Everything Changes

I love military romances, but because I’m a military wife, I’m also picky. Everything Changes is a fantastic romance that deals thoroughly and respectfully with combat veterans. This book addresses both the psychological and physical wounds left by war- one hero is an amputee and the other suffers from PTSD. After reading this book, Melanie Hansen solidified her place as my go to author when I want a military romance that is as honest as it is beautiful.

There is a lot of military information and scenes throughout this book- some narrated as flashbacks. Told in vivid detail, the author never shies away from the hard truth, yet keeps the overall tone uplifting and hopeful. The specifics occasionally slow and disrupt the pace of the romance, though excluding them may have taken away from the story’s raw quality. I think this may be a case of a lot of elements within too few pages, between the history, their individual pasts, and the friends to lovers romance a lot transpired. That said, there are plenty of moments the narrator couldn’t read fast enough because I just had to know how a scene played out. While the pace may have fluctuated, I never lost interest in the Jase and Carey’s story.

The dialogue and writing is solid and the sexy scenes certainly aren’t lacking in heat. The characters have depth and their emotions are as vivid and palpable as the combat scenes. The connection between Jase and Carey is well established throughout the book, and you can feel the unbreakable bond the men shared. The chemistry builds off that and is strong both in and out of the bedroom. Despite having a deep friendship that morphs into more, lust fuels the bulk of the romance, particularly for Carey. This aspect works well within the gay-for-you frame. However, I found myself wishing there was a bit more exploration of Carey’s hang-up in admitting his attraction to Jase and reluctance to form a relationship. The subject is broached a few times, but I think a bit more detail would have propelled this romance to a greater depth.

I listened to this as an audiobook and I have to comment on the narration. I had not heard anything narrated by Robert Nieman before, but going forward I’ll seek out audiobooks he does. He uses excellent intonation, even including breath support to match the scene and emotions. Everything Changes is told in the third person omniscient voice, but the way Mr. Nieman narrates, the characters and their thoughts always come through unmistakably. While he doesn’t use voices per say, he uses distinct inflections which make it easy to follow along with Jase and Carey’s viewpoints. It truly was a performance and one of the better audiobooks I’ve listened to.

Once again I am taken by this author’s raw storylines and intriguing characters. Everything Changes proves this is the type of book I can continually expect from Miss Hansen and guarantees I’ll read all her past and future works. If you enjoy the GFY trope, military romances, or even friends to lovers romances, I highly recommend this one.

*Reviewed for Alpha Book Club*

Holy shit, I don’t even know where to start with this one. It blew me the fuck away and I am already 25% done reading it for the second time. And it came out less than 24 hours ago! And it is from a brand-spanking-new author, Melanie Hansen. And I put it on my highest honor shelf, the Fuck Yeah, 5+ Stars shelf. Where books from the likes of Kendall McKenna, N.R. Walker and Lynn Kelling live.
OK, as my GoodRead’s friends know, I have my favorites: Military men, hurt/healing/comfort, gay-for-you, friends-to-lovers, sex with intense emotion and of course, dirty talk. This book had ALL of that. And every single element worked for me. Like really, really worked for me. Honest to god, I felt like this was written especially for me! If MC Jase was a Firefighter instead of an EMT, I would probably be looking for cameras in my house, wondering who was pulling my leg.
This lovely story is about two best friends who met in the military. MC Carey Everett (former Marine and current therapist for war veterans) and MC Jase DeSantis (former military EMT and current rockstar) have known each other for 5 years. Jase was the medic that saved Carey’s life in Afghanistan when shrapnel shredded his leg and made him a below-the-knee amputee. The timeline of the book starts with Carey visiting Jase in California for a week’s vacation. We get several very intense flashbacks to their time overseas, including one at about 60% that was difficult to read. A warning to those who are squeamish, it’s pretty graphic, but reading it really helped understand just how much Jase was suffering with his PTSD.
Anyway, the boys start a physical relationship that is absolutely mind-blowing. The sex was off-the-charts. Did I mention dirty talk? The story goes from there to where the boys have to decide what they are going to do about their relationship as Carey lives 800 miles away and loves his therapist job and Jase’s band is a the verge of making it big in the music business.
Of course, I wouldn’t be writing this if the boys didn’t get their HEA. They got a spectacular HEA in a glorious epilogue. Rainbows and kittens and fuzzy bunnies HEA.
Read this book my fellow M/M romance fans. It really does have something for everyone. I haven’t been this excited about a book since Public Display of Everything and The Last Thing He Needs came out. Highly, highly recommended.
OK, I’m done with the fangirling. But it was SO WORTH IT.

Review by Shereadsalot
Debut author Melanie Hansen's \"Everything Changes\" is a best friends-to-lovers romance that features straight, amputee former Marine, Carey and his best friend, Former Navy medic, bisexual lead singer Jase.
Carey visits Jase in San Diego, while on vacation from his Colorado wounded warriors peer counseling job, Jase heads an up and coming band, sleeps with his groupies, and is divorced and enjoying the single life. Except for one thing,,,he's in love with his best friend. He thinks his feelings won't be returned so he continues to sleep around. Carey however, can't seem to stop staring at his friend. Their connection is built upon friendship, life & death situations, a soldier's camaraderie, experiences only they would understand. The novel does a good job of showing this through flashbacks (a good number of them, BTW).
Everything Changes is billed as gay for you but...it was slightly different. Technically, Carey is sexually attracted to his male best friend. But, it wasn't like he and Jase hadn't had sexual contact in the past. Yes, it was a stressful point in Carey's life. Yes, learning about Carey's character showed he blocks anything too emotional from his mind and analyzes at a later time. But it wasn't like it was something new that he experiences to bring the reader through his internal conflict with him. He does have internal conflict, he does run back into a woman's arms...but he had years already to do all of this. Plus, when he has sex with Jase, he wasn't protesting much. He jumped into it with legs WIDE open. (No judging because I enjoyed his legs being open) full throttle.
The best part of the story? The sex. It's vanilla but sweet Cheesus do they pound it out. They are sucking, fingering, frotting, jerking off, rimming, and fucking for a good part of this book. Their sexing never got old with all that they did.
*stares into space remembering all the scenes*
I devoured this book in hours. I just...they...the dirty talk. Oh, the dirty talk is really nice.
And the thong. Did I mention one of the main characters wears a thong? There's a little thong play in one of the scenes and it--
*stares off into space again*
Did the guys get in between sheets fairly quickly? It seemed so. Even though it was emphasized that they knew each other for four years a lot (like really a lot) and there were plenty of flashbacks to make that point, it still seemed Carey got into bed like a lightening bolt was attached to his ass. But the scenes were so hot, I didn't care as much after awhile.
I was hooked by 8%. All the chips were in, my heart opened a tiny crevice to accept this book's landing. The moment slutty Jase's feelings for Carey are shown and the reader knows he couldn't do anything about it? That was super solid. I believed it. I enjoy those moments in romance.
But...there were a few issues:
Sometimes the main characters would have the same thoughts/tone: Yes, they're best bros but it read like they were the same person for a few parts. They got a little lost from being distinct characters.
The heavy handedness: The four years of knowing each other. The shared love. The wounded veterans. The sugary epilogue. Sometimes the point was made and then it would be driven over again and again. I got it the first time. Don't need to lay it on so thick. I can tell the author did the research especially with wounded veterans but it could've been a little lighter when trying to play the sympathy card. Having an author's note about the charities and projects dedicated to this subject (which certainly does deserve advertisement) could have been just as effective as pouring it in the book...maybe even more so.
The last 15-20%: Forget that both men seemed to be able to communicate their needs (except the most major one) to each other without much problem. Once their dicks got heavily involved, their brains must have taken a slight trip to the moon. Maybe from all the coming? They sure did jizz tons. The miscommunication/ignoring each other/ minor dramatics crap came out and kinda tarnished the solid beginning 80%. It got slightly soap opera-y with the lower key MANtrums going on in the last 20%. Thankfully, it was brief but still worth a mention because I couldn't rate this book 5 hearts no matter how much I enjoyed it. It's reread worthy-ish but I know I'll go straight to the steamy bits and skim some of the flashbacks and definitely ignore the sugar.
And that epilogue? Too long, too sugary and not necessary, IMO. We get a solid finish and then that gets added in the epilogue? Didn't really add to the story. They were already each other's perfect match, it could have been left alone as that.
I'm not going to discuss the tears bits. I can't stand water pots, no matter the gender.
Overall, I was entertained. I thought it was a solid debut. Love the cover, think it fits the story perfectly. I recommend this story for best friends to lovers fans especially. The GFY was a little wonky but it wasn't the worse I've read.
Definitely keeping my eye out for more of this author's work in the future.