This one just did not check any of my boxes

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this arc in exchange for an honest review!

Really thought I'd like this one, but it fizzled. Certain actions of the female main character made her hard to root for, especially in a romance.

I wanted to enjoy this book so much, but it fell flat. The entire story takes place over the course of about 72 hours, maybe? The premise that the retreat is a week long made me expect a bit more of a slow burn, but that's not what happened. The enemies become lovers in about a day, despite their frustrations with each other being real and rooted in kind of big-deal stuff. The haunting stuff is pretty mild for a while, then suddenly turns dangerous, then gets a bit confusing and campy. The horror elements were severely lacking, and there was almost no natural character development.

This book has the MOST wild mash up of romance AND horror/thriller! The fact that the MCs go to stay in a haunted castle in Scotland AND write horror stories but it's a romance book!?!?! It's such a fun juxtaposition! PLUS the fact that the story is enemies to lovers is so *chef's kiss*!
I also LOVED all of the representation in this book! The fact that both MCs are Native AND the FMC is curvy! There's also a TON of suspense in this book! The fact that there is a ghost mystery subplot!?! There's so much more too and it is so fun to get to see everything and for everything to fall into place!👀
I hope to see more weird romance + horror/thriller type books in the future! Thank you so much to St. Martin's Griffin for an early copy of this fun read!

What a wonderfully descriptive, haunting book! I loved the angst, the pining and the setting! Colby has a way with immersing a reader in scene and having the setting come alive.

I wanted so badly to love this book. Horror authors trapped in a haunted castle? Sign me up, babe. But it just didn’t do it for me. The story felt like it needed to be fleshed out a bit more.

The falling-in-love (like?) felt like it happened too fast. And they kept falling into bed together despite the fact that they kept saying they were in a life or death situation.

The ghost aspect and mystery surrounding it were great, but I would have liked to see the side characters more involved with it. It’s almost as if they were an afterthought.

Maybe this book will go through some more edits, because it has the potential to be so much better.

If I Stopped Haunting You by Colby Wilkens is the perfect spooky season read! Authors on a writing retreat in a haunted castle?! Sign me up!

I was honestly super excited to start this book based off the synopsis and it seemed like a really interesting concept and horror/romance combo. The execution just didn’t work for me. The book starts with the fmc literally attacking the mmc both verbally and physically and her reaction just seemed really over the top. And I don’t really feel there was any great growth or character development for her (he was a little better but not much) from there. I guess I just didn’t really connect with the characters both main and supporting, so it felt like a chore to finish the story.

This was…not great. It started off with the fmc verbally attacking and then physically attacking the mmc for seemingly no reason other than jealousy and it just doesn’t get better from there. I’m sorry.

This book was cuteee!! I'm definitely going to revisit it during spooky season because reading this in spring was not the vibe. Anywho, the characters were really well done, and the plot was engaging. I liked how the story was layered, almost like a cake with one layer of romance, a layer of humor, then a layer of mystery/paranormal. I find it funny that other reviews mentioned how the main character was abusive. She threw a book at a man, are you telling me that you've never thought about throwing a book at a man? Nevertheless, a great book!

I unfortunately had to DNF this at 45%. I had high hopes for this book, the synopsis of the book sounded good, the cover art is beautiful and I'm a sucker for an enemies to lovers..it's my favorite trope. But Penelope and Neil just weren't it for me😩 They were just were at each others throats when most enemies to lovers, there's some witty, sarcastic funny banter but with them it was down right toxic fighting. I also felt like the side characters, mostly Laszo, were way to prominent in a lot of the dialogue..sometimes I felt like way more than the two main characters were talking to each other.

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read this ARC.

I really wanted to love this book, but it was not to be. While there were some parts I loved (the prologue, some moments of banter and one or two passages where I could visualize the spookiness), the end product just fell a bit flat. The biggest let down is perhaps the fact that this book is marketed as an enemies-to-lovers romance-horror. The relationship between the two main characters was more based on lust than actual romance, and they were lusting after one another within 24 hours of them finding out they were on this writing trip together. It felt extremely rushed, but is also felt forced, like the plotpoints were not happening naturally but because the author made them happen. As for the horror-aspect, this was not horror. And that's coming from a grade A scaredy cat who avoids horror movies as much as possible. While I had hoped the horror wouldn't be too much or too gorey since it was a combination with romance, I didn't expect it to just have some spooky vibes. There are maybe two scenes in which the author describes a ghost as a decaying corpse in some detail, but this was less exciting than scenes in which the MC's were just exploring the forbidden west wing of the haunted house, in which I could really feel the tension. In conclusion: it was a bit spooky, but not horror per my definition.

The combination of horror and romance intrigued me, but sadly it didn't work in this book. The tonal shifts between some passages were so abrupt, that it felt like there were two different books mashed together. For example, and maybe it's just me, but I found it very weird that the two MC's were literally attacked by a ghost, barely escaped, and then were like "well let's have sex now, we could die, but we're too horny". I mean, I have read/seen things in which people almost died, defeat the evil and then have sex to celebrate the fact they survived, but while the danger is still there? Literally just a couple rooms over? Is this a trope I was (blissfully) unaware of?

I appreciate both characters being flawed and essentially being opposites of one another, however, I don't understand why the author decided to mitigate the assault of the FMC (her throwing a book out of jealousy and rage at the MMC in the prologue) by having readers on online forums support her actions. While the FMC did show regrets of her assault in the book, this was before she knew people supported her, and I can't help but wonder if the growth she seemed to show would realistically still be intact after finding out. This is not to say that characters have to become perfect beings after their journey, but calling the FMC a 'hero' instead of holding her accountable is baffling to me.

Sadly this book was a miss, but as I did enjoy parts of the writing, I will probably give this author a second chance. I have read the synopsis of her second book coming in 2025, an adventure romance, and I have good hopes for it.

What do you do when your envy leaves you frothing at the mouth about another author who you consider a sell out to the white man? You commit assault, right? That's the only reasonable thing to do when you, a white-passing Native woman who writes Native horror, finds the most famous Native horror author lacking authenticity. Penelope is unhinged, and it's honestly hard to see what Neil sees in her, besides her beauty, but the nutty antics these characters endured kept me reading. The story unfolds in a haunted castle and sexual tension blends with terror as the ghosts creep on these two while they're dry humping one another in stairways and hallways and towers. Pen and Neil have to be the horniest couple ever, running from a decaying corpse one minute to jumping each other's bones the next. I guess the smell of decay is an aphrodisiac. The truth is, this story is nutty from start to finish, but I enjoyed the hell out of it.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s for the ARC.

When Pen chucks an actual book at Storm’s head during a writing conference, it seems like there is no turning back in this heated writer rivalry. That is until they find themselves thrown together at a writing retreat. Oh, and that retreat just happens to be in a haunted castle with actual ghosts.

I really liked the premise of this novel– the rivalry, the gothic setting, the focus on indigenous stories, and the criticism of the publishing industry. I found the creepy parts creepy (to be fair, I am a certified baby when it comes to horror), and the steamy parts steamy. However, I found the pacing and the speed with which the main characters went from hate to love to be a bit jarring. Overall it was a fun read best enjoyed around the end of October.

The premise of this book is so cute and the storyline was definitely something to keep you intrigued but the way the FMC bothered me every page was just too much to really enjoy the full story of what it could've been!

Would definitely recommend for people to check out for a feel good romance, but be wary of the FMC and their tendencies.

ARC from Netgalley

I adored this book! The beginning is slow but I didn't mind it. I loved how she would push him away and he wouldn't go. He would reel her back in. He didn't give up hope. He was an absolute sweetheart! I loved this romance🥰

I really wanted to like this book. It has a great premise but I honestly DNF at the 25% mark. I tried starting back up but just could not connect with the characters or the story, which is disappointing. I'm sure this story will find plenty of people who will enjoy it but it just was not me.

This was such an interesting premise that snagged my attention! I did enjoy this book but overall I found it to be good but not great. I finished it, enjoyed it, but I found myself getting distracted reading this. I would probably recommend for someone who enjoys spooky/romance but I wouldn’t pick this back up.

Likes:
Setting of the book and overall premise was awesome. I also love a spooky/thriller romance type of book. The actual spooky parts of the book are really good and the ghost stories were fun for me. Also solid representation with LGBTQ+ and Native American MCs. Really rare to see.

Dislikes:
I don’t always read other reviews before going into ARCs but I was prepared for lack of chemistry and character development. I would say this is accurate for me personally. I just didn’t feel like Neil and Pen were enough? I think there could have just been MORE MORE MORE of them. Honestly I think a true enemies to lovers vs old friends to lovers would have been more compelling for me in this type of book.

I loved this book and really enjoyed getting to know the characters! This book made me want to go and find every single thing the author has wrote and read that too!

Romance and ghosts? Not usually my thing, at all, but I was hopeful. I'm really glad I gave this one a go. This romance takes on the enemies to lovers, maybe even a bit of the slow burn type of story and adds some interesting elements when our main setting is an actual haunted castle (in Scotland).

Penelope and Neil are both authors, both writing in the horror/thriller genre. Both are also Native American, and face stereotypes that attempt to hinder or quiet their voices and their work. After an incident at an author's conference, which ended with Pen literally throwing a book at Neil, the two don't speak, and neither of them have been able to write or publish new work. Queue a college roommate/best friend that believes the ultimate writer's retreat is just what everyone needs, even if he doesn't mention to Neil or Pen that the other is coming along.

The retreat goes spooky right away, with not only the castle being haunted, but of course, the retreating authors are snowed in. Secret passages, apparitions, forbidden rooms... what could go wrong?

The romance portion of the story is what you'd expect from a friends to lovers romance. The methods for forcing the characters together takes an unexpected twist when the ghost story and haunted castle come into play. I am not usually a thriller or horror or spooky type of reader, but I actually wanted the horror aspects of the story to develop a little more. There are a few very tense moments, and a few very cheesy moments. The story of the ghost(s), who they are, why they are trapped... all add to the experience.