I'm a huge fan of second chances novels. I enjoyed the story line. The main characters Samantha and Kirby situation will connect with a lot of people. Especially Samantha' who was from a strict Catholic home and struggled with accepting her sexuality. Even though I enjoyed the book, I must say I felt that the ending was abrupt. Sam and Kirby relationship when they reunited needed more focus instead of their relationship when they were younger.


I received an eBook from Bold Strokes Books via NetGalley for my honest opinion.

Most of the time I really enjoy second chance novels. I did like this one as well but I did not love it. The main characters was likeable and yes also relatable but I dont know, something was missing. Still recommend if you want a cute quick read.

I enjoyed reading Love Changes Everything. This romance This books goes back a few decades to summer before Samantha goes to medical school. She meets Kirby the first day of softball league and Samantha eventually finds herself in an intense summer affair. These mains for sure have strong chemistry, but there is a problem. Kirby is out but Samantha isn't and knows her mother will have an issue with her sexuality.

I really liked the story of the romance that happened years ago between Samantha and Kirby.. Both characters are likable, they have great chemistry and they get along with each other. Maddox does a great job moving the story along smoothly. The pages are easy to turn and you get absorbed with the story telling. I also liked the dynamic between the characters in the present. Of course there is some tension between them, but it is to be expected. I liked that both had really good kids that are older. When the mains and the supporting characters come together it makes for seamless read. I did find myself wanting more of the present interaction between the mains. I am one of those people who like an epilogue. Still with that missing, I enjoyed Love Changes Everything.

4.25 stars

This arc was provided by netgalley and the publisher for an honest review.

This book was everything I needed during the pandemic when i was losing my mind out of boredom!

It was fun and fresh, the protagonist was witty and I loved her from the very first page!

I am a little undecided on how to rate this book. On the one hand, it is one of those stories that are generally my favorites, in which a relationship lasts over time despite everything and is finally achieved.But on the other hand, the way it is written has not been very interesting to me, since the author spends too much on non-relevant details and if we remove all that stuff, there is little substance left from the relationship between Sam and Kirby, unfortunately.

The story is divided into two parts, one in which it is explained how the two of them met when they were between twenty and twenty-five years old, I cannot say it specifically and the other when they meet again when they were over fifty. The main part is that of them being young and living in the society of the early 90s, with all the difficulties and prejudices and adding to that that Sam is from a conservative and strict Catholic family as far as supposed righteousness is concerned. There are not really violent or unpleasant situations in the homophobic sense, but Sam has all that education so in her head that it makes her not know how to react to her feelings towards Kirby.

As I said, the style in which it is written has not favored my full recognition. I also consider that the ending was too hasty. Overall it was just okay.

Dr. Samantha Brooks is a fifty year old part time ER physician who is raising her twin sons who will soon be going to college. Out of the blue she receives some news from a hospital administrator that she is being deposed for a lawsuit related to a young patient she treated over ten years ago. She is set to meet with an attorney arranged by the hospital when she learns at the meeting that the attorney has fallen ill and has been replaced by her first and probably only love, Kirby Fielding.

The story flashes back at that point to how Sam and Kirby met over two decades ago and how they fell in love in thirty short days. About sixty-five percent of the storyline is focused on what occurred in the past, from their first meeting which included mutual attraction, to how they broke up a month later. But neither forgot about the other person even though their lives moved on with other people, they had children, and their careers progressed. The latter part of the book resolves the deposition as well as their feeling for each other.

I enjoyed both of the characters and the storyline. The author brought Sam's fears to light about coming out to her friends and especially to her mother. The author also did a great job of writing the moment of realization about when real attraction is finally realized between two people. Overall 4 stars.

I received an ARC from Bold Strokes Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

“I told myself I wasn’t really in love with you, but I was lying.”

This is a book on a second chance romance where the main characters were brought back into each others’ lives after 2 decades apart and readers get to live through memories of their history.

Present day Dr Samantha Brooks, an ER doctor being deposed for a lawsuit, was thrown for a loop when she found the identity of the lawyer sent to represent her. Kirby Fielding, the one person whom she had cast into the deepest recesses of her mind but had never succeeded disposing of.

The book focused heavily on the past, where young Samantha was infatuated and took a chance to further her attraction for Kirby. Their beginning though tentative, was all bloom and glorious until reality came knocking.

I enjoyed living through the memories of their young love, found the agony when circumstances forced them apart relatable but wish that the years spent apart was expounded as the main characters clearly loved each other.

I just reviewed Love Changes Everything by Jaime Maddox. #NetGalley

The book is split into 2, present-day and some 30 years ago. However heartbreaking the storyline in the past is, I prefer that part of the book.

Dr. Samantha Brooks is at a crossroads in her life; her twins are almost off to college, she is being deposed for a lawsuit, and she has no idea what to do with her life. When she meets her lawyer to prepare for her deposition she gets the biggest surprise of her life. her lawyer is Kirby Fielding, the woman she had a whirlwind romance with almost 30 years ago. From this point in the book, we go to the past and get to know 20 something Sam & Kirby. Their romance is a fast but profound one that takes place over one month. Kirby is out, but Sam is dealing with Catholic guilt and a not too accepting mother. Sam breaks off their romance and in the 30 years since she hasn't found the courage to contact Kirby. But in present-day they have to work together, their chemistry is still there, but is it friendship or can it be more?

Overall I think the book was a nice read but it was missing something, maybe because I feel like Sam's friend Teddy needs to have some more backstory/ bigger part in the story. There are some small surprises in the story, especially in the present day, that I appreciated. The ending is certainly not what I had hoped, sure it can be perceived as a HEA, but it just a bit mwah for me. The Catholic guilt is something I don't understand at all, but I appreciate everyone has their own struggles when it comes to life in general and I think this is a fair and realistic portrayal of struggles with one's self. Stories like these make me realise I had it pretty easy, and I realise there are many people still dealing with this nowadays, this is kind of heartbreaking for me. You should be able to love whoever you want. Since the romance and all the backstory seems to be in the past that is the part of the story I like best, I think this book would have benefitted from another chapter or two in present-day, just to finish it nicely.

This story was an enjoyable read. The writing paced nicely through the back story helping you care about both of the characters. The Catholic guilt was handled realistically, which made the plot work well. Curiously, despite the book having a well written ending, I felt a bit dissatisfied on the last page. I think the plot had more to give somewhere and I was missing out on something crucial. I’m not sure, but it may have been Teddy. I definitely wanted to know more about her. Overall it’s a decent romance and provides hope in the face of condemnation. The fact it left me wanting more means I will be looking out for this author’s next work.

This is your typical young lesbian love that ends as one goes away to college and cannot handle dealing with the feelings and parents disapproving. With that said, I enjoyed the book. The main characters are Dr. Samantha Brooks (the one who went away to college) and Kirby Fielding. Samantha did what her mom wanted - she married and had children, twins to be exact. She is dealing with a lawsuit and the hospital she works for, sets up a meeting with the company's lawyer. She finds out that the lawyer who is supposed to meet with her, his wife had a baby and there is one that is stepping in. It is, of course, Kirby, her first love, that she broke up with. As the two meet to discuss how Samantha will say in court, they realize there are still feelings between the two and they decide to find out if there is possible future for the two of them.
If you enjoy this type of book, you are in for a good read.
I would recommend,
I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I thought this book was decent. I was really interested in reading it after checking out the blurb, but like others, I was looking forward to reading about someone in the throes of a midlife crisis and dealing with a past love later in life. Since this was focused mainly on the past, I was left a little wanting. Still, the writing was good and I did like Kirby, so it wasn’t a bust. I’d recommend, but the reader should adjust their expectations toward a 90s college experience rather than a current day adult second chance romance.

I wanted to like this book, but about a third of the way through, I became bored with the story and the style of writing and I was left disappointed.

I was drawn to the book by not only the description but by the fact that it takes place in the Pocono Mountains - and more specifically the Wilkes-Barre area, where I was born. It's not every day you run across a book that mentions Nanticoke, Wilkes University, etc., so I was excited to read this. There was nothing about the descriptives that painted the picture for me though - for the location or the characters.

The story just did not pull me in. It was off to a good start, in present-day soon became muddy as most of the book focused on the characters' college days and I quickly lost interest.

I tend to agree with the other ratings on this book. It was well written and flows smoothly enough, however is focused on the past for most of the book when the two main characters were basically girls. I don’t have much in common these days with a 22 year old, so it was hard to understand what they were going through. I really wish the book had invested more in the present day story line, when the characters had a little more life experience to deal with their feelings. Instead, the book is centered on a young woman coming to terms with her sexuality and religion. The book is good, just nothing I was expecting.

Maybe I read the description wrong but I thought that the book would focus on present day and not the past. The book starts off in present day and then jumps back in time and you stay in the past for most of the book. That was disappointing for me because I wanted to jump to present day. Samantha broke up with Kirby for religious reasons and they meet again 20 years later. I enjoyed Kirby and Samantha’s personalities and they seemed to be really great together and for each other. The writing was great, the dialogue was real, overall I enjoyed the book and I will definitely read this author again.

Love Changes Everything is a pleasant read with not a lot of angst or 'will they, won't they' moments. In this second-chance romance, you know what's going to happen, and that's OK - even if the story takes a while to unfold.

Samantha Brooks is a successful ER doctor who is being deposed for a lawsuit and discovers her ex-girlfriend, Kirby, is the lawyer representing her. The book takes us back almost 30 years ago when Samantha first realized she liked women after meeting Kirby for the first time during softball practice. Inexplicably drawn to her, Samantha's sexual awakening happens right before she graduates from college and has a packed summer of family obligations and work, getting ready for medical school, and a strict Catholic mindset thanks to her mother's influence. All of this just means that she can't handle the fact that she's gay on top of everything else happening in her life! Since the majority of the book is focused on this time period, we're told in detail how the relationship develops, but not how it really ends (i.e. the conversation/scenes between Samantha and Kirby, it's only implied)... which I felt was disappointing as the story then jumps to the present day.

The last few novels I've read have all touched on the religious theme being one of the reasons for the main characters struggling with their feelings about their sexual identity - and while I get it, I can't really connect with that story line as much, for some reason. I was more intrigued with the story taking place almost three decades ago and what it meant to be an out lesbian during the early '90s - and, of course, I loved the references to VHS tapes and boom boxes. :)

Overall, I'd give this 3.5 stars. It felt drawn out in parts and didn't get to the point very quickly - the dialogue in particular felt stilted at times, but I still appreciated the journey it took me on.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley for an honest review.

Ok.. this started really great, but half into it I got so board. I wanted to fast forward into the present way sooner then when it happened. don't get me wrong I like to know the history but I really love reading the present more it helps me see the growth and the development of the characters. And even tho the author wrote this beautifully. I felt that their re-connection felt rushed, since the majority of the story was in the past,

This was a good read.

Dr. Samantha is shock to learn that she is being deposed for a law suit about a case she work on thirteen years ago on a young boy. She already having a crisis because her twins boys will be leaving the nest and she doesn’t know what to with herself. When she goes to meet the lawyer who will be representing her she is shock to see it’s Kirby the woman she let go because of circumstances and because she was uncomfortable being gay.

Kirby was hurt when Sam let her go but they both led a okay life she has two kids of her own a daughter who in college and son who about to go college. As they get to know each other again their feelings for each other are still there and decides to give their relationship a another shock. I like all characters like their children who have their heads straight and how they love their mothers.

I received an ARC copy of this book from the Publisher via Netgalley and voluntarily leaving my review.