I received a free e-arc of this book through Netgalley.
I was expecting this to be more of a ghost story, but it leans more towards romance with some spicy situations that you should probably read at home in case they leave you feeling hot. I do like paranormal stories, but the story was very loose compared to the romance of the main characters. I don't think I'm the best audience for this book since I wanted a tighter story and it felt a bit loosey goosey to me. I did like that it had some controversy (in the book) over Native writers since I don't see that a lot. Pick it up if you like romance with some graphic scenes.

This started off a lot like The Haunting of Hill House (the book not movie), but at least things actually happen here, so it one-ups Shirley Jackson. There are actual paranormal elements rather than the suggestion of them and I appreciate that. I also appreciate the friendship dynamics, although near the end, it was a bit odd. At one point, our lead goes running out into the snow and her love interest, who may have a concussion, goes to run after her. The friends are so nonchalant about this that I literally wondered if they or maybe the mains even existed or ~were dead all along.~ Also, this was the most annoying enemies to lovers trope. She hated him for the dumbest reason, most of which was her fault, and then they are alone in a house for four days under the guise of a writing retreat and they're all over each other. On that note, it's not a writing retreat. They just spent a bunch of money to go to Scotland, not leave the house, and pretend to be doing a few writing exercises. And then about 70% of the way through, the haunting and the writing fall completely into the background because the two mains are too busy getting into bed every other chapter. And lying to their travel companions about seeing ghosts, which they think are trying to kill them, which is arguably way more interesting but no, let's just sleep together again. Honestly I'll be impressed if this ends with one of them being dead all along or better, they're both possessed by the dead and doomed couple who died before getting to grow old together and once they exorcise them, the mains will go back to the way they were.
Also at the end she and Neil pull a prank on said silent friends and say its because they "left us to be haunted alone" when it was YOU who kept the damn secret!!
The ending kind of saves it because it was sugary sweet I like that all the writers got to write and be happy, which I somehow hope to do one day.

I thoroughly enjoyed this enemies to lovers, spooky rom com novel. The slow burn was *chefs kiss*. This reminded me of one of my favorite novels, Beach Read, but add ghosts and spooky elements. A haunted castle? Getting snowed in? Forced proximity? All amazing tropes.

I’m so glad I was able to be an ARC reader for this fun book. Here’s my favorite quote: “I just got finger-banged and a ghost watched.” 🥵🌶️😂

It was a quick and entertaining read that I recommend for those who love spooky rom com novels😁

I love this paranormal romance! This was so good. I really love the cover of this book; it's so gorgeous and drew me in. I also loved the Native American representation and the LGBTQIA+ representation. This book is heavy on the romance, with some comedy, paranormal and horror mixed in. There's a few tropes in here that I know others will love, like forced proximity, enemies to lovers and instalust. I do think it would have been better in first person POV or dual POV, but instead was in third person POV. I also think the book could use some better editing, because there was some grammatical errors, as well as the pace and flow were off. I think this would be a great sexy and spooky read for the fall vibes and around Halloween.

Thank you to NetGalley, Colby Wilkens, and St. Martin's Griffin for the eARC of this book.

Thank you Net Galley for the ARC!

A solid three stars, I'll admit I did not read the summary for this one. I saw the title, laughed, and requested it. I then went in completely blind (as one does) and I'm surprised to say that I liked this story.

Before I get into the review, I do wanna say that I think this book could use some more editing. I found a lot of typos and other grammatical errors. At one point "Franny" went to "Fanny" and I found that there were a couple areas where the scene didn't make sense how it went from A to B. Like the ghost being behind one of the characters to suddenly being under them to being under something else? That was weird and I had to shift the scene in my head a few times because of it.

Now for the review.

I'm not usually one for romance books, nothing wrong with them, they're just not my speed normally as an ace. But I needed a break after all my other reads this year, the books I read are usually super intense and I just needed something to break the rhythm for a change. This one did a fantastic job of that.

This book is advertised as a romantic, horror, comedy and I would say it leans more on the romance than the horror elements. Sometimes I wanted to roll my eyes at them and just be like "oh for fucks sake just kiss already!" and other times I was like "They're dumb. I love them."

As for the horror elements, when they did show up it was surprisingly effective. But maybe its just because they always seemed to pop up when I read at night. Either way, the horror was weirdly effective in this book.

If you're looking for something light hearted I def recommend this!

» 3 stars ᯓ★

→ i'm so conflicted on what to rate this because on one hand i did enjoy the romance and discussion on the publishing industry's discrimination. but then the rest i was just kinda like .. okay? cool?

🧸┊there's kind of a lot going on here but i'll try my best to explain it – a few months ago, pen and neil were on a board/panel of native writers answering questions, and long story short pen gets angry and throws a book at neil. she faces backlash, gets shunned from the industry, and then falls into a bad case of writer's block anyway. so when her friend laszlo invites her to a writer's retreat to a haunted castle, she goes but finds that neil (man she now hates) is also there. and then they have to stay in the castle together with ghosts and end up falling in love ig.

💐┊my thoughts: there's a lot of them so bear with me for a sec! i didn't love our main characters, they felt shallow and just overall undeveloped. it felt like they had 2-4 personality traits and that's all we learned about them. laszlo and daniela, the two other writers/friends on the retreat with them, served essentially no purpose and were entirely unnecessary to the story despite them constantly being brought up. they had such potential to be the funny side characters but they were more like an intrusion to the story instead.

this is a romance mixed with horror elements, which i was pretty iffy on when i started but i did end up liking the concept! just not this particular story. these ghosts haunting the castle have some backstory that pen and neil have to figure out or else what? they'll be killed? even though there wasn't anything that indicated they would be? this kind of takes over the story in the last 40ish percent too which lost me. it was anticlimactic.

and then the romance was suuuuper lusty. i mean, literally 24% in we get "neil had a boner. for penelope skinner." sir what?? for two people who allegedly hate each other's guts they got over that real fast. within the first day at the retreat they're already on their way to madly in love somehow. the progression just didn't make sense. good spice tho.

and then the commentary on the publishing industry, i appreciated that. maybe rf kuang started something with yellowface idk but i do like seeing authors write about the darker sides of the industry. in this case, the two main characters were both of native american heritage and they talked about how they had to fight hard to get to where they are as authors.

wiiiith that being said, the nativeness felt a little random in the bigger picture. there's constant discussion on the discrimination they face but outside of that i feel like it's kind of a forgotten detail? it's brought up in the context of spiritualism and the way they were raised a bit but honestly the two characters could've been white, black, red, purple, blue, anything really from the way they were talked about. i wish the native culture(s) and beliefs would've been highlighted more, as someone who's unfamiliar with it.

→ if you're looking for a really quick, spicy, spooky read then this is the book for u. i don't regret reading it but i also probably won't remember that i read it at all by the end of the year.

🏷️┊tw: racism, sexism, death (mentioned), war/violence (mentioned), haunting. keep in mind there may be more that i forgot here! ur mental health matters <3

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.