Book Review: Uneasy Street

Uneasy Street, by Becky Wade, was the first book selection for the Christian Fiction Reading Challenge. Many individuals balked because it is the 3rd in the Sons of Scandal trilogy. While I prefer to read books in order, I had no difficulty reading this as a stand-alone novel. It was a wholesome romance that follows two wounded people from friendship to alienation to tolerance to love.

Sloane Madison has had a troubled upbringing. One bright spot is her deceased sister's daughter, Ivy. When Ivy's adoptive parents go away for a house-swap trip, they leave Ivy in Sloane's charge and put them up in the guest house on a wealthy property. It seems like a horrid trick when Sloane discovers the owner of the property is none other than her former business partner, Max Cirillo. Max wants closure but Sloane wants nothing to do with him. His lack of concern and spiteful retaliation in the past require forgiveness Sloane cannot muster.

Forgiveness is a key theme in this book. From neglect to misunderstandings to adulterous mistresses, there's lots of forgiveness fodder. Ivy has her own sub-plot as she searches for her biological father and discovers an unexpected wrinkle in her adoption story. I loved Ivy and her rats. I even liked Sloane, in spite of her constant bristle with Max. Max was physically swoony, but I struggled to feel as drawn to him as the others. 

Each character comes with baggage and that baggage is steadily unpacked throughout the story. I loved the concept of giving to others what you need for yourself. So Sloane is learning to seek to meet the needs in others that she wishes her family had met for her in her childhood. Although I was unable to make the Zoom call interview with the author, I did watch it at a later point in time. My favorite part of that interview was when Becky articulated the truth that everyone experiences a novel differently because we come at the story with different histories, perspectives, and needs. I think this is also why you can read a novel at one point and then later, in reading again, experience it in a whole different way. If you are interested in watching that interview (including reader questions), click here.

I will happily try another Becky Wade book at some point, but I've too many books on my stack to seek the first and second in this trilogy. Indeed, before I even read this book, I had taken this screen shot of the author's declaration that all of her books are written without AI. In this day and age, that's a promise I want to bank on in books I read.