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.