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Product Description
Review
“A bewitching tale. Graced with deliciously original characters, imbued with addictively acerbic wit, driven by a wildly inventive, paranormal-flavored plot . . . Maybe This Time is Crusie at her very best.”—Booklist (starred review)
“As always, the greatest pleasure comes from watching Crusie put her great cast of quirky characters through their paces. This is a story of faith: in human nature, in love, in romance, in connections that cannot be broken. Crusie fans can rejoice in this original and funny romantic thriller.”—New York Journal of Books
Product Description
The New York Times bestselling author of Bet Me, Tell Me Lies and Welcome to Temptation delivers her long-awaited novel
Andie Miller is ready to move on in life. She wants to marry her fiancé and leave behind everything in her past, especially her ex-husband, North Archer. But when Andie tries to gain closure with him, he asks one final favor of her before they go their separate ways forever. A very distant cousin of his has died and left North as the guardian of two orphans who have driven out three nannies already, and things are getting worse. He needs a very special person to take care of the situation and he knows Andie can handle anything.
When Andie meets the two children she quickly realizes things are much worse than she feared. The place is a mess, the children, Carter and Alice, aren’t your average delinquents, and the creepy old house where they live is being run by the worst housekeeper since Mrs. Danvers. What’s worse, Andie’s fiancé thinks this is all a plan by North to get Andie back, and he may be right. Andie’s dreams have been haunted by North since she arrived at the old house. And that’s not the only haunting.
What follows is a hilarious adventure in exorcism, including a self-doubting parapsychologist, an annoyed medium, her Tarot-card reading mother, an avenging ex-mother-inlaw, and, of course, her jealous fiancé. And just when she thinks things couldn’t get more complicated, North shows up on the doorstep making her wonder if maybe this time things could be different between them.
If Andie can just get rid of all the guests and ghosts, she’s pretty sure she can save the kids, and herself, from the past. But fate might just have another thing in mind…
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Most helpful customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
Really drags,
This review is from: Maybe This Time (Hardcover)
I'm half way through the book and can't wait for it to end. I'm having to force myself to finish it. It's boring, it drags and nothing has happened. Wow took her half the book to figure out there are 2 ghosts in the house. The ex husband, whom I believe she's supposed to end up with again, still hasn't even shown up at the house. I don't know how they're supposed to hook up together again when he's not even there. I used to love Crusie's books, this one is a pass though, i can't believe how boring it is.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
She's back!!!,
By Nina L "poppy girl" (Kingston, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Maybe This Time (Hardcover)
It is great to see Jennifer Crusie back in the comedy of manners genre. I have really missed her. She has such a light and witty touch when it comes to relationships and her characters are always a bit quirky. It is a charming and very readable novel.My big question is why has so many of the good "ironic humour of romance" writers gone the way of the supernatural? Ghosts for Crusie, Vampires for Cabot - surely there is enough going on, on this level that everybody does not have to jump the spooky bandwagon! Answer me that, if you please. That part is dissapointing but it is still a fun and fresh read. Welcome back Ms. Crusie.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.9 out of 5 stars (148 customer reviews) 66 of 72 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not Quite Classic Crusie, But Good!,
By Randi Morse - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Maybe This Time (Hardcover)
Pre-release customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program
I first read Jennifer Crusie three years ago. I'd asked my librarian for a book that was light and yet fun to read, and she immediately pointed me towards Crusie. I fell in love with her characters and snagged up all of her books. I loved the characters and how funny they always were, and how she intermingled love with the funny story.I was extremely excited to get to review Maybe This Time, as I haven't read any new Crusie books since her last one was released. You've probably already read what the story is about, so instead of detailing that, I'll stick to the critiquing. THE GOOD Once again we get Crusie's classic wit. You read all sorts of hilarious things in the book, with witty characters that you definitely won't forget. Andie is just as memorable as any other female Crusie character, and I definitely fell in love with Dennis the ghost expert and Isolde the medium. I also really enjoyed that she snuck in Gabe McKenna, from one of her other books. It was nice to see the character in a story that wasn't his own, and I hope she continues to give her characters little cameos. Writing a ghost story isn't easy - writing a ghost romance that isn't cliche is extremely difficult, but Crusie does it. She manages to get the ghosts in there, explaining all about the different types of ghosts, without seeming corny. And you don't feel like you're reading a ghost story. You feel, as you do with other Crusie work, like you're simply popping into someone else's life for a time. THE BAD While the book was definitely readable, and memorable, and I'll definitely be reading it again (and probably again), there was just something missing. I think one of the problems I had was that while Andie feels like a main character, her ex-husband and leading man, North Archer, doesn't. We see him in pieces, in his office or through Andie's memories. I did love the memory flashbacks, but there really didn't feel like there were enough of them, or like Andie and North interacted enough. Even North's brother, Sullivan (Southie) seemed to be more alive on the page than North did. It was only towards the very end when I finally got to see what North was really like, and it's sad, because I wish I had a lot more of that throughout the entire book. This Crusie book is definitely a great read, but I don't feel as though it's quite as strong as some of her other work. But after an absence of writing solo for 6 years, maybe she's just gotta work the kinks out. 31 of 33 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
More ghost story than romance,
By Book and Dog Lover - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Maybe This Time (Hardcover)
Pre-release customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program
Andromeda (Andie) Miller decides that she needs to make a clear break from her past - from her ex-husband North Archer that is - so that she can move forward in her new relationship. She intends to just tell him to stop sending her alimony (and give him 10 years worth of uncashed checks) and be done with him. Instead, she finds herself agreeing to help him with his 2 wards - 2 children of his cousin who are only living with a housekeeper in a very Gothic house. The other nannies have quit and North is hoping that Andie will get things straightened out so that he can get the kids moved away from that house.What Andie discovers when she gets to the house are 2 children who are a bit odd, a housekeeper who likes her booze, and some nasty ghosts who don't want her there. And nasty they are - these are no friendly, funny ghosts - these ghosts mean to drive Andie away. And that was my problem with this book - I found that this was much more a story about Andie dealing with some nasty ghosts than a romance. Andie's conversations with North and their feelings for each other really take up a small part of this book. I was a big fan of Jennifer Crusie books - Welcome to Temptation and Bet Me are two of my favorites - I loved the characters, I loved the dialog and I loved the romance. I couldn't get into her collaborations and was really excited to see her writing a new solo novel. You'll find that this is in some ways a typical Crusie novel - well-written with some wonderful dialog, some wacky relatives who want to help, and a great heroine - I loved Andie. Overall, I say if you're a Crusie fan, you'll probably like this book. But if you're looking for a romance or some witty dialog between the hero and heroine as they try to see if maybe this time their relationship will work, you may be disappointed. 40 of 47 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not vintage Crusie by any means,
By feysidhe "feysidhe" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Maybe This Time (Hardcover)
Pre-release customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program
I had high hopes for this book. I've been waiting and waiting for Crusie to come out with a new solo book since I haven't enjoyed her collaborations. Unfortunately, this book didn't live up to my expectations.As usual, Crusie has created some likable characters, but this time they don't suit the book particularly well. There's Andromeda (Andie) Miller, who is ready to go on with her life and get married again after being divorced from her husband, North, for 10 years. As a last favor (too complicated to get into the reasoning--suffice it to say it didn't make me like North particularly, nor was it the most convincing setup), Andie agrees to go deal with North's two wards, who are off in a rural area and who he'd like to bring to live in Columbus with him. But the kids don't want to move and he has no idea if they are able to matriculate into regular schools, so Andie says she will go and bring them up to speed educationally, as well as deal with the psychological problems they seem to have. (Andie is a paragon, you see. North is not. Their relationship is not terribly believable.) The setup at the house is quite Gothic. In fact, one feels as if one has stepped right into a prototypical Gothic historical romance, except for the very modern characters and the snappy, humorous dialogue. There are ghosts, murders, a creepy housekeeper, fading children...the whole deal. And that could all work well, but it doesn't fit with Crusie's light and witty style, or with the addition of the kooky characters of Andie's mother, the extraneous medium, etc. All that sounds very negative, but the fact is that Crusie is an entertaining writer and she makes long stretches of this work. This is not an awful book, it's just not very good, either. (B-) |
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