Jackie Weger

Justine Hale has her hands full. Her husband left her to become a monk on some faraway island, but he didn’t just leave her. He left two young children and his own dependent mother. If that isn’t bad enough, upon the death of Justine’s father, her pampered mother finds herself in dire straits. Now, instead of being a wife and mother, Justine is the perfect example of the sandwich generation, left to care not only for her children, but her remaining parents as well. Family in tow, she moves from Virginia to Alabama, to a home with a cheap price tag that is rent to own and quickly discovers why it is such a good deal. The old place is run down and in need of repairs and updates.

Tucker Highsmith lives in a renovated barn on property that used to belong to the Roberts, a home that has long been abandoned and neglected. When he delivers the keys to his pretty new neighbor and sees the baggage she has in tow, he is only too happy to high tail it out of there – except he can’t seem to get Justine off his mind.

Add in a “ghost” who is “betwixt and between” and determined to regain her physical status, and Justine has a house full of misfits. She struggles with control issues, certain that the rest of them are unable to cope or care for themselves, until Tucker steps into the mix and helps her to deal not only with her own issues, but to show her how to let the birds in her nest find their own way.

This was a fun, light story. Although a bit dated from its original publication, the story stands the test of time well enough. The house is off the beaten path and Justine’s financial situation would explain some of the lack of modern day conveniences – it works. I was expecting the ghost to do more haunting, there is only one “haunting” episode which is actually more humorous than frightening. It was fun to watch Justine grow through the course of the story. Sticking in my own personal nitpickiness, the point of view switches sometimes caught me off guard and I lost track of who was thinking what. I also think it might have done without the ghost (or maybe I was hoping for more ghostly manifestations). With that being said, this was an entertaining read with a colorful cast of characters that made me smile. It is definitely worth the read.
… (mehr)

Very good read. The story moved fast with no let down for a bunch of rolling around in the characters thoughts. There was just enough that you felt like you knew the characters. The strength of the story was in the interactions of the characters. All of them. There were lots of secondary characters who all seemed real. The children were well done and seemed pretty age appropriate. The dialog was very strong and flowed well and seemed totally realistic. I am definitely going to try more from this author's backlist.… (mehr)

What was this lunacy I just read? This book was obviously fairly modern since Dora the Explorer was mentioned but other than that I would have thought this maybe took place in the 1910s or 1920s. The heroine had a car but was amazed that the hero had electricity. She talked like a girl from back in the hills in the 1800s. She called his penis a tallywhacker. All of her vocabulary was just as looney. Basically she was looking for somewhere to live with her whole family and decided on him. She basically just moved into his house with her brother and sister and wouldn't leave. He was hopeless against her. She sent off for the rest of her family and then hopped into bed with him and basically forced him to have sex with her. He was so beta that he just went along with it and fell in love with her. But I think he gave up and let her steamroller him and pretended it was love.

Whackadoodle. But still readable and it went pretty fast so I guess I'm not sorry I read it.… (mehr)