Book Review: Uneasy Street by Becky Wade

Uneasy Street by Becky Wade

3/5 Stars

⭐️⭐️⭐️

As a long time fan of Becky's books, I was excited to dive into this one! I have loved the Misty River series and Memory Lane is my favorite of this series.

While the premise of Uneasy Street had plenty of promise--second chances, an adoption side story, a missing tiara and a business between the characters reminiscence of kindle unlimited/libby/hoopla/audible etc., - I ultimately had mixed feelings about this one.

Let's start with what I loved about this one: the side stories! The relationship between Sloane and her niece was heartwarming and the subplot involving the search for her niece's birth father added a layer of depth that kept me engaged. Becky's signature emotional depth was present there and the small down Maine setting was charming. It was nice being back with characters from the previous book too.

There was also a very interesting tiara side story involving Max's mother that I liked following.

Where the book fell a little flat for me was the romance. Enemies to lovers is a tricky trope for me personally - I need the tension and chemistry to feel natural without being rude to one another to a certain extent. In this case, it was hard for me to get past their rudeness to one another and root for them as a couple.

Also, it was hard for me to love either of their actions regarding the reasons they went their separate ways in the business venture they had together. Her sister had passed away and she didn't tell anyone - which led to her panic attack, leading to her inability to continue to work in a key moment in their business. She didn't tell Max, which led him to being unaware of what was going on, leaving him upset about the consequences from the panic attack.

While I do think it's important to let your co-workers know big things like that in your life since it would affect your job, Max should have also had more compassion for her and he didn't really have that like I wanted, even when they met back up many years later. Their romance didn't quite deliver the emotional payoff and the connection to characters that I was hoping for.

I found myself just more invested in the side characters and their journeys than in the central romance. It was nice to see how it all ended though and wrapped up with characters loved in other books in the series.

The romance was clean, no language, small faith elements throughout the story. While it wasn't my favorite, I know many other readers may adore this. I will continue to support Becky in her books and look forward to reading more of her backlist.

Thank you to Becky for sending me a copy to honestly read and review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7033129237
Becky's Site: https://beckywade.com/home/uneasy-street/