If I Stopped Haunting You
by Colby Wilkens
2 star review
320 pages, Paperback
First published October 15, 2024 - St. Martin's Griffin
Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Griffin, and Colby Wilkens for providing this advance reader copy (ARC) of the book. My honest review is below.
Cute name, cute descriptive blurb, lots of potential, so I took a chance on the story. It didn't live up to my expectations. The lead female character, Pen, is an awful unlikeable mess. She's a bit violent, snarky, and anti-social and I'm left wondering if she's a decent writer. The lead male character, Neil who's a published successful author, is a glutton for punishment that keeps coming back for more. Their "love" affair is too quick to be anything more than lust, they hate each other and then bam they're having sex & have become a couple. The plot of the haunted castle and solving the ghostly mystery was interesting but everything else was rushed or not fleshed out. The secondary characters are left hanging and you can't like or root for someone you don't know at all. The ghostly characters complete story would have interested me more. I'm giving 2 stars for the haunted castle/ghost part of the tale.
