"Uneasy Street" by Becky Wade

If you've enjoyed Becky Wade's Sons of Scandal series, you are not going to want to miss this entertaining and endearing conclusion.

Max Cirillo longs for closure. His friendship and business partnership with Sloane Madison ended badly, and now he has the chance to come face to face with her again. Not only that, he has the chance to put her at his mercy. He's not going to be too diabolical, of course. Just enough to make sure he has answers.

Sloane believed she was in for a wonderful, golden summer with her teenage niece Ivy. That was before she learns her nemesis Max is the landlord of the apartment they've rented and Ivy declares she wants to find her birth father. Sloane is able to rely on her faith and good etiquette to pull her through and navigate the twisting path of these various relationships.

I have to admit that I am not the biggest fan of either Max or Sloane, but I loved this story. The side characters and plot really bring it to life. I feel compelled to point out that this is the third straight series where Becky Wade tackles the "looking for biological family" trope, but she does each one so well that I don't mind at all. The side plot about the missing tiara seems strangely out of place at first, but was incredibly moving in the end.

My very favorite part of the story was how Sloane purposefully lived out a rephrasing of the Golden Rule: "Give to other people what you need." In each situation, she evaluates what she needs, whether that be attention, respect, care, or so on. She then gives that to the other party. I found this to be an intriguing rephrasing that I've instinctively lived out in many areas of my own life. I want to continue to ponder this and see how it brings light to the words of Jesus.

I listened to the audiobook version of this book and the narrators do a wonderful job bringing the story to life.

I received my copy of the book from the author. All thoughts in this review are my own.