Review of ‘Love Changes Everything’ by Jaime Maddox
While in college, Dr. Samantha Brooks had a short but torrid affair with Kirby Fielding. But then she didn’t have the courage to pursue the relationship any further. Now in her late 40s, with a failed marriage and twin boys who are about to leave for university, Samantha is in a better place. Until a deposition for a lawsuit makes her cross paths again with Kirby, who is now her lawyer. Sam feels the attraction again but will Kirby risk her heart for Sam once more?
This is a second chance romance set during two time periods: one in the 90s and the other in present time. The book starts in the present and after the mains meet again, it goes back in time in a long flashback that extends for more than half of the novel to finally come back to the present. I admit that the way the past and present stories were featured didn’t help to hold my interest. Maybe if both stories were intertwined it would have made the plot move forward in a more dynamic way.
The past story is set in the 90s, which was around the time I came out so it brought me back to some painful memories of how society was less accepting of homosexuality then, but that’s hardly the author’s fault. However, as I couldn’t connect with the main characters, I didn’t find myself invested in their love story either. I couldn’t empathise with them. So when the plot fast-forwarded to the present, I had already lost interest in seeing them together.
Funny enough, I found the medical and legal parts of the plot more interesting than the romance which doesn’t surprise me as the author is a doctor herself. Ms. Maddox is very good at describing the issue of opioid addiction which she covered in-depth in her novel ‘Hooked’, which was written loosely based on one of her relatives’ experience with drug addiction. The few medical scenes featured in this book made me wish that Ms. Maddox would write medical romances. If she did, I’d read them in a heartbeat.
Overall, an OK second chance romance lacking in the chemistry department. 3.5 stars.
ARC provided by the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
