Enemies to lovers slow(ish) burn romance that occurs in a haunted castle. Great read for spooky season. Colby Wilkens utilizes many romance tropes to build the romance between Penelope and Neil. The horror aspects of this book could have been a turn off for me, but it was less intense than I feared. The sexy scenes were very spicy! Her next book comes out in March and I look forward to reading it!

Due to what has transpired with this author, I will not be reading or reviewing this book. Doing this so it gets off my list.

Due to the controversy regarding Colby Wilkens, I have decided not to review this title.

Thank you St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for the ARC nonetheless.

I will not be reading this book because of recent events that transpired regarding this author. I am not comfortable reading or reviewing.

This one just did not do it for me. I ultimately DNFed at 79% because I quite literally didn't care what happened in the final 20%. Our story starts with an act of violence is excused because 1. she's a woman and 2. they're gunna fall in love eventually. For the most part I was just disinterested in the story and its characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. I tried to pick this one up multiple times, but wasn’t able to get drawn into the story and DNF at 20%. I rated it a 2/5 due to DNF.

I forgot to give feedback for this one, but I really love the cover, and I can't wait to read it when my TBR gets less unwieldy!

Edit 10/29/2024 More information has come to my attention regarding the author. I said what I said below with the understanding the author was writing in ownvoice. Now that I know what I know, I want to keep myself transparent/accountable so I will be leaving this review here while highlighting the fact this book, at the time I received it back in the spring, was advertised as written by someone of Native descent. That is not the case and would hate for anyone else to be misled because of my review.

This was a wild enemies to lovers, in that they went from enemies to lovers in .02 seconds. Like the most they hated each other was before the book so I guess to the reader it felt more like strangers to lovers? But I still really enjoyed the chemistry between Penelope and Neil. I loved the dialogue about how to go about writing Native stories by Native authors. And how much they try their best to break stereotypes and how to go about that, right or wrong. I also really enjoyed the spooky aspect and this story is perfect for October/Halloween/spooky season. But because they are snowed in, it is a great winter story as well. It was a good balance of serious topics and giddy romance and spookiness. I can't wait to see what else Colby Wilkens comes out with next!

Unfortunately, this was miss for me. I wanted to like to this book because spooky romances are my jam, but I just didn't like the style. DNF at 37%

The FMC is awful, rude, and abusive to those around her. I really didn't like how she threw a book at Neil's head in the beginning of the book and that she made him bleed. I feel like the characters weren't well fleshed out, the whole book just felt kind of rushed. Some of the spooky parts were kind of good but nothing worth remembering.

One of the main things I liked about this book was that Pen and Neil were both Native American authors and I like how it showed some of the struggles that Native writers can face in the publishing industry. This all feels cheapened now after everything that has come out about the author and how she faked coming from indigenous heritage. Overall it was very disappointing. I hope that something can come from all of this controversy and we can get some good books by actual indigenous voices.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martins Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

This book was not for me. I found some aspects of it very problematic and made me uncomfy. I do want to thank NetGalley for the chance to review this ARC, but this very much missed the mark for me.

Fun, sexy, and a little spooky! Perfect read for a chill October night. Really love the LGBT+ and indigenous representation.

The moment I was going to read this it has come to light that the author has not been truthful with her audience. Because of this I will not be reading this story that features a native character. When the author is not. Very disapointed with this.

This was a fine read and had a cool premise upon requesting it. The premise fell a little flat for me as the author potentially shouldn't be telling indigenous stories?

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review.

Did we not read Yellowface?

This book wasn't good to begin with, and then the accusations against Colby Wilkens are so heinous that I have no desire to spend any effort into all the reasons this book was bad. I was orignially so disappointed that I couldn't give a good review to a Native romance, but now it's just another not great book by a problematic white author.

DNF after finding out the author has falsely said she is Native. This author has been called out by multiple Native organizations for lying about this and been offered the chance to tell the truth. This is so harmful for actual Native authors who are often not able to get into traditional publishing because of their Nativeness!!!

Two battling writers at a writer's retreat in a haunted Scottish castle? This is a nice send up on a forced proximity; enemies to lovers novel.

I am concerned about the author and the questioning of her Native American history so I will not be giving feedback on this title at this time.

I will not be reading or reviewing this book due to the authors problematic behavior as of late.

Thank you to St. Martins for the opportunity, but unfortunately, cannot in good faith support this author.

A bit of enemy to lovers with some forced proximity, If I Stopped Haunting, You details Penelope Skinner and Neil Storm, enemy writers trapped in a haunted castle in a romance meets horror situation.

Unfortunately, I struggled to remain engaged with this book. While I enjoyed it for the middle 50%, I found the beginning and end challenging to follow.

I felt the writing was a bit stunted and didn’t readily flow. Neither the romance nor the horror felt thoroughly flushed out, and I was neither scared nor felt butterflies. One moment *** spoiler *** (they see a ghost), and next, they want to climb into bed. The sudden context changes were difficult to follow. Additionally, the secondary characters did nothing to add to the story and were not fully developed.

The jump from enemies to loved felt too quick for people with a charged history. They did have some conflict resolution (and self-reflection—I did like that) toward the end, but I was almost at 40% before I felt any investment in the characters. One area I especially had a lot of difficulty with while reading was distinguishing the voices despite the dual point of view. I felt they sounded the same, and I found myself checking whose perspective I was reading each chapter.

The horror moments had a lot of build-up and a mysterious vibe. I enjoyed the mystery-solving elements. However, “the conflict” did not make sense. After so much build-up, I wanted a bit more drama and a neater resolution.

It is worth noting that both main characters are of indigenous heritage, although only one has a tribal card. There is discussion within the book about the lack of native voices in publishing, the depictions of natives in media, and the demands underrepresented writers have to be the perfect version of their minority. I think these were handled with care and brought up many valid points (especially needing to “tone down” work to make it appeal to a broader audience - a gross but likely actual reality). As someone with limited knowledge of the intricacies of tribal identity politics, I felt I could follow this subplot. I then actually went and read more (specifically the sovereignty and identity statement by the Cherokee Nation that a Cherokee identity is political and “is not, and never has been, an ethnic or racial identity.” I was glad for the opportunity to learn something new. This would mean that the character without a card cannot claim a native identity, an important distinction not addressed in the novel.

It is worth noting that the author’s identity was questioned in the media; she has since changed her bio. She has made a statement on her socials for those interested. I am not going to force her to prove her heritage any more than I am going to force her to prove her queerness. Her identity is not why I read this book (I need to make a considerable effort to look into authors before selecting their material). In this case, I didn’t realize this book had native themes when I selected it to read, and I didn’t hear of this discourse until I had nearly finished the book. It should be made clear that this is not written by someone who can legally claim a tribal identity.


I hope her publisher could also outline how they wish to uplift those who politically identify as native in the future because I feel those stories are important. This feels like a good lesson in identity for both me as a reader (needing to actively seek out those stories) and the publishing industry on their lack of knowledge of how to market and edit this book.