Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie

So, after the disaster that was Fast Women, Maybe This Time was a breath of fresh air…sort of.

Andie Miller was married ten years ago to North Archer, when the book begins she is about to visit him to return all his alimony checks that he has sent her over the last decade. She figures that to finally move on from that part of her life, she needs to do this. What she doesn’t expect is to be roped into a job. It turns out that North is the guardian to two kids who are living in a house that is out of town. The kids were being taken care of by their aunt – who died – and then some nannies, but the kids seemed to have run them out. The kids – Carter and Alice – seem to have some ‘problems.’ North asks Andie to go to the house and look after the kids for a month and try to convince them to move to the house he has set up for them in Columbus. She accepts the job – it pays 10 grand, eliminating all her debt – and goes to the house not knowing what she’s really getting herself into.

The house that the kids are staying in is really old, like brought over from England two hundred years ago old. There is a history behind the house, and along with it are ghosts who are haunting the kids. One – Miss J – has taken a liking to Alice, which is why the kids can’t leave. Their aunt May tried to take them out of the house and died because of it. But May is also haunting the house, taking an interest in Andie.

After some crazy séances, another death, a power hungry news reporter and a few exorcisms – you finally think that everything is going to be okay.

Ha-ha. Not.

May, who seems really nice at the beginning, just a curious ghost turns out to be a total bitch. She’s been in love with North for years, but he would never come to the house to visit her even though she was taking care of his charges. She died at nineteen so she feels that her life was cut too short, and since North never loved her but loves Andie, she decides to possess her body. Thankfully, Alice, Carter, and North realize what’s going on and exorcise her too. But damn. This was definitely a weird romance novel.

Final Rating: 4 out of 5 stars. Plot was interesting, not your normal romance/mystery novel. The characters had some pop to them. But that ending…what the actual hell? Not the best book to read either during a windstorm.

Bookshelf worthy? Electronic or rent from your public library.