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/

Rocky Road by Becky Wade

 

Rocky Road by Becky Wade - Book 2 in the Sons of Scandal series - 4 Stars

Rocky Road is a cute, fake dating clean, Christian romance featuring FBI agent Jude Camden and perfume maker Gemma Clare. Jude approaches Gemma in an effort to take down her criminal cousin from France who is selling her family perfume secrets. They go undercover and have a fake dating romance but as they start to catch real feelings - things get complicated since Gemma has a current long distance boyfriend and Jude isn't allowed to date those he works with on cases. As genuine emotions surface, Gemma realizes her current relationship lacks true love, prompting her to move on and explore a deeper connection with Jude. We also see a side story about Gemma's great grandmother who has dementia and has forgotten her love story. Gemma sets out to help her great grandmother remember her love story as she pieces everything together for her all about her past.

I loved the first chapter, it had me laughing out loud from the first scene of Gemma and Jude together! I'd say after that I started to get truly invested with our characters and story around the 30-40% mark, when the fake dating began. I honestly didn't connect with our characters until this point, and was not crazy that Gemma had a boyfriend throughout the first part of this book. I personally do not like that "trope" where someone has a boyfriend while they start to get interested in someone else, however, I thought if you have to have the main girl have a boyfriend in the story to start off, Becky handled the break up well and early on.

I did enjoy seeing them get to know one another and how different they were as Jude is very serious and business like and Gemma is bubbly and very outgoing. I loved Jude quoting poetry to Gemma - it felt like a Mr. Darcy moment haha!

I also loved seeing the family elements in this book - this series has been fun to see the brothers interacting as they are hilarious! The faith elements in the book were great to see, specifically in the ending. I loved those intense scenes in the end!

I did listen to the audiobook and the narration was great! Overall, a good continuation to the series and I am looking forward to the next book! 

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

Goodreads Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5828856960
Becky's Website: https://beckywade.com/home/rocky-road/

To Have and To Hold - 3 Autumn Novellas

 

To Have and To Hold - Three Autumn Love Stories by Betsy St. Amant, Becky Wade and Katie Ganshert.

Individual Novella Reviews Below:

Love Takes The Cake - Betsy St. Amant 
4.5 Stars 

This was so cute and just the right amount of hallmark cheese I wanted this weekend ❤️ This is book 1 inside the To Have and To Hold Novella bind up book. I really enjoyed the story, characters and depth that was in a small short novella. We have Charlotte who has her own bakery and has been eyeing Will over the last 3 months as her weekly customer. She is a single mom to a sweet little 5 year old girl so she hasn’t had any developments or interest in the relationship department until Will comes along. Will keeps buying bakery goods for this girl, Melissa, and Charlotte assumes it’s his girlfriend but it’s really his sister(the reader knows this quickly but Charlotte doesn’t) 🤣 So things go on from here as Charlotte works through her wedding festivities and gets to know Will throughout the process as Will is the best man in the wedding she is working on.

Super cute like I said — I love how we had a layer of depth with Will and his sister’s disability and his past, also with Charlottes past. There was a little faith content that was nice to see too. Overall a cute fall romance 🥰

The Perfect Arrangement - Katie Ganshert
3.5 Stars 

Amelia meets Nick accidentally by running into his car when she is spying on her ex's wedding. She ends up sending a lot of emails back and forth with the Nick and they start getting to know each other. Really sweet story, if you like You've Got Mail type storyline, this is for you. I didn't connect with the characters as much here like I did in the first book but still a cute fall novella.

Love in the Details - Becky Wade 
4.5 Stars 

Second chance romance that had a great ending ❤️💕 So cute. Holly and Josh broke up many years ago when Josh’s mom asked her to so he could focus on his career and college life at MIT. Fast forward to their late 20s and a Josh is back in town to help his best friend get married. He runs in to Holly since she is the church wedding coordinator and sparks start to fly all over again. Neither have gotten over each other but Josh never knew the real reason she broke it off so long ago. The story takes off here and she helps plan the wedding and they start to rekindle what they had.

Really enjoyed this💕💕

Overall, this novella collection is a fun one for the fall and great for the hallmark movie lover, cheese but not too much!

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3tHi4Xp

YouTube Review Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt-U-nf5HX8

Memory Lane by Becky Wade

 

Memory Lane - Becky Wade - 4 Stars - A great start to a new series! 

Memory Lane by Becky Wade is the first book in a new series, A Sons of Scandal Romance series. Set on a remote island in Maine, we follow Remy Reed, who spends most of her time working on wood sculptures and spending quiet time to herself. One day, she sees an unknown man swimming in the ocean, struggling to stay afloat. She goes out to sea and rescues this mystery man and everything takes off from here. We see Remy, her friend Leigh and a local EMT working to help this man get better, but he has a serious case of amnesia so they end up with the name “Jonah” for him until they can reveal his real identity.

This story took me through it ya’ll! 4 stars! I was mostly connected to our main guy here and his story – as the mystery of him and his family really interested me along the way. Remy and him start to get to know each other and we start to see a bit of “enemies to lovers” going on here! I thought at first they had some great chemistry and really enjoyed seeing them interact while he was trying to get his memories back. I specifically loved seeing even though “Jonah” didn’t have any memory of his life or who he was, he felt like faith was important to him and he felt the urge inside him to go to church and we see him do that.

While I never fully connected to Remy and would have liked a bit more faith content/revelations/in depth discussions for her in this story, the journey she takes with “Jonah” was special and I enjoyed seeing all the emotions taking place. A wild ride indeed!

Once “Jonah’s” identity was revealed, everything gets CRAZY with his family fast! We are learning all about his parents, their drama, and the reason this is a “Sons of Scandal” story! I did like seeing his brother Jude and him together – can’t wait for his story as future books come out. His family dynamic was very interesting and wild!

One item I did really enjoy was seeing Remy help this older man Wendell cleaning and organizing his home and trying to help him find an old girlfriend of his. That was so sweet.

This book does deal with some heavier topics, including sexual assault, trauma, infidelity, affairs, and suicide.

Overall, I really enjoyed Memory Lane and am so grateful to have read an advanced reader copy for honest review. Thank you, Becky Wade!

Goodreads Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5281754462
Amazon: https://amzn.to/43qRJJ2
Becky's Website to Order: https://beckywade.com/home/memory-lane/
YouTube Review Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuFKv2eeju0

Turn to Me by Becky Wade

Turn to Me - Becky Wade - 5 Stars - Wonderful final book in the series!

Turn to Me by Becky Wade is the 3rd and final book in the Misty River Series and I LOVED IT SO MUCH! 5 stars! Ya’ll, this series is one of my favorites of all time. Top tier Christian Romance stories full of love, faith, heartbreak, redemption, grace, humor and real life characters you can relate to with real life problems.

In this final installment, we follow Luke Dempsey and Finley Sutherland. Luke is the last of the Miracle 5 that has always distanced himself from the rest of the group. He was recently released from prison after serving time for felony theft and promised a fellow inmate and friend, which happens to be Finley’s father, right before he passed away, that he would help piece together the clues for a treasure hunt for his daughter. Finley’s father was worried others will be searching for the treasure so he trusts Luke to protect Finley as he helps her find this missing treasure.

Finley is the owner of an animal rescue center and accepts Luke’s help for the treasure hunt. What Luke doesn’t know is Finley is secretly working to help him along the way with his own emotions, healing and forgiveness for his past.

Luke and Finley were a delight to see together from their first meeting, I loved them so much ya’ll! Their relationship was so real, raw and beautiful. They made me laugh the entire time together and had the BEST banter! Both of them have been through some VERY hard times in life and it was beautiful to see them work through their troubles together, helping one another along the way – discussing faith, forgiveness, growth, etc.

There were times when the mystery portion dragged, but I still think this is a 5 star read as the ending was PERFECT as we truly got to see Luke’s rough exterior start to shed and open up as we saw how much he cared for Finley and would do anything for her. It was also nice to see Ben finally get his happy ending as well.

Goodreads Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4617866257
Amazon: https://amzn.to/44K2Lu5
Baker Book House: https://bakerbookhouse.com/products/405411
YouTube Review Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuFKv2eeju0

Stay with Me by Becky Wade

*EDIT - RE READ JANUARY 2023 - loved just as much all over again!!

5 stars ya’ll! Becky Wade is a new favorite author for me! Must read all the books!

Stay with me is the first book I have read by Becky Wade. It’s the first in the Misty River series. This story tackles the difficult topic of opioid addiction paired with God’s redemption, love and grace.

This story is about Genevieve Woodword (Gen) and Sam Turner. The story starts with Sam finding a random girl asleep in his guesthouse on his farm, which turns out to be Gen. He soon finds out this is due to her being under the influence of pills and quickly decides he doesn’t want anything to do with her because of issues from his past.

Gen is a very famous bible study author and has an addiction to Oxycontin after being prescribed them for an injury about a year ago. She continued to take them long after she should have stopped and developed an addiction. She decides she wants to get clean but the only way she can do it is away from her Mom and Dad’s house. She decides to ask Sam if she can rent his guesthouse on the farm in an effort to try and get clean.

Because of the issues from Sam’s past, he wrestles with this decision but ultimately allows her to stay to try and get clean. He helps her throughout that journey.

There is also a side “mystery” somewhat regarding Gen’s parents. Gen keeps getting these strange letters in the mail that reference something her parents did many years ago. Her sister Natasha and her try to figure out what this could be throughout the story.

Gen is also 1 of 5 called the “Miracle 5” who survived a big earthquake 18 years ago on a mission’s trip. While we take the journey with Sam and Gen in this story, we also see snippets of the past of what happened during that earthquake and we get to see details from the other characters involved.

This was such a great story about God’s grace and truth during times we don’t feel like we deserve it. No matter what God does not abandon us in the struggles we face and that is shown in this story so well. I loved the characters, plot and detail surrounding the farm. The setting was beautiful and there were so many times I loved seeing the characters each dinner, get to know each other and make jokes about their groceries or other things. LOL I also loved her sister Natasha, she was so relatable.

There were moments in the story where I laughed, teared up and was deep in thought. I think this was such an important read and I can’t wait to read more by Becky Wade!

Goodreads Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4724143389
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3OaPc1g
Baker Book House: https://bakerbookhouse.com/products/38726
YouTube Review Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmUXgZGhqm4&t=64s

Let it Be Me by Becky Wade

 

Let it Be Me by Becky Wade - 5 Stars 

I loved this continuation in the series. Leah and Sebastian are AMAZING characters and have the BEST chemistry.

This story was centered around Leah trying to figure out all the details surrounding her birth after realizing from a DNA test that the parents she knew her entire life were not her biological parents. Her paths cross with Sebastian, a pediatric heart doctor, who helps her on her journey to solve the mystery surrounding her birth. Unfortunately, Sebastian's best friend Ben has had a crush on Leah for 2 years since have worked together at the local Misty River High School. Things get crazy from here!

One thing I love about Becky Wade's romance stories is she also tells some kind of back story tied in - it's just not your typical romance read. There is so much character depth and development, that you really get to know and love them.

Loved the faith, Leah's story and Sebastian is an absolute DREAM. Can't wait for Luke and Finley's story in the next book.

Series Link: https://amzn.to/47jUbWA
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