***Romance Report*** Book Review: Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie

Title: Maybe This Time

Author: Jennifer Crusie

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Publication Date: August 2010

Genre: Adult Romance/Ghost Story

Series or Stand Alone: Stand Alone

Synopsis can be found here.

Review:

Andie is ready to get married. She’s newly engaged and ready to start over, and forget about her ex husband North Archer. But as she’s severing ties, North pulls her in to babysitting two orphans who are now in North’s care. Andie realizes these two children aren’t acting out from being neglected. Something more sinister is at work and to save the children and herself, she has to uncover what.

This is my first Jennifer Cruise book, and as I’m relatively new to the romance genre, I wasn’t sure what to expect. After being enchanted by this story, I went out and read a couple of other books by Cruise. While some reviewers thought this book was a little different from Crusies’s other works, that’s what I liked most about it. (I found Cruise’s other works to be lighter than this story.)

There is a lot to like in this story. Andie is a smart and loyal character, just doing her best and trying to stay away from her handsome and emotionally detached ex husband. She’s had enough! But oh, who could really blame her for being pulled back in…

North is sexy, standoffish and romantic all in one. As the misunderstood hero, he’s flawed and stubborn. North’s journey through the novel is the most drastic, and the most satisfying

Add that North’s fun and charming brother, Andie’s mom and North’s mom around to make trouble, two haunted children and some ghosts and you have a novel that’s not completely romance, but not just thriller/ghost story either. It’s really more than that. And did I mention the story is creepy? Children and ghosts really spook me out in general, but Cruise goes a step further making me scared for Andie and the kids. This is not Casper and his uncles. We’re not talking horror or anything, but it was way scarier than I thought it was going to be for a little romance novel.

I leant my copy out to a couple of friends, both devoured the book in less than two days. 

There are some scenes that are for mature audiences, though not as graphic as some romance novels I’ve read in the past, you have been warned.

Suspenseful and hot, this has become of my favorite romance stories. 

Rating 9, Ridiculously Awesome like Cookies and Ice Cream