Native writers Penelope Skinner and Neil Storm wind up on a writers retreat together after Penelope literally threw a book at him months before because of his stereotypical Native books. Now, they’re stuck in a haunted Scottish castle.

This kind of fell flat for me.

In a Scotland castle, two rival Indigenous authors with deep seated resentment and a violent past incident are tricked into attending the same writers retreat where they come together to solve a ghost story.

She has big feelings, he has big feelings - and I feel that the author does good job expressing where those frustrations come from which is ultimately that Indigenous authors are often watered down to be more marketable to the masses in the publishing industry. If not ultimately making them seem full of emotions that they don't quite know how to direct.

Overall, this was an alright read - definitely on the fence between a 3.5 - 4 ⭐ . There was some slow-burn and the spice was about a 3.

There were parts that were slightly cringe, a lot of repetition going on as the dual POV bounced back and forth. The last 25% of the book was a big of a whirlwind, but there were some solid character growth and dialogue which was nice to read. And it's marketed as a romance infused horror story, but I didn't get that vibe. I would have classified this solely in the paranormal romance category.

Goodreads review has been posted and linked below.
Amazon review will be posted once available.
IG/TT reviews will be posted closer to publication date.

I read If I Stop Haunting you by Colby Wilkens. When Pen and Neil realize they are stuck for a week at a writing retreat at a castle and they have to learn to make the best of it. In between all the sparks flying, the banter back and forth and trying to figure out why these ghosts still roam the halls, they don't get much work done. They had to figure out why Georgina was searching the halls for Archie, and haunted everyone that entered the halls. It was a fun read finding out how they could overcome their differences and get closer for the ghosts.

Thank you Netgalley, St. Martins’s Press and Colby Wilkens for the ARC.

If I Stopped Haunting You is uniquely entertaining and such a fun read. Perfect for the season, grab a blanket and a pumpkin latte, you’re in for an enjoyable read.

Thanks to Netgalley & St Martin's Press for access to this E-ARC! This was so cute! Loved the characters & the spooky vibes. Will definitely read more from this author.

I really wanted to like this book, but right from the start I knew it was not going to be a good time. Every single aspect of this book is What Not To Do When Writing A Novel. Clunky dialogue, awful characters without true depth, telling instead of showing, no true motivation for the characters’ actions, no chemistry, characters without purpose. I could go on.

This book really did not open on a strong note. The entire convention conflict was clunky and awkward to read. Pen randomly exploding at a public event completely unprovoked and then having weirdly broken dialogue with her nemesis on stage had me more confused than intrigued.

Overall the prose itself is fine, but the character decisions and voice are very immature and unnatural. There’s a line with romance novels that separates reality from believability of silly events, but this just soars past that line right out the gate and doesn’t set a good tone at all.

The depth that the author is trying to achieve with the characters identities feels like a caricature rather than something authentic. It’s strange that Pen criticizes Neil for writing stereotypical characters and stories that pander to white audiences when that’s exactly what this book feels like. I was excited to see a romance with two Indigenous leads, but all their identity did was serve as unnaturally forced conflict. It was so flat and lifeless.

Overall this is not the book for me, as I really don’t think it delivers in any capacity.

Penelope Skinner and Neil Storm are two Native horror authors stuck in a years-long rivalry. Both are left in a writing slump after their feud publicly reaches a head. Months later, Pen and Neil find themselves coincidentally on the same writing retreat at a haunted castle in the Scottish Highlands.

Ugh I wanted to love "If I Stopped Haunting You" so badly but that just wasn't the case. The romance between Pen and Neil is just flat. It's toxic and they jump from enemies to insta-love so quickly in a way that doesn't account for the supposed years of animosity between them. Their characters are also lackluster. The author teases at back stories for both of them (really all the characters) that are never fully developed or even explored.

The same can be said about the horror aspect. The ghost story holds so much promise initially, but instead, it's underwhelming and the resolution doesn't fit all the setup. The story poses so many potential plot points and connections (i.e. Pen's connection to the castle) that fail to go anywhere.

The bones are certainly there. Unfortunately, this whole story feels like an early draft that needs a strong editor to help shape it into something great.

Thank you to the author, NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the advance copy!

Feuding writers end up together in a haunted castle. What can go wrong? The answer is a lot. The enemies to lovers trope can be difficult to balance between when they stop feuding and when do they fall in love and the timeline was too sped up. There was not enough tension building to make this trope work. We also have the issue of the FMC Penelope having serious anger issues bordering on physical abuse. This is not the way to achieve a successful relationship. This book had a very fun concept but overall fell flat

I just really couldn't get into this, I don't think the authors writing style is for me. I thought the premise sounded exciting and the cover art is gorgeous but it ultimately fell flat

I thought this book was pretty cute. It did take me a while to get into it though. I will say that the story progressed pretty fast once I got into it but it did not captivate me as much as I thought it would.
I thought the premise of them being two Native writers struggling to write and being thrust together on a writing trip in a haunted castle in Scotland was really interesting. I found the ending to the ghost story to be lackluster and I wish there had been more horror elements within the story. I did find the romance to be pretty fast paced, in the sense that Penelope and Neil went from hating each other and ruining one another’s careers to being attracted to each other very quickly but I found they were pretty cute together. I do wish we would have seen more of Laszlo and Daniela as they didn’t seem to be fully fleshed-out characters.
Overall, I thought this book was a pretty quick read and I would recommend it to someone wanting a quick, spooky, romantic read.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for a copy of this ARC.

Thank you for the advance readers copy!

Okay, it wasn’t terrible.
But it wasn’t good either? Somewhere in between?
When I was reading it I didn’t find myself just annoyed and forcing myself to get through it. But once I put it down, the want to pick it back up was very slim 😅
The plot didn’t make a ton of sense to me
But the little romance pieces I thought was cute

"If I Stopped Haunting You" by Colby Wilkens is the book you didn’t know you needed to pack for that weekend getaway where you just want to chill but also kinda want to be on the edge of your seat. Picture this: two snarky writers with a knack for supernatural spooks, trapped in a haunted Scottish castle (because, why not?), figuring out they might just be into each other—amid ghosts and old castle vibes. Penelope and Neil are this explosive mix of funny, irritating, and endearing, turning what starts as a typical enemies-to-lovers trope into a wild, ghostly ride. It's like someone tossed romance and horror into a blender and cranked it up to an 11. The banter is spot-on, the scares are legit, and you'll be rooting for these two not just to make out but also make it out alive. Totally a thumbs-up for a breezy, spooky read!

3.2 stars = it was fine. A lightweight romance in a spooky/horror wrapping. I really didn't have the problem that other readers had with the heroine - yes, she was prickly. But it that prickly based on fear that is not too uncommon in the romance genre. My issues were more that I had the same problem that I often have with romantic suspense and that is the transition straight from the creepy to the physical bits of the romance. It just doesn't help build the romance for me. The other issue is that I didn't really think that the ghost part of the story held together once the mystery behind the haunting was revealed. It didn't seem like the kind of thing that would generate such a spooky manifestation.

The story was interesting as a change of pace though.


ARC courtesy of the publisher via NetGalley. This is an unpaid review.

I'm not sure how I got this arc book, but it was a fun read. It's a fun enemies to lovers with some spooky twists. This book is about Penelope and Neil.

Pen and Neil are stuck at a retreat together and find themselves in a real-life ghost story.

With them stuck and working together will feelings start to evolve?

I would be interested in reading more from this author.

If I stopped haunting you is Colby Wilkens's debut enemies-to-lovers cozy horror rom com.

Native horror authors Penelope Skinner and Neil Storm have a years long rivalry that's lead them into a writing slump. In an attempt to find the inspiration to write their next book, their friends and fellow writers, Lazlo and Daniela, join them in a writing retreat hosted in a haunted castle in the Scottish Highlands. Hauntings and hilarity ensue.

What I liked the most about this book was the descriptions of its setting. I also enjoyed the banter between Pen and Neil and their relationship as rivals in the publishing industry. The commentary on the publishing industry was interesting as well.

What I didn't like so much was the resolution (or lack thereof) to the ghost story. It was rather underwhelming after all the protagonists went through to piece together what happened. I also felt the switch to lovers was abrupt, as they'd only spent about two days in forced proximity, after years of antagonizing each other (the book recognizes as much).

Overall, it's an enjoyable read, with interesting commentary about the publishing industry, some actual scary moments as a ghost story, and a great setting.

I really wanted to enjoy this, but I just couldn't get into it... The MFC annoyed me from the start. The entire relationship was toxic in a way that made me not want to read at times. Sadly this book just wasn't for me. The cover art is amazing though! I do often read books based off their covers, and this one did draw me in!

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

As a lover of both horror and romance, I can say with confidence that this was terrible at both.

Writing a book is hard. But perhaps some people shouldn't write books.

I don't even know where to begin with this review. The romance was awful, and I think it's because neither the FMC nor the MMC were fully developed. I don't know anything about them other than they're writers, supposedly (that's another thing—they're in Scotland on a writing retreat, but no writing was done), and they don't like each other. So with flat characters, a romance is going to be flat. The sex scene was awkward, there was little to no tension between them.

Speaking of characters, the secondary characters served NO purpose. You could literally omit them and it wouldn't change anything about the story. Super frustrating.

Now, the horror. Horror is definitely a YMMV, so I'm not going to say oh this didn't scare me so it's not horror. BUT it also wasn't crafted well. The ghost/horror had nothing to do with the characters. It was just a case of they happened to be there. To me, that's lazy horror writing. Again, any character could have happened upon this castle and the ghost would come out. The ghost's story also didn't make sense, and Penelope's obsession with it didn't make sense.

This was just poorly written and I still can't believe it made it through so many people and is actually being published.

This was a lot scarier than I anticipated! Reading this before bed was a poor decision on my part. Timing aside, though, this was great. The romance is hot, the ghost mystery was fun (though creepy), and I loved the bi/bi pairing and the discussions of representation in publishing. I'm even more excited for the author's next book!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc! Opinions are my own.

a romantic haunted horror is exactly what i needed! i haven’t read a book quite like this yet and i really did enjoy it. both main characters were great to get to know and see their slow burning feelings develop for each other! it was also very interesting to see the perspective of indigenous authors and the pros and cons they go through in a publishing industry and setting.

thank you to the author, netgalley, and st. martin’s griffin for the opportunity to receive an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I didn't know "cozy horror" was something I needed in my life and yet, here we are. This is a fun cozy little horror mystery starring two feuding writers trapped at a remote Scottish castle for a writers' retreat where they, of course, find some ghosts that need dealing with. I enjoyed this book; the dynamic of a well-written enemies to lovers trope is a personal favorite and it is handled well here. There was also an excellent amount of spice in this one so you are warned!