This book wasn't for me, but I can see other people enjoying it. It was a great concept, but It just wasn't fleshed out properly in my opinion. I was soo excited for it but it fell flat.

This sounded like a really fun and promising premise for a story. Enemies to lovers, ghosts, castles… what’s not to love?! Well… I just had a really hard time connecting with the characters, the story fell flat for me, and I didn’t pick up any actual romantic chemistry. Unfortunately this was a miss in my book.

This was a tough review to write, because I wanted SO BADLY to love this book. The premise and setting were very interesting to me, as well as the conversations on native heritage. However, I think I was really hoping for something more tonally horror or gothic, when this stays tonally true to being a romance for most of the duration. And as per usual in contemporary settings, I found that “enemies to lovers” just did not have the proper page time to show any real sort of enmity changing to positive feelings, it all happened rather suddenly and it’s questionable whether they were actually ever true enemies or merely rivals. The female main character was ultimately just a bit hard to like, which was compounded by the fact that we spent nearly all of our page time with her, with any side characters being severely underutilized. I will likely give this author another try, but if the next book doesn’t do it for me then that will be it.

A great debut and a layered story that keeps you locked in. I think there’s something for everyone in this book, whether you are here for the romance, the paranormal mystery, creepy setting, or Native rep. If I Stopped Haunting You feels like a completely new and fresh story, and I’m looking forward to seeing what else the author writes.

If I Stopped Haunting You is the epitome of enemies to lovers from the very beginning. Penelope Skinner and Neil Storm are rival Indigenous writers in the horror category with conflicting views on how they represent their shared community to the public. When they go on a writer's retreat in a haunted castle in Scotland, they're forced to confront their long-standing feud and the fears lurking behind their facade - along with a ghost or two.

If I Stopped Haunting You started well enough - intriguing backstory to the MCs, valid foundation for being enemies, etc. However, as I continued reading, there was something off about the pacing, or maybe the storytelling. There were wordy descriptions of things that didn't come into play as much as I expected, but some dialogue or key moments would be rushed through and overall left me feeling a sense of whiplash.

Penelope and Neil were okay characters. I enjoyed some of the banter and their argument about the validity of Native experiences and the concept of selling out to make it big in publishing was fleshed out well. But I couldn't get behind their romance scenes as much as I wanted to. They weren't convincing in the setting that they were given (i.e. they're in a haunted castle literally running from ghosts and all Neil can think about is Penelope? I don't buy it.) Sure, there was some cringe, but I consider that an endearing aspect of the genre. But even regular romance readers need a bit more substance with their spice.

Overall, I feel like the payoff - both with the romance and the mystery - were left unfulfilled and unconvincing. Between the jumps in thought processes and the lack of compelling characters, I couldn't really find anything or anyone to root for.

I wish I had a single cohesive thought about my feelings on this book, but, alas, you get my word vomit instead. I was intrigued at first by the concept of a romantic horror but felt like the book fell flat on both fronts. I honestly kept expecting a twist that the ghosts were somehow affecting the FMC's and MMC's feelings for each other and that, once the (very weak) mystery was solved then they would release their hold on our MCs. I had no investment in their getting together.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Where do I even begin? The assault and gaslighting that aren’t mentioned in the list of trigger warnings? Sure, let’s begin there. Main character Pen is bitter and unhinged and tries to publicly shame some guy she doesn’t even know at an author’s panel. Then she throws a book at his head hard enough to scar him. There’s really no explanation for this behavior other than she’s mad that he’s so popular and hasn’t ever helped her out. They end up on a retreat in Scotland where she proceeds to gaslight him about how he should be apologizing to her because she can’t get anything published and that it wasn’t a big deal that she assaulted him and berated him for no reason. She continues to be furious with him and even pushes him roughly while yelling at him that he’s the reason her books suck. I don’t know who this book is for, like who could possibly like this toxic character, but it is not me. I absolutely recommend AGAINST reading this book.

It was a light horror romance. It's a hate to love between two feuding authors, although it's apparent early on that they don't hate each other as much as they think. The haunted castle element is not scary at all.

There were elements I enjoyed and others that I didn't. I liked the fact that one of the main characters describes herself as not native enough because I can relate to that feeling. There were 4 authors living in this haunted castle, but I felt like the two authors who came with should have not even been part of the story; they didn't add much to the story especially Daniella. At times, I felt the other authors detracted from the plot, and I would get confused because Neil Storm and Penelope Skinner were sometimes referred to by just their first or last name so adding two more characters to the mix who showed up at the worst times made it worse.

I would have liked it more if they were sent by their pr team or publishers to show the readers that they were on good terms after the bookcon incident instead of involving L. and D. in a retreat that didn't do much to move the plot along. Also, the haunting was a little too simple and made no sense at the end.

Overall, I enjoyed the quick story, but it wasn't memorable enough for me to read again.

***Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.***

It was the beautiful cover that got me to request this book. That, and I love stories about haunted places. I was, however, disappointed in the end. The best parts of this book were the indigenous rep, some funny lines here and there, and a detailed spicy scene between the two main characters. There was a whole subplot about the ghost that haunts the castle that I honestly just didn't care about. The heir to the castle had the same last name as Penelope, but we never find out if she's related to them and that's why she was drawn to the west wing like it held some kind of deep, dark family secret. This took me a long time to read because I just couldn't get into it.

Penelope Skinner and Neil Storm are both Native American authors who were invited to be on the Indigenous Fiction panel at Book Con. Penelope is obviously jealous of Neil's success as the "Prince of Horror", accusing him of being a sellout and chucking a book at him.

Four months later, they both end up at a writers retreat together along with their two friends, which happens to be at a haunted castle in Edinburgh, Scotland. When giving them the tour, Fanny the groundskeeper specifically instructs them not to go into the west wing. But, I don't have to to tell you that they don't listen, right?

It was annoying that Laszlo was the only one trying to take the retreat seriously by having everyone do exercises to help with creativity and inspiration for their writing. Daniela was just kind of...there. She didn't really bring anything to the story. Meanwhile, Penelope and Neil spend the entire trip trying not to screw each other, to no avail, of course.

DNF 15%

As with any book I pick up, I wanted to like this one. It sounded like a perfect rom com for October, but I’m just not interested. I like to try get to 30-50% before I DNF, but I already dislike the FMC so much.

I understand where the FMC is coming from on some points and see that she’s struggling, but her inability to recognize her own flaws is infuriating and we’re only a few chapters in. I also find calling the issue at the beginning the “Incident” really cheesy. And I apologize to anyone named Laszlo, but I swear his name was mentioned every other sentence in the first few chapters and I couldn’t take it.

It’s for all of these reasons that I won’t be finishing. It might just be me, and that’s completely fine!, but it’s not fair for me to continue to fight through reading this when I’m clearly already annoyed to no end.

Colby Wilkens had a lot of ideas, and really should have left a few of them on the cutting room floor. The attempted pairing of serious discussion of racism against Native authors in publishing, with a kitschy ghost plot (that was both really gory and wanted to be… sweet?), an enemies-to-lovers romance between rival authors that made for a story that wanted to do way more than was possible (at least in Wilkens’ hands).

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

If I Stopped Haunting You does not live up to its hype on multiple counts. The enemies to lovers trope did not develop at a believable pace. Penelope and Neil both end up at the same author’s retreat, taking place at a haunted castle no less. There they continue their antagonistic relationship which unrealistically turns to romance/sex. Finally, the only truly interesting part of the novel is how the two of them attempt to figure out why the resident ghost is haunting the castle. There’s too much repetition about why Penelope can’t stand Neil and why Neil can’t write. The characters are not likeable; there’s not much in the way of horror; and the “romance” seems to be an excuse for sexual liaisons. The most authentic character is the ghost and that’s a sad commentary on this novel. I almost did not finish this novel but I was curious to learn the ghost’s story so I trudged on through. I would not recommend this novel.

Penelope and Neil are Indigenous authors with a tumultuous past; at a recent BookCon panel, Pen wound up pelting Neil with a book after berating him for betraying their people with his writing. Since then, she's gone into hiding and neither have had any success getting work done. So when a mutual friend sets up a writers' retreat in a haunted Scotland castle, they both accept...not knowing the other is there.

This book is part romance, part horror/thriller. At the castle, Pen and Neil both pretty much immediately start having strange experiences, while the other two writers don't. (Also, I always assumed writers retreats were more formal, with more people? I don't know.) There's ghosts and then there's Neil and Pen thinking about how attracted to each other they are, with Pen spending a lot of time being like, "But I hate him!"

The premise of the book isn't bad, but the execution isn't really there. Pen has complicated reasons for disliking Neil, but I spent a lot of time thinking that the backstory didn't fit her actions. Neil I liked more, but still found their relationship...off. And I got a bit of whiplash going between their story and the ghost story. The ghost story was also not great. The "mystery" of the ghosts was fairly obvious, and I was annoyed with the characters for just, like, putting aside the journal and letters they found. And the conclusion of the ghost story was both underwhelming and completely bizarre.

That said, I really appreciated the discussion of the issues facing BIPOC authors in publishing. That was great.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC.

2.5 stars

I wanted to love this one. Buuuut I just didn't.

It was meh. It was very repetitive and pretty predictable. The pacing was slow and didn't really grab you at any point of the story. The ghost aspect of it was a bit... lame lol. It was very anti-climatic. The romance was also lackluster and just seemed very unrealistic. Which is unfortunate because I love a good enemies to lovers. There was barely any build up to the relationship and they lacked any chemistry between them. Felt like they skipped a couple steps haha.

I absolutely hated Pen for the first 60%. She acted like a child throughout the whole book and was just annoying and downright abusive. She acted like such an asshole for what? Just a jealous child throwing a fit (I think she literally says she is mad at him because he has the success she wants...🙄). She also resorts to physical violence half the time or belittling him the rest which rubs me the wrong way. Literally tries her absolute hardest to make him feel like a piece of shit just because she's jealous. Just... no.

If it wasn't for Neil, I would have hated this book. I wanted to take him away from that castle and Pen. She doesn't deserve him.

This may be someone's cup of tea, but it wasn't mine unfortunately.

I really wanted to love this book, but after finishing it and thinking about it for a few days, there were more than a few elements in the book that either confused me or I just didn't enjoy.

To start, it felt like the two MCs didn't have a background or a 'life' before the start of the book. I didn't get a sense of what life was like for either of them as children, young adults, early adulthood, etc, - all the formative years that result in them being who they are. It just felt like they were born at the age they were at the beginning of the book, fully formed adults, and that's it. There were references to parents and pets, but no details to really help me understand how these characters are fully fleshed out.

I did not understand why the MCs were attracted to each other. It felt like it was out of convenience moreso than actual attraction.

The haunting storyline felt a forced and that it only existed as a means to keep forcing the MCs to spend time together. Yet, I was more interested in the haunting plot than the MCs romance. I just didn't care about the romance.

At the end of the day, the book just isn't for me. and that's okay. I'm sure it will find many readers that do enjoy it, which is great for them!

Thanks to the publisher for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

The premise of If I Stopped Haunting You was a unique blend of paranormal and romance. I can't say I've read anything like it! There was everything I love in a romance - rivals to lovers, forced proximity, a man obsessed - plus ghosts and a mystery. After the "incident," Pen and Neil are both struggling with writing, while also having a lot of animosity towards each other. They're tricked into traveling to a haunted castle together for a writers' retreat and they are not happy about it. The animosity is quickly replaced with attraction, which then turns into understanding and a relationship. There's no third act breakup, so the conflict is really centered around the ghost haunting the castle and how Pen and Neil resolve that.

Overall, I enjoyed this story. I did feel a bit of insta-love from both Pen and Neil, which was a bit surprising, since the prologue opened up with so much conflict. That being said, there is a fine line between love and hate, so I understood it and enjoyed getting to see both of them struggle with their attraction. I also loved the dedication at the beginning of the book from Daniela. She is a side character who ends up writing a romance novel inspired by Pen and Neil. Neil commits to blurbing it and the epilogue ended with them at her first reading. I loved this addition and hope we'll hear more from Daniela in the future.

I already have an early copy of Colby's next book, If I Dig You, and I am excited to read about Louise and Isadora!

This book did a lot of things right
*Rivals to lovers
*ghost stories come to life
*Steamy scenes
*Mystery subplot
*PNR story with actual paranormal elements
*Native American rep
*queer rep

There were a lot of really swoony moments and the enemies to lovers always hits BUT unfortunately there were some red flags as well.
The relationships went from hate to love a little *too* fast. And Pen was a walking red flag all on her own. Manipulative, victimizing and borderline abusive I almost wants to scream at Neil that he deserved better. I can't help but this if the gender roles were swapped we would be calling Neil every name in the book and questioning why Pen would degrade herself to be with him. The ending makes it up to use with some character growth and the subplots in the story shining bright but the romance was unfortunately not my favorite part and this is a romance book so for those reasons it affected my overall rating.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review

3.5 Stars, rounding up to 4.

I really enjoyed this book overall! The story was fun and the ghostly haunting was chilling. The two MCs, Penelope and Neil, are fun and nail that Enemies to Lovers fun. However, it felt like they went from hating each other to being hot for each other a little too fast for my liking. I'm more than happy to forgive it, though as they had more important things going on. The side characters were very fun and them not noticing anything to do with the haunting was a fun mixup.

The ghost part of the story is what actually took this down some. I will talk more about that below, so just stop here if you want to avoid spoilers.

Overall, I do recommend this book and think it's a good, fun read for Halloween season or if you want some spice in your ghost stories!






*** SPOILERS ***

When Penelope and Neil finally encounter the lady in white she goes on this monologue about everything that happened. I think I would have preferred her not to speak, but just be given peace when they discovered the truth on their own. The haunting was chilling and scary, but that took it down a good portion from scary to meh.

2.5 stars

Penelope and Neil are two authors hoping for inspiration to strike as they head to a haunted (?) castle in Scotland for a writers’ retreat. But as things close in around them, and their chemistry becomes undeniable, could it be that the best thing they can do is put the past behind them and join forces?

I loved the gothic setting of this story, especially at this time of year! The tension is there, not only with the spooks, but with the spice! I found it fascinating to see writers’ block from the main characters’ points of view. I found Neil to be quite a lovable hero!

Our heroine, Pen, was a little rough around the edges for me. They played up the enemies portion of the book more than I would have liked. I prefer my spice with a bit more emotion, as well. More spookiness would have rounded out the story for me.

Trigger warnings: claustrophobia in close quarters, racial slurs/racism against indigenous peoples, mentions of death

I'd like to thank St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the eARC of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

"They could hate each other all they wanted, but he couldn't deny the sliver of something."

Looking for a romance in spooky season? Try this one. With a combination of a steamy romance and a good ghost story, this book is the epitome of going on a date at a haunted house. Except it's a haunted castle in Scotland, because why do anything half-assed? The enemies-to-lovers bickering was rooted in differing perspectives on what it means to be a BIPOC voice in writing, and I appreciated how much of Wilkens' lived experience informed both Neil and Pen's POVs (note: I hope that publishers treat Wilkens with more kindness than Neil's did, the world needs more unapologetically Indigenous stories). The gothic atmosphere and the slow unraveling of the ghost story will satisfy those who like a healthy dose of spook without alienating the readers who get too creeped out.

Were there some things that bothered me? Of course. The random excerpts from the authors' novels felt out of place and unnecessary, and the amount of times Pen threw things at Neil was a bit bothersome. There was definitely more lust than love, and I would not be shocked if this couple breaks up in the future. But if you want a happily-for-now with a couple of good creeps, take this book for a spin.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, NetGalley, and the author for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.