-rounded look at why each of them respond to each other the way they do. We don’t get a whole lot of background on either one beyond their big confrontation at the beginning of the book, so at times it can feel like things have been left a little too vague, but it didn’t detract severely from the overall story. Because of some of the information we learn from the dual focus strategy, at times the romance plotline can feel like it’s edging on a miscommunication trope issue, but it never fully crosses over, thankfully. What we’re left with turns out to be a spicy, cute romance that, although it escalates rapidly, doesn’t really feel like an insta-love or a completely unfounded change of heart from enemies to lovers; it flowed well, and it was fun to watch.

The characters are interesting, and they do have very distinct personalities from each other, but every so often I did find myself questioning their motives in investigating the haunting at the castle. It seemed like it went from ‘oh no, the castle feels weird’ to ‘we have to save everyone and fix this for the greater good’ in almost no time flat without any real reasoning. Fortunately and hilariously, this issue was easily overlooked thanks to the delightful number of acknowledgements of the standard horror movie tropes, which I personally found hilarious.

The horror elements themselves fall into what I would consider exactly the right amount of scare. That is to say that I might have stayed up a little later to make sure my heart rate came back down, but I didn’t have to sleep with all the lights on. I don’t typically do supernatural horror; something about it freaks me right out, and I like to sleep on occasion. This was a good balance for me (and my electric bill), and I think it could be a good, low stakes introduction to someone who’s never read that genre to see if they really want to jump into that sort of thing.

In the end, this turned out to be a very fun little brain break between my more involved reads. It was involved enough that I had to pay some attention, interesting enough that I wanted to, and entertaining enough to never get boring. The tension hit just right, and the scare factor was just right to balance out the interpersonal elements. If you’re looking for something a little different, or something engaging but relatively low effort, then this paranormal horror romance might be a good fit for you.

I received this book complimentary from NetGalley but all opinions are my own.

This was an interesting premise. I liked the characters and I was interested in the story but it just didn’t fully hit for me. I felt unattached to the characters despite liking them. It felt like a theory of a book rather than an actual book if that makes sense.

If I Stopped Haunting You
By Colby Wilkens
This is an arc book I received in exchange for my honest review. Thank you, NetGalley, and the publisher.
I saw this was advertised as a paranormal and horror, and boy, was I eager to get this. I don't read a lot of romance, but almost every story has some romance. This was to have steamy scenes, which is OK in some books. So, I went into the book with that knowledge.
Now, what I read was totally different. Anyone that follows me knows I give many 4s and 5 stars because I enjoy a wide array of subjects and styles. But this is one of the few negative reviews I have made.
Two writers that hate each other act like children until about halfway into the book when they realize that they now find each other very attractive and they let nature take it's course. Then that's all they want to do.
Not one character was likable. The plot was so overused. I saw no real horror. There is more horror in children's stories. Steamy scenes? Pathetic! Laughable.
I gave it 2 stars for the ghost that had to endure the stupidity of the characters!
I hate writing negative reviews. I am glad I don't have to write them often.