Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie

Narrated by Angela Dawe

While published in 2010, Maybe This Time “takes place in 1992—because.” The story opens with this line. After listening to the end, I’m still puzzling out the cause.

Andromeda “Andie” Miller and North Archer have an unresolved relationship. Ten years ago, they divorced after a year-long marriage with great sexual chemistry but seemingly not much else in common. She’s a free-spirited nurturing high school English teacher; he’s an emotionally uptight workaholic lawyer. The book opens with Andie in North’s office for a symbolic closure before she says “yes” to boyfriend Will Spencer’s marriage proposal. She ends up leaving with conflicted feelings and a month-long job – nanny/tutor to North’s two troubled wards.

The story itself is not quite a traditional Crusie nor a straightforward romance. Andie and North actually spend most of the book apart. Instead, we spend the time getting to know two fascinating children and the ghosts they live with in a crumbling mansion isolated in rural Ohio. The ghost of Andie and North’s marriage is there, too, as Andie and North talk on the phone or think of the other. That ghost becomes comparatively less scary as the real ghosts’ dark personalities reveal themselves.

It is a typical Crusie in her craft with words, that screwball humor, and quirky characters. North, his brother and mother, Andie’s mom, Will, a television reporter, her cameraman, a parapsychologist, a medium, a private investigator (did I forget anybody?) eventually enter the stage and join the ghosts, children, Andie, and a Mrs. Danvers-type housekeeper. But perhaps because there were too many elements—ensemble cast, gothic atmosphere, paranormal suspense, romantic comedy, the story didn’t quite coalesce into that satisfying read that makes you sigh at the end and want to start again.

Still, Crusie remains a comfort author, just like the choco-chip cookies with nuts Andie is always baking. And, narrator Angela Dawe is a treat of a listen. Who could ever forget her stellar performance in Jennifer Ashley’s The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie? She sweeps you to the highlands helping you visualize those braw Scotsmen, feel the passion and tension in Ian, and between him and Beth. Ms. Dawe also co-narrated  Suzanne Brockmann’s Infamous” with Patrick Lawlor. That performance felt like I was in an actual dramatization, levels above listening to a book being read.

OMG, I am totally being a fangirl! Angela Dawe to me is just one of those “easy A” listens whose performance enhances a book, which she also does in Maybe This Time. The story is definitely not one of Crusie’s finest, but I still found myself thoroughly entertained. Ms. Dawe’s characterization of the ensemble cast was well differentiated. North sounds like the handsome, controlled, “still waters run deep” man he is. Andie sounds earthy and sassy, and the kids sound natural. Ms. Dawe infuses nuances into the conversations, so that we get the sweetness when North talks to Andie over the phone even when they are discussing installation of cable TV.

So. Back to why this is set in 1992. My guess is to have an 80s soundtrack, which just proves why Crusie is a comfort author. The 80s really were greater than just one-hit-wonders!

Megan

Narration:  A-

Book Content:  B

Steam Factor:  Glad I had my ear buds in

Violence:  Minimal for most part, some fighting

Genre:  Contemporary Romance

Publisher:  Brilliance Audio

Maybe This Time was provided to AudioGals for review by Brilliance Audio.