Well, the ambulance wish thing was just utterly delightful to read about, and I adore Zillah. I think what I love most about Mansell's books is the way that she weaves multiple different couples all together and plants great hints as to what will happen. Essie, our main-est character, felt a little bit two dimensional, but this still one gave me butterflies. ( )

This is one of my favourite novels by Jill Mansell, I loved all the characters and all the interwoven plot lines. Wouldn’t it be great if we all had a Zillah in our lives? I wish I had had half the courage of Essie in my younger years, I couldn’t imagine having to find a new home and a new job all at once! ( )

Ehh this was definitely missing something. I have enjoyed the last two Mansell books I have read, but this one felt a bit empty and I honestly didn't like two out of the three main characters. I was more intrigued by a secondary character and definitely wished for her to have a better love interest than the one she got in the end.

"This Could Change Everything" has Essie Phillips getting kicked out of her apartment by her boyfriend after an email she writes is accidentally sent to everyone in her contacts list.

Essie writes one of those weird Round Robin letters that people send out around Christmas. Instead of her lying about her accomplishments she is brutally honest about what a pain her boss is and how her boyfriend's cleaning habits are a bit much. Only problem is that her boss is also her boyfriend's mother. Essie invited her brother to say with her and a friend he meets ends up staying the night (Lucas) who thought it would be very funny to send the email out to everyone Essie knows.

Essie ends up meeting an older woman named Ziillah looking to rent the top floor of her home. Zillah realizes that Essie will make a great tenant and happily welcomes her to her home along with another tenant named Conner. Mansell has the story going back and forth between these three.

My favorite character to read about was Zillah. Zillah is in her 80s and has some regrets about her life. Married three times, and only one of those marriages being successful, she wishes she didn't marry her first two husbands. We also find out that Zillah is up to making amends a bit by using her money to make wishes come true for dying adults. I don't know if I liked this little subplot or not. I ended up reading and not feeling much of anything about that which is weird for me. I cry at a drop of a hat usually. I think I just ended up feeling emotionally manipulated and didn't care for it.

I didn't really like Essie much at all. She ends up going back to being a waitress and works for Lucas. Lucas and Essie seem to like each other, big problem is that Essie blames him for ruining her life and Lucas has a seemingly perfect girlfriend. As readers you have to hope they get together which means cheating (bah). I also hated the reveal about Lucas and his life and the whole email thing. It didn't make any sense,

Conner is a snob. There is no way to explain his whole thing. I wasn't rooting for him and hated the fact that Scarlett (Essie's best friend) even had a crush on him.

The writing was okay, but unlike with previous Mansell books there was nothing that really made any characters sing. I was bored for most of these stories and thought that Mansell took an easy route out to resolve some things instead of making us dislike certain characters. ( )

An enjoyable if somewhat predictable novel. I always enjoy the way Jill Mansell writes the West Country, and it felt particularly poignant this time, since Bristol was my last visit before lockdown. I wasn't as invested in either the A or the B romances as I was in the redemption journey of one of the supporting characters. (I do like Mansell's don't-give-a-damn older women!)

But to my mind the real hero is the bit-part vicar of a beautiful church, who, after what one can only assume has been a December full of civic carol services, school carol services, Christingle services, Nine Lessons and Carols, midnight mass and Christmas morning, shows up very late on Christmas Day or in the small hours of Boxing Day, to perform a renewal of vows. At least they get the rest of the book to sleep it off.

27/2020 "LibraryThing thinks you will love This Could Change Everything (prediction confidence: very low)" My confidence that I might love this novel is also very low as I've only ever read one of Mansell's romances before and the lead couple and plot were all unsatisfying. Although the minor characters were well written enough for me to give this author another try. But the first chapter of This Could Change Everything is eye-rollingly unreal. Oh well, it's a library book so it isn't costing me anything but time....

P.S. If you remove the bought-and-paid-for reviews then this book currently has an average rating of 2.33 stars. ( )