I recieved an ARC through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.
I realllly wanted to like this book. The cover, the description, and the tropes all appealed to me, but unfortunately it wasn't for me. A few chapters in I decided to dnf this book because there is no reason to be throwing books at people...

"Sliding her left foot behind her, she turned and chucked her book at the cocky bastard. She watched gleefully as it smacked into the side of his temple, and he flew out of his chair, yelling obscenities. There was a twinge of guilt in her gut as she watched blood trickle down the side of his face, but Pen stamped it down as people rushed forward to help the Prince of Horror and she was dragged backward out of the room by convention security. Alone. She was alone."

If I Stopped Haunting You is a horror rom-com that doesn't go full bore on either genre. In the prologue, Pen, who has published one book and not written anything in the past few years, expresses her frustration that Neil, a successful horror writer, has shaped his work to appeal to the very white publishing industry and horror audience, instead of maintaining the strong connection to Indigenous culture that both of their writing had in their early careers. She ends up throwing a book at him. They both end up on a writing retreat in a haunted castle in Scotland set up by a mutual friend, and their enmity is quickly overshadowed by their attraction to each other.

This is a slow burn, with Neil and Pen getting together around the 70% mark, but somehow their connection still feels like falling into bed together rather than falling in love. The haunting of the castle also ramps up heavily around this time, but the truth behind the haunting isn't as devastating as I expected it to be.

The most interesting aspect of the book for me was the debate between Penelope and Neil about how their Indigenous identity does or doesn't show up in their work, and the price the publishing industry asks authors to pay to be successful. I wish this conversation had been picked up more and that we'd seen more of the two of them talking through it and coming to understand each others' viewpoints. Instead, each of them spends time working through their feelings about this in solitude, before they come together.

Overall, I'd say this is a book with a lot of potential that could have benefitted from a few more drafts to trim some of the fat in the early part of the book and flesh out both the romance and the horror.

This book was SUCH a fun time. Mixing intrigue and suspense with some romance throughout made this my type of ghost story.

Honestly, Pen throwing things at Neil was pretty funny. Sure we shouldn’t throw things when we’re angry, but her reactions when it happens had me cackling.

The dynamic between all the characters was pretty charming too, and I highly recommend.

Things to note:
*If you have an aversion to the words “slick” and “sticky” … well you’ve been warned.
*I spent the entire book wondering if he kept the book she threw at him in the opening, and I guess I will continue to wonder about it the rest of my life. I feel like it should have been mentioned…especially with her connection to it before the throw and his connection to it at the end of the book. (I’m trying to be vague and not ruin anything here.)

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC and a chance to read this debut!

The calendar just turned over to October and it is in vogue for horror films to be previewed when you turn on the TV or streaming. A horror book fits perfectly into that same landscape. Initially, I thought this book was going to be equal parts ghost (horror) story and love story. Instead, this book is like a cauldron full of many disparate parts all brewed together to make a powerful story. We have love, stream, ghosts, tragic love, cancel culture, friendship, horror, finding oneself and a touch of humor.
From the word go, this book surprised me. Pen and Neil jump right into antagonizing each other in part to quell their own feelings of not belonging and in part because of a very mutual attraction. In a way they are very much like two children scrapping because the like each other. Again, this is to cover for their underlying feelings. Pen feels like she will never be enough and Neil feels like the sell out she accuses him of being when he abandoned his vision. Jump forward 4 months after Neil's writers block and Pen being victimized by cancel culture and they are thrown back together.
We have some of the normal tropes when they are thrown together like the snow that traps them but this book is unique and stands on its own. Let me admit before I go further to being unsure of the book at times when it tries to hard to be trendy but I stuck with it and was pleasantly surprised. When Pen and Neil and their 2 companions ended up at the haunted castle, all the tensions ramps up. The relationship drama boils over in a very steamy way. The writers find a new story to tell and find themselves wanting to tell it in their own voice. We also see past and present collide as the names from past and present are not so different. Pen and Neil still reeling from their own connection find themselves pulled along by the ghosts. I don't know if I believe ghosts exist and certainly not like Pen and Neil encounter but some part of me believes there is more out there. The author presents this story with just enough ghost and horror elements to keep it interesting and worth turning the page. I also found myself wondering as I turned each page and Pen and Neil grew closer exactly what the nature of their collaborations would be. Obviously, I felt the steam nearly burn up the pages but as authors they seemed to grow together. She saw he was more and he saw she was enough and in that they left the retreat better for it.
So many ingredients in the cauldron to build a story of love and new beginning out of tragedy and sad ending. I enjoyed this book more than I expected.
Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I ended up requesting this book thinking it would be a good one for spooky season, however it didn't end up being scary at all. The romance between our enemies moved faster than expected and while I did enjoy it, I struggled to really connect to the characters. I did like the author's writing style though and would be keen to read what she comes out with next.

My Rating: ⭐⭐

Ooof, this was such a miss for me, and it's such a shame. I feel like the author wanted to take this in three different directions and she just wasn't sure where to place the focus, so all three fell flat. I find it really interesting that the main characters aboriginal backgrounds are such a fundamental factor of who they are, and their identity in the author space, and yet none of the promotional materials I saw mentioned anything about that. I would think that would be an interest point.

It's hard to pin point what exactly wasn't working here. I think ultimately we're over promising and under delivering. We're promised this spooky Scottish castle vibes, and to be quite honest - the vibes weren't vibin'. This could've taken place anywhere and it wouldn't have made a difference. I didn't feel the cozy autumn Scottish vibes. I mean, yes, technically they weren't meant to be cozy, we are in a haunted castle after all, but the spooks weren't spookin' either. 😭 This was such a generic and uninspired attempt at something spooky. And I feel torn saying that because it's also supposed to be a contemporary romance, and generally I don't anticipate any horror in my romance. BUT IT'S LITERALLY BEING MARKETED THIS WAY?

Throw all that aside, and just focus on the characters. Not a single one of them is likeable. Pen is so cringe and toxic. Neil is such a pushover, and the side characters are literally the worst. Neil takes at least three hits to the head in this book, the third time he's obviously suffering from a concussion and trying to take off into the night by himself and literally his friends are like hey don't die out there.

EXCUSE ME? 😂

And the romance is all:

"We could die."
"We could," she agreed with a sigh as his thumb brushed the notch of her wrist. "And instead of figuring out how to stop the ghost..." She nodded solemnly. "I would like to fuck."

I don't know. I genuinely can't figure out who the target audience is supposed to be haha.

*I received an arc from Netgalley and an ALC from Libro.fm*

This has been one of my most anticipated releases for autumn, and it was so good!! I tandem read this (ebook and audiobook at the same time) and it was SO fun.

I really enjoyed this horror romance (that’s what I’d call this; it had a haunted aspect set in an old castle in Scotland). I don’t read a lot of horro, but I do enjoy the genre, and this was a fun one!!

I really thought this was going to be a fresh take on the well loved enemies to lovers trope, and it was, but it wasn't fresh in a good way. The female protagonist was immature and outright abusive, and her male counterpart read fairly flat lacking any real dimension.

The general concept of this story was interesting but it failed to deliver a meaningful story for me.

This was such a letdown.

Why do books market as enemies to lovers when the whole reason behind being enemies is shallow and pointless? And the insta-lust was...not great.

Pen was so self centered and for someone so caught up on Neil's catering to a white washed publishing industry, failed to see how they would be similarly affected (also 0 acknowledgement of privilege she may have for being a white-passing Native?). She made him feel like absolute garbage both before and after realizing his intentions with writing were the same as hers. She was honestly just kind of a brat.

The timeline was hard to follow and even some of the scenes had me going back to reread the passages to clarify where folks were or what they were doing.

I feel like the balance between romance and mystery was a little off. The spicy scenes were not well placed and until the final conflict, there was no tension. And ghost sex? Cmon. Just really fell flat with how quickly the resolution came and then it immediately deflated any ounce of tension.

And DON'T get me going on the lack of tension or pining between Pen and Neil. It was so boring how quickly they were into each other.

2 stars - DNF at 17%

This book had such a promising premise. A rom-com story mixed with gothic notes - haunted castles, ghosts, and an enemies to lovers storyline. It is a story that I really wanted to like, but ultimately could not get past the unlikeable main character.

Penelope had very little redeeming qualities. She let her jealously for others’ success (that she believed was her due) justify her own ill behavior and actions. The verbal and physical abuse that she enacts are described in a way that tries to make the reader sympathetic towards her. If it seemed that the author was going to take her on a journey of self discovery and redemption I may have been able to continue, but it seemed that instead the other characters were going to be gaslit into her narrative - they deserved so much better!
When story started to drag, I put it down with the intention of picking it up again and finishing. Ultimately I found that I had no desire to go back to the book and I decided to cut my losses with a DNF at 2 starts rather than finishing it with a potential 1 star review.

Unfortunately a DNF for me at 50%.
I needed the main characters to have a better reason to hate one another and also to be attracted to one another, and nothing can convince me they'd make it. Penelope can't take any responsibility and whines rather than tries, which could be ok if we got more into her head, but we never make it past surface level whining. By 50% I also can't get a read on why what Penelope said shook Neil so much he couldn't write for 4 months....

This enemy to lovers with a paranormal twist. I was here for it. We have two authors who DON’T like each other, Pen is a struggling author, and a Native women trying to make it in the book world, then there is Neil, who is a well known author, a Native man and he has everything going for him. But I love Pen she is a “no nonsense” type of woman and I am all for her energy. When her best friend suggests that she goes to some form of “retreat” at an old castle in Scotland for inspiration she was all for it, little did she know her nemesis was going to be there too, and I KNEW this was going to be fun. The romance was spicy and automatic, the castle being haunted was a good twist, but I felt like we didn’t ger enough, it was a little rushed and I felt like there was some unfinished business, but not between the characters, for those who read the book they will know what I mean. But overall this book got to the point, I loved the flow with the romance, the friends are really funny, the main characters were super cute, its an enjoyable read.

4.25 rounded down - thank you so much to St. Martin's Press (eARC) and Dreamscape Media (ALC) for the gifted copies of this book!

I seriously enjoyed this horror romance novel. It was thrilling and sweet and spicy and hopeful and scary... all in the span of the book. This book was also incredibly educational, with a diverse cast, including the two main characters who represent American Indian populations. This story does an incredible job of raising voices of previously marginalized populations, particularly when it comes to American Indians in traditional publishing houses.

This story follows Pen and Neil, semi-rival Native authors who stand to reclaim Native stereotypes, but with different methods. When they disagree, their feud explodes in front of the literary community, and Pen goes into hiding. Simultaneously, Neil hits writers block, challenged by points Pen made in their argument... time passes, only for the two to end up on the same haunted castle retreat hosted by their friend. And then, they get paired together for different writing activities. Oh, and it turns out the haunted castle? Yeah, it's *actually* haunted, and Pen is someone THE PERSON the spirits or whatever want to talk to. Pen and Neil forged a friendship that turns into something more (and something spicyyyy) while stuck in haunted rooms around the castle, spotting ghosts and feeling spirits moving around them.

Things I loved about this story:
- Neil Storm... he's everything. Apologetic, caring, thoughtful, giving, honest...
- The meta storyline of horror writers being trapped in a horror-esque environment
- The castle and its spirits coming to life / acting like a secondary character
- The spice. So good. Surprisingly so.
- That this story helped me to "walk a mile in someone else's shoes." I'm grateful for the awareness and advocacy piece of this story!

I'm VERY excited to read Colby's next book out in March. This book was so well-written and captivating.

THE AUDIO was also amazing. The dual narration gave me additional insight to Neil's character and Pen's perspective. I enjoyed seeing both sides of this story and from both of their perspectives. It felt even more inclusive and enjoyable to listen on audio!

Out October 15th!

If I Stopped Haunting You
By Colby Wilkens
3.5 ⭐️

I’m solidly in my cozy horror phase.

Penelope and Neil are author nemeses who have out a very public verbal battle that ends with P crossing a line that gets her “canceled”. A mutual friend brings them reluctantly together for a writing retreat at a haunted castle to get ever. When the ghosts seem to have favorite group members to haunt, teamwork is required to put pieces of a mystery together to leave safely. Maybe a story can come if it in the process. 🤔

P is a somewhat polarizing character. I think she’s a take her or leave her kind of girl. I like her bluntness and appreciate her POV. I don’t think she handles stress well and is willing to admit/apologize when she crosses lines. N is the demure to P’s innate bravado. He’s reserved, self-conscious, and has a classic imposter syndrome mindset. Their will they, won’t they was entertaining. They have some banter, but it’s done differently than I’m used to. The horror components of this story are semi-mild in the suspense department which is why I’d consider it cozy.

Some negatives I had with this story: Some parts are repetitive. The conclusion of the mystery was resolved quickly and was a bit meh when all said and done. I think this book does much better in audiobook format vs an eyeball read; the reader’s ability to put tone to P specifically can skew the reader harshly out of her favor.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this read. In my social book group, it wasn’t getting much positive buzz which made me nervous - for no reason. I had a good time with this book. I’d recommend the audiobook over eyeball reading this one hands down. The narrators are great to follow, and they bring a lot to the main characters that a reader could miss out on when eyeball reading.

Thank you to NetGalley, Colby Wilkens, DreamScape Media, and St. Martin’s Press for ARCs of this book.

I am always looking to read books showing different representations other than my own. I felt the rage when she was upset about how he represented his characters to be more appeasing to Caucasian readers/powers that be in publishing. I did think she took it too far and basically let a tantrum destroy her career. I mean this kind of stuff does happen in real life, so I can’t fault her too much for her Britney moment. I appreciated the spooky aspects of this book as well. Although repetitive at times, it didn’t take me out of the plot too much.

I DNF I got to page 20 and stopped. Was not able to grab my attention. Maybe it could be for others but this just wasn’t my thing.

This story was very difficult to get into. I found the prologue to be really engaging and interesting, with the potential for the clients to have a lot of depth, but as the story progressed, I found the two main characters to be pretty difficult to root for. I think the FMC was pretty immature for a 29 year old, and the ways she was interacting with her friends was not working for me. There was a time early in the story where the characters are supposed to hate each other, but the MMC touched the FMC's inner thigh and it was a recurrent thought for both of them for far too long. The romance was pretty strange and I was having a difficult time figuring out if the characters were starting to like each other, or if that were still acting as "enemies". I also felt as though they just didn't belong together. The setting being in a haunted house gave a different take on a romance novel. Some of the setup, felt as though it was taking too long to be get to the plot of the story and I was having a hard time visualizing them as authors.

I really wanted to like this one! My two great loves in fiction are romance and horror, so a romance about horror authors should’ve been a 5 star for me. However, the humor was cringy, the pacing was weird, and the ghost plot had no umph.

I don’t feel like I know anything about the characters other than the fact that they’re indigenous writers and don’t like each other. Their arguments in the beginning of the book were repetitive and boring. I had no reason to root for them as a couple, and the chemistry was absolutely non existent.

I feel like this is an example of a writer insulting romance readers by just throwing a couple of tropes on a page and collecting a check. Very disappointed!

The premise for this sounded so good but man oh man did this fall short. The FMC was physically and emotionally abusive- with very little redeeming qualities. Maybe if there had been some growth? Some character development? Remorse? But there was nothing. This was such a toxic physical relationship.

listen... i really wanted to like this 😭 the prologue actually had me hooked in the beginning, as well as the set up of the scotland backdrop and the conflict between penelope and neil being about representation of native american authors/stories in the literature world. from the way the two characters interacted in the beginning, i thought there was going to be a reveal that they were exes or something in that similar vein. but them just being vaguely acquainted from running in the same group to becoming rivals in the prologue felt a little... dramatic?

but you know what, i could get past that!

unfortunately, the book lost me somewhere in the middle, where this "horror romance" was basically just. romance lmao set in a spooky castle. the romance itself felt pretty rushed, and rather than make it a bit of a slow burn, the author used the last third of the book to remember it's a ghost story and bring in the haunted house plot. without spoiling much, i just found the horror of it all pretty lackluster, and i didn't entirely understand the resolution.

disappointed to give it two stars because i was really looking forward to it, but maybe it's a sign i should stay away from debut romance arcs for a while 🤪 thank you to netgalley & the publisher for the copy though!