Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie

                Yesterday I planned to read for only one hour.  Quickly that hour became two, then three, then four, and well, you get the picture.  Except for about twenty pages I read the night before, I read this entire book in one day.  I could not stop reading.  Good thing it was a Sunday.

                There is a place in southern Ohio where two children and a housekeeper live.  The children have seen much death in their short lives, both their parents and an aunt.  In the short time since the death of their aunt, the children have gone through three different nannies.  Their guardian, North, decides to send his ex-wife, Andie, down to fix the situation with the children.  Having been there very little himself, he does not quite know what he is sending Andie into.

                Upon her arrival, Andie finds a property greatly in need of care, a strange housekeeper, reluctant children, oh, and ghosts.  Keep in mind, Andie does not believe in ghosts, but it does not take her long to change her mind.  In the meantime, Andie does her best to work herself into the lives of the children.  She does what she can to bring them out of their shells and improve their education.  This is of course, not without trial, but she makes progress.  Then she runs into the ghosts and has to deal with a whole new set of problems, such as the ghosts not letting the children leave.

                One would think dealing with the children and the ghosts would be enough, but no.  A few weeks after her arrival, North’s brother Southie arrives with his TV journalist girlfriend, a cameraman, and a parapsychologist in order to investigate the haunted house.  After them, a medium arrives, followed by Andie’s fiancé, her ex-mother-in-law, her own mother, and finally North.  I am not sure in what order they arrive, but it makes for a crowded home.

                There is a lot of humor in this book and the séance scene is especially funny.  I could easily see it acted out in a comedic play.  Yes, this book is about ghosts, but there are laughs, and of course, a bit of romance.