Wow wow wow! I loved this book so much! The representation was exceptional and one of my favorite parts of the book. The characters are imperfect and messy and flawed but I loved them all the same. Their journey was so authentic and I adored the friendship and the romance! This was sexy and spooky and tension filled!
The writing was beautiful and romantic and so easy to follow! I felt completely immersed and it was so atmospheric! The characters felt so actualized and fleshed out I loved every single one of them!
I highly recommend, a great read at any time of the year!

I was really excited for the premise, I love contemporary romances with a supernatural twist. Unfortunately, this just wasn't for me. Pen assaults the MMC at the very start of the book, and from then on is consistently combative with him in a way that made her incredibly unlikable.

My issues with the FMC aside, I found the pacing to be odd and the ghost part of the story really felt like it screwed up the pacing of the romance.

Neil was the one thing I liked about this romance, as he was very likable in a way that sometimes would make me forget how much I disliked Pen.

Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review. I am always happy to read from a new-to-me indigenous author, and I did enjoy Wilkins story and the characters she created as well as reading of the issues they face as authors, likely reflecting real life. Unfortunately, the story fell a bit flat for me. The spooky, paranormal aspect was almost wincingly clinche and the romance aspects were also a bit off the mark for me. Still, and enjoyable read for a bit of some spooky fun time in the summer.

This one hits a solid mid-rating for me. I was entertained and enjoyed the overall story. I would have liked more back story on the mansion and ghosts - a dual timeline here would have been very interesting. The steamy scenes felt off for a reason I’m not exactly able to articulate. Character development was a bit lacking. To me, this reads as more of a spooky cozy romance, just lightly spooky and not overly romancey either.

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for the Advanced Reader Copy of this book. The premise offered a combination of romance, mystery and horror but didn’t seem to deliver effectively on any of them. I did appreciate the discussions of Indigenous authors trying to make it in mainstream publishing. However, I found the main female lead to be unlikeable and unpleasant. She’s self-pitying and blames others for her issues, including the supposed romantic male lead. When they’re trapped in a haunted Scottish castle, the stage is, supposedly, set for both their romance and solving a ghostly mystery. None of this effectively worked for me, making this book very difficult to finish.

The cover and the premise? I was excited. However, it just doesn't give what I thought it would give. I love enemies to lovers, yes, but why they're enemies needs to make sense to me. I can't just be about an FMC being awful and irate over something that could've been talked about. It's just not how I expect adults to behave. Making your FMC this unlikeable and hateable, and expecting me to be invested in her having a romantic relationship with the MMC she mistreats will never work. That's not the kind of enemies to lvoers I'm personally into. Also, I don't think this delivers on the horror and there's barely any of it. Yes, there are ghosts, but it doesn't strike a good balance between horror and romance, not even in a funny rom-com way.

One thing I do think is worth appreciating is the native rep; I don't think there's enough of it out there and I do like seeing books where it's present. Same with Latino rep, that will always be something to celebrate. I just wish the story was better.

Not my favorite. It’s a personal thing, but I don’t like when the enemies are already enemies when the story starts.

Two native horror authors stay at a haunted house. They both have issues to get over. Including each other.

The premise was fun, but I just wasn’t engaged.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

What’s worse than staying in a castle haunted by ghosts? Having to stay there with your enemy while simultaneously fighting your growing attraction to them.

Pen and Neil are both horror writers who come to blows at a conference. Months later, they each struggle with writers block and travel to a writing retreat put on by mutual friends. It doesn’t take long before strange happenings begin to occur.

Pen is a character that realizes the impetus for her actions and takes accountability. You can clearly see her growth throughout the book.
This plot took a while to get moving for me. The ghost story portion doesn’t begin till about 20% in and that was the best part of the plot for me. At first, I wasn’t sure if it would be a Scooby-Doo level caper but I was pleased that it had a true paranormal storyline.

The enemies-to-lovers portion of the book was where the book fell short for me. The enemy portion breaks down within hours of them getting to the castle which made it feel like their feud was fairly insubstantial when in reality there is a lot of nuance to it.

“They were not alone. In this castle, no one ever was.”

Given the premise, this had potential to be more enjoyable but I just couldn’t connect to the characters and wasn’t invested in the story. It was too slow paced for my liking, the chemistry between Penelope and Neil was lacking in an almost monotonous way (I’m sorry but Lazlo and Daniella somehow held my interest) and almost forced given the enemies to lovers aspect and how things happened too quickly. after everything, the build up leading to the grand mystery reveal did not surprise me at all, it just fell flat and almost anticlimactic. I’d like to think the diversity rep was done right so that is appreciated. I wish I could’ve enjoyed this but sadly did not and hope others are able to

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for an honest review

I wanted to like this book and tried 3 times to get into it. I pushed through and it was just okay. It just couldn’t keep my attention and I had a hard time following the story line. I did care about how it ended but I read this slower simply because I wasn’t as into it. I did enjoy the ghost story.

Honestly, this was good but not great. Maybe I went into it wanting more out of the romance, and was a bit disappointed. I will say that if you are a fan of rom-coms you might love this. I appreciated the blend of "spookiness" and haunted setting/ghost lore with the rom-com elements.

This book sounded amazing as it was a horror rivals to lovers romance but unfortunately it fell short with me.
I found the characters underdevelopped which in turn made me not connect with them and their story.

I’d like to think I’m a Halloween themed book girly but I’m not. I tried getting into this book but I’m just not a witchy gal. Sorry. I’m sure others will love it!

BIPOC Literary rivals, an Incident, and a retreat to geybaway from it all. Not to mentiotin a semi-meddling friend.

If I stopped haunting you was such a fun read Pen commits career suicide and doesn't have the motivation to write. Neil hasn't been able to write since "the incident" and feels like he's sold out. Together they wind up on a retreat that will have more than their fair share of other worldly events.

Rating: 2 stars!

The premise of this book seemed like something I would absolutely love. A haunted house, writers, forced proximity.. But this book fell flat on so many levels. It took me 5 months of refusing the DNF the book that finally led me to the two stars.

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

I really enjoyed this book. I consumed it within one day. However, this book needs to be read from the perspective of the romance genre. There could have been more horror, in my opinion. None of the scenes were very scary. Yes, the castle is haunted, but the ghosts were not very innovative. You always seemed to know what was going to happen next.

The only part that I thought was iffy in the story, was when the male main character wakes up from an accident, and immediately starts talking about issues in the publishing industry. While the points are correct, I don't think he would be launching into that speech at that particular moment.

Overall, a very enjoyable read. Perfect for romance readers looking for something a tiny bit spooky for fall, but still cozy.

The premise sounded amazing, but this did not work for me. I did not get the blend of horror and romance and the relationship felt toxic due to the MC being a gaslighter.

I enjoyed this! I really enjoyed this author's writing style, and I thought she did a good job differentiating between her own writing and the writing samples she included by the characters. The romance was mostly convincing, and the hero and heroine were really sweet together. I really enjoyed one of the side characters, Laszlo, but the other, Daniela, felt a little half baked. The ghost story was also pretty fun, though I don't know that mystery writing is this author's strong suit.
There were a few things I didn't love. I think the pacing was a little strange, the romance was kind of thrown at us at halfway through after both characters insisting they could barely stand to be in the same room as one another but then suddenly revealing they've always had feelings for each other and it was easier to hate each other because of that. It felt like the author could only juggle one plot line at a time, so once the romance was established, then we got the rest of the ghost story, and I felt like it could have been weaved into the story a little better. It also was never explained why the ghosts only ever show themselves to the hero and heroine, so I can only assume it's because they are the main characters and that's all the author really cared about (because Penelope, our hero, was most certainly a self insert after stalking Wilken's socials, which is fine!)
Anyhow, it was overall a cute story and definitely a fun fall read, and a pretty good debut. I'll be interested to see what people are thinking about it when it's released!

I loved the entire premise of this book, and I can't resist a good enemies to lovers trope. The added layer of commentary on Native author representation and the whole premise of the conflict between Penelope and Neil made this book even better. I'm not usually a horror girl, but the combo of spooky and rom-com was really great. That being said, I did wish there was a little more character development. There were times where I felt really frustrated with Penelope and struggled to like her as the FMC. I also felt a little let down by the ultimate 'explanation' for the spooky goings-on, and thought it didn't quite fit for me. Still would recommend this book though! The writing was beautiful and descriptive and it was a quick read and kept me wanting to know what would happen next.

I wanted to love this and yet, twas not to be.

- Pen (our female mc) was just so cruel and mean for no reason. I've seen other reviews mention this too so it's not just me. But she was kinda dead to me after she threw that book. Especially when I learned she scarred Storm. Ridiculous. AND SHE DIDN'T EVEN APOLOGIZE *side eye*

- The tension between these "enemies" was so unrealistic. There needed to be more than just the prologue to build their anger towards each other. This is really was just "insecure Pen artificially creating a rivalry against Storm" to "awkward infatuation"

- The writing and characterization really just got on my nerves. The dialogue didn't work for me, the scene jumps were chaotic, and the storyline was a biiitttt too silly