With Love from Rose Bend by Naima Simone
Rose Bend #3
Contemporary Romance
March 29, 2022, by HQN Books
Review by Melanie
I don’t know if this is the final book in this series but if it is, Naima Simone is ending on a very high note, capturing all the small town charm typically found in Hallmark movies and imbuing the series with her traditional brand of gut wrenching emotions and incredibly high heat and sexual tension.
Leo, who helps run her family’s inn, and Owen, retired professional football player turned reclusive hermit, actually met more than a year before the book begins. Sharing a scorcher of a one-night stand, Leo, running scared from her feelings, snuck out the morning after, unaware that the man she thought was a high school teacher was actually a well known football player.
Cut to present day and Owen, hiding out from his life in Rose Bend after a tragic car accident left him badly injured with a scarred face, comes face to face with the woman he’s been unable to forget for all these many months.
I loved everything about this setup and these two characters, both with incredibly painful baggage, initially hiding from themselves and eventually forcing each other to face some harsh and ultimately freeing truths.
Leo, carrying the heavy weight of a tragic secret for years, has stopped believing in love, at least for herself. She has trust issues and control issues and frankly, a fair amount of anxiety. I do wish that the book had mentioned the character (in fact both characters) seeking therapy because both Leo and Owen could have benefitted from that.
Owen retreated from public life and abruptly retired from professional football following his accident. Adding to his emotional trauma is the fact that he’s saddled with parents who have both equated his worth as a human with his talents on the field, especially his father. Toxic parental relationships don’t even begin to cover it.
Both of these characters clearly have a lot to work through, both with huge trust issues. Added to the fact that when Leo and Owen lay eyes on each other after that fateful one night hookup many months ago, Owen pretends to not know who Leo is, leaving her with hurt feelings and bruised pride.
All of this drama plays out against the backdrop of this quaint and charming New England town on the cusp of celebrating its annual spring Honeybee Festival (seriously, Hallmark needs to adapt these books and fast).
One of the things I really love about this book and really, this series as a whole is that the side characters are so well drawn and show up repeatedly and you really get a sense of who they are, even if they’re minor characters. Everyone from Leo’s vast family to Owen’s former teammate/best friend and his beauty queen wife to the various townspeople inhabiting Rose Bend feel like fully formed, multi-dimensional characters and you can’t help but want to spend more time getting to know them.
I also love the friendships and family bonds in this book, at least the family bonds on Leo’s side. There’s a beautiful scene where Leo finally unburdens herself to the women most important in her life and it’s such a tender and heartbreaking moment, full of tears and love and ultimately, the kind of healing that comes from laying your soul bare to those closest to you.
But ultimately, the true focus of the book is in the romance playing out between Leo and Owen, two lost and lonely people slowly coming to realize that they perfectly complete each other. For all its small town charms, the story packs quite the emotional punch with these two characters, pulling the reader into a story that’s all about healing and hope and learning to open your heart even when you’re scared.
I’m going to add some content notes but some of them also go hand in hand with Leo’s painful secret. Personally, there were enough hints given in the book that I pretty much called it before the secret was confirmed. I don’t think it really merits a spoiler warning and to be honest, the secret could be triggering for some readers and I think it’s important to give a heads up.
Content Notes: past miscarriage (off-page), severe injuries due to a car accident (off-page), anxiety, toxic parental relationships, physical and emotional trauma
Grade: A
Leave a Reply