First Attempt at Becky Wade

Thank you to Edelweiss, Bethany House, and Becky Wade for granting me access to this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Okay, let me just start off by saying this: I really hate slamming books. In fact, I'm gracious with my ratings and reviews because there are real humans writing this and real feelings in the authors that read what the audience has say. However, for this book, there will be some slamming. Not a lot, but some.

Also to note, I'll include a spoiler free review here at the top and elaborate more on the bottom with spoilers. I'll indicate when spoilers will be coming.

Let's jump right in! Things I liked, things I didn't, and overall review, spoiler free.

Writing: 2 stars

Characters: 3 stars

Plot: 4 stars

Overall: 3 stars

Things I liked:

1. The relatability! As Christians, it's easy to put on this perfect lifestyle that screams "all is well in my world!" at everyone you come across. However, very seldom is life actually so peachy. I loved that this book tore apart the stigma of Christians who struggle.

2. Gen's moms past: Okay I really thrived in the mystery of this book. In fact, I really actually felt like Wade gripped me more in the mystery than she did in the romance. I was pulled into the story, I was eager to see how it played out, and when the ending hit I was quite content with the results. It was a little predictable, but the story itself was honestly easy to read through.

3. Elements of romance. I enjoyed some of the romantic elements. I felt like a lot of it was too superficial, but there were a few threads I was LIVING for! Gen's parents, the groceries, and the laundry room scene. 1 -- Gen's parents' romance. Yes ma'am, more please! Gen's mom was so hard for Genevieve stomach because she was so overbearing, but the portrayal of mental health and the love Gen's dad had for her mom was beautiful! 2 -- THE EVERLOVING GROCERIES!! Oh my I got a good laugh from this one! Without spoiling it, Sam is this health nut with a desire to eat well (which is completely respectable). He's also a chef. A great one at that. So when they go grocery shopping and he buys her groceries, he buys her a bunch of healthy stuff and lots of produce that Gen has no clue what to do with. It's a great thread, albeit a short one, and I had a blast. 3 -- There's one specific scene where Gen crashes in his laundry room. Basically, the laundry room became some sort of "hello, I'm here, come save me" kind of indicator, so one night Gen's having a particularly rough go of it and she decides, like any sane person would, that crashing in Sam's laundry room is the solution. It was really cute and totally swoon worthy, but in order to not spoil the story I'll stop here!

Things I didn't like:

1. The romance. I'm a sucker for a solid romance, but this one really just didn't do it for me. There was very little chemistry, very little character interaction (it seemed), and Sam really felt paper thin and 2D. Additionally, Sam's inability to recover from his past relationship that wrecked him after 7 years of torturing himself...it just seemed a little extreme.

2. The characters. The only character I think I actually really enjoyed completely was Natasha. Gen wasn't a bad character and neither was Sam, but you really didn't get to know them fully in their environments. I appreciated Gen but she kind of bothered me, and Sam was infuriating all on his own. Also, I realize Christians come in all shapes and sizes with various character traits, but I don't expect a bible study writer to listen to Nicki Minaj and Iggy Azalea. Considering they're both heavily explicit and vulgar, I can't imagine a strong follower of Christ being completely okay with the messages of either rapper. If she weren't specifically a bible study writer than I'd say okay, yeah, I guess I'm guilty too, but the extreme that the author of this book took to make Gen out to be such a devout follower made this element a little unrealistic.

3. The overall problem. For one thing, I haven't ever been through drug withdrawals or any sense of coming off of drugs for me to fully understand what it takes and what it's like, but the way it was handled in this book felt too pure and easy. She struggled to come off of it but she really only had to try two times prior, and those were done on her own without help. I don't know, I could be wrong, but just seemed too easy for her to quit.

Overall summary:

I didn't really enjoy this read. It definitely had its parts, don't get me wrong, and I loved who Sam was portrayed to be, but there was just so little feeling to the characters and the story. I didn't live with the characters, I just lived kind of observing them. I didn't get to really meet any of them besides maybe Gen, I just was like oh hey you exist now, okay. And I felt like it was largely unrealistic quite often. All of this is so disappointing because I've seen so many books by Becky Wade on different shelves and I have one on my shelf right now to read, so I was so hopeful that this one would be as much as the others have been talked about, but I really felt like it was lacking.

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Spoilers below, don't continue reading if you haven't read the book!

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Okay, so here were some things that really bugged me. Kayden was so prominent in Sam's life and she interfered with his ability to love Gen, but Sam told Gen he had spent a year in therapy. If they didn't get to the root of this problem for him, WHAT WAS HE DOING FOR THE ENTIRE YEAR?! Also, if Gen's dad killed Russell and Sandra stormed out of the house, just because Alice made the announcement that no one would go to the police doesn't actually guarantee that no. one. will. go. to. the. police. Lastly, someone please tell me how Gen and Sam go from restricting themselves to making out on the coffee aisle??? 1, awkward, and 2, homeboy can't even decide if he wants to date you and now he's planted a big one on ya?? Huh????? Weird. I don't know, I just think they acted less than 30 and 31 years old, and they couldn't seem to get over themselves to actually develop a romance in the 400 pages this story took to complete itself. It could've been shorter and a lot of the drama could've been left out. That's all I'm saying.