How to Change a Life

By: Stacey Ballis

Narrated by: Laura Jennings

Length: 10 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

A dare between friends turning 40 leads to startling revelations and simmering tensions in the latest scrumptious "foodie fiction" novel from the author of Wedding Girl.

Eloise is content with her solitary life as a successful private chef. She has her clients, her corgi, and a recipe for the world's most perfect chocolate cream pie. What more could she need? But when her favorite teacher dies and her long-lost trio of high school friends reunite at the wake, Eloise is confronted by how lonely she really is.

In honor of Mrs. O'Connor, Eloise, Lynne, and Teresa revamp their senior class assignment and dare each other to create a bucket list of things to accomplish by the time they each turn 40 in May. Together, they choose new goals for each other. Control freak Lynne has to get a dog, Teresa has to spice up her marriage with pole dancing classes, and Eloise has to enter the dreaded world of dating.

Enter Shawn, a hunky ex-athlete and the first man that Eloise could see herself falling for. Suddenly, 40 doesn't seem so lonely. Will the bucket listers make it to 40 as friends? Or do some friendships come with expiration dates?

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2017 Stacey Ballis (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Entertaining enough

The story was ok but as an African American woman who lived in Chicago some of was completely unreal. And it was so convenient to depict Linda or Lynn as the angry black woman and the white woman who can freely love.

Worse of all was the narrator. She sounded like a grandmother. Her African American male voice was at times offensive. It’s like a freed slave. Maybe that’s who it was written, i sure hope not. Painful, but I got through it.

Finally something different

I feel like I read the same book over and over again with a different title. This was refreshingly different. I started to get bored then a surprise twist kept me going. It was a fun read for sure.

loved the book

First audible selection that I listened at home (usually listen in the car) to be able to hear what happened next!

A new favorite

You will not be disappointed this this buy!! This is going into my favorites list for sure.

A little ho-hum

It was one of those books where everyone was workable and reasonable and talked things out. Which is fine, but everything just worked out a little too conveniently for all the characters. Kind of boring.

Why so negative towards vegans?

This is a nice fairytale-type story, with convenient coincidences. I did not enjoy the negative references about vegans and other restrictive dietary choices.

Absolutely Wonderful!

This book was so well written and the story was so complex and real….definitely not fluff. Highly recommend!!! The narrator was really awesome too!

Loved this so much

I never knew there was a genre of culinary fiction but I’ve always enjoyed foodie books. This was a delightful listen. The narration was great, the book was fun, and it made me very hungry! As an avid cook/baker/cookbook reader and Illiniois resident myself, I really related to Eloise.

too many characters

loved the over all story
however I feel there were too many side stories and too many characters to keep track of

A Bit Basic

If you like happy go lucky endings, you'll love this book. A bit basic, I was always waiting for something else to happen. There was one surprise, but that was it. I wish as much effort was put into the storyline as the amazing descriptions of the food!