Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

Hey Im first!  thats a first ... lol (sorry im excited its friday). I so believe in ghosts and I have seen a few around disney in orlando.  Ghosts have to go on vacation too!

I like ghost stories, but don’t believe in actual ghosts. If I win I would be happy to write a review and send it to you to post.

New Crusie makes me purr—to hear you got totally caught up in the story just makes me itch harder.

I absolutely believe in ghosts, but I’m still a huge skeptic (contradict yourself much, Bren?) I’m like the show Ghost Hunters (which I love!) I believe it in, but it takes a lot of hard evidence to get me there.

The review would be on my blog, but I have a page dedicated to books on my site, and an entire section just for La Crusie.

If you knew about all the stories in my family about ghosts… you would believe, too. When your relatives tell you about things they have seen & enough weird stuff happens to you… you tend to have a different view of reality.

I don’t believe in ghosts, but I still have some concerns about monsters under the bed.

I definitely believe in ghosts.  I went on a haunted house tour in Pawley’s Island, SC and we visited a home that had a ghost you experience by smell.  I thought that was crazy until I was standing there listening to the story of the house and got knocked back by the smell of fish - not baked cod, but like a pile of fish you’d find on a fishing boat.  Then it went away and didn’t linger at all.  That wouldn’t convince me except that the people (my friends) on either side of me did NOT smell it at that time.  By the time we left, all but two people in our party had that experience and every single time, no one nearby could smell it.

The ghost had been identified as a fisherman that had owned the house about 150 years ago.  It was darn cool.

Yes, totally believe in spooks. Why? I’ve seen them. Heard them. Felt them. Have one in the house I live in now, but he’s cool. I woke up one night to him standing over the bed looking at me, which was a bit freaky at the time.

Should I confess that I’ve never read this author? However, I’m totally game for trying new things this year.

I believe. The semester I was studying abroad in England, I went to Edinburgh as part of my spring break. As with most European and major American cities, there are ghost tours available. The one I chose took us into the Vaults. The Vaults, back in the day, were the slums of Edinburgh. Nasty, nasty things happened in the Vaults. Well, back in 1999, they were being renovated, so there was a fair amount of construction equipment lying around. Our group was standing in one of the larger gallery rooms when I heard footsteps above us. The footsteps followed as we moved to another, smaller room, and abruptly disappeared. At the end of the tour of the Vaults, in that smaller room, I was at the front of the group and mentioned to the guide, “You know, you might want tell the construction guys to lay off on working when there are tour groups going through.” The guide asked what I meant as the construction guys were long gone for the day. I said, the footsteps I heard above us. He asked, what footsteps? A guy in the back of the group said, the footsteps! Apparently, I and the guy in the back of the group were the only ones who heard these footsteps walking around above us while we were in the Vaults.

I don’t know if this really qualifies as a ghost story, but something happened to me a while back that I still can’t explain.  My mom, my sister and her two kids live with me, and at the time this happened, my sister was keeping another baby at night while her parents worked.  It wasn’t uncommon for my sister to get up in the middle of the night to tend to the baby, so what happened the night in question seemed, at first, to be an ordinary occurrence.

I woke needing to go to the bathroom—and with a severe sinus headache. As I was going to the bathroom in the hall, I heard voices coming from down the hall, in the general direction of my sister’s room and the kids’ room, where the baby’s bed was.  I figured the baby had awakened and I was hearing my mother and my sister talking quietly while trying to get the baby to go back to sleep.  I was glad they were up—I needed saline solution to get rid of the headache, and I knew my mom would know where it was.

But in the minute it took for me to finish in the bathroom, the voices had stopped.  No matter, my mom would still be awake and I could ask her where the saline solution was.  But when I got to her room, she was deeply asleep.  I thought that was kind of odd, but my mom can fall asleep in the middle of a sentence.  So I checked my sister’s room—surely she’d be awake.  Not only was she asleep; she was hooked up to her CPAP machine.

Checked the kids’ room. All asleep, including the baby.  No TVs on.  No radios.  Nothing.

I went to bed, creeped out, and I don’t think I slept any more that night.  The next morning, nobody copped to having a conversation in the middle of the night.  So I’m at a loss for what I heard.

I don’t know if that qualifies as believing in ghosts, but I do think strange, inexplicable things happen in this world.

1. I like ghost stories (and the premise of Maybe This Time sounds fascinating!) but I don’t believe in ghosts in the real world. In fact, I don’t believe in anything supernatural, although I used to be very religious. I don’t believe in ghosts because all the reasons for believing in them seem to depend more on our sense of the poetic rather than on testable evidence. But, that’s what stories are for!

2. I would DEFINITELY review Maybe This Time after reading it, and I’d post my review at my recently-opened blog, which is linked through my handle. You know I’ll review it on time because the top post on my blog right now is my review of the Loretta Chase ARC I won at Smart Bitches! So, maybe it wouldn’t be fair to let me have another ARC so soon ... but on the other hand, as you can see from my blog, I’m mainly familiar with historical/Regency romances, and don’t you think I need a really awesome contemporary in my life? I think so! :D

Jennifer Crusie! Excitement abounds! I would love to write & send you a review.

I believe that anything is possible and there are more wonders in the world than we can possibly comprehend. I’m a little skeptical of most ghost stories I hear, but I can’t completely write them off.

That said, as a kid, I LOVED ghost stories and going on ghost tours (still do, really, but I don’t travel as much), and on one ghost tour, I “met” this dog who had died as the result of obnoxious drunks being obnoxious drunks. I quickly dubbed him “Ghost Dog” (creative child that I was) and took him home with me as the latest in my collection of imaginary family members. And whenever something broke in the house, it was most definitely Ghost Dog’s fault, and I never had anything to do with it. 0=D

I do believe in ghosts. I have seen two, both associated with the death of the same aunt when I was about 10. One of them was her (also recently deceased) husband, who wandered across my backyard the night of her visitation. In the other instance, I dreamed that the aunt came floating through my window as a ghost to tell me to tell my mom and grandmother that she was in a good place, not to be sad, etc. I very firmly believe in ghosts.

I don’t have a book review blog yet, but it’s in the works. Maybe this book can be my first review!

We had a friend come over one day with a small child of hers. the child had never been with her to our house. The little boy suddenly ran to his mother, scared and said he was afraid of the person he saw in the adoining dining room. He said the person looked like a picture of an Indian hanging in the dining room. And the little boy wanted to leave and could not be comforted.

No one was in the dining room. Our house is over 100 years old.

I believe in ghosts, which is why I avoid houses touted to be haunted. I don’t believe they’re all bad/mean though.

I’ve also never read Crusie (*ducking*), but heard so many great things about her in Orlando, I’d love to give it a try. And write a review.

I don’t believe in ghosts, but after my cat died (I’d had him 12 years), I saw him everywhere, felt his presence.
I’m interested to hear how much you liked this. I usually LOVE Crusie but couldn’t get into her last book with Bob Mayer.

Oh yes, I believe in ghosts.  When I was growing up, we lived in an older house.  There were always things that went bump in the night and the day.  We got used to voices coming from rooms that nobody was in.  We got used to flying dishes and “people” that we could see out of the corner ours eyes.  We I grew up and moved out, it took me awhile to get used to a place without ghosts.

1. Yes, my aunt has “seen” my g-pa several times.
2. No

I believe in ghosts! I’ve definitely felt presences in my day. The spookiest of which was when I was in 7th grade at home in my room, I heard a woman’s voice shout ‘no, don’t, please don’t!’ and then a gunshot come from the living room area. There was, of course, no one in there. My mother was watching Indochine in the next room, but that movie is entirely in French and doesn’t have any actual gunshots in it.

I believe in ghosts but I haven’t had any direct experience. Just know lots of people with strange stories to tell. And I loved reading the stories here.  I’d be glad to furnish a review if I won an ARC. But, if not, I’ll buy a copy and review it anyway!

totally believe in ghosts. i believe there is one in our house. haven’t seen it lately, but it did appear once.

1. I’d like to believe in ghosts. At the museum my mom worked in for 30+ years, all the people with access to the art vault (not actually that many people) swore that the first director of the museum could occasionally be seen wandering the vault, and that he would move things around.

2. I’d love to review the book and send it to you, as I don’t have a blog. I love Crusie, and I can’t wait to read this, ARC or no ARC.

I absolutely believe in ghosts! They are just spirits that hang around after someone dies…but they don’t kill or hurt anyone…hahaha =) why do i believe this? cause I saw this show once where they figured out that there was a ghost living in this lighthouse…and it totally looked real to me!

I very much believe in ghosts. I am somewhat sensitive and have been able to see and hear things since I was little.

I can’t wait for the new Cruise to come out! I have been anticipating it for months. I do try to review books. Mostly I use http://weread.com/ espec,ially as a facebook app. Now onto my ghost story.

My husband and my first apartment was haunted. Cashews would disappear by the handfuls, which we tried for weeks to prove it was mice or the like. We seriously would not keep cashews in the house. Pipe smoke would suddenly appear, thought neither of us smoke. I would feel watched, or see shadows. My husband claims to have seen a man, but I never witnessed an apparition. I DID personally witness phone cords being swung for no reason, with no one by them. It was not the wind. The cords acted as if they were tripped on or a cat came by and flicked them with her tail. Again, we did not have a cat or other pet.
Being sensitive, I always felt like there was a man who died in the bathroom. I was actually terrified to use the bathroom in the middle of the night. When our lease was up, we told the land lord about the strange things. It so happened that her father used to live in our apartment. He passed away of a heart attack in the bathroom. He also love cashews and smoked a pipe. That is the god’s honest truth.

I don’t know if I believe in ghosts, as in spirits of the dead manifesting themselves, etc. I definitely believe things go on that we can’t explain. I’m tremendously in love with ghost stories, though, and I’m lucky enough to have a few of my own.

When I was 13, I stayed at the Lizzie Borden house in Fall River, Massachusetts to celebrate a friend’s birthday. There was another family staying in the house that weekend that had a daughter about our age, so altogether there were four of us teenage girls seeing what trouble we could get up to.

That night we decided to hold a “seance” with the inn’s Ouija board. We chose the parlor, a room that had rarely been used during Lizzie Borden’s life, and set ourselves up cross-legged in a circle around the board on the floor. It was late at night and we were all feeling giddy and a little scared. Our attempts to contact the spirit of Andrew Borden, Lizzie’s father (who’d had his skull crushed in the living room next door back in 1892), yielded poor results, probably because we were giggling pretty hard. At any rate, getting impatient and wanting something creepy to happen, I finally shouted, “Andrew Borden, if you’re here, knock three times.” Then I added “...on the ceiling if you waaaant meee.” We had devolved into another fit of the giggles when we heard three knocks.

All of us stopped short, and then the knocking continued, getting faster. It sounded like someone was banging on the ceiling of the basement below us. We could feel the knocks moving in a circle around us. I looked down and could swear it looked like a fist was punching up under the rug. There was a pressure at my back, like something was pushing me forwards, and when I glanced at my friends I saw that they were also leaning forwards. Two of them had rolled their eyes back in their heads, and the third looked absolutely terrified.

Finally it—whatever it was—stopped. We sat in silence for a second, stupefied, and then the light went out. That broke the spell and we ran out of the room, screaming. When we talked about it afterward, we all agreed that we’d seen, heard, and felt the same things.

Ultimately I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation for our experiences, one that’s not supernatural at all. I just haven’t found it, yet.

I’m so excited about the new Crusie novel!!! I also definitely believe in ghosts. I haven’t directly experienced anything ghostly, but my friend told me some creepy stories about how unexplained occurrences have occurred in her house and I know that there are plenty of other people with a similar story. I can definitely see that there are souls that have unfinished business and they can’t rest peacefully.

I’d definitely review this book and send it to you too if I win the opportunity!

Yes. I believe.
Always have.
When I was a wee toddler we lived in an ordinary semi-detached home down a typical street. But there was something not so normal at the end of our backyard. Bramble hedges and raspberry bushes were all that separated my swing play and a graveyard. Of course, being only four I didn’t know what lay beyond those thorn covered hedges. Not until after we moved out, and I was sharing this story with my parents, did I find out the icky truth (yeah, what were they thinking buying a house there?)
I had a tiny front box room. One particular night I remember being tapped on the back mid-sleep. I stirred but didn’t register fully what had happened. I decided to drift back to sleep. Another tap, this time harder. I snapped my eyes open and lay still. Yet another tap, only this time it wasn’t a tap. It felt like a thumb. At this point, you could say it was night terrors. Only it wasn’t. How do I know this? Well…
I sat up. Fully awake I watched the shadow of a man run out of my room. From the looks of his shadow he was wearing a top hat and tails. Remember, I didn’t know what was at the end of our garden.
Years passed. I witnessed him maybe once a month. I couldn’t sleep, and when I did, my dreams were more like nightmares. My parents put it down to bad dreams, and that is all. But at least they allowed me a night light.
We moved. I was about nine.
My first night there, I remember feeling relief that it was over.  Thank god that first night I shared a room with my sister because it wasn’t over. He was still there. As soon as I saw him I fled into my sisters bed.
But that was the last time I ever saw him.

Years later, a local story came to my attention. A grave keeper was rumored to have an unhealthy interest in little children. Okay. Creepy right?
And something else to add to my creep fest—the street we lived on back then was in Welsh (yes, lived in North Wales) and in English, the street means White Stone Avenue. Apparently, some graves were moved to make room for the housing estate. Yikes.

So. Yes. I believe.
Spent many years investigating them, learning everything I can about the paranormal world and even going to the lengths of spending the night in (IMO) THE most haunted house in UK, The Ancient Ramm Inn—one night I will never forget—all my nightmares rolled into one. You’d have to hold me at gun point to get me back in there.

That’s only a small part of why I believe in ghosts.
And judging by all these responses, and frenzy of ghost shows on the TV atm, I’m not alone.

Yes, I believe in ghosts.  Several years back I was watching a movie with a friend and her Mother.  We were the only ones in the house.  I needed to go to the bathroom but since I have always been sensitive to things in the dark, I rushed through the long dark hallway looking at my feet.  Suddenly I bumped into someone.  “Sorry,” I said and stepped into the bathroom, closed the door and turned on the light.  As soon as I did that it hit me that the person I had bumped into was deceased.  I opened the door but no one was there.

If someone were to take a picture of me looking at the new Crusie, I’d imagine I’d look like my cat going after a catnip-filled cat toy: odd combination of greed, joy, with a dash of the crazy.

1. I’ve never seen nor heard a ghost, but I have been in older houses where I’ve felt ... I guess the impression of the people who have lived there. It’s like the feeling you get between a new house that has been lived in for a bit, and a new house that has yet to be occupied. People leave their marks on a place, and even when all the furniture has been moved out, the walls repainted, you can still feel that. And if there were great emotions? (great love or something far more negative?) Yeah, those leave the biggest impressions. And if someone sees that as a person? Who am I to judge.

2. I would be utterly delighted to write a review and submit to you.

Yes, I believe in ghosts.

My parents ran a boarding house when I was younger (60s & 70s) which my husband & I also lived in when we 1st got married (90s) which by that time was split into 2 apartments.  One of the front bedrooms was cold, clammy & uninviting. The family that lived in the house with us (that had that room) told us about a young girl that would visit on nights, crying while standing over the bed. They stopped using the room due to not enjoying her visits.

Years later, one of the original boarders that lived with us in the early 70s came & visited us. They were reminiscing about the house and recalled not liking their bedroom. They too had been woken up several times by a young girl crying over their bed. This gave me the creeps and I asked them which was their room and sure enough it was the same one as the other tenants.

These 2 families are unrelated and to our knowledge have never met and they lived in the home 2 decades apart. There is no untoward house history that we are aware of. After 35 years my mother sold the house so it is now someone-else’s ghost.

I don’t believe in ghosts - I’m a bit of a sceptic in general - but I like a good ghost story.
I don’t have a blog/website, but I’d write a review if you wanted to post it.

I used to live in the Maritimes, and if you want ghosts in Canada, go there!  I had one give me a “right scare” when I was alone in my house one night.  Granted, I lived beside the only crack-house in town and I was more worried that some addict had broken in and was trying to steal something, but I was all alone, and the huge crash sound I heard was absolutely nothing.  Not a thing was out of place, even though the floors shook and the windows rattled.  :/

And I’ll totally review it!

I absolutely do! When my son was born, we lived in a very old house. We had a cat that would always try to chew the nipples on the baby bottles to get to the milk. One morning we woke up to find our kitty dead in a certain spot. This spot also happened to be where our collie would stand, and look up at a blank wall, and bark and bark and bark.  After that, we decided that our ghost was just protecting the baby, and a more motivated mother you have never seen! I really didn’t want to wind up like my kitty! There were other strange incidents, and we didn’t stay in that house too much longer.

I on the fence about ghosts. I think the idea of a ghost following/guiding a loved one to help them is an inspirational idea. However, the thought of ghosts ‘trapped’ here reliving a horrible death or crime against them is too sad to want to believe. (I just want everyone to be happy, dammit!! LOL)
And I would write a review and send it to you.

I do believe in ghosts and the paranormal.  Several members of my family (including myself) have had experiences.  The best ghost story I have involves my parents.  While they were dating, they went on a double date with a newlywed couple they knew.  After dinner, they went back to the other couple’s apartment and my dad walked into the bathroom and saw a stoop-shouldered elderly man with bushy eyebrows and white hair standing in the corner staring at him.  He looked away for a second to turn on the light and when he looked back the man had vanished.  When he rejoined the others, they could see he was freaked out and asked what had happened.  When he described the man he’d seen, the other couple gasped and said he just described their landlord who had died quite recently, even the fact that he had very stooped shoulders from having polio.  They later found out at the same time my dad saw the figure, the landlords widow (who lived downstairs) had just gotten the news that her seriously ill son in the hospital had turned the corner and would recover.

I LOVE Jennifer Crusie! So of course I’ll share my ghost story for her!

I was 10 so it was 1985 and my Grandad had been sick for a long time (lung cancer). We spent Christmas in the hospital and didn’t celebrate until Feb when he came home. Shortly after that, in the middle of the night, my mom and dad woke up with Grandad standing at the foot of their bed but he didn’t say anything. This was impossible because his house was 3 hours away from our home. My mom knew immediately he had died and she jumped up and started doing laundry and packing. My brother and I didn’t wake up for another 3 hours when the phone rang, it was my Grannie calling everyone who was calling everyone to let them know. My Dad said, “I know, we’re on our way.”  And we were. We ate powdered sugar donuts and drank chocolate milk at 6am as the big station wagon ate up the miles between our home and theirs.

I’ve always wondered if he visited everyone that night, that maybe it was his last chance to lay eyes on his 4 kids and his 9 grandkids. I wonder if anyone else saw him that night. It is one of my biggest wishes that I could have woken up to see him but I did not. He was an old coot, he smoked and drank and cursed a lot but he was also one of the most wonderful and loving men I have ever met in my life. Now that my dad is getting older I can see Grandaddy in him more and more every day (minus the smoking and drinking, none of us do that since the funeral). Its comforting.

Love Jennifer Crusie.  And yes, belive in ghosts/spirits.  When my mom was sick and dying, she was constantly seeing her dead relatives in the house and we would see shadows, hear low mumblings and get the sense of someone else there when nothing could explain the shadows, mumblings, etc.  One time I saw movement of what I thought was my son going from the den to the bathroom and I wanted to ask him something so I went to the bathroom door, which was open and empty and my son was napping on the couch in the den…
After Mom passed, the shadows, mumblings and such ended.  We believe her family had come to help her….
And I would love to write a review.

I don’t believe in ghosts but I do admit to being spooked after watching scary movies.  The worst was after watching The Grudge and The Ring. 

I don’t think I’ve read many ghosts featuring in romances - Anne Stuart had one, I think.  Anyway, I would love to read this one.  Looks great.

What a fab cover!  I believe in there after. 

It is a Pearl Harbor legend that the USS Arizona will continue to leak oil, Black Tears, until all of its survivors have passed on to join their fallen soldiers.  After visiting the memorial several times, I have felt the sailors’ presence.

On the other side of Ford Island, the USS Utah lays half submerged in the channel.  Fewer sailors lost their lives, but they also took with them the ashes of a baby girl whose father intended to bury at sea.  It is another Pearl Harbor legend that 58 of the Navy’s finest stand guard over this baby girl.  The Navy has granted special permission for the twin sister to be interred with her sister when she passes, too.  Fewer tourists visit the USS Utah memorial, but it is just as haunting as the USS Arizona.

I would post a review on my website.

I don’t really believe in ghosts, though I do like to joke that I have one in my house. Once our hall cedar closet got locked from the inside (we actually thought we had an intruder in there and called the police! We ended up having to get a locksmith to come out and open it up for us!) and occasionally we’ll hear random noises and things will be moved or slightly changed. We just blame it on the ghost!

I’d flown out to be with my mom and sister during Mom’s last days, but had to return home to take care of some things since I’d been gone so long. As the plane waited on the tarmac and I started to dose, a crystal clear picture of her came to me, very much like Princess Leia’s holo message via R2D2. In this little image, Mom was laughing and smiling, bent forward with her hands on her knees, and the happiness radiating from her was almost physical. A call to my sister when I got home told me Mom was still alive, but no longer conscious. I know nothing about ghosts, spirits or energy, but she was there and we were all going to be OK.

Sure, I’d love to try a review.

A new Jennifer Crusie?? I didn’t even know this was on the horizon! I am super excited!

I don’t believe in ghosts - it just doesn’t seem logical to do so.

Yeesh, that would be “doze,” not “dose.” Where’s the edit button?

I definitely believe in ghosts (and am ready for the new Jenny Crusie to prove me right (or wrong)!).  I think if you believe in there being something spiritual in the world—God, love, anything—you have to believe that spirits have power and that that could take a ghostly form.

I don’t believe in ghosts. I require empirical proof and have never encountered any that made me want to change my mind.

Having said that, the rest of my family went on holiday together a few years ago, and had some very strange experiences in the house they stayed in: an incomprehensible smell of cigar smoke, a cold odd feeling at the top of a flight of stairs, a strange banging that stopped when told to, frequent nightmares, and something that sounded like breathing in the night. I think there are probably reasonable explanations for these phenomena - old houses can be eerie, especially when they’re unfamiliar - but it makes a great story, and I do love a good ghost story!

OMG, I’m so excited for this book.  But that’s all I wanted to say.  I don’t want to be in a give-away, because of this long story about home renovations taking longer than necessary and having books scattered everywhere and not needing to add to the pile.  But I just had to express my enthusiasm for a new Jennifer Cruisie book without a collaborator.

I’m a ghost skeptic, but I’m not quite an unbeliever. I’ve never had a ghost experience but I’m willing to believe that they may exist. Just because I’ve never seen them doesn’t mean they don’t. However, since I’ve never encountered one, its hard for me to believe in them completely.

No review blog, sorry :( But I know people who have them and I would be willing to send the ARC on to them after I was done (as long as I got it back!)

Oh - i feel like I’ve been waiting for this book forever as I’ve been listening to Jenny talk about writing it on her blog at arghink for months now. If I don’t get the ARC, be sure I’ll be picking it up on the 24th and spending the night in one straight read through.

I don’t actually believe in ghosts. But I do believe that there is more in Heaven and Earth, Horatio…and I’m not about to limit the possibilities of what may happen that’s beyond my understanding. I think it’s possible that places have memories and may retain some echo of the things that have happened there. And perhaps some essence of a dead person could likewise leave an echo, but I’m a Christian and my personal beliefs are that souls don’t linger once the body has ended. I think ghost hunting is more hype than fact but since I’ve never done it, I really can’t judge.

BUT - it does make for a good story! And I’m unbelievably excited about this one!

I believe in ghosts, somewhat.  My mother is convinced that our first family dog, who saw the birth of every one of my siblings and myself, after she had recently passed away, saved my toddler sister from getting hurt in the house by a light fixture that unexpectedly fell where she had been.  My grandfather also passed away while fishing, so lakes hold special spooky significance to my mother, and she probably put some of that on me.

Yay! A new Cruisie! I don’t believe in ghosts, at least not in the traditional sense of them being the spirits of dead people, but I do believe that things happen that can only be explained by the spiritual/paranormal.
I’ve never written a book review before, but if I won I would definitely be willing to try. By the way, this site introduced me to Jennifer Cruisie, so I feel like I owe you a debt.

1. I am totally thrilled for a single title from Crusie. I’ve been less than enamored of her collabs and haven’t even read the last 2 so I hope this one is worth it.

2. I believe in ghosts in that I can’t disprove that they exist and acknowledge that some hinky shit goes on. Like that time I was in college and both my roommates were away and I was laying in bed and just about to fall asleep when I swear to god someone said my name twice. I would’ve just assumed I was more asleep than I thought but we lived in a building that’d had weird things happen before (my roommate took a bath one night, turned the faucet off, and it turn itself back on).

Then again I went to Waverly Hills, considered one of the most haunted buildings in the U.S., and other than being severely creeped out by the history I had none of the experiences others have had.

3. I would totally review it if I got a copy.

Ghosts?  Not so much-but I don’t strongly disbelieve either.  More like I consider them highly unlikely, and haven’t ever seen or experienced anything that would make me believe in them.  But what I do believe is that I would love to read this book early!  I don’t have a review blog-but I’d be happy to give writing a review a shot; I think it will be more “I loved this book” than “here’s why” though.

I belive in ghosts because I have definitely felt the presence of people I could not see and seen people who could not be there, like my grandmother shortly after her death. (Wow, this makes me sound a little crazy.

I am so excited for this new Crusie book and I would be delighted to review it!

I believe in ghosts because i have one in my house and oh holy ghost, do I want this book!!!!!!!

Totally excited about this book… I’m only #488 on my library’s waiting list for it (and I signed up a while ago, who knows how long that list is now) so winning it would certainly help me read it before next year sometime.

As for ghosts… I’m inclined to be a believer… to me ghosts are like aliens… they’re not entirely impossible.

I love writing book reviews… though I can be a bit scathing at times, at least I’m honest :-)

I don’t believe in ghosts personally but I love a romance that has a ghost story!  If I get the ARC I will be reviewing it on my blog, The Adventures of a Newly Employed Librarian. I love Jennifer Cruise!!

Ghosts. I don’t like to call what I’ve experienced ghosts. Presences? Probably splitting semantic hairs, but I haven’t felt an individual ghostly personality, but I have known when I’m in the presence of supernatural nuances.

‘hot63’—Why thank you, I will be 63 next month and I love thinking I’m hot—and not just from the hot flashes.

I do believe in ghosts.  Though I have never seen one, I’ve definitely felt the presence of something “otherworldly” to borrow someone else’s phrase.  It wasn’t a friendly something either.  There was a room in a relative’s home that somehow felt extraordinarily unwelcome to females.  Every single woman who walking into that room felt it and couldn’t stay for long.  And it didn’t matter how old you were.  The relative eventually sold the house.  Have no idea if he discussed the “ghost” in the room.

Would be happy to review the book on my blog.

I do not believe in ghosts.  I do believe in a good story that involves ghost.  Can I just say The Ghost and Mrs. Muir?
I absolutly adore Crusie.  After the last collaboration novel that involved demons, I would be stoked to see what she can do with ghosts.

I do believe in ghosts, but I’ve only ever seen ghost-cats.  I am not sure there are all that many human souls locked on the earth.  I think God’s a better housekeeper than I am.

No, I don’t believe in ghosts.  I’m a science person, so I’d have to have hard proof.
I would be glad to review the book after reading it, but I don’t have a blog on which to post it.  I’d send to you, though.

A new book? Awesome! I’ve been thinking lately I really need to start reading more.

As for ghosts, I believe in them 100%. I’m a huge skeptic so I don’t believe just any story i’m told, but I know ghosts exist. I saw one when I was a kid. It came in and sat on my bed for a while, so I stayed very quiet, and then it left. I think it was just tired. Everybody jokes about how I must have been reading something scary before bed, but even my child self could tell the difference between dreams and reality. I was awake, and that person was transparent and glowing softly.

Book reviews I can do. I love reviewing books. Books are just about my favourite thing in the whole world, along with writing.

I don’t know that I believe in ghosts, but I absolutely believe in…left over energy, I guess I could call it. I love ghost stories, and should anything like a ghostly encounter happen to me, I’d be completely open to it, but thus far I haven’t experienced anything neatly categorized under “ghosts”. That said, there are absolutely places and objects that seem to emanate a certain feeling or vibe, and despite my husband’s merciless teasing of me, I’m a huge believer in vibes. So, A Jennifer Crusie that might have ghosts? Definitely impatient to get my hands on this book, by hook or by crook.

spamword: children68
Holy crap, no. Two are PLENTY for me.

Well some of us chicks in the UK do believe in things that go bump in the night. Well I do, although this didn’t happen to me parse but more my mum!
Somewhat confused she asked me one morning, “Why do you keep coming in my room at night and staring at me?”
Totally confused I told her I hadn’t done that at all. She would laugh and say I was obviously sleep walking. Till the next evening it happened again and she obviously woke more to prove to me I was doing this. Alas though, it wasn’t me standing above her when she confronted said person and then then dissapeared into thin air! No it was her nan who had died when she was 4 years old! Needless to say I have believed since then and so has my mum!

I do book reviews of books I read and these are put onto my site and another book review site :) I love books, love reading and quite frankly if I don’t find a way to fund my book habit soon I will have to turn to crime!!! M x

I believe in the possibility of ghosts.  I haven’t seen one but I cannot say they don’t exist.  I did visit Randall’s Ordinary in Connecticut (I think it’s the oldest still-running tavern/restaurant in the U.S.) and was disappointed that the resident ghost did not choose to make an appearance.  Also, I want to believe since my sister has said she’ll do something to me that I don’t like after I’m dead so I have promised I will become a ghost and haunt her if she does, so it better be possible!

I am a huge Jennifer Crusie fan, both alone and in collaboration.  Fred’s book is my favorite (I know he’s the dog but he’s very memorable)!

Regarding the ghost question… I vacillate between skepticism and agnosticism on that.  I’ve never had anything I could characterize as a paranormal experience, although several people I know claim that they have.  I’m doubtful about the existence of an afterlife, confident about the power of suggestion, and aware that the plural of anecdote is not data; but I also agree with Hamlet that “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,/Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

Regarding a review… I don’t have a website, but I’m willing and able to write a review.  In fact, I’d love the opportunity.

So I’m really a pretty hardcore skeptic.  I blame it on the rebound that happened after I moved away from Albuquerque—that place would make the staunchest atheist a new age believer.  I think there’s something in the water.  But I have had one experience that made me really question my thoughts about ghosts.

So 1994 was a pretty bad year.  My maternal grandmother died, six weeks later my paternal grandmother dies, and two months after that my paternal grandfather, my beloved Granddaddy, died, too.  We were regulars at the funeral home which, let me tell you, is never a good feeling. 

After Granddaddy’s funeral, my parents were left with the task of cleaning out his house.  My grandfather loved golf—he hit four holes-in-one after he started playing regularly—and he loved watching it, too.  He had a small television, probably from the early 70s, that he kept in his den so he could watch golf in peace.  The TV was bequeathed to my younger sister.  This television was so old that there was no remote control, only the dial that had to be advanced through all the channels if you wanted to get to one at the top.  Every time you turned it on, you had to go through 2, 3, 4, whatever, to get to maybe 13. 

One night, a couple of weeks after my sister took over the TV, she woke up screaming.  The rest of us ran into the bedroom.  She was huddled on the bed and just pointed at the television.  It was on, she said, and she had never been out of bed. 

That’s when I realized that the TV was on channel 7.  There was no way that the TV would have accidentally flipped to that channel.  Somehow, at 3a, it was playing a golf recap from earlier in the day.

I still wonder if it was my Granddaddy back to say he was okay.

I am skeptical.  Neither Ghosthunters or any of the other shows about ghosts have convinced me that do or don’t exist. Why is it that Ghosthunters rarely finds anything, but Ghosthunters Int’l almost always does?  And really, its all TV anyway.

Holy moley, I’m so excited about this book! I love reading these comments, too; lots of spooky tales.

I believe in ghosts and have felt their presence, but haven’t seen one. My grandfather used to talk to them all the time, but he says they stopped coming to him a few years ago (right around the time he began to show signs of Alzheimer’s).

One of my friends used to live in an old house in Charleston. One night she woke up and went to the bathroom, and after a minute or two she realized that the room had changed: suddenly there was wallpaper on the walls, a big clawfoot bathtub, old-fashioned perfume bottles, etc. next to the sink. As you can imagine, this startled her. She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again everything was back to normal.

Later, she was chatting with her landlord and found out that a woman who had lived in the house in the twenties had committed suicide in that bathroom.

I don’t believe in ghosts, partly because such things don’t happen to me.  In the first Felix Castor book, The Devil You Know, there’s a woman who can’t see ghosts at all.  She’s beyond insensitive to them.  I might be that, I might never have gone to the right places, ghosts and such might not exist—can’t prove a negative.

That said, when good luck saves people in my mom’s family, it’s her mother, Ruth Ann.  Ruth Ann watches out for her girls.

I was a theatre major in college, and theatre people are pretty much required to believe in ghosts.  No self-respecting stage would be without its own personal ghost.  In college, our black box theatre was located in the stands of the old football stadium, so ours was the ghost of a football player who died on the field in the 20s.  I never had a profound interaction with Nick the Ghost, but I always heard people talk about strange thumping sounds, flickering lights, weird auras that appeared in stage pictures.  One friend even saw a man’s silhouette in a doorway, but no one was there when he got up to investigate.  Of course, all this can be explained by the facts that the theatre was old, dark, rundown, and there were cats living in it, but I choose to believe in the ghost.

I love ghosts in my romance novels, and if I won this, I would totally review it and send that review along.

Well, I have yet to meet a ghost, but if I do I will let you know. I do believe in sock gnomes who are always stealing one sock from the dryer if that counts.
I would review the book on goodreads, my blog, and bn.com.
I would love me a sexy flexible paperback ;)
Have a nice friday ladies.

I am a skeptic but I do believe.  Mostly because my great-grandmother experienced a few nighttime visitations.  Usually when someone in the family was near death she would tell us “I saw that man again last night.”  She said a man in black used to stand at the foot of her bed, sometimes with a child.  I think the man was her brother that died when she was young and the child was a daughter that she lost as a baby.  She also saw people in a particular rocking chair and now I can’t stand to see an empty chair rocking…

i believe that most paranormal events can’t be proved false. and though i haven’t experienced one first hand i know people who have, so i’m stealing their ghost stories:

A math teacher of mine saw a little boy and a woman in a house her family owned. Her sister got locked in a bathroom, while living there alone, and could only get out when she said, “Please stop, you’re scaring me.” A closet light wouldn’t stay off (even when the lightbulb was removed), and in one corner, any picture taken would have a string of lights in an arch in the background. I’ve heard many more stories, too. I just have to believe they are possible.

I would love to review this book and send it to you!

Ghosts?  Nope. I do think we haunt ourselves with regrets, fears, and shame.

Review? You betcha!  Have to send it in though as I’m an internet wanderer with no home of her own!

Spamword: top21.  What I would name my blog should I ever create one.

I don’t believe in ghosts. I do believe that it’s a lot of fun to be scared or spooked or encounter “unexplained” things that set your imagination spinning. It’s also nice to imagine what dead people would say if they could see us now, or vice versa. That’s what’s so great about ghost stories: you can immerse yourself in spooky mystery and spine-tingling romance and it’s all contained within the covers of the book (or the movie or whatever). For a few hours everything is real and anything can happen.

I think my favorite ghost stories are the Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Timeskip by Charles de Lint (short story in the Dreams Underfoot collection, and totally copied—and made scarier—by a Doctor Who episode last season, called “Blink”), and the Haunted Bookshop mysteries by Alice Kimberly. The latter are awesome, as the ghost in question is a murdered stereotypical Sam Spade sort of detective, who is falling in love with the bookstore owner as he helps her solve murders.

I do not believe in ghosts at this time, although I am not prepared to dismiss the possibility completely. Mostly because I have experienced being on the actual site of the Alamo and getting a distinct creepy chill being there.

I do however believe in awesome ARCs, and reviewing same! ;)

I might believe in ghosts.  Sort of.  A little bit.  Like, I believe in residual energy.  If a lot of really bad things happen in a place I believe that place will retain bad vibes or what have you.  And I believe that I have really and truly talked to my grandparents in dreams.  But I think the governess is crazy in the Turn of the Screw.

I would, could, totally want to review that book.  In fact, I NEED it.  NEED.

Ooh, I would LOVE to get an ARC! Please enter me in the drawing.

I don’t believe in ghosts - it would take an actual incontrovertible personal experience to convince me, and that’s never happened - but I adore ghost stories. (I think I might not enjoy them nearly as much if I did believe in ghosts - I’d find the subject too freaky and no longer playful!)

I believe that some emotional connections are too strong to break, even through death, and that some personalities are so strong and complex and stubborn that they leaves echoes of themselves behind.

To be honest, though, I’ll believe in anything you like if it will score me a Cruisie ARC.

And if I do, I’ll be thrilled the review it on my blog—-I promise to edit out all the squees!

I totally believe in ghosts. I love ghost stories. I love the history of it all. I would love to be able to actually contact the spirits.
I would absolutely review the book. I would leave it on my blog.
Thanks so much for the chance to win!

I’m not sure about ghosts. I haven’t experienced one but some people I trust (Eileen Dreyer, Shelley Mosely) tell credible tales of their experiences with them. I’d like to be convinced.

I don’t blog or review books ordinarily but I’ve seen the Booklist, Kirkus and Library Journal reviews of this book and I’m curious. I’d like to read it and give a “definitive” review.

I wouldn’t say that I believe or disbelieve as I haven’t had any official encounters with them but I’m not ruling them out as a possibility.

When I first got married we lived in a 500 year old
thatched cottage in Wiltshire, England. Weird stuff happened, The back door would lock my husband out when he went outside and when we lay in bed at night you could hear people talking downstairs. We didn’t realize we’d both heard them until after we moved having been reluctant to mention it!!

Ooo, a new Jennifer Crusie book! Yes, please! I love her writing and it’s been too long since I read a contemporary. Plus, I really love ghost stories (both the scary and benevolent kind).

Do I believe in ghosts? ....yes? (she said hesitantly.) I *think* I do. I definitely believe in unexplained forces and supernatural presences. I’ve never encountered a ghost or a haunted place myself, but I’ve heard friends who I trust 100% talk about their experiences. One friend has a string of stories about a haunted dorm at her college (the hauntings ceased after it was remodeled).

I don’t have a blog, but I’d be perfectly happy to write a review and send it in to you. In fact, I’d be downright excited to do so!

(Sidenote: All these ghost stories remind me of Anne Shirley and Diana Barry freaking themselves out telling ghost stories while walking through the haunted wood. :)

I do like ghost stories. I’m always hoping I’ll meet one, but no luck yet. I have a blog and will post a review on it if I win the ARC. It will be at (http://zita-is-booked.blogspot.com/)

I would like to believe in ghosts, because being a poltergeist just sounds like fun.

And while I don’t normally review books, I would completely make an exception in this case, and could send the review to you.

I’m honestly unsure.

Crazy for the geology major, huh?

But a while back, my cousin (she lives nearby) kept coming over to use her spare key. She said she kept locking herself out.

Eventually, one night, she came over and said she thinks her place is haunted. She went on about doors slamming and spooky feelings and said that’s when she kept getting locked out.

Oh, and she says other people admit to it, too. When she was babysitting a friend’s kids for a few days (overnight trip), she says the oldest boy told her one morning that he’d woken up in the middle of the night and saw a man standing over the guest bed. He was obviously speaking with his mouth moving like it was, but no sound came out. And the boy said “What scared me the most, though, is I looked down, about to jump out of the bed and get OUT of there…I looked down and the man had no feet.”

And he stayed in bed after that, and doesn’t remember going to sleep.

Now, I haven’t seen the kid and been able to catch him alone. And he’s 14, so he might just decide to be a cuss and lie about it either way (Fourteen: The Age of Der Stoopid, and you’d have to know him anyway). And I’m not sure if my cousin is completely reliable either (she says she’s seen a lot of weird crap. Like, being at a cemetery and leaning against a statue of Jesus at the front. And swearing there was a grating sound as the statue moving its foot over a little to make room. She says she got the HECK out of there after that).

But it’s enough to make me keep an open mind. That way, the crow won’t taste so bad when it happens.

And I’d be happy to review this one by sending the reviews into here.

spamword: research76.

I believe in “ghosts,” but not the standard flying white Casper like creatures (though I love Casper!).  My sister used to live in this house. It was vacant for many years, but she took up the top floor. Everytime my little sister (she was just a baby at the time) was there, she would scream and cry. She wouldn’t stop until she was in a car and driving away. Many times screen doors were seen opening. There was an incident with a pitchfork being struck into her back wooden door. It was some creepy, creepy stuff. 

I only remember it because it used to have this cellar like building attached. One of my friends and I went in there and found some really old stuff along with this old portrait…and what do you know? The mysterious pitchfork. Needless to say, my sister moved out and I’m not going back!!

*cue some creepy, ghost music*

And I don’t review books professionally. I used to keep my own blog but I can never keep up on my reviews. I read too many!!! But oh do I love Crusie’s books!

Totally accept fictional ghosts, not so much in the real world. And am SO ready for this book!!! (Been reading Crusie’s blog.)

I don’t believe in ghosts. I just don’t see any convincing evidence that they exist, plus their existence wouldn’t make sense to my from a scientific standpoint.

I’d be happy to review this book on my blog!

I grew in a huge old Victorian, so it’s almost impossible for me not to believe in them. My family spends a large portion of its time sharing stories—I’ve had faucets turn themselves on and off, trinkets get moved around, and sometimes the CD player turns on and flips through tracks (this actually happened when my father was asleep; he thought the house was being robbed). People make lots of explanations for why those things happen, but I prefer to believe that we have a friendly Casper.

In real life? Not so sure. But in my books? Love them! Mostly I tend to see them in mysteries, but I’m happy happy happy when they cross over into my romances. :)

I don’t have a blog, but I’d be happy to send you my review.

I don’t believe in ghosts because if I died and had a choice between reading a good book up in heaven (they only have good books there I’ve heard) and scaring people down here on Earth (where there are a large number of not so good books) I’d stay up in heaven. I assume most deceased people would agree with me.

However- when I am home alone my disbelief does not stop me from freaking out every time I hear a noise from another room.

I would also review this book on my blog if I got the ARC.

I had a best friend in high school that swore her long dead ancestors were still living in her 100+ year old house, so how could I be a good friend and NOT believe in ghosts?

I don’t believe in ghosts necessarily, but I do believe that positive and negative energy can hang around a place long after its inhabitants have left.

I can review it at my blog.

It seems like some people are more susceptible to ghostly occurrences or phenomena - our family history is rife with odd and bizarre ghost stories and when my oldest son bought his first home, guess what was inhabiting it?  We live in a small town so we have bumped into several people that lived in that house and they all have similiar stories about it being haunted.  After he married, our daughter in law put up with it for a year and then, very understandably, wanted to move out so we rented the house for awhile.  My husband drove by one day and saw the father of the family renting the house pacing nervously up and down outside in the yard, smoking furiously.  He stopped and asked him if anything was wrong whereupon the renter turned volubly and slightly hysterically on him and informed my husband he wasn’t going back in the house until his family came home- apparently all the steroes and tvs in the house had turned themselves on full blast and every time he shut them off they would turn back on-
My husband assured him that was a common occurance and asked if he had seen the person in the mirror yet-
they moved out shortly after….
I don’t have a blog but would be very happy to write a review of the book-

I don’t have a website but YES I’d LOVE to review this book (and I’ll keep the all CAPS in check).
Yes I do believe in ghosts. Whenever a member of my family has died I’ve either dreamed of them saying good bye (just before that horrible phone call with the bad news) or sensed their presence in a way that isn’t just that person popping into my thoughts (again just before that horrible phone call). Years after my grandmothers deaths little things that were special to just the two of us pop up here and there.

Totally believe in ghosts!  I always suspected that they existed but then I had a “visit” when my daughter was born - not a visual mind you but I just KNEW my grandmother was there - so that sealed the deal.  Besides, if they didn’t exist there are a lot of people making a lot of money pretending to be ghosts in strange places and there is no education or licensing program for that so I think it’s an industry that does not exist.

I can review all sorts of places - my home blog, my review blog and at goodreads.

I believe in ghosts, mostly thanks to my mom.  She had a run in with a ghost when she was a child and lived in Santa Barbra.  To hear her tell it still gives me the chills and it’s something she can recall with great detail and can even draw a picture of what the lady looked like.
I haven’t read the book yet but really want to :)  If I happen to win it, I can always send you my review :)

I want to be sucked in: I haven’t been grabbed by a book in over three weeks! I’m so desperate that I’m thinking of dusting off some of my old favorites.