Stalking Nightmares

Scarlett Force #4

by C.M. Stunich

Genres: Why Choose, Dark, Romance, Dark Romance, Contemporary, Enemies To Lovers, College

562 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 15, 2026

About the author

C.M. Stunich is a self-admitted bibliophile with a love for exotic teas and a whole host of characters who live full time inside the strange, swirling vortex of her thoughts. Some folks might call this crazy, but Caitlin Morgan doesn't mind - especially considering she has to write biographies in the third person. Oh, and half the host of characters in her head are searing hot bad boys with dirty mouths and skillful hands (among other things). If being crazy means hanging out with them everyday, C.M. has decided to have herself committed.

She hates tapioca pudding, loves to binge on cheesy horror movies, and is a slave to many cats. When she's not vacuuming fur off of her couch, C.M. can be found with her nose buried in a book or her eyes glued to a computer screen. She's the author of over thirty novels - romance, new adult, fantasy, and young adult included. Please, come and join her inside her crazy. There's a heck of a lot to do there.

Oh, and Caitlin loves to chat (incessantly), so feel free to e-mail her, send her a Facebook message, or put up smoke signals. She's already looking forward to it.

Stalk me, please!
www.cmstunich.com
www.facebook.com/cmstunichauthor
www.twitter.com/CMStunich

I'm also on Goodreads, Spotify, Google +, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Reviews

[Mandy Bucklew · Rating 1 out of 5]

**DO NOT START THIS SERIES WITHOUT READING THIS REVIEW**

I know most authors hate it when readers wait for a series to be complete before starting it, but C.M. Stunich is an author that is a prime example of why readers do that. Every series of hers I've read hasn't been completed when promised (by a BIG time difference) or has simply remained incomplete to this day.

The Scarlett Force series is a prime example of that. The series began in 2021 (as a spin-off of a series from 2019-2020--which was also not completed on time). A release date was FINALLY set for the final Scarlett Force book several months ago, but then the date was pulled, and it's been crickets ever since. And yet the author is still writing. She's released several other books since the release date for book 4 was pulled, and she's even STARTED new series since then despite leaving many unfinished.

To other authors: I (and I'm sure many others) apologize for the fact that we prefer to wait until your series are complete before starting them. I know that it makes it hard for you to accurately gauge which series your readers are loving when we don't start them right away, but it's authors like this that lead us to do that. It's the fear that we will fall in love with a new group of characters and become invested in a plot line only to be left hanging.

There are many reasons a book release can get pushed back, I know. But when it happens with every series while the author decides to start new project after new project, that's just very unreliable and inconsiderate to the readers.

Lastly, in the interest of balance, a recommendation: if you want to start a completed series by C.M. Stunich, I HIGHLY recommend her Lost Daughter of a Serial Killer series. It was also not finished on time, but it's complete now, and is probably my favorite of hers. It's VERY good. The guys make you lose faith in them at times, but keep pushing through. The series, and the guys, are worth it!

[jenn *mother of dragon & snake*]

I. Am. Spitting. Fucking. Mad.

HOW DID I NOT REALIZE THERE WAS A DAMN FOURTH BOOK IN THIS SERIES!?

Now I'm hissing like a gotdamn cat and mad at myself for being this dumb. Now I have to wait who knows how damn long before this one comes out!

AND WITH THAT FUCKING CLIFF HANGER OF AN ENDING IN BOOK #3!?!?!?!

someone's trying me today.

[LM]

I started book 1 a week before book 4 was supposed to come out, knowing I would be ready after it was published.

Here I am, ready, and now release date has been magically wiped from the book.

This was my sign to stop reading these. All I wanted was a Bohnes HEA, and really didn't care about the rest...

[Olly]

Was reading the first book, totally loving it, and I was very prepared to blanket buy the other 2, but now I hear there is a massive cliffhanger in the 3rd book and the author is straight up not keeping her end of the writer/reader bargain. Sad to say I'll finish the first book because I already have it, but I'll be leaving this author behind fully until this series in complete at the very least. I've noticed this issue with some of her other series as well and I just think that's a terrible way to retain your readers. Books take time, money, and energy to read, and while I'm sure writing is no picnic either in terms of expense, at the end of the day, it's just plain lying to your readers. If you are not able to finish, TELL PEOPLE; stop leading us on with posted-then-pulled publication dates. I have very little respect for authors that do this. It's a waste of an entire hour's worth of me working at MY job to buy a book that I now have learned is essentially going nowhere. Not cool, Stunich. Not cool at all.

[Heather]

[Leah S]

Started reading book 1 then realized Book 4 was a no call, no show. Book 1 seems good so far but I’ll be waiting for Book 4 before I continue the series. Unlike other readers I’m not mad. Just, waiting and looking forward to a finished series.

Winding up a story is hard, but you can do it CM Stunich! With this one and your others too!

[JustaGirlWhoLovesToRead]

Cannot wait for this one to come out!

[Reuben Fernie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Update - 09/12/2025 - Author states they are about 10% through edits and we should see some activity related to this book in the coming days/weeks. A lot of people are trying not to get their hopes up but I am optimistic about the impending release of this book. I hope with everything in me that this book fulfils what we've all been waiting for and provides us with the opportunity to love this book as much as we have loved the rest of the series. After all, if it wasn't a fantastic story, we wouldn't have all been so disappointed by the wait... Best of luck to the author - Hopefully my next update is a glowing review of this long awaited piece of art.

Update - 10/04/2025 - It's that time again... The author stated she is doing a Scarlett Force re-read in order to get in the right frame of mind for writing, however, she has already taken a break to make changes/bonuses to Witchwood. Sadly, it seems the diversions are still persistent, however, there is hope still for all our SF diehards in that the re-read has at least begun. The race for what we will see next is on - While we all hope its Stalking Nightmares, I wouldn't be surprised if IOCAN ends up making it's debut first.

Update - 07/01/2025 - Author states she will be working on stalking nightmares once edits for book 4 of witchwoods are complete. Author has also recently made fun of people stating 'she can't finish a series to save her life' on instagram.

Update - 04/11/2024 - I left the updates for a while as nothing particularly significant had happened, however, I feel I can now confidently say this series won't be completed any time soon. The author updated the Facebook group and discord around Sept 22nd stating she had written 30k words on this book. On Nov 3rd the author posted an update in the Facebook group stating her new passion project The Witchwood Boys had been uploaded and would be coming out soon. She said the next books in this series would be released around Thanksgiving and Christmas. She then stated again that she had written about 30k words on Scarlett. She also added a bunch of updates about other books and projects in the pipeline, therefore I think it's probably reasonable to assume that this book just isn't going anywhere. Likely it will lay in the depths of the weeds alongside Zara Wolf, Spirited, Kings of Underland, Bornstead U, Groupie Book 4, and Family Spells. The truth is, I just wish the author would take some time off at this point. She keeps promising more and more of these huge projects but realistically, how many of those can actually be completed without shoving other stuff to the side, especially when new series and one-offs keep getting pushed to the forefront? I understand the need to 'follow the muse' but what I don't understand is the author's inability to just admit she made a mistake, apologise for the length of time something has taken, and just say to fans in her own words that this project is a long way off from being completed because it needs some time and redirection. The PA's aggressiveness towards fans doesn't help matters. It's making the author (who seems like a lovely person) look bad because she can't maintain control of the way the PA treats people. Anyway, I digress. The update is this book isn't coming this year, and frankly, maybe never at this point. This series was a great one. It rivaled so many others with how different and creative it was whilst still being within a well-saturated genre, but realistically without book 4 it's just another unfinished series and that's real sad because this author had so much potential.

_____________________________________________________________

Update 07/05/2024 - Not much to report other than any mention of SF updates being shut down by Authors PA immediately. I wouldn't put money on this series being finished in 2024. The group is becoming more and more toxic, the PA is rude to fans regularly with no input from the author to stop this behavior towards largely paying fans and frankly, this behavior is alienating a large chunk of the fanbase. It's really sad to see this happening to such a beloved series.

The author states she and her wife's belongings were recently stolen whilst at a concert. I sincerely hope they can replace and/or recover what was taken and hope this hasn't taken too much of a toll on them. This is likely to cause a further delay, but maybe this can be inspo for stories going forwards, who knows?

**P.S. I accidentally deleted someone's comment when I was trying to reply to it - If this was you I'm so sorry but I do wholeheartedly agree with what you said**


___________________________________________________________

Update 16/02/2024 - Author is now teasing 2 new books which she has started and finished. She expects one of these new books to be released in February. Author has posted writing updates for other books but not for Scarlett.

A fan mentioned Scarlett in the facebook group - Author responded "Don't worry, it's coming! I've just been struggling to get words out on Scarlett. Like I could write 10k on something else in a day but only 2k for her. But my plan is march/april. I just want to make sure her final book is lit."

Authors PA also responded "She wants to finish this series. The muse isn't working for her which is why new books are popping up. She's hoping if she can get other stuff out, Scarlett and her men will behave. But they're not."

All in all, nothing else of note re Scarlett to report. The situation is just so unfortunate as a lot of people are shying away from reading this authors series and work because of the number of times this has happened which is a genuine shame because when this author does hit it right, she does a bloody good job of building worlds and characters that fans love and crave. She has built an empire of great work but building these worlds also comes with responsibility.
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Update 19/10/2023 - Author stated on facebook post about well kept royals:

"ETA: I was working on Scarlett, but I needed a break. It wasn't flowing, so I picked a different unfinished series to work on. I'm also dabbling in finishing Spirited, but I'm writing the whole rest of the series before publishing anything, so it's going to be a slow ride. <3"

She then replied to a comment asking "So Scarlett's book could be a long ways off?" by stating:
"Depends on what you mean by long. LOL not six years like spirited or anything but maybe a few months. :)"

Based on previous examples of this, it looks like we should probably hang up our hats on Scarlett for a while and try to get into a new groove/series etc.

Will update if there is anything to add.


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13/09/2023 I want to preface this by saying that I do enjoy this author's writing a lot but since starting to follow her and read her books there have been numerous occasions where she has promised a release and failed to live up to it - Stalking Nightmares being one of them.

For this release, a date was initially mentioned on the fb group but has since been wiped from social media. I actually prefer this to promising a date and not sticking to it because it doesn't raise expectations. That being said the author insists on jumping from project to project and has a track record of abandoning books she has amped up releases for.

As of 13/09 the author is working on Stalking Nightmares as a side-quest and focussing more on her passion projects, the new alien RH and Well Kept Royals - This is as per a recent fb post by the author. I will update this post with any further updates if they appear in the group.

_


Simultaneously I find myself excited for her new projects but let down at the ones that get pushed aside. Given what happened with Game Over Boys, I don't have much hope to see the final book in this series any time soon. I have a feeling I will rate this book 5* once it's out, but given the author has said on her fb group that she is working on her new passion project and Well Kept Royals instead. As much as I'm looking forward to these projects too, I have severe OCD and the issues with the GOB release took its toll.

I really hope CM can find a way to stay on track or go forward with her releases in the same way she is discussing her new alien release - Get the books finished before they're released. It's better to have a finished series sitting there ready to be released which can be hyped up beforehand than to keep disappointing readers because the muse redirects attention.

As a writer myself I understand the excitement of wanting to tell everyone about your projects immediately, but if they do not come to fruition, all this does is create frustration.

On top of this, a lot of fans have been shunned or kicked out of the group/blocked etc due to voicing their opinions and disappointment. The group can be really great and uplifting. It can be a lot of fun too, but seeing the authors PA's and admins actively shunning people or refusing to take constructive criticism with a grain of salt instead of bulldozing the fans is really disheartening.

The author seems like any other fun-loving writer who gets carried away with the next fun passion project and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, however the promising of releases and reactive behaviour of some of the henchmen in the fb group is really off-putting to the fans who wait patiently and hope for their favourite series to get a conclusion.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

awesome as always

I love almost everything CM Stunich writes and this series is a personal favorite. I have lost count of the times I have read this series or listened to it on audible. It has become a comfort read for me. After waiting so long for this release it is lovely to have so much material. Nothing is being rushed or overlooked. I do feel like you can tell that she took a long break between the last book and this one.

There is a somewhat sudden shift in character for Ash and Widow that could have been eased into more if everything was written together. However I feel like it was a natural progression for them both that simply came on quicker than usual. Overall, this one was a fun, violent, sexy and sweet ride just like all the rest. I can’t wait to see how the story ends.

[Devinney · Rating 5 out of 5]

never disappointed

I waited what felt like forever for this book wondering how could it possibly get any better and you didn’t disappoint! Im so excited/sad to read the next and final book. Ill be crying at the end thats guaranteed i will absolutely miss these characters i love every one of them. They are all so different but similar and i love that. Im so glad i bought the first 3 in paper back ill definitely get the other 2 bc i can tell you right now this will be a book i reread many times. I cant wait to see what series you cone out with next im a big fan of your work. Maybe next we will get a reverse harem paranormal that would be awesome!

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

❤️ Love Love Love ❤️

I am giddy with anticipation for book 5

I love how the boys are coming together. Widows’ POV towards the end is brilliant - Scarlett was right on the money about Widow stepping up.
I love how badass, brave and strong Scarlett is - the way she focuses on the facts, and trusts herself.
Thank you CM Stunich for another awesome read, so talented.
I think I’ll do a full reread and listen while waiting for June 30th 🤓😍🥰🥳

[Heather Murry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Worth the Wait

Scarlet and crew pick up right where they left off and suck the reader back into their story beautifully. The trauma, damage, loyalty, and betrayal is wonderfully written in this 500+ page installment. Highly recommend reading the series.

[Malia Blocker · Rating 5 out of 5]

my heart

Finally, I feel like after so many years Scarlet fourth book 4 is finally here oh my goodness and such a good book. I can’t wait for the ending book 5. I don’t want it to ever end. I’ll have I’ve missed widow and bones 10 out of 10,000 like always.

[Natalia Palanik · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm waiting with awe 🤞

[Christina Sanchez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally arrived!!!!! 3 yrs later and we will get book 5 from this series soon.🤞 Scarlett and her boys keep the flames burning in this book. Can't wait to FINALLY finish this series.

[Alison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great read

Sm stuniches storytelling is once again phenonimal with great characters this author is my favoratie cant wait to read last book in the series

[jo (taylor’s version)]

update: OMG ITS FINALLY HERE AAAAA time to start reading 😋
The author posted on IG that she’s “almost 100% done” with book 4 and then also announced a book 5. If I were you I’d wait until book 5 is out to start the series like me! Hope this helps someone who has been waiting forever, hopefully she delivers, fingers crossed 🤞