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3.67 AVERAGE
3.67 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
relaxing
I enjoyed the ghost story, and it kept me page turning, so definitely a good read. But I didn't feel the romance, and feel it could have been pulled from the book without making a difference. There was some patchiness too, in terms of characterization, plot. But despite the problems I was till eager to find out what happens next.
(I was going to say some of the characters felt like cardboard cutouts--I see from another review that some characters are from other books? Maybe that's why. I'm not a fan of that.)
(I was going to say some of the characters felt like cardboard cutouts--I see from another review that some characters are from other books? Maybe that's why. I'm not a fan of that.)
I gave this 5 out of 5 stars, because I loved everything about the book.
This was not just another chick-lit book that you can find like sand on a beach. It was another of Crusie's gems!
The romance betweent the two main adult characters isn't the focus of this book, so if you are just looking for some steamy, hot sex, look elsewhere. While she does have some of that, it clearly isn't the focus of the story.
The real love story of this book is the love story between Andie, a teacher who doesn't want kids, and the two wards of her ex-husband who seem to be tied to the house they grew up in by ghosts. They trust no one and the relationship that develops between these three characters is the real focus and also a real gem, because it isn't smooth, it isn't perfect and she doesn't connect to the kids equally well. This plot felt very real and it had edges and sharp reminders that life isn't always peachy. It makes the story that much better and the end that much more satisfactory.
Above all, this book is a story about relationships between various people, mother and sons, mother and daughter, husband and wife, wife and brother-in-law and so on. This is why I enjoyed it so much and why I will certainly re-read it again very soon.
This was not just another chick-lit book that you can find like sand on a beach. It was another of Crusie's gems!
The romance betweent the two main adult characters isn't the focus of this book, so if you are just looking for some steamy, hot sex, look elsewhere. While she does have some of that, it clearly isn't the focus of the story.
The real love story of this book is the love story between Andie, a teacher who doesn't want kids, and the two wards of her ex-husband who seem to be tied to the house they grew up in by ghosts. They trust no one and the relationship that develops between these three characters is the real focus and also a real gem, because it isn't smooth, it isn't perfect and she doesn't connect to the kids equally well. This plot felt very real and it had edges and sharp reminders that life isn't always peachy. It makes the story that much better and the end that much more satisfactory.
Above all, this book is a story about relationships between various people, mother and sons, mother and daughter, husband and wife, wife and brother-in-law and so on. This is why I enjoyed it so much and why I will certainly re-read it again very soon.
Started strong but lost momentum toward the end. Liked the kids, the secondary characters and the "second chance romance" but something was a missing for me. It might have been the ghost story or the resolution of that storyline?
Okay. So parts of this were very engaging, charming, and imaginative without going off the rails.
And parts of this came out of nowhere, or seemed cooked up simply to be able to put another shock on the table, and not for storytelling purposes.
Trigger warning for lack of consent/rape discussion
And the other thing that really bothered me was how consent and sex were handled in this book. One character, a woman named Kelly, is possessed by a ghost, and has sex with 3 different guys in the same night. At first it's addressed as bad (which it is- she did not give consent for sex, that's rape), but then it stated that it's okay because Kelly was already having sex with two of them before that night and probably would have eventually have had sex with the third. They go on to say that even with Kelly being possessed, the ghost couldn't make Kelly do anything she wouldn't do anyway. It it felt gross. and manipulative. and i did not like it. She didn't choose to have sex. it's also played as okay because she's a terrible person which-um-no.
and then, on a lesser note, a woman tells a man several times she doesn't want to have sex in the kitchen but he just keeps going. She even is tells him at one point that they should just move into the bedroom because there are people and children about in the house, but nope. He just plows ahead. It ruined what was supposed to be a steamy scene, for me. i just kept thinking wait why couldn't the man just go upstairs? why does he have to ignore the woman saying no over and over? it would literally take a minute to go upstairs. This isn't sexy-he doesn't listen to her.
And parts of this came out of nowhere, or seemed cooked up simply to be able to put another shock on the table, and not for storytelling purposes.
Trigger warning for lack of consent/rape discussion
And the other thing that really bothered me was how consent and sex were handled in this book. One character, a woman named Kelly, is possessed by a ghost, and has sex with 3 different guys in the same night. At first it's addressed as bad (which it is- she did not give consent for sex, that's rape), but then it stated that it's okay because Kelly was already having sex with two of them before that night and probably would have eventually have had sex with the third. They go on to say that even with Kelly being possessed, the ghost couldn't make Kelly do anything she wouldn't do anyway. It it felt gross. and manipulative. and i did not like it. She didn't choose to have sex. it's also played as okay because she's a terrible person which-um-no.
and then, on a lesser note, a woman tells a man several times she doesn't want to have sex in the kitchen but he just keeps going. She even is tells him at one point that they should just move into the bedroom because there are people and children about in the house, but nope. He just plows ahead. It ruined what was supposed to be a steamy scene, for me. i just kept thinking wait why couldn't the man just go upstairs? why does he have to ignore the woman saying no over and over? it would literally take a minute to go upstairs. This isn't sexy-he doesn't listen to her.
After I started I was worried that it would be scary with the ghosts but it wasn't, just cute.
Andie Miller is about to get married to a nice, reliable writer, the complete opposite of her ex-husband North Archer. She just needs to sever any remaining connection to him by handing back all the alimony checks she's received since their divorce ten years earlier. Then she can get on with her life. Of course, seeing North again brings back all sorts of memories, and he's a very hard man to say no to.
North Archer is responsible for two young children. His cousin died two years ago, and the kids were orphaned. Once their aunt died, the kids were left alone in a huge mansion in the countryside in Ohio, with only nannies and an elderly housekeeper to take care of them. The third nanny just quit, claiming the house is haunted. She tried to take the children away from the house, but the little girl had a near-psychotic break and the boy was expelled from boarding school for setting fires. He needs someone sensible, stubborn and capable to sort out the children, get their grades up to scratch, and convince them to move in with him. Who better than his ex-wife Andie, who could always sort out anything? That this will take her away from her fiancee for an extended period of time is really just a bonus.
As North offers her ten thousand dollars to spend a month in the old house, Andie really doesn't feel she can refuse. She starts to wonder if she shouldn't have asked for more money once she sees the house and meets the inhabitants, though. The house is an old Victorian mansion, moved brick by brick from England, with furniture and brickabrack included. The driveway is falling apart, the garden is overgrown. The housekeeper is absolutely ancient, has lived there for most of her life, clearly drinks too much and refuses to listen to a thing Andie says until she hears the name Archer, forcing Andie to pretend she is still married to North. Carter, the little boy, barely speaks. Alice, a tiny, scrawny waif is more like a wild creature than a girl, and carries a mouldy, creepy doll with her everywhere. If Andie tries to make her do anything she doesn't want to, she screams hysterically at the top of her lungs.
While Andie finds Archer House unnerving and creepy, she is a practical and educated woman, and refuses to believe in any ghost nonsense. Even when she keeps seeing things out of the corner of her eye, Alice is clearly talking to someone in her room at night, when the rocking chair by Alice's bed seemingly rocks by itself and she keeps hearing voices as she drifts off to sleep at night. She also can't stop thinking about North all the time, and being in the run-down house means she keeps having to contact him for help. Then, just as she seems to be making progress, an unscrupulous reporter arrives on the doorstep with her ex-brother-in-law and a cameraman in tow, wanting to make a news feature on the "haunted house" and the poor, terrified orphans who live there.
Andie is similar to many of Jennifer Crusie's other heroines. Smart, self-sufficient, curvy, and in no desperate need for children of her own. She works as a teacher, but has never settled long in one place, having moved every year or so since her divorce to North. They got married after one day, and the marriage only lasted a year, before Andie bolted, as North puts it. She claims she couldn't take his neglect any longer, never seeing him because he worked sixteen-hour-days at his family's law firm. Now she is ready to move on, and marry the dependable Will, she just needs to sort out the Archer House mess, as she refuses to back down from the challenge.
North did not want to divorce Andie, and only suggested it because she seemed so unhappy. Still not over her after ten years, he has to acknowledge to himself that he sent her to Archer House to keep her in his life for a little bit longer, hoping that maybe something would happen to keep her from marrying the other guy. He's not entirely sure that Andie will stay with the kids for a whole month, as his experience is that she runs when things get tough.
Maybe This Time is first and foremost a ghost story, inspired by Henry James' classic The Turn of the Screw. Anyone reading it hoping for a fun and light-hearted romance like many of Crusie's other books (which I tend to adore) will be disappointed, as the romance is decidedly secondary to the suspense and ghost plot here. The kids have lived in their creepy house for a long time, surrounded by things that grown-ups don't believe in. They are not happy and cheerful and well-adjusted, having been orphaned, neglected and left to fend for themselves for far too long. There are actual ghosts in the story, and the majority of them are not nice. It's a good book, but in a different tone from most of Crusie's previous work, and I think I prefer her more easy-going romances to this one.
North Archer is responsible for two young children. His cousin died two years ago, and the kids were orphaned. Once their aunt died, the kids were left alone in a huge mansion in the countryside in Ohio, with only nannies and an elderly housekeeper to take care of them. The third nanny just quit, claiming the house is haunted. She tried to take the children away from the house, but the little girl had a near-psychotic break and the boy was expelled from boarding school for setting fires. He needs someone sensible, stubborn and capable to sort out the children, get their grades up to scratch, and convince them to move in with him. Who better than his ex-wife Andie, who could always sort out anything? That this will take her away from her fiancee for an extended period of time is really just a bonus.
As North offers her ten thousand dollars to spend a month in the old house, Andie really doesn't feel she can refuse. She starts to wonder if she shouldn't have asked for more money once she sees the house and meets the inhabitants, though. The house is an old Victorian mansion, moved brick by brick from England, with furniture and brickabrack included. The driveway is falling apart, the garden is overgrown. The housekeeper is absolutely ancient, has lived there for most of her life, clearly drinks too much and refuses to listen to a thing Andie says until she hears the name Archer, forcing Andie to pretend she is still married to North. Carter, the little boy, barely speaks. Alice, a tiny, scrawny waif is more like a wild creature than a girl, and carries a mouldy, creepy doll with her everywhere. If Andie tries to make her do anything she doesn't want to, she screams hysterically at the top of her lungs.
While Andie finds Archer House unnerving and creepy, she is a practical and educated woman, and refuses to believe in any ghost nonsense. Even when she keeps seeing things out of the corner of her eye, Alice is clearly talking to someone in her room at night, when the rocking chair by Alice's bed seemingly rocks by itself and she keeps hearing voices as she drifts off to sleep at night. She also can't stop thinking about North all the time, and being in the run-down house means she keeps having to contact him for help. Then, just as she seems to be making progress, an unscrupulous reporter arrives on the doorstep with her ex-brother-in-law and a cameraman in tow, wanting to make a news feature on the "haunted house" and the poor, terrified orphans who live there.
Andie is similar to many of Jennifer Crusie's other heroines. Smart, self-sufficient, curvy, and in no desperate need for children of her own. She works as a teacher, but has never settled long in one place, having moved every year or so since her divorce to North. They got married after one day, and the marriage only lasted a year, before Andie bolted, as North puts it. She claims she couldn't take his neglect any longer, never seeing him because he worked sixteen-hour-days at his family's law firm. Now she is ready to move on, and marry the dependable Will, she just needs to sort out the Archer House mess, as she refuses to back down from the challenge.
North did not want to divorce Andie, and only suggested it because she seemed so unhappy. Still not over her after ten years, he has to acknowledge to himself that he sent her to Archer House to keep her in his life for a little bit longer, hoping that maybe something would happen to keep her from marrying the other guy. He's not entirely sure that Andie will stay with the kids for a whole month, as his experience is that she runs when things get tough.
Maybe This Time is first and foremost a ghost story, inspired by Henry James' classic The Turn of the Screw. Anyone reading it hoping for a fun and light-hearted romance like many of Crusie's other books (which I tend to adore) will be disappointed, as the romance is decidedly secondary to the suspense and ghost plot here. The kids have lived in their creepy house for a long time, surrounded by things that grown-ups don't believe in. They are not happy and cheerful and well-adjusted, having been orphaned, neglected and left to fend for themselves for far too long. There are actual ghosts in the story, and the majority of them are not nice. It's a good book, but in a different tone from most of Crusie's previous work, and I think I prefer her more easy-going romances to this one.
I really wanted to like this book more than I did. It started out very slow, and the romance element wasn’t as strong as I would have liked. It was okay,