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

Overall Rating: 5 Stars

Author Penelope Skinner found Neil Storm absolutely infuriating for writing a souless book that "claims to break Native stereotypes," so much so that during a convention panel she chucked a book at the best selling authors head. In a strange turn of events, she ends up on a writing retreat with two writer friends and Neil Storm himself. They're trapped inside a supposedly haunted castle in the middle of a snow storm, and worse, they're stuck with each other.

I cannot begin to express how much I absolutely LOVED this book. This is a true slow burn enemies-to-lovers romance; the romance built up steadily but the story itself never felt slow. Sometimes I am disappointed by romance stories because it feels that the love interest is the only thing holding the plot together, but this book had horror, mystery, spice, romance, relatability as a writer, and more. The spicy scenes were great, the romantic scenes were adorable, and watching their relationship grow from enemies to something much more was so enjoyable.

Of course I also have to mention the other genre of this book. As an avid horror/thriller reader, I loved how well the horror elements of the story coincided with the spicy yet oh so sweet romance. It's a delicate balance to bring together such different genres into one book and Colby Wilkens did it beautifully. The horror isn't heavy, so if you are not a fan of horror I still believe you will like this book if you are looking for a new romance book to pick up.

I loved If I Stopped Haunting You, and while I'd love to see another book set in the same universe (maybe even with Daniella???) I will absolutely be looking out for this author's next book even if it's a whole new cast of characters.

If I Stopped Haunting You is a Horror RomCom, and honestly if the genre blend doesn't instantly sell you, I don't know what to say.
Such a great inside look at the Native author experience, in a way that was as poignant as it was authentic. Really want to thank the author for that.
The characters felt whole, the dialogue was natural, the pacing was quick! Really well executed.

*Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC of If I Stopped Haunting You in exchange for an honest review*
Some people would say that you cannot combine romance and a ghost story. Some people would say that Colby Wilkens made it work. Some people (me) would say that is questionable. At most, I would say this was a satisfactory attempt at an unlikely combination. There was unmet potential in this mashup. A mediocre romance and a sufficient ghost story. I had high hopes, and if I'm being honest, that was met to a degree, it just fell short overall for me.
The characters felt weak. Our FMC was mean in my opinion. I can appreciate the dependence that was attempted to be portrayed but it came off as insecure and bitchy. She was witty and self-assured, demanding of others but very little accountability to herself. Confident in the bedroom but naive up to and after, which seemed out of character for someone with her prowess. Overall, I felt she was somewhat annoying, selfish, self-centered, and callous while being insecure. Which, in essence, I guess bullies are bullies because of their own self-doubt, so in hindsight, it kind of makes sense. Kind of. Our MMC was your typical quiet, bookish type. Sweet yet naive and way too understanding of our FMC and her attacks. Our supporting characters could have used a little more screen time. The fact that this book is advertised as Native American and queer is a stretch. The NA element was present and somewhat in your face. It was alluded to in several conversations but I still didn't necessarily make the emotional connection to the hardships thereof. Calling it queer is a stretch. Besides 2 queer kisses mentioned as an afterthought, there was no other elaboration.
This was a very typical enemies-to-lovers trope. There was an excellent slow burn but the actual act was underwhelming. There was so much potential in the sex scenes that just ended up being unfulfilling. There was a nice, vivid description when the act(s) began that just kind of fizzled out. I enjoyed some of the imagery but I just didn't feel the emotional attachment that should have been present. As invested as the reader is leading up to, it did not live up to expectation. It was hot but not. Almost like looking forward to a steaming cup of delicious coffee just to take your first sip and realize it is weak and lukewarm. Satisfactory but not as pleasurable as it could be.
The plot was decent. I enjoyed the elements of mystery, suspense, and thrills. I will admit that the ghost story/suspense was good enough to give me nightmares the first night I read it before bed! That's something! Overall, it was just underdeveloped. I'm still not 100% sure what that was all about. The whole ghost story felt rushed and haphazard. Some parts seemed to be skimmed over. It left me backtracking to find the missing pieces that just weren't there. Our characters seemed to miss very obvious conclusions yet jumped to others that didn't make sense. A little all over the place.
There was excellent imagery in our setting. It was very well written. The castle and grounds were very well described.
Overall, I give this book 3.5 reluctant stars. I will round up to 4 because I am feeling generous and there were definitely some good elements to this book. The pros: very nice writing style, superb setting description, intense slow burn, suspense, and made me feel emotions. The cons: unbalanced, underdeveloped, haphazard, and rushed feeling. There was a lot of unmet potential in this story.

Thank you to Net Galley for this ARC!

This was a fun ride and perfectly described - a little bit spooky, a healthy dash of spice, but ultimately, mostly a romance. If I Stopped Haunting You centers around two Native authors and their falling out over our male main character (Neil)'s popular horror series. We get a sense that he's had to edit the books to be palatable to the white American audience, and our female main character (Penelope), who is also a Native horror writer, is upset and saddened by the choices this role-model/competitor made.

Wilkens does a great job of throwing us into the initial altercation and explaining quickly and along the way why this was so detrimental to both of their careers. I found that Penelope had a consistent personality throughout the book that lined up with her initial public lashing-out -- a fact that I appreciated since it would've been easy to have this be a one-incident, and then I, as the reader, am left annoyed that our character would make a stupid & out-of-character life-ruining choice. Though it feels like it did take a decent amount of time for us to get into the castle and plot (~50% mark), once I hit the latter half, I was engaged and wanted to know where it was going!!

Which brings me to my critical feedback. I'll start by saying that I so loved and appreciated the Native representation. It felt realistic and I loved the details that were touched upon, from the intersection of spirituality, religion, the Great Spirit, and ghost stories to feeling like you are able to claim an identity and having a literal registration card. It did feel like Penelope was repetitive in the exact wording she used every time; she frequently cited "it's easier being a man" in the publishing world, which while true, could've had added nuance as the book went along, in my opinion, even if only to give that nuance to a reader. The idea that we assume our readers are well-educated and intelligent, have followed your argument and agree the first time, and are now open to receiving more information about this not-well-understood topic.

Where I'm taking a star away is the resolution of the main mystery - it felt like a bit of a letdown. Without giving too many spoilers, it felt like our main ghost-anger centered around someone "knowing" their story - which didn't make sense or at least wasn't framed in a way that made a sense for resolution. It felt like there needed to be an action taken, whether moving bones or getting the true story out to the world.

Writing-wise, two points: one, the dialogue in this book was a bit weak as far as writing/formatting. It felt like a lot of conversations, the thread and who the speaker was, was easily lost, I think just based on where the author chose to clarify who was speaking. This was really only relevant in the beginning of the book, and briefly mid-plot, so didn't take away too much from the book. The second point revolves around the excerpt of the books inserted into our novel. I'm unclear on what it added to our novel - the purpose it was serving besides showcasing...good writing? There wasn't enough even of any book, but in particular the book of contention, to showcase why it was problematic?

Overall, 3.75 stars, perfect for a romance suspense fan, and 3 for spice! All the elements for tension between our character was there; I don't know why I didn't feel it personally, but still enjoyed our spice scenes and the enemies-to-lovers.

Enemies-to-lovers in a bone-chillingly haunted castle. The perfect addition to your spooky season TBR.

It's a bit of a slow burn, with really great romantic tension. The passion that made them hate each other is explosive when they realize they don’t. There’s a fine line between hate and love, and forced proximity in a haunted castle is a great setting for them to cross it.

I expected this to be spooky, but not that I’d almost need to sleep with the lights on. The haunted house atmosphere is so well done. I was simultaneously cursing them for willingly going towards the danger while also hoping they would figure things out. The supernatural mystery is strong enough to stand on its own outside of the romance.

As Pen and Neil are both Native horror writers, there’s a big focus on Native identity and how it’s affected by society's perceptions and expectations. It gets very specific, but the debate of compromising to make yourself more palatable to other people is universal enough that it will also appeal to non-Native readers. There’s a lot of casual queer representation as well.

I would absolutely recommend people pick this up when it comes out later this year. It’s a fantastic and unique blend of horror and contemporary romance.

I mean…what’s not to like? Forced proximity? Good! Enemies to lovers? Goooodd? Horror? Ghosts? Good and good! I loved this book! Should be perfect for a near Halloween release 🎃 I even loved the BIPOC element and the perspective of Native people. Plus, the characters are authors too! Bit of book inception, but in the best way! Love, love, love.

This is such a cute and spooky book. Loved the pacing of the story; made it very hard to put down. The enemies-to-lover trope is done well and slightly different from other books. The characters were funny and felt very relatable. This is going to be a perfect spooky book for the spooky season.

“ He was seated like a sculpture at the base of crumbling stairs, head in his hands, a swirl of emotions flitting over his face as he buried his fingers in his curls with a deep, guttural sigh.” beautiful writing, the author uses such beautiful langue to describe its as if you’re there in the castle with the characters. This imagery specifically, as I read the book I kept thinking of the MMC like a Greek statue sitting on the bottom stairs like this. But, moving on, the book itself was really cute. I liked the story, I loved there wasn’t just instalove and okay they forget every issue they had individually or within their relationship before because they developed feelings. And I appreciate that, it was much easier to follow along with the story because it seemed so realistic of a real relationship.

I want to thank netgalley for the arc of this book

A very interesting premise for a book and it did deliver to some extend. Unexpectedly fluffy and wholesome. I loved the spooky setting of the book and the chemistry of our main characters. All in all, a very fun read for Halloween season.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

2.5⭐️

A fun, spooky nemesis-to-lovers story with some spice 🌶️

I really liked the idea of this story and I wanted to love it. I enjoyed the history given about Native American culture and how the author tied that into the story. I also loved the premise of having to spend a week in a haunted Scottish castle with your “nemesis.”

Where this story felt short for me was that there was too much going on and a lot of the side plots felt forced and unnecessary. What was the point of Laszlo’s sister showing up? The scene at the ruins with Neil and Penelope didn’t feel organic and the tension could’ve been introduced at a different point.

There was so much fluff. This isn’t a fantasy world yet it had so much “world building” and it’s set in Scotland 😭 it felt like the author was trying to have several plots in this one story. Just as I would start to get intrigued by the ghost story aspect, I’d get pulled out because of the pointless “writer’s retreat.”

I see the potential and I truly wanted to know how it would end but overall I found myself wanting to hurry up and finish so that I could move on.

2.5⭐️
3🌶️

If I Stopped Haunting You by Colby Wilkens is a modern day romance set in a gothic, haunted, castle in Scotland. The story follows two rival authors who get snowed-in with a couple of angsty ghosts during a writing retreat. I was immediately intrigued by this book after reading the blurb. I thought that it was a really interesting concept to mix a romance book with a very gothic topic.

For starters, I felt like both the rivalry and the passion between the characters happened too quickly and was too forced. Their relationship, both when they were upset with each other and as lovers, didn’t feel believable and things moved extremely quickly. I often found myself cringing during their spicy scenes and the language used made me want to gag.

I LOVED the spooky element to this story. I think that the backstory in relation to the haunted aspect of the castle was really well done and I really enjoyed reading those portions of the book. That being said, I wish there would have been more. It felt like there was a lot of unnecessary filler in this book where more plot/character development could have been added instead.

Overall, I think that this would be a really good book for readers who are looking for something a little outside of the box. This story also features Native MCs, so I enjoyed the diversity in this aspect.

My favorite quote from this book was:
“They were not alone.
In this castle, no one ever was.”

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Colby Wilkens for the opportunity to enjoy this advanced reader copy.

Content Warnings: death, paranormal beings/ghosts, sexual content, racism/slurs

My review will be shared on my Instagram account, @graciesbooknook, tomorrow 3/22 along with immediately being posted to Goodreads and StoryGraph.

The mystery in this book hooked me and the romance in this book kept me. Omg I was obsessed with this book the entire time I was reading and I didn’t want to put it down. I encourage everyone to pick up this book! It is genuinely addicting!

DNF. The female main character immediately got off on the wrong foot for me and she bothered me enough that I just couldn't get into this. Love the concept, maybe I'll give it a try another time, but sadly not for me.

This was so good. It wasn't even on my radar, and I'm so glad I got that email. Penelope and Neil really work together. The banter feels authentic and the romance is hot. The horror elements spooked me, and I loved the setting. I imagine this being a comfort read that I'll come back to when I need a refresh.

I wish i could have liked this book more but I can only say that it was okay. The premise of the book being paranormal and romance intrigued me but it didn’t quite mesh well for me. The first half of the book was incredibly slow and took quite some time to get through. I didn’t really buy into Penelope and Neil being enemies since their dislike for each other didn’t seem to last long. I also didn’t feel the chemistry between them either.

I did love the detailed descriptions of the castle. It made the book more atmospheric and spooky which I liked. I also liked the incorporation of the struggles that Indigenous authors face in the publishing world. The spicier scenes took me out of the book and felt rather abrupt. One page it would be talking about the characters interacting with the ghosts and then next they were making out. The second half was more interesting as they investigated the castle and learned more about its former inhabitants. I was hoping the reveal would be more interesting but it kind of let me down.

3.75 ⭐️

I love a good scary story and the enemies to lovers trope(when done right), but do these two things don’t have anything in common… typically. However, If I Stopped Haunting You puts these two themes together beautifully. It is fun, sexy, and spooky. It was a quick read that I throughly enjoyed and recommend! This was my first novel I’ve read from Colby’s career, it definitely won’t be my last. Her writing was hauntingly hilarious and completely sucked me in from the beginning.

Thanks so much for the ARC! I really enjoyed this book - it was a quick read that kept me entertained the entire time. I couldn't put it down. I just wish we would have seen a little bit more of the relationship build but found myself rooting for them as a couple. I just wanted a bit more build. I LOVED the overall haunting and found the ghost story to be very interesting. I liked the spooky parts a lot.

I decided to DNF at 55%.

I was really interested in this book based on the description. Horror and romance?? What could be better! I also liked that it included multiple Native characters and the first chapter seemed to set up for a discussion on cultural identity.

Unfortunately, I found this book, at least the first half, to be lacking in both horror and romance. The scary scenes weren’t descriptive enough to be scary, and there wasn’t any chemistry between the two characters. They’ve hated each other for months, then suddenly they are together for five minutes and apologizing to each other and falling in love. It just not realistic or believable. This book is less enemies-to-lovers and more insta-love in my opinion.

The pacing of the book also bothered me. At 55% in, we are still on the first day they are there. There are so many activities going on, and then a character just walks down the hall and stands at a door, and somehow it’s been three hours and the next activity is beginning.

I really wanted to like this book- the cover, description, and marketed tropes all appealed to me, but it just did not hit the mark.

The book is about two horror authors that have a rivalry going on as they're both Native writing horror, and publishing just doesn't make enough room for both of them to exist in the same space. Penelope doesn't like him because she thinks he is selling out to the industry and writing stereotypes to appeal to mass audiences instead of being authentic, and Neil doesn't like her because she threw a book at his head. Their mutual friend conspires to get them on a writing retreat being held at a haunted castle in Scotland. While at the castle, they find real ghosts and an unsolved mystery.

The romance of this book is marketed as enemies/rivals-to-lovers and frankly I just did not feel any chemistry. Despite them both having valid reasons to dislike each other, there was no real animosity between them? The antagonistic aspect of their relationship should have been 10 times what it was. Even when they start to feel attracted to each other, I didn't understand why. They had barely had like 3 conversations with each other (in the course of the book) before they started saying it, but the conversations were about nothing of substance. Nothing that would make me understand the change of feelings. And because of the short timeline of the book (everything happens within like 2 or 3 days) it makes even less sense. Neil gives her the original manuscript of his book and it's actually good and suddenly she feels bad about criticising him and her opinion of him completely changes? Its marketed as a slow-burn but I did not feel that at all.

All of the characters feel very flat, especially the side characters. Laszlo and Daniela don't have any personality besides what the main characters tell us there are, but we never actually see them acting that way. Laszlo is said to be very strict with schedules and planning, but the entire premise of the book only happens when Neil is supposed to go on the retreat and then cancels, so Laszlo invites Penelope, but then Neil decides he wants to go again. I don't think that someone who is supposed to be strict would allow that to happen? And it's only mentioned that one time, every other time they're all together Neil and Penelope do their own thing and Laszlo doesn't really say anything. I felt bad for Daniela's character because she could have been taken out of the story completely and nothing would have changed. She didn't really add anything that couldn't have been done or said by Laszlo. We're told she's a bit of a trouble-maker but we never see it. If anything, it would have made more sense for the alleged troublesome member of the group to deceive Neil and Penelope to get them to the castle. Laszlo and Penelope are given basically nothing to do, and still manage to annoy the main characters. Near the end, when Penelope goes to the mausoleum by herself, Neil gets mad at them for not being worried about her- but they have no idea that she's in any danger. They don't know the ghosts are real because Neil and Pen haven't told them about any of their investigating. A few chapters later, they prank Laszlo and Daniela by pretending Neil got hurt by a ghost and they laugh and say it's deserved for leaving them to deal with the ghosts alone? Again- they had no idea the ghosts were real.

I wish we got more of a backstory for Penelope and Neil, we don't really know anything about their families or lives outside of the Book Throwing Incident. We know that Penelope struggles with her identity as Native woman because she's white-passing and isn't a registered member of a tribe, but it's not expanded on past that. It's a really interesting aspect to her character, especially since she seemed to be the only one calling out Neil for his writing. I did enjoy Neil's struggle with writing what his publishers want versus what he wants. I thought that was really interesting, but just needed to be expanded on. We're told that he's arrogant and cocky, but we never see any of that. From the beginning, he's mad at her for throwing the book (understandable) and then has inner conflict about her criticisms of him, but besides the very first chapter, I don't recall any other moments where he's acting like that.

I felt like there was a lack of cohesion/ balance between the horror scenes and the romance scenes. It felt like whiplash going from them genuinely scared for their lives to making out in a haunted hallway. I guess it was the adrenaline? It was always very confusing for me. They always seems to be making out at the worst times, it was frustrating to read.

The mystery of the ghost was also disappointing, I wish it had been more of a struggle to find this information because everything just seemed to fall into their laps, or wasn't hard to find if you just looked at all. And the unfinished business for the ghost was just that she had forgotten her name. I understand the emotional aspect the author was trying for here; the ghost wasn't trying to hurt anybody she just didn't know who she was anymore, but it just didn't feel earned.

All that being said, I didn't hate this book- the ghost scenes were genuinely scary and very well-written, I just felt like they weren't given enough time to breathe when the main characters had sex immediately after. I liked that the ghost wasn't harmful, she was just a grieving woman. The sex scenes were written well, it felt like a lot of care was put into them.

I would read more from this author in the future, but I just didn't feel invested in this storyline or characters.

This was such a cozy read. I didn't find it overly romantic, but it paired well with the horror aspect. Of course, there was more romance than horror, but that's expected. Read it quickly, reminded me of the Dead Romantics