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.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for letting me read this book!

I really didn’t care for the male lead of this book and the story was very slow to start. Overall isn’t my favorite romance story that I’ve read.

I really wanted to enjoy this book, but I just couldn’t. What really tripped me up is my pet peeve with books that tell me over and over what characters are thinking rather than showing me through the action in scenes and descriptions.
For me, this is the difference between telling a story and showing the story.
I appreciate the opportunity to read the book (I was looking forward to paranormal that didn’t include vampires!). But I won’t be leaving reviews for this.

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s press for the ARC. Unfortunately, this was not the book for me. I had a hard time getting into the story and once in the story I just could not like our main character. I’m not sure if it was just not the book for me at the time of reading it but I had a difficult time finishing it.

If you can't decide between a fall romance or a spooky haunted house book, pick this book, because it has both. I don't think I've ever read a book that combined romance in a haunted house, with maybe the exception of the movie, Casper, but I really enjoyed this one. I think this is one that is a perfect read for a crisp, cozy fall day, and readers will fall in love with the main characters. It was definitely fun to go along in their adventures, and I was anxious to see how their love story was going to play out in the midst of an unusual situation. Thank you to the publisher for giving me the chance to read an early digital copy of this book!

If I Stopped Haunting You takes place at a writers retreat in a haunted castle in Scotland. I really enjoyed the thoughtful reflection on identity, and it was a bit more spooky than other paranormal themed romance stories, which I liked. For me, some of the scenes seemed somewhat (unintentionally) awkward and repetitive, and I didn’t feel part of the storyline was fully resolved, but I thought it was good overall and look forward to reading more by Colby Wilkens.

Nope nope nope.
The premise of the book showed promise. The native rep was beyond welcomed. But holy cow I cannot stand behind an FMC who is so abusive, so demeaning, and so arrogant as to say that everything going wrong in her life is everyone else's fault and nothing is her own. I appreciate the realistic view of publishing and trying to get something that isn't mainstream out there. I get the competitive nature of the industry. But honestly, for me, everything that was right with this book was overshadowed by everything that was wrong.
2 stars for good overall writing.

DNF. Domestic violence is a hard pass for me.

Thank you to netgalley and St. Martin's Griffin for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I just couldn't get into this. I didn't like the main character, and put it down pretty quickly. There are too many romances for me to read one that doesn't reel me in immediately.

I’m settling on 3 stars because the writing IS good.

But the FMC made me…uneasy.
She came across as almost narcissistic.
The things she did to the MMC!!!
Like, what???
She blamed everyone but herself and instead of being mature she tried to destroy an innocent man.

I felt like this was a heavily anti-male love story and it just wasn’t for me.

Arc provided for an honest review

Thank you so much to Netgalley for access to the eArc in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately I had to call it quits around 45-50% percent?

There were so many issues with this book: the haunting atmosphere was where? i was promised ghosts and spooky atmosphere and chills, and i could get more of those watching casper the friendly ghost. casper had a better romance too.

also did not love the gimmick of the Scottish dialogue. it was overused and not implemented in a way that benefited the story. You want a good example of regional dialect being used to enhance the setting / characters of a story? read Snake Ropes by Jess Richards.

Onto the characters. Oh boy where they horrible. The FMC was violent, rude and extremely unlikable. i couldn't even find a single trait that i liked and that is not what a main character should strive for. The MMC was there. That's about it. I honestly hate this trend of making the fmc the rudest person in the room because quite frankly, no one like rude people.

Do not recommend.

I’d say this one was a bit closer to 3.5 stars for me! I will forever eat up the enemies-to-lovers trope, and oh did Pen haaaate Neil at the beginning! When they both end up on the same writer’s retreat, they’re more or less forced to face those feelings and figure out how to survive. The more time they spend together though, the more those feelings develop into something more! This one definitely has the creepy haunting vibes down. There were a few moments where I got a bit confused with the backstory ghost, but I felt like it all came together in the end. Overall, I enjoyed this one from the spooky ghost vibes to the flirty enemies-to-lovers tropes!

There's a huge difference to me between enemies to lovers and just straight up toxic BS. The main character's weren't likeable and I couldn't even bring myself to finish it to see if they got better.

If I Stopped Haunting You follows Pen, Neil, and their friends as they go on a writing retreat to a haunted castle. Nail and Pen have a tumultuous past that is explored early on within the book.

I think for me this book had a lot of issues.

The side characters Laszlo and Daniella felt as though they were mere accessories to the story and they only existed to bring the two main characters together. They were genuinely flat characters and any dialogue involving them was so out of the realm of reality that it made them annoying to be around.

The overall "mystery" of the book was underwhelming when it came to the ending. It was fairly clear from the beginning the general reason why the person doing the haunting was there, and when the details came out there was nothing so shocking that suspense was added.

My main gripe with the book is that the romance didn't feel authentic. The banter was bland. The reason for their discourse in the beginning was so mild that if either character attempted to communicate their whole reason for being "enemies" would not exist. Once the two characters decided they liked each other, it went from 0 to smutty in 60 seconds flat. I just simply was not rooting for them.

In general, I felt like the book was trying to do too much. It was trying to take on the racial publishing issues like Yellowface, but did so in a poor manner. It tried to create suspense, thrill, mystery, and fear but just ended up creating a very basic mystery plot with no meaningful twists. It tried to create a romance that was unsuccessful. I think if one of these aspects was taken out and the care and time put from into the other two pillars of the story, it may have been successful. May have. But we will never know.

Thank you NetGalley and Publishers for giving me a free ARC to review.

If I Stopped Haunting You follows two Native rival writers away on a writers retreat in a haunted castle in Scotland. As a native girl myself, seeing a large cast of both Native and queer characters made me very excited. I felt very scene when our FMC, Penelope, discussed her struggles of not feeling "Native enough" due to her fair skin and not being enrolled in a tribe. This is a very real feeling that myself and many others have experienced and I was grateful that issues like this were discussed including the issue of white washing our stories or adjusting them to be more digestible for a white audience. Overall, I found that the discussed of social and cultural issues were well done.
I really wish that there was some more accountability taken by the characters. Our MMC, Neil, admits that he may not have stood up for himself or his community enough and wants to do better with his future books, but Pen never outwardly apologizes for physically assaulting him at a public panel. She apologizes for hating him and not seeing where he was coming from but she never looks at the scar that she was responsible for and says "I'm sorry, I want to do better" in any type of capacity which made me kind of sad. I was hoping for some growth from her in that aspect to really redeem her character.
The plot was interesting with the haunted castle and such but I kind of wish that we had more details by the end. I feel like the characters were making a lot of assumptions and I wish there were some more solid clues but then the ghosts just tell them everything and the question of if Pen is related to them still remains a mystery which felt a little flat at the end.
Overall I had fun reading the book. I just wish the characters had a little more depth to them outside of being angry or horny. I'm really rooting for Colby though and will reread this once it is published to see the final result and plan on reading the next book! First books are incredibly difficult but I see potential in her writing.

A writing retreat in a haunted Scottish Castle?? Two enemies forced to share the castle for the week?? Ghosts?? A mystery is involved?? Spooky romcom?? Say less 😮‍💨

This book was so fun to read. I loved the BIPOC and queer representation in this book. I think Colby did a great job at writing characters that are relatable - they make mistakes and they’re trying to figure out who they are and who they want to be.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press / St.
Martin's Griffin for providing me with a digital review copy of this cute, spooky romcom in exchange for my honest opinions

DNF! The main character was insufferable. I would not recommend this to anyone I know. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I am going to have to DNF this at 34%.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I cannot keep forcing myself to read this.

The FMC is horrible, she’s violent and rude to get her point across which I dislike. She literally threw a book at someone’s head and made them bleed because she got too angry. Didn’t love that.

The MMC was just… there. He wasn’t much.


The ghost situation was annoying more than interesting, and I hate the Scottish accent being way overdone with the dialogue. That’s all I have to say on that.

I was looking for a spooky, sci-fi fantasy with a twisted romance to help give me some Halloween vibes, and this enemies-to-lovers book set in a Scottish haunted castle seemed like an absolutely perfect match.

I greatly appreciated the author’s note at the very beginning of the book to warn readers about topics and scenes that would happen in the story. I wish all books had this type of note before you invest several hours reading a story you had no idea would include triggers you want to stay away from.

The story starts with some good promise with a flashback bringing the reader up to speed on the feud between fellow Native writers Penelope (Pen) Skinner and Neil Storm. Thanks to this book’s tantalizing cover, the reader knows these two are going to end up together at some point – it’s just a question of when.

Once the characters are left alone at the haunted castle with some spooky warnings, things started falling apart for me. I really wanted to like Pen and really wanted her and Neil to reconcile, but they (along with the other two writers on the retreat) were difficult to relate to and mostly just annoyed me. I’m not sure if the retreat just needed a few more diverse characters or if the ones present were all just underdeveloped and poorly represented.

The plot seemed somewhat shallow, obvious at times, sometimes repetitive, and really strange. If “strange” meant creepy and actually helped the story’s spooky vibes, I’d say it was a good thing. However, by “strange” I mean the story felt oddly disjointed and bizarre. The author spent the most time describing the spicy scenes, so everything else felt forced and lackluster to just move the characters along to the next spicy encounter.

When the climax of the whole haunted castle mystery was finally revealed, I felt confused and disappointed. This could have been such a better story had the writer developed more of the mystery, more of Pen and Neil’s non-physical relationship, and less about the spicy encounters (many of which felt awkward and poorly timed).

Sadly, this book fell flat for me. Had the focus been more on the story and development of the main characters’ relationship to give the book a more complete feel, it could have been better. However, if you’re mostly into this book for the spicy scenes, there are plenty to choose from once you get about half-way through the book.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and St. Martin's Griffin for the opportunity to read an advanced reader's copy of this book for an honest review.