Love Changes Everything

by Peri Elizabeth Scott

Simon has developed feelings for the girl who bedeviled him growing up, his best friend’s sister—not that Alys is a girl any longer. She’s a grown-up, beautiful, wonderful woman who makes him crazy. He obtains her brother’s permission to date her, and asks her out. And is rejected.

Alys is innocent and plans to stay that way until she meets a man who holds the same moral code, regardless of her lengthy crush on Simon. Privy to his escapades and conquests, her jealousy has turned to distaste and she sets herself on a different path.

She wants a man who has refrained from meaningless affairs, who has waited for the special woman.

Simon does the research but Google assures him he can’t become re-virginized and thus Alys is beyond his reach—until one day when he takes her for lunch in his beloved truck. That day, love changes everything.

Genres: Marriage Of Convenience, Friends To Lovers

Kindle Edition

First published May 29, 2018

Reviews

[StMargarets · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is like The Unwanted Wife like Naksed said. However, it's Unwanted Wife-lite. The hero isn't as mean, the heroine isn't as despairing, the hurt isn't as deep - which means less angst, less controversy/fewer things to think about.

But I enjoyed it since it was easy, breezy read. It almost felt like a YA novel in tone. These characters are so YOUNG that they barely had a backstory. (Even their friends treat them with the kid gloves of soothing recalcitrant teenagers - pointing out they weren't ready to hear any hard truths while they were emoting, etc. . . Hero's swearing also reminded me of a teenage boy.)

Heroine was 19, Hero 26 when they were forced to marry because she got pregnant after their one and only time without a condom. Hero thinks she trapped him and he resents having to do something his father wanted him to do. Heroine is desperate for hero to love her. They both decide at the same time to change their ways - he realizes he's been an ass. Heroine realizes she's been a doormat.

So both are moving in the right direction - they just can't do it as a couple for awhile. Like I said - YA in tone - they might as well be staring longingly at each other in the cafeteria and then looking away quickly.

Instead of the heroine starving in a garret and earning her independence the hard way - she stays in their big house and resists sex as long as she is able. Instead of blackmail or making her jealous with OWs, hero coddles her and talks about his feelings.

We're a long way from Harlequin Presents.

[AvidReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

I usually stay away from best friend’s sister love trope. But as I wanted to read another book from this author I ignored it. I had the same problem as heroine, that she knew all about his past conquests and exes. But it soothed my ire to some point that hero was totally invested in the heroine. And I loved this author writing style. Heroine was sweet and had guts. Loved the secondary characters too. Overall it was a good read and safe too.
Recommended.

[Naksed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Confused. The plot is almost the same as Natasha Anders’ The Unwanted Wife. In BOTH stories, you have:

-Shotgun marriage due to pregnancy
-older man whore/younger virgin
-heroine has an emotionally abusive dad
-the abusive dad manipulates hero and heroine into a marriage of convenience
-the abusive dad lies to hero that the heroine was in on it too, making him hate her
-Due to the Great, Big, Terrible Misunderstanding, the husband is a jackass to his wife for the first year of their marriage (except in bed)
-the pregnancy that was the catalyst for the shotgun wedding ends in miscarriage
-the husband purposely dates bimbos and gets himself photographed in the tabloids to punish his wife with evidence of infidelity yet he doesn’t “actually” cheat on his wife
-Husband starts to regret his actions just as wife finally gives up on marriage and files for divorce
-Wife gets pregnant again but still wants divorce
-Wife gets herself a makeover, snipping off the long hair that turned her husband on so much into a short, chic bob. Husband finds her even more alluring with short hair.
-hero makes a big grovel and everything in his power to delay separation
-heroine moves her stuff to the guest room but every night, the husband carries her back to his bed
-Wife becomes assertive and independent, starting her own fashion business from scratch
-wife, with support of husband, finally stands up to vile father who forced this bad situation in the first place
-husband and wife reconcile

The only differences I could pinpoint was that Anders’ book is set in South Africa, her hero is Italian and waaaay sexier than the one in Scott’s book, and in The Unwanted Wife, both hero and heroine have vile relatives who try to interfere with their marriage. Oh and of course, Anders’ protags thought they were pregnant with a boy and are SHOCKED (and equally delighted) to get a lovely little girl in the end, while Scott’s characters thought they were getting a baby girl but end up with a little boy.

I enjoyed Anders’ book more because her characters had more depth to them. Her heroine was more believable and tougher. I felt every inch of her anger and resentment as well as her deep pain and vulnerability. The dialogues and arguments, as well as the more affectionate moments between husband and wife were more plausible. The grovel was more adequate. I could feel the pain and regret of the chastised husband. And Anders put her major villain more properly in his place.

I wouldn’t call it plagiarism because the forced marriage manipulated by garbage relatives is a trope that has been used in many, many romance books. Anders’ own book reminded me a lot of Michelle Reid’s The Price of a Bride. I am sure this plot appears and reappears in countless other books, from the vintage days of Harlequinlandia to the present. But I am guessing Love Changes Everything was deeply, DEEPLY, inspired by The Unwanted Wife?...

PS: Apparently, I attempted to read this book once before but it was published under the title Nothing in My Heart. I remember nothing about it. It must have been a quick DNF!

[Vintage]

Nope, haven't read it, but my mind went straight to this song. So here we go.

Michael Ball, Glenn Close, Antonio Banderas and more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnOQ1...

[Jac K]

DNF @ 53%

I am SUPER confused; I picked this up because a couple other reviews said it was very similar to The Unwanted Wife, but this story is about two young adults (Simon and Alys) who grew up together. Simon is her older brother’s BFF whom she has had a crush on forever, but he’s just recently started noticing that she’s a woman. After getting big bro’s permission; he asks her out, which she shuts down.

“I don’t date men who’ve… been around.”… We pretty much grew up together… and you dated a lot. And I know you dated after high school.”

You see, Alys is a virgin, and she’s looking for an inexperienced man. I threw in the towel at just over halfway with Simon declaring his love for her, and her deciding if his impure ass is worth her time.

Bottom Line- This is a short read, but I found the plot stupid AF. I think parts were supposed to be humorous, but they felt immature, and I thought Alys was judgy and her reasoning was silly. He wasn’t portrayed as a man-whore, (he’d been celibate for the previous 6-months) he was actually described as a normal dude that hadn’t had any serious relationships. I just couldn’t reconcile that she loved him, but in the same breath was saying he wasn’t good enough for her. **After some researching, the The Unwanted Wife-ish book is Nothing in My Heart. It has almost the same cover, but is a different book. 😉

[Reading · Rating 2 out of 5]

So close to being good instead of alright

[Simone · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Kiley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just a heads up for other readers. This is NOT the same book as "Nothing in My Heart" by the same author, even though it was also listed under the title "Love Changes Everything". These two stories were about two different couples. "Nothing in My Heart" was about Beckett and Grace Kilmer, while THIS story was about Alys Standish and Simon Carruthers.

Love Changes Everything was about 24-year-old Alys Standish and 29-year-old Simon Carruthers, her brother's BFF.
Simon had recently started viewing Alys as more than just his BFF's little sister. However, she didn't seem to feel the same because he had gotten her brother's approval to ask her out, only for her to turn him down. Her reasoning was that she didn't date men with a checkered past, and Simon had definitely been with more than his fair share of women. She wanted someone who shared her "moral code" and wasn't as experienced as Simon, even though she had been in love with him since she was a teenager.
Several months after being rejected by her and having done more traveling from work than he actually had to do, Simon made the mistake of taking a date to poker night at Alys' home she shared with her brother and his fiancee. However, he saw the jealousy she couldn't hide, which gave him hope.
The following day he took her to lunch, and things sort of exploded between them at that point and...well, I'll let you figure out where this went from that point on when you read it.
The angst and drama were lowkey, as was the spiciness. It was a short story that had only a few twists and turns, but it wasn't really overwhelmingly romantic. It felt quite juvenile, and the whole story was a bit lacking in so many ways.
There wasn't much backstory for the characters, and they didn't spend any time together on-page. There were months that took place off-page and weren't explored by either the author or the two main characters.
Alys seemed to be more than a little repressed in her ideology about intimacy, which seemed more fitting for the 1800s than in 2018 when the story was written. While there is nothing wrong with waiting until finding one's soulmate, the whole thing with her felt judgemental and catty.
The book had quite a few gaps in the thought process. There were times when one of the main characters was doing something, then suddenly a time jump occurred, and what they were doing changed without warning.
It was a short, but sweet, yet kinda not, story that left the reader wanting...something more...anything more. It fell flat in that it just didn't go anywhere really. Because of how flat it was, I couldn't give it more than a three-star rating.

[Cindy Vernon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Super short barely there story. I liked it but it just needed more...Simon likes his best friend's sister Alys and she likes him back. Only she is a virgin and wants to date less experienced men than someone like Simon who has spread himself around so to speak. After Alys turns Simon down when he asks for a date, he travels for work, stays celibate and they both miss each other. Alys realizes that she doesn't care anymore about Simon's playboy past because she loves him. They get together and admit their feelings and well that's about it.