I wanted to like this book so much. The author clearly has talent and good ideas. I think a good editor could have helped whip this story into something more presentable, but as it stands, it’s disappointing. I don’t believe the “enemies” part of this enemies-to-lovers romance AT ALL, because once they reach forced proximity with each other, they immediately switch to insta-lust. That’s all it took? Then y’all were never enemies to begin with, if you ask me. Still, it’s 60% before we get spice, and by the time we get there, I’m rolling my eyes too hard to enjoy it. She’s spent her savings to come to this “writing retreat”, they’ve only been in the castle for a day, there’s still five or six days left, but they haven’t done hardly ANY writing and they’re humping each other in the library already. I feel like this is a DNF… Maybe I’ll finish it? But I already see the flaws and don’t see how with what’s left of the book they could be satisfactorily resolved without a rushed conclusion. Again, the right editor could help clean this mess up, but it’s not presentable just yet.

thank you SMP for the chance to review If I Stopped Haunting You. This is a nice entry into the gentler spooky season reads, a nice blend of paranormal with romance that will appeal to fans perhaps of Erin Sterling's books and similar reads. It wasn't quite for me but I am also not the target audience for these themes/tropes. I love a romance read but I don't lean into supernatural themes and I found myself at odds with wanting more from the romance and plot and fighting to appreciate the supernatural themes.

It was okay, plot was nice. I thought of it as a comfy read. But I honestly wouldn’t pick it up again.

DNF. I'm super disappointed because this sounded so interesting, it's enemies to lovers, just in time for spooky season, and it has great representation, but there is just way too much swearing for my liking. Character Neil uses the f-word as an adjective in nearly every sentence, and this word appears on almost every other page. It's way too much. There are better ways to get strong opinions across that don't use curse words.
The setting of a writing retreat in Scotland is very unique, though. I just couldn't bring myself to like any of the characters except Laszlo, and even his character is a bit flat.
I'm sure this book will have its audience, but unfortunately that audience is not me.

The ghost story portion of this story was so well done. The tension and suspense in those scenes had me on edge and shivering with anticipation. I felt the relationship could have been fleshed out a bit more between the two leads.

Thank you St. Martin's Grffin and NetGalley for the ARC!

I really wanted to like this book, but I really disliked it. I am not sure if it was the audacity of both of the characters, but I just could not buy their love story. It seemed like too much hate to get past, too much animosity to be believable that they would fall for each other. Sadly, this one was not for me.

Thank you for the ARC!

What a fun and spooky read. I was immediately taken in and couldn’t put it down! I love a good romance with paranormal side.

2.5
This book has all the right descriptors and still missed for me. Given the haunting setting, I went in with the highest of hopes and excited. Not to mention the MCs being Native and the representation being there. Sadly it wasn’t enough.

I found myself completely bored and the spice was thrown in so awkwardly it felt weird and misplaced. I was in no hurry to finish. I might go back in and try to reread it with lowered expectations and a different mindset but I feel this one officially missed the mark for me.

Thanks so much NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press.

Colby Wilkens' If I Stopped Haunting You was a cozy romance with some paranormal/horror aspects. I really loved Penelope, she was probably my favorite part of this book. My only complaint is that it was all a bit surface-level, and the writing style didn't really agree with me at times. Otherwise, this was a cute little read.

To enjoy a romance, I really need to like the main character and wow, was this character absolutely unlikable. This is the sort of character I would expect to find in a horror movie that I'm rooting to be killed off next. I couldn't vibe with this story at all because of how awful the character was. That is pretty much my only complaint, but it made the book such a slog to read.

2/5 stars

Yeah... I didn't love this book. I really wanted to like this book, I promise I did the summary sounded amazing but the execution wasn't great. The MMC was extremely unlikable and from that I couldn't get past really anything else in the book. The FMC wasn't much either to be honest and I found the plot to be extremely repetitive and overused.

I am really sorry I didn't like this one, but I am open to reading more from this author in the future.

I was a fan of this book for quite a while, but I got kind of bored by it in the third act. Mostly the actual ghost story stuff felt unnecessary to me because I cared more about the actual characters than the reason they were in a haunted castle in Scotland. Hopefully this will set me on a path of cozy fall reads soon!

I was originally excited to read this one, however i do feel that it fell pretty flat for me. 2/5 stars

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martins Press for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

The premise of this sounded perfect for a spooky autumn romance read. The trend of supernatural/magical realism in romance is hit or miss for me. This one was unfortunately a miss. I never felt hooked on the story. I didn't care about the characters much or their relationship. When I'm reading a romance I want to be kicking my feet and squealing, and this just didn't do that for me.

This book was really fun! I loved the diversity. Native American representation isn't a huge market yet so it was a nice surprise in this novel. I read this book in one sitting and could not put it down. I loved getting to know our cast of characters. This book was a great debut and I can't wait to read more by this author.

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.