This book was a solid, if not fairly predictable and unoriginal, rom-com but after the news about the author came out, I cannot bring myself to recommend it or ask my library to order it. The narrators are both Indigenous and did a great job with what was ultimately underwhelming material.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this arc!!

What a good book! I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. I loved the main characters! They had great chemistry and worked so well together. I loved how the book just flowed. My first by this author but will not be my last!! I love a good spooky read!

Changing my rating to 1 star (from 2) after finding out that Wilkens does NOT have Indigenous heritage like they claim while promoting a novel featuring Native characters.

So I was super excited for this one, unfortunately the actions of Penelope Skinner at the start of the novel, and what fuels her "hatred" for Neil Storm, is such bad behavior that I could not understand how these two went from "enemies" to lovers - especially so quickly. Neil, DUDE, Pen attacked you on stage in public leaving you with a scar on your head... and she never really apologizes or acknowledges her bad behavior... WHY are you falling in love with her?! As someone who doesn't typically read a lot of sex on the page books, this one does have some spicy scenes, though not as many as I expected in a romance book.

Unfortunately, the side characters aren't really fleshed out and pop in and out of the narrative when Wilkens needs more living humans in a room to further the plot. The ghost story aspect started off interesting but the resolution was... lackluster to say the least, and didn't really make sense that THAT would stop the hauntings.

IF I STOPPED HAUNTING YOU is a quick read with promise, but in the end it didn't deliver for me, but YMMV.

Curtis Michael Holland and Kyla Garcia do a decent job with the audiobook narration though their voices for each character are SO drastically different that it gets distracting at some points.

Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by NetGalley and Dreamscape Media in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Dreamscape Media for providing me an ALC.

Due to recent information that has surfaced about this author I will not be reading and reviewing any books by her.

This was such a fun read! I never would have thought to put romance and a haunted castle in the same book, but it works here! Two rival authors end up at the same writing retreat at a haunted castle in Scotland. Pen and Neil bond over the fact that they're the only ones who can see the ghost and eventually realize that their hatred is pointless. At one point Pen pretty much says IDGAF about the ghost in the room watching us, I want to get it on 😂 I laughed so hard! Great read! Perfect for spooky season!

Narrators were great too!

DNF @ 7%

In the prologue, I didn't really like how the two protagonists were speaking to one another. I felt myself literally cringing a bit as I was reading. And then the FMC throws a book at the MMC's head and makes him bleed.

I tried to push through a bit, and got a little further, but I don't really like how either of the main characters interact with other people, so I'm putting this one down.

The audiobook narrators were doing a good job reading, I just couldn't get into this book.

it’s been months since penelope skinner threw a book at neil storm during a public event. now, the two are attending a writing retreat in a supposedly haunted castle. getting inspiration for a new book has to be worth facing each other, right? as the two set out to write another book, and prove each other wrong in the process, they discover that maybe the castle really is haunted…which puts them into some pretty close situations.

once i got over the awful behavior on pen’s part at the start of the book, this was pretty interesting. i’m always down for a haunted castle, but adding a writing retreat and discussions of indigenous culture and representation into the mix made this even better! pen and neil both grew a lot throughout the course of the story, which i loved to see.

narration: curtis michael holland and kyla garcia did a great job of bringing this story to life!

A spooky enemies to lovers story between two writers who end up on a writers retreat together (hello forced proximity) at a Haunted castle. Given it's perfect blend of swoony romance and chilling ghost haunts, this makes for the perfect read this fall!

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the story. My only complaints were the rivalry between them seemed a little immature.

Thank you to NetGalley for this eARC and the ALC for this book!

This book was basically a really good idea, but I think the execution is a little off. DNF at 60%

There doesn’t really seem to be much progression I the book at 60%. It’s a little repetitive with the arguing. I’m a huge fan of enemies to lovers but I don’t feel like these characters are connecting well. They are suddenly very attracted to each other but there really wasn’t much build up of chemistry or anything that made this feel believable.

The “horror” part of the story was starting to take shape around the time I DNFd but unfortunately it was a too little too late situation, by this point I’m just not invested in the characters or the plot to see it through.

I also don’t feel like any of the characters are very likable,which may also be a contributing factor into why I am not feeling any sort of attachment to the story. The FMC felt especially whiny and perpetually offended by all of the perceived injustices surrounding her.

Regarding the audio, the voices were good for the two main characters but the side characters voices were awful.

This was a fun one! I have to say this was scarier than I anticipated! (I say this lightly because it was certainly spooky but by no means a horror book).
I thought the story was unique and I liked the writing style. The narrators also did a fantastic job! I liked that this books discusses Native stereotypes and how harmful they can be to indigenous peoples. It's a very important issue that doesn't get talked about enough by mainstream media.
On to the characters, I liked how head strong Penelope was. She's a very passionate person and I could see myself in her. Neil was also a great character and I liked that he had a bit of a turn around in terms of his career by the end of the book. It made me respect him a lot because he took the hard route instead of continuing to appease his publisher who changed his stories entirely.

Overall, this was a fun read and I recommend it for spooky season!

3.5/4

DNF at 27%

Abhorrent FMC. This had a lot of cute potential, and I tried to get into this a couple of times, but I really can’t get past the FMC. She read as immature and incapable of basic communication skills and assaults the MMC in the prologue. Nothing redeeming happens after that. This just isn’t for me.

Thank you Dreamscape Media for providing an ARC via NetGalley.

2.75 ⭐️
The audiobook is really well narrated! The 2 narrators did a very good job and I enjoyed the listening experience.

However, the story wasn't as enjoyable as I'd hoped. The begging half was very interesting and the setting was very well described, however I lost interest very quickly. The characters weren't lovable and the ghost story really fell off after a while.

Pen and Storm have been arch enemies for their entire careers and for a pretty good reason, or at least Pen thinks. When they end up at the same writing retreat at a haunted castle in Scotland emotions and passions run high in this spicy haunted novel

This was a tough one for me. Enemies to Lovers with violence only works in war torn fantasy novels - not in contemporary romance. I have to wonder - if the genders were reversed, would the main character still be redeemable?

While this was a no go for me, I am still very interested in seeing what else Colby Wilkens puts out into the world next.

Thank you Dreamscape Media for the advanced copy.

I always love to read a “Haunted” Romance near to Halloween and this one was a fine one. It wasn’t incredible, but it was good enough to read if you don’t have another option. I thought there were definitely moments that could’ve been better and more interesting, but somehow the book just fell flat. All the plots and situations were wrapped up quickly with a bow in a less-than meaningful way. I certainly was hoping for more from this author and thought the spicy bits would be spicier and that there would be more in terms of discussing the haunted house. Instead it was sort of brushed under the rug, so to speak, and nothing was really questioned or dealt with in a logistical manner. This could’ve been so good, but instead it was just “meh”.

Welp! I so wanted to love this one. First off, I loved the title! How cute is that!?! Plus, the synopsis piqued my interest - an enemy to lovers with a paranormal twist. How fun, I thought. A perfect book for the fall season. But sadly, this book did not work for me. We can't love them all and unfortunately this is the case here.

One of my struggles with the book was not liking either of the main characters. I had a hard time connecting with them. I get they didn't like each other in the beginning. Penelope Skinner loses her cool and blasts Neil Storm publicly and tops it off by throwing her book at him. So yeah, she might have a little temper, impulse control, acting before thinking issue going on. Having someone throw a book at your head does not help Neil with his self-esteem issues. On top of that having your book publicly trashed might cause a little writer’s block. Enter a writer's retreat at a Scottish Castle stage left. It's haunted as well, so let the fun begin.... or not.

As I mentioned, I thought I would love this book. Sadly, it just wasn't for me. I did enjoy the setting, the descriptions, and the banter of some of the characters. This one was just missing that little bit of something (mainly likeable main characters) that would have earned a higher rating. There are many who enjoyed it, so please read their reviews as well.

Thank you to NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

DNF at 22%

I realized at this point that I did not give a crap about either of these characters and what was going to happen in the story. I usually love a haunted castle but...this book started off rubbing me the wrong way with the FMC assaulting the MMC by throwing a book at him and it just really didn't get that much better. I had known about the assault from other reviews which is why I wanted to continue to see if it got better, but alas.

2.5
I tried, I really did. But I found it impossible to care about any of these characters, including the ghost(s).

🏰Book Review🏰
*
Summary- It's been months since horror author Penelope Skinner threw a book at Neil Storm. But he was so infuriating, with his sparkling green eyes and his bestselling horror novels that claimed to break Native stereotypes. And now she’s a publishing pariah and hasn’t been able to write a word since. So when her friend invites her on a too-good-to-be-true writers retreat in a supposedly haunted Scottish castle, she seizes the opportunity. Of course, some things really are too good to be true.

Neil wants nothing less than to be trapped in a castle with the frustratingly adorable woman who threw a book at him. She drew blood! Worse still, she unleashed a serious case of self-doubt! Neil is terrified to write another bestselling “book without a soul,” as Pen called it. All Neil wants is to find inspiration, while completely avoiding her.

But as the retreat begins, Pen and Neil are stunned to find themselves trapped in a real-life ghost story. Even more horrifying, they’re stuck together and a truly shocking (extremely hot) almost-kiss has left them rethinking their feelings, and… maybe they shouldn’t have been enemies at all? But if they can’t stop the ghosts pursuing them, they may never have the chance to find out.
*
Rating- ⭐️⭐️💫
*
My thoughts- thank you @macmillanaudio for the advanced copy. This was a paranormal romance, heavy on the romance and steam light on the spooky. I wanted to love this one but they were enemies to lovers within the first 100 pages. I wanted to love this one but a lot of it really didn’t work for me. The two main characters didn’t really have chemistry, they just banged a lot. The other friends in the story just made childish immature comments about it and the ghost aspect wasn’t touched until the last 50 pages. This one has so much potential to be the perfect book for spooky season but it was not 🥲.
*
QOTD- what is your current read ? Mine is those empty eyes!
*

I loved this book so much! Everything about it was so good! Enemies to lovers! Forced proximity! Haunted castle in Scotland! Steamy!

This book was also written by a Native author and both the FMC and MMC in this book are Native. I absolutely loved this representation!

I loved that it was spooky, but not too spooky. I’m a wimp so I’m not going to lie I still got a little scared when I was reading at night, but I felt like it was the perfect amount of spooky and if you are looking for a romance to read during the month of October this should absolutely be on your TBR!

I would have loved if the book would have gotten a bit deeper into the relationship between Pen and Neil, but honestly I still loved it the way it was and it makes sense that it didn’t because the timeline of the main part of the story was very short.

I did a hybrid read, (audio and ebook)and the narrators of the audiobook were both really great.

Thank you to St. Martin’s for the eARC and
Dreamscape Media for the ALC.