Rating: ★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 352 pages
Author: Danielle McKechnie
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Release Date: September 8th, 2026
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

An aspiring actor caught on the Hollywood roller coaster is torn between following her dreams and choosing between two of her own leading men—her childhood sweetheart and the one who got away, or the fellow actor who understands just what she’s fighting for. A funny, sexy and heartfelt romance for readers of Yulin Kuang, Rebecca Serle and Emily Henry.

Ellie McCain has always dreamed of a bigger life, so when she’s accepted into a prestigious acting school in New York City, she packs her bags—even if it means leaving her family, her friends and Rory Campbell, the boy who held her heart for years, behind.

At first, life in New York is even better than she’d dreamed it would be—she loves her classes, she gets a position at a fancy production company and she’s even falling in love with her classmate-turned-roommate-turned-best friend, Ben. But soon the shine starts to wear her boss has made it clear that the only role he’ll be casting her in is “Unpaid Intern #3,” and while she’s happy that Ben’s career is starting to take off, she’s struggling to stay afloat. And it doesn’t help that everyone around her seems to be passing her by—even her childhood sweetheart, Rory, is living out his dreams as a professional golfer. But when she runs into Rory for the first time in ten years, she starts to wonder what exactly it is she’s running from, where she’s going and who is running with her.

Told in alternating timelines of the past and present and moving between Vancouver, New York and Los Angeles, This Changes Everything is the story of love—first love, one-that-got-away-love and true love—and asks if maybe, just maybe, all those loves can be one and the same.

Thank you Harper Perennial for the gifted ARC.

HIGHLY FRUSTRATING.

I wanted to like this but within the first 50 pages I feared I was in for a downfall and since this is an ARC I tend to not DNF so here we are.

The writing style is what got to me most. It was somehow explaining too much and not enough on the same page. The way that banter and drama was created was a bit cringy and over done. The FMC was wildly ridiculous running off and claiming “she’s a bird” multiple times rather than having the hard conversation. And I understand the negative side to working in this atmosphere but the drama created from that wasn’t woven in well either. It felt out of pocket and only written in to force the plot forward because literally nothing else was.

I liked both of the love interests fine enough. I think my overall disconnect means I wasn’t upset either way in this *loose* love triangle situation. I did hate that time jumps and flashback chapters. Some of the flashbacks helped but others were information that wasn’t needed.

I know I’m forgetting other things that I didn’t like, but you get the picture.

I’m not sure I’d read another book from this author. I’d wait to see what reviews from others looked like first. I might be an unpopular opinion on this one so I’m curious what others will think.

Overall audience notes:

• Contemporary Romance
• Language: moderate
• Romance: 2ish open; moderate innuendo
• Violence: low
• Content warnings: sexual assault (on page)

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