I was so excited for this novel - haunted castle x enemies to lovers with indigenous and queer rep?! Hell yes, I want to read it!

Unfortunately, I was left disappointed.

It was not that engaging, and Pen (our FMC) is absolutely horrendous. Sure, she had a redemption arc where she understood why she got so mad (and assualtive) towards Neil, but honestly, she just read as abusive and gaslighting to me even after her "growth" arc. Neil (MMC) is hurting and complex, but Pen just kicks him while he's down, then they have sex and try to find ghosts.

The spooky aspect was meh at best. The spice was good but often just felt like a filler more than a way to move the plot along. The enemies to lovers gave me the ick because of my thoughts on Pen. At least the stuck and struggling writer aspect was gold,  especially when tied with some fun ideas that surround the whole haunted castle thing.

Overall, this was a miss for me.