A decrepit castle in the wilds of rural Ohio, a
crackpot housekeeper, and two orphaned children are a good
start to any Gothic novel. Add in Jennifer Crusie's unique
humor, and you have a book not quite like any other.
Andromeda "Andie" Miller and North Archer have been
divorced for ten long years. As a final way to cut the ties,
she makes an appointment to return his uncashed alimony
checks. After all, she is engaged to another man.
As usual, North is swamped with work and sees in her a
chance to fix one particularly vexing personal problem--
finding someone to care for his wards until he can hire yet
another nanny. First, he offers Andie a lot
of money. Then he begs. Finally, he tugs on her heartstrings
with the tale of two lonely and troubled children unable to
leave their isolated home without psychiatric consequence
and she agrees to help. Alice and Carter need her in a way
no one else ever has. They have lost everyone who ever loved
them and Andie is
determined to stay until she can help them break free of
their past.
Just as things are starting to settle into a
routine and the children begin to accept her, the odd things
happening in the house go beyond anything logical and slip
solidly into the paranormal. Something just at
the edge of reality is brushing up against their world.
When the ghosts become too interactive to ignore, Andie
knows getting the children to safety may be beyond her.
Things become even more complicated when the castle gets
unexpected guests. Her former brother-in-law, Sullivan,
brings a rabid news reporter eager to expose abused
children, a parapsychologist, and a psychic medium to the
doorstep. They are soon followed by Andie's fiance, North,
his mother Lydia, and Andie's mother, Flo. On top of
everything else, the ghosts are having a field day and it
soon becomes impossible for any of them to leave.
MAYBE THIS TIME is about second chances, the
strength of love, and the everyday ridiculousness of
life. The ghost story is a good one with plenty of goose
bumps and spine shivers but the true heart of the book is
four fractured lives healing each other.
The New York Times bestselling author of Bet
Me, Tell Me Lies and Welcome to
Temptation delivers her long-awaited new
novel--Maybe This Time.
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-in-law,
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…