If I Stopped Haunting You

By Colby Wilkens

Rating: 3*s. Horromance

Now Available from St. Martin’s Press!

Publisher’s Synopsis:

“It’s been months since horror author Penelope Skinner threw a book at Neil Storm. But he was so infuriating, with his sparkling green eyes and his bestselling horror novels that claimed to break Native stereotypes. And now she’s a publishing pariah and hasn’t been able to write a word since. So when her friend invites her on a too-good-to-be-true writers retreat in a supposedly haunted Scottish castle, she seizes the opportunity. Of course, some things really are too good to be true.

Neil wants nothing less than to be trapped in a castle with the frustratingly adorable woman who threw a book at him. She drew blood! Worse still, she unleashed a serious case of self-doubt! Neil is terrified to write another bestselling “book without a soul,” as Pen called it. All Neil wants is to find inspiration, while completely avoiding her.

But as the retreat begins, Pen and Neil are stunned to find themselves trapped in a real-life ghost story. Even more horrifying, they’re stuck together and a truly shocking (extremely hot) almost-kiss has left them rethunking their feelings, and… maybe they shouldn’t have been enemies at all? But if they can’t stop the ghosts pursuing them, they may never have the chance to find out.”

REVIEW

This book really surprised me. I was expecting a Scooby Doo style horror/Romcom, but that was not the case. The horror in this contemporary romance is borderline The Haunting of Hill House. I love a good rivals to lovers trope and I really enjoy horror on its own. This had a mixture of both with a plentiful scoop of American indigenous representation, but set in Scotland.  All topics were important, but I admit I experienced a lot of whiplash trying to figure out what my brain should be on at any given point. Admittedly, it gave me some anxiety unrelated to the horror aspect. 

It was still a decent horror novel and somewhat decent romance. It felt like way more of a horror than a romance, but again–I dig horror. There is a place for social justice in both categories, but with all combined? It just felt like a lot at times.

Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed it. There were moments that were really spicy and moments that were really scary, and moments that where real talk left an impression.

It’s definitely one for the book club and would be perfect for a group to read and discuss.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the free advanced copy in exchange for this review.