Readers Guide for This Changes Everything

My Readers Guide for This Changes Everything has my Quick Take, a Character list, Plot Summary and spoilers. This is a sequel to Unraveling of Julia, so if you want a recap, check out that post!

Readers Guide for This Changes Everything

Jen’s Quick Take on This Changes Everything

• I am a big Lisa Scottoline fan, but not such a big fan of paranormal suspense. So these books are not really in my wheelhouse
• This book is a sequel to The Unraveling of Julia – my full summary is here if you want to refresh your memory.
• In This Changes Everything, Julia heads back to the United States (and back to Scottoline’s usual stomping ground, Pennsylvania) after her close friend Courtney’s grandmother is murdered
• Julia’s newly discovered psychic powers immediately put her on edge.
• As Gianluca tries to hold down the fort at home, Julia struggles to get to the bottom of a sinister organization she believes is involved in the murder.
• Publication date: July 14, 2026 by Grand Central Publishing. Thanks to them for the advance copy.

Character List for This Changes Everything

• Julia Pritzker:
• Gianluca Moretti: Julia’s new husband
• Leni: Julia and Gianluca’s daughter
• Courtney Horan: Julia’s friend
• Kay Patterson: Courtney’s grandmother
• Paul: Courtney’s boyfriend
• Alex Dudek: Courtney’s ex
• Matt Winger: Julia’s ex
• Samuel Palkovich: friend of Kay
• Bill McKenna: Kay’s neighbor
• Helen Davenport: the medium
• Fiamma Settimi: Italian teacher who resembles Julia.
• Bennie Rosato: lawyer
• Police officers Harbor and Quinton
• Police Chief Glushenko
• Mona: Kay’s friend
• Susan: Kay’s friend

Plot Summary for This Changes Everything

After the events of The Unraveling of Julia, Julia is living in Tuscany with her husband Gianluca and daughter Leni.

Julia has a psychic spell, leading her to believe something terrible happened.

Julia’s friend Courtney calls from the U.S. to say that her beloved grandmother Kay has been shot dead. Courtney says the killer was wearing all black and driving a black pickup.

Julia flies to Pennsylvania to be with Courtney, who assumes that Kay’s death was the result of a botched robbery. We also learn that Kay’s neighbor, Bill McKenna, found a man’s body in his well thirty years ago. Then McKenna vanishes.

Kay’s bedroom has obviously been searched. Julia starts having ominous dreams about a fire and a woman screaming.

Julia decides to call and speak with Helen Davenport, the psychic medium in book one. But then she learns that Helen is dead.

There’s a manhunt for the killer and the police think they found the weapon: a ghost gun.

Some of Kay’s belongings are missing, including a basket she used for clean-ups hosted by the community in which groups pick up trash that gets dumped. The clean-ups are run by Courtney’s ex, Alex, who directs them to a close friend of Kay’s, Samuel.

At Kay’s funeral, the police arrest Courtney.

Meanwhile, a distraught Gianluca calls, saying that Leni’s pediatrician thinks she’s being abused.

Julia tries to tell the police that she had a vision of Kay’s killer.

Bennie Rosato shows up and says that the case against Courtney is weak!

Alex calls and says Samuel is dead. The police say he took his own life.

Julia decides to try to find the well where Kay’s neighbor found the body.

We also learn that Bill McKenna knew Police Chief Glushenko. Two weeks after Bill found the body, his farm burned down. Also, the government has been buying up houses.

Bill and Glushenko were in the Two-Fifty Brigade, a racist-sounding historical re-enactment group. It’s possible that the re-enacters make and use ghost guns!

Julia and Bennie head to the prison for Courtney’s hearing.

But Julia is distraught when the prison is locked down after a shanking. The power goes out and Julia hears Courtney scream in a vision. It turns out that Courtney’s cellmate is dead, possibly in a case of mistaken identity.

Julia learns that the black pickup that has been following her belongs to Patrick Novak, another re-enacter who creeped on Julia when she was in college, under another name.

When Julia discovers a ghost gun factory, Leni has a vision about it and is scared.

During a clean-up, Kay found some kind of coin prototype, which is why she was killed, by Novak. Then McKenna killed Novak and buried him in the woods.

Julia steals a car and heads to Valley Forge National Park, which she believes the re-enacters are going to bomb. She yells at everyone to run, and becomes a hero.

McKenna is arrested

I am still not sure what the coin has to do with re-enactments or ghost guns.

Julia has a vision of Kay killing Shoemaker. It was an accident, and (I think) she hid the body in the well.

Leni is psychic. Julia heads back to Italy.

If you read this, what did you think? Because I have seriously mixed feelings!