Giveaway on Friday? Sure, why not! I have five ARCs of Jennifer Crusie’s upcoming hardcover, “Maybe This Time,” and you can win one.
This book is Crusie’s first single-author single-title in a few years (as in, she didn’t collaborate on this one) and when the ARC arrived on my doorstep a few weeks ago, I idly started reading the first page, only to find that I’d stood at my kitchen counter reading the first chapter completely blind and deaf to everything around me. My house is loud, so this was alarming. I was sucked in immediately, and couldn’t stop reading.
I’d love to hear what you think of it before the book comes out at the end of the month. Want a copy? A sexy flexible paperback ARC?
Alls you have to do is:
1. Tell me in the comments if you believe in ghosts and why/why not. Ghost stories are totally ok to share.
2. Let me know if you review the book after you’ve read it, and where your review is (or, you can send it over to me if you don’t have your own website).
Easy, right?
You’ve got 48 hours and I’ll announce the winners on Sunday and, with luck and quick responses, start mailing the big ol’ packages Monday morning.
Standard disclaimer: I’m not being compensated for this giveaway. I will ship to international prizewinners. I will not eat them in a box. We’ve got to hold on to what we’ve got. No shirt, no shoes, no service.
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! 😀
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.