A review by emmm626
If I Stopped Haunting You by Colby Wilkens

1.0

Unfortunately I really didn’t like this and wanted to DNF the whole time. The plot was slow and the characters were super immature from the prologue. The side characters were just annoying. Whole book is based on a lack of communication and a public feud. The ghost storyline took up so much real estate and really didn’t feel important to the story, I don’t know. I also could not have cared less about the writing exercises?? I skimmed and skipped whole paragraphs in those scenes. I also didn’t see a lot of growth from the characters. They hated each other at the beginning but then Neil (weird MMC name i’m sorry i can’t picture a 20-something named Neil) was suddenly all “she kinda hot thoooo…maybe I don’t hate her??” I liked the Native rep, and while I can’t speak from experience, from the outside, the struggles that were described seemed very realistic. However the execution of the theme being through pretty rivalry between authors (not society) and childish jealousy (along with many glib quips from the one-dimensional characters) left it feeling heavy-handed in a way that undermined the issue. I would have loved to see some resolution where the authors worked to champion Native/BIPOC authors throughout publishing as opposed to just co-authoring a book to signify the end of their feud. I really tried to like it but never found myself dying to know what would happen or feeling invested in the romance. I dunno, this was repetitive and anticlimactic and just not it for me.