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.
I don’t know if I believe in ghosts or not. I think it would be totally awesome if they did exist, and I LOVE watching ghost hunters, but I’ve never had a personal experience. I’ve even been on a bunch of ghost tours, and I got nothing! 🙁
I totally believe in ghosts, as there are too many things around us that we can not explain, so why not ghosts. I will review the book (but it will be in russian 🙂
I’ve—felt a ghost. In West Yellowstone, Montana. Does that count?
You’re darn tootin’ I believe in ghosts. When I was in my last year of college I went on a summer vacation with my folks. We viewed it as our last vacation before I officially became an adult in their eyes, even though I was over 21, but I digress. One of the places I wanted to visit was Vicksburg, MS so I could see the Vicksburg Civil War Battlefield Memorial. We arrived, got our audio tour, and set off. I was in historian heaven. The state memorials were awe inspiring and the recreations of the battlements impressive. At one point I got out and walked off a bit by myself, looking at the trenches. I stood there, remembering the hardships and loss of life I’d read about in my studies. Before I knew it I was smelling cordite, and hearing soldiers calling to each other. I could reach out and touch them they were so clear. Rebs and Yanks harassing each other. When my dad saw me he wandered over and asked if I was OK. I asked, “Can you smell it?” Needless to say he was perplexed. “The cordite, Dad. Can you smell it?” He looked at me wondering if I had lost it. He saw I was serious and he just looked out at the battlefield. It was similar to experiencing a intense moment in a church or other sanctified place.
It was a hair raising moment. We talked about it further amongst ourselves, but I was convinced. Yep, thar be ghosts here! You just have to pay attention. My dad still brings it up from time-to-time and likes to retell it to his friends.
I’ve reviewed in the past, and would be more than willing to write one for it. However, since I don’t have a blog this might be difficult. Guest reviewer, SB Sarah?
As the Scarecrow said, “I do believe in spooks! I do believe in spooks! I do, I do I do(or something like that)”
I would love to review it on my blog
Oh yeah, I believe in ghosts. During summer break after Sophomore year in college I had a very vivid dream about a friend coming to tell me good bye and he was sorry we wouldn’t get more time together. That fall I found out he had OD’d on heroin. I can’t be sure it was the same night but I very rarely remember dreams. Maybe one or two a year, so it seems likely.
There is also a house on what used to be Ft. Omaha that has a cold room. Most everybody notices it because it’s chilly even when it’s hot and humid. It’s a museum now.
I like to leave reviews for books I read on LibraryThing and Goodreads and I belong to the Kindle Smut bookclub on Goodreads so we have ongoing threads about books we are reading.
LOVE Crusie! Gimmie, PLEASE!!
Ghosts … absolutely do believe in them. The closest I’ve ever come to a personal ghost story was about 9 years ago. My son was just 2 years old then and playing alone in his room. He was talking, which was odd for him because he was always very quiet when he played with his cars. I thought maybe he was reading to himself, but I still went to check on him. He was just sitting on the floor looking towards his closet and when I asked him what he was doing he told me he was talking to the lady. I got him to leave the room with me and about 5 minutes later my husband gets home from work. He walks in the door and just freezes for a second and then says “Who’s here?” and I told him that no one was here, but he says “Someone’s here.” then he walks right to our son’s room. I didn’t follow because after what my son said and my husband acting so strangely, I was slightly creeped out. When he comes back out he tells me that it was just his grandmother paying a visit because she wanted to see our son.
A few months later an uncle of mine was deathly ill. The drs didn’t know whether he’d live or die and I had been reading an article about how people who had folks praying for them seemed to better than those who didn’t. I thought about this in terms of energy and I decided to try sending my uncle some positive energy … healing, protection, that sort of thing. It wasn’t anything I’d tried before, so I waited until the middle of the night when my husband and son were asleep so that I could really focus on what I was doing. Well, I’m really in to it when my husband suddenly sits up in bed and at the exact same time our son starts crying in his room. My husband looks at me and says “What the hell are you doing?” Apparently, I’d drawn attention from a ghost. Didn’t do that again.
My husband’s whole family believes in ghosts. Apparently they lived in a haunted house for a while. According to my mother-in-law the ghost was an ancestor and, although he wasn’t malicious, he was a prankster.
I do believe in Jenny Crusie – she says, cherry juice dripping down her chin
I don’t believe in ghosts – she says, looking anxiously over her shoulder
I do want to win an ARC of Maybe This Time – she says, shaking her head up and down vigorously
I don’t write a blog – she says, sadly
But I will gladly write a review and send it to you if I should be so lucky as to win…
I don’t believe in ghosts, I don’t like scary stories or scary movies. I am not brave at all. However I do LOVE Jenny Cruisie! It would be great to write a review of the ARC if I get the chance. Thanks
I like ghosts…. in books, movies (Ghostbusters, anyone? I loved that!) They make movies more scary. I just loove horror stories. I love being spooked and scared out of my seat for a time. But in real life? Not so much. Never encountered any, so still remain a skeptic. Which displeases my grandmother. (Hey, Hindu mythology contains good ghosts! I love the stories she told me ;P)
And, yes, would like to write a review (just to see if i have a knack for it :P). Since I dont have a blog, i’ll just send it over to you!
Okay, I don’t think I believe in ghosts anymore, but we used to live with one. From Junior High until a few years ago (almost 2 decades) my parents lived in an old house. Things would move, your bed would get pushed, doors would open, all of the generic haunting symptoms were the norm.
The weirdest would be when you could hear footsteps. Often one person would be in the kitchen cooking and hear someone else walk in. Being the chatty people we are, the cook would just start talking without turning around and not look until there was no answer. This happened all the time, to all of us. Sometimes you would get tapped on the back while cooking alone. Guests would have the same thing happen, friends from school would get freaked, it was a common occurrence.
To this day, one friend always brings this up right when I am trying to seem intelligent. Every time I meet new people she wants me to tell them about my ghost.
I would totally write my opinion of this book and send it to you. I may try not to believe in ghosts, but I enjoy reading about them.
I am on the fence about ghosts. Last year while staying over at my grandparents house for the first time since they had both died I definitely have a scare. I will admit to already being on edge and refusing to sleep in a room by myself. Since it was my sister and her boyfriend and I spending the night my sister and I took my grandparents old room and her boyfriend took the couch. We had been asleep for a few hours when I woke up to the quilt being ripped off me. This scared me so badly I sat straight up in bed and yelled “WHAT THE FRICKETY FRACK!” (Not something I have ever said before, I am still not sure exactly where that one came from) Turns out it was just my sister yanking the quilt over to her side in her sleep, but the whole thing made me realize that I believe more then I disbelieve. Not exactly a ghost story I know, but a favourite in our family nonetheless.
I would definitely be willing to review the book, but I really just want to snag a copy for my own reading pleasure. Crusie was the first romance author I read (Welcome to Temptation) and has been one of my favourites ever since.
I definitely believe in ghosts, though I haven’t had any really definitive encounters.
The closest thing was the time a friend and I were wondering around The Rocks in Sydney after dark, and I became increasingly sure there was someone standing at the corner of two buildings, just watching over things generally, policeman-like. Not at all spooky – if anything, the area he was watching over felt very safe to me.
I’m not someone who sees things, but my friend is quite sensitive and has seen ghosts in the past, so I asked her if she thought there was someone over there. She said yes, there was a uniformed soldier there, standing guard. We both felt that he had probably been one of the soldiers keeping things in order in the early days of the colony in Sydney, and had stayed around to keep an eye on things after his death. I thanked him for this, and had the impression that he bowed in response; my friend thought he did, too.
Nothing more to the story, really. He was hardly the sort of ghost who was going to leave his post just because he had been acknowledged, so he stayed where he was, and we stayed where we were for a while, and then left, nodding to him politely as we did so.
It’s possible that we convinced each other, but it seemed to me that we separately received very similar impressions. Not enough to convince a skeptic, but then, I’ve never been a skeptic anyway!
Oh, and I would certainly love to read and review this book, either on my livejournal (17catherines.livejournal.com), which could use a break from confectionery and Australian politics, or here.
My mum is a very rational person who doesn’t really believe in the supernatural, but when she was doing her nursing training in Bristol something happened that she can’t explain.
She was on the night shift with her friend Gwen and went up to the ward Gwen was stationed at to take her a cup of tea. She saw a person in white slip around the corner at the end of the ward and assumed it was one of the patients who shouldn’t have been out of bed. Following, she came to the locked door that led to the balcony. All the patients were asleep and Gwen was in the next room. There was no way anyone could have got past her without her seeing. When she asked about it the next day she was told by one of the older serving nurses that quite a few people had seen the woman, but they didn’t tell the students as it (justifiably) freaked them out.
Although I adore a good ghost story as much as anyone, and often get profoundly creeped out by them, I do not believe in ghosts in the slightest, and I cite Carl Sagan’s The Demon-Haunted World when asked why. The book is a brilliant defense of skepticism in every supernatural and pseudoscientific field, from alien abductions to conspiracy theories to ghosts.
When I was twelve I had an experience that I called supernatural for a long time. I heard footsteps in my room one night, and when I asked if anyone was there (instead of, like, screaming—I was a pretty dumb kid), I heard a noise like my backpack unzipping. Of all things. Then, twenty minutes later, I felt the presence of something very small running by my bed, light as butterfly wings. My door and windows were all closed. I’d never experienced anything of the sort before, and never have since.
I believed in ghosts for several years after that, but eventually realized that as a hopeful someday physicist, the cognitive dissonance between scientific tenets and belief in the supernatural was too much to take. My experience was entirely anecdotal and unverifiable, and if one applies the principle of Occam’s Razor, a random auditory hallucination on my part is a much better explanation than any paranormal activity.
Beyond that, it really doesn’t matter what I believe. What exists, exists, and my belief or lack thereof doesn’t change it. For now all we can do is try and get as close to The Truth ™ as we can, and science happens to be the best method we’ve found of doing that. If substantial evidence of the supernatural is ever provided, then I, for one, shall welcome our new ghostly overlords.
Spamword: table47 – Dunno about table, but the number 47 is a major in-joke at the college I’m going to this fall 😀
Derp, I got so wrapped up in my little skepticism ramble that I forgot why I was rambling in the first place. I will gladly review, although I don’t have a site to post it on! Jennifer Crusie is love <3
I didn’t even know that there’s a new Jennifer Crusie coming out. I love her books! And yes, I believe in ghosts even though I’ve never seen one. I’m still afraid of them! I’d love to read and review this book on my blog. 🙂
Yp, I believe in ghosts…there’s too many unexplained things out there not to.
I love reading about ghosts.
I love everything that goes bump in the night…hehe!!
Nope, I haven’t ever had a ghostly experience….sigh!!
And yes, I would review your book and it would appear here:
http://loveromancesandmore.blogspot.com/
Valerie
valb0302 @ yahoo.com
in Germany
Ohh, a new Crusie? I would love to read it and would definitely review it on my book blog: http://52books.blogspot.com/
As for ghosts: I am not afraid of the dark and creepy surroundings don’t scare me, but I may have glimpsed a ghost. I was staying, with a group of friends, in a factory building in Hamburg, Germany. We had come there to work, and until we could find a permanent place to stay, we slept in sleeping bags in the office of this factory. There was a bathroom at one end of the building, where we could take showers. There was something about the (well-lit, heated and not at all creepy) outer room you had to walk through to get into the bathroom that made my skin prickle and a cold chill run down my spine. Coming in there one night, the feeling was especially strong and I glimpsed a man from the corner of my eye, but when I turned to face him, there was no-one there, and no way he could have left the room without me noticing. It felt as if I was in the presence of a lot of anger and hatefulness. The feeling followed me into the bathroom this time and I knew I didn’t want to seem him again, so I turned my face resolutely to the wall while I showered and I dried and dressed myself with my eyes closed as much as possible and then ran out of there. I didn’t seem him again, but the feeling was strong whenever I was in there. A couple of the others felt it too, but I was the only one who saw something.
A skeptic myself, I offer to take my true believer friends to the cemetary with a Ouija Board each halloween. Alas, they have yet to take me up on my offer. I’ve been missing the solo Crusie story and would be thrilled to review the new one if given the opportunity to have it early!
I don’t know if I believe in ghosts but I recently found out my dad knew someone with a possesed raggedy Ann who had to have it exorcised. The couple who did it were pretty famous and I read about it on their website before going to bed one night. Bad idea.
I LOVE Jennifer Crusie! Pick me!
I’m not sure I believe in ghosts (I do have a childhood memory very distinct in my mind of looking out my bedroom window and seeing a glowing figure walk up my driveway—but it could have been an alien) but I love reading about them in books.
One of my favs in regency is Marion Chesney’s Ghost and Lady Alice. I think the reason I enjoy reading about them is for the same reason I enjoy time travel romance—characters in unexpected circumstances, often getting a second chance. What’s more romantic than that? 🙂
(whoa, my image word is likely69!)
I don’t know that I believe in ghosts, but I totally believe in spirits. I’ve never seen one, and I really don’t want to either. I do enjoy reading ghost stories though.
I do NOT believe in ghosts. The underlying theory makes no sense to me, the reported instances are too inconsistent, and the sightings come down to wishful thinking and deliberate fraud.
However, I am a Dachshund person. Dachshunds, just so you know, are officially described in the breed standard as “brave to the point of foolhardy…loyal and fiercely protective.” One of my dogs, one that I was very fond of, died. He was a real fighter, and spent his life protecting me from passing cars, the mailman and the Evil Squirrels.
Shortly after that, I was in an unpleasant situation at work. It culminated in a group of people surrounding me in a public atrium and verbally abusing me, very loudly and aggressively. I was in shock, and kept backing up until I was against the wall. i was really afraid someone was going to hit me. Suddenly, they all turned around and left.
One of the spectators came up to me to see if I was OK. Then she told me that she sees auras and such, and that just before the crowd left me alone, she saw a small brown dog running around them in mid-air, barking and snapping. She said he chased them away, then curled up in a circle at my feet and vanished.
I didn’t and don’t know this woman, and the whole thing has always struck me as inexplicable. It’s the closest that I have to a ghost story.
I would review the book on my LibraryThing page: http://www.librarything.com/home/teckelvik
Love ghost stories but don’t believe in them – can’t really explain why not think i would need some sort of proof they exist and i’m very cynical about any ‘evidence’ that is out there.
I would review the book on Goodreads and send you a link,
I believe that there probably are ghosts or energy or something. I haven’t seen any (that I know of…). And I can review on Library Thing and my blog.
2003 my dad was ill; the kind of ill you don’t get better from. He was home, in a hospital bed, and was catatonic. He hadn’t spoken in over 24 hours. We had all sat there, in that kind of heavy silence that’s weighted and oppresive and makes it hard to breathe at times.
Hospice (who I cannot say enough wonderful things about) had prepared us well for what to expect, and we were pretty much on the same page together that Dad was about to leave us. Dad was incredibly prosaic about the whole thing, and he and I had had several talks about how he felt and what he wanted.
Out of the blue, he sat up and looked over my shoulder, into the corner, and smiled, with the greatest joy on his face. I have no doubt he saw someone, probably his parents, because we felt them in that way that you “feel a presence.” I’m not nearly as wigged out by that as I am grateful, because it really seemed to give my dad peace and comfort. I really think there were “ghosts” in that room at that moment, and they made my dad happy.
I don’t believe in the classic ghost. The ones that haunt, have remaining things to fix on earth, etc. but I do believe in people having a spirit and that there is life after death. I just don’t think it is on earth but in either heaven or hell, and I do believe both exist.
As for a review, I’d be happy to do so and send it to you. Hope I have the opportunity to do so.
I have to say I guess I believe in ghosts because I have no reason NOT to believe in them… 🙂
I’d review the book if I got it…I’m starting a new blog so maybe this could be the first review I’d do!
I would be more than happy to review this book; I own many Jennifer Crusies! I think ghosts are memories that linger and that places can have a spiritual/psychic weight that manifests as presence.
Are ghosts the same as angels?
Several weeks ago, my mom, who is getting frail in mind and body, went to live with my sister. Mom had had a spell (she suffers from vestibular problems and is partially blind). Mom seem absorbed with something in the corner of my sister’s living room and upon inquiry, Mom asked it she (Sister) could see the person standing there? Margaret commented: ‘Nope, it’s the armoire.’ And the subject was dropped.
Later, I was relating the story to Mom’s PT in front of Mom, as a consequence of her vision problem, and Mom piped up with…’I did see someone and it was MY MOM!‘ I was trying not to cry and Lisa said that it was an angel.
So, I guess I believe. I do know that it’s a comfort to think that someday, I will come back to watch over mine.
Cait
Ps. I would be happy to write a review. I would need to submit here, as I have no other place to do it. I am so glad Jenny has finally written a solo book again.
1. Tell me in the comments if you believe in ghosts and why/why not. Ghost stories are totally ok to share. I don’t usually believe in ghosts, but leave me alone in an old house late at night and my opinion changes. My mom DOES believe in ghosts, though, and she says that my later father visited her a few times after he passed. For instance, my mom is little and my dad was tall, so whenever they were out together, and he lost sight of her there was a whistle he’d use so she could find him. One day after he died she was sitting in our old garden and she heard the whistle clear as day.
I’d like to believe that’s true. 🙂
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). If I win a copy I will totally review it!
I’d love to read this!
Ghosts? Yep, I’m a fan. I don’t have anything cool to share but I do believe that anything is possible and ghosts would qualify as anything. 🙂
I do believe in ghosts. I believe that the people you love continue to watch over you, and occasionally make their presence felt when needed. Karma plays into it too, you have to be trying to live the best life you can.
I’d be happy to write a review and email it to you for posting.
Thanks much!
I have heard too many ghost stories from people I have no reason to doubt that I sure as shit believe in ghosts.
I was skeptical of ghosts until I bought a house in Spokane, WA. Within a few days of moving in, weird things started happening – my husband and I were visited by a male ghost with distinctive aftershave (absolutely not from my hubby!), boxes moved around the dining room, pens rolled on our coffee table, and one night I saw a large black figure who disappeared as soon as I flipped on the light. Needless to say, I am a believer now!
I don’t review books on a professional level, but I love to read them!
A new book by a favorite author. I’m so excited! I don’t not believe in ghosts….
I believe in ghosts, but I only saw them in my dreams so far. But, I’ve been several times very close to seeing one and no luck.
I traveled through Western Ukraine and Carpathian region with my school twenty years ago and we visited a number of castles in various states of decrepitude. Every castle had a ghost and an appropriate legend to go with it: a fiery, rebellious daughter, an obedient daughter in unhappy love, or a young wife in love with a wrong man. White ladies haunt every ruin in Carpathian mountains. I haven’t managed to see any of them. But I drank from every spring of eternal youth I saw there, and now, at 30 plus desperately trying to become a responsible adult.
I’d love to read the new Jennifer Crusie book and review it, of course. I post my book reviews in my LJ, http://avrelia.livejournal.com/ or can send it here.
I don’t believe in ghosts, but a good friend had an experience that convinced me anything is possible…