This book is a homecoming novel that turns into a steamy sexy relationship.

Sydney returns to her hometown divorced and pregnant with her ex-husband's baby. She is hoping that her parents will be happy to be a part of their grandchild's life but old anger and hurt has reemerged to cause a strain on their already horrible relationship. So she stays at her best friend's cottage to give them all space. Her BFF;s brother is the mayor and a lawyer that helps when issues come up with the ex-husband,

I love her best friend's family, they are the most caring and loving family and do wonders for a wounded Sydney. This town is amazing and I cannot wait to read the other books in the series.

This is the first book I have read by Naima Simone but it won't be the last.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC.

I am a sucker for small town dramas, and this was really up my alley. The cover really appealed to me as someone who grew up in the Midwest in the middle of nowhere. I really felt like there were people I know parading around as characters in this book--some of them lovely and some not so much. I really felt like I was going to struggle to make it through this book, because some of the topics dealt with are heavy, but the writing kept me engaged. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes steamy romances.

This is a great start to a new series featuring strong, diverse characters. It has small town charm, complex characters, steamy romance, and enough intrigue in the background characters to come back for more. The Road to Rose Bend is worth the trip.

Thank you so much to the publisher for approving me. This was a DNF for me. The writing was a bit tedious for me and not what I was expecting.

Naima Simone was a featured guest on the Fresh Fiction podcast! We discussed the Rose Bend series and her Harlequin Desire novels, along with her writing process: https://freshfiction.podbean.com/e/write-the-thing-writing-in-pop-culture-author-naima-simone/

A review of this book, by one of FF's top reviewers, ran on FreshFiction.com as well: https://freshfiction.com/review.php?id=74624

This might be my favorite surprise baby so far, as its my least favorite troupe. But the cover looks all happy and sunshine and this book is a hard one, with death of wife and son for Cole- surprise baby and recent divorce- asshole ex is a lot. Also some of the small town is just mean. I was also bit taken aback with how steamy it was- and no not because she is preggo but well just how emotional it all was. I really enjoyed all the diversity, nice characters, hated the one's I'm to hate, and super glad we got that HEA butttt we don't know how this all ends...

I need the rest of this series as it seems wolf is next! but also what happened!!!

4 stars
4 steam

I enjoyed this book, the characters, and Rose Bend. There is always one black sheep of the family, the good boy, and the town bully. This book has all three, plus a lively bunch of townsfolk! I look forward to returning to Rose Bend in the future!

The Road to Rose Bend was very disappointing to me. I was hoping it would be a good beachy summer romance read that wouldn't make me think too much, but would make me feel a lot. I found it to be way too much on the lustful side of romance, though, and I couldn't really connect with the characters at all. There wasn't any solid relationship-building, and I didn't feel like I was involved with the conflict or the characters' emotions at all. On the contrary, I was pretty fed up with the main characters' drama by chapter 3. The constant references to the characters' bodies and heightened hormonal response to each other was wearisome pretty quickly. Who finds a pregnant woman that much of a turn-on? I found this book to be incredibly shallow, though I wish I could have enjoyed it more. Maybe that's what readers of this author are expecting, in which case, they will be delighted. I wanted at least a little depth, and this book was lacking in that department.

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At its core. The Road to Rose Bend is a story about two people in two opposite points in their lives. After living through a marriage where she often stayed in the sidelines without her own voice, Sydney is desperate to move on and build a satisfying life with her child. She moves back to her hometown and sees Coltrane, her childhood friend's brother. The attraction is immediate, but like Sydney, Coltrane has his own hang ups. Years after the untimely death of his family, he's still stuck in the past, with no plans of moving on. Sydney and Coltrane first try to avoid each other, but they soon fall into an arrangement where they're once again stuck on different pages. Coltrane makes Sydney promise that she won't fall in love with him, and while Sydney agrees. she knows that fulfilling said promise is almost impossible.

I enjoyed reading about Sydney and Coltrane getting to know each other, never failing to support each other, and ultimately, falling in love. Also, books revolving around a female character learning to stand up for herself and learning what she wants will always be favorites of mine. Sydney has been starving for love since she was young, and I admire how brave she is in giving up all she knows because she realizes that she deserves more. Sydney was at first content to play second fiddle to Coltrane's dead wife, but I was cheering her on as she slowly realizes that she's worth more. On the flipside, I was also willing Coltrane to remember that there is nothing wrong with moving on, and being happy.

Naima Simone has been a favorite author of mine since her WAGs series, and The Road to Rose Bend is another great read from her. I can't wait for the next book in this series!

The Road to Rose Bend is the first of the Rose Bend series by Naima Simone. It was a Hallmark movie (which I love) crossed with Bridgerton (which I also love). You immediately feel at home in Rose Bend and are soon surrounded by quaint shops and hunky men. Sydney Collins is moving back to Rose Bend after being gone for 8 years. She's newly divorced, pregnant and still grieving her sister's death - the reason why she left almost a decade earlier. But she wants a safe, caring home for her child and is hoping that Rose Bend is the place. She runs into handsome, grieving , Coltraine Dennison who lost his wife and child in birth. He's barely getting by, but when Sydney's ex shows up and tries to take everything from Sydney, Coltrane steps up and might possibly begin to live again. This was a fun read. I was surprised at how explicit the romantic are. This isn't a novel I would pass along to a young adult, but I enjoyed the heck out of it as a grownup! Thanks to Net Galley for the ARC. I look forward to the next book in the series.

I got an ARC of this book.

In the first 10% it was just constant info dumps. Did I need to know the history of every single name? Probably not. I liked the details, but when it happened over and over again it bogged down the story. Then the main male lead getting an erection being the sign that he had feelings and things were doom and gloom after that was obnoxious. I would have rather it have been a crush from childhood that fluttered up, but the sexual attraction means love stuff is boring. Give me some emotions. It was also really sketch that there kept being references to the main female lead being sexy when she was a teenager and how her pregnancy reminded the main male lead of his dead wife. It was a lot at once. I wanted to love this, I got excited when I saw Simone do a reading at a zoom conference and immediately requested the ARC of the book. It just didn't work for me.

Received a copy of this book for review. Overall it is a good read for me. Love the chemistry between the main characters. Love all the characters. What I love is that each of them does make a difference to the story as it developed. Like to read how the characters In the story are interrelated to each other. It make the story more exciting to read. The setting of the story is nice and is fit nicely to the story.Story plot are well penned out, with a slight twist to it in the end

Such a sweet, grief-stricken tale in a beautiful small town. You really get to know the characters and I want more of Rose Bend!

This book was fine.
I was disappointed that the hero hung on to his past for so long. It made me not care about him.
Also, there are a lot of dead secondary characters. So the characters' grief make the story very dark.
I didn't get much joy out of this book.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This is, in a lot of ways, your typical small-town contemporary romance (and that's not a bad thing!) It's got our down-on-her-luck heroine returning to her small town, it's got her childhood-crush turned hot adult love interest, it's got her complicated family, and it's got a whole town full of quirky characters just waiting for books of their own later in the series. And this is all great, because this formula works for a REASON: it's always really satisfying!

Though here's the thing about this one: it's also just, content wise, REALLY heavy. Everybody is dead. Like, everyone. Heroine's sister? Dead. Hero's first love? Dead. Hero's child? Dead. Hero's biological parents? Dead. It's a miracle that this town has ANYBODY left alive - and that's only possible because our hero's adoptive family has so many kids! If it weren't for them, it'd be like a town of two people and seven hundred gravestones!

The reason that I mention this is because there are just SO MANY dead secondary characters - who all died in different ways, from different things, at different times - there really isn't enough time for any of those stories of grief to breathe. We get some emotional resolution on the hero's dead wife - but all the other kinds of grief get trunkated to fit into a story that just has SO MUCH death going on.

So, with that in mind, here's my recommendation: read it for the small-town vibes and for the hero's delightful cast of siblings (all ready for their spin-off novels), but skip it if you aren't in the headspace for a grief brigade that ultimately doesn't really do emotional resolution. (As always, your own mileage may vary!)

Sydney left her more town 8 years ago. Now she is divorced and pregnant and wants to move back to the place she ran off so long ago. She didn't get along with her parents all that well, and she still blames herself for her sister's death, but she determined to raise a child in a small town, surrounded by family.

Rose Bend mayor lost a child and wife a few years ago and never moved on. Seeing Sydney and seeing her pregnant belly bring back all the pain he wanted to push away.

Their past keep them from getting together and they both need just a little push. :)

It's a light romance story. For the most part, I enjoyed reading it, however, I found it a bit too long, especially in the middle and I had a hard time liking Sydney.

Overall I found the characters compelling and really enjoyed the characters. My only letdown was how long Cole held on to the past. It seemed to drag on a bit at the end. I'm really excited for the rest of the series! I wish they were all out so I could binge read them all.

If Naima Simone is an author you haven’t read or heard of before, I strongly recommend that you remedy that now. I’ve been a fan of hers for years. Her stories are solid, with pop culture references, strong friendship/family bonds, sassy and spunky heroines, and heroes who make you want to throttle them, while at the same time weak in the knees. Oh, and I can’t forget about the passionate smexy times. Naima is an author who brings it all.

Naima makes her full-length Harlequin HQN novel debut with The Road to Rose Bend. The story is different from Naima’s other books, but she still includes everything I love her for. She just adds more family and different dynamics.

In The Road to Rose Bend, Sydney Collins is returning to Rose Bend, MA, eight years after leaving and swearing she would never return. “Family. Acceptance. A sense of belonging. Those had never been hers to have in her hometown.” But when she finds herself divorced and pregnant with her ex-husband’s baby, she’s hoping her parents and the town she knows is capable of loving will welcome its black sheep and child into their loving fold. Cole Dennison has overcome the tragic death of his parents and is now an attorney and newly elected mayor of Rose Bend. He’s also a loved son and brother. From the outside, and only looking on the surface, Cole seems to be a happy man. At times, he is. In those moments when no one is looking, Cole is a grieving man who believes in faking it until he makes it. Two years after the tragic death of his wife and son, Cole still grieves for them and all that he’s lost.

Cole’s world is turned upside down when he runs into Sydney, his younger sister’s childhood best friend. He’s not prepared for the feelings Sydney awakens in him. Sydney isn’t looking for anything from Cole besides his friendship. But she can’t deny the pull she feels towards him. When Sydney’s ex informs her that he’s not on board with her plans, it’s Cole who jumps to her rescue and proposes a marriage of convenience. Can two people who have endured more than their share of tragedy let go of the past and find love?

Naima shows the creativeness and amazing things that truly brilliant authors can do. She’s written a story with characters you want to embrace and have in your life. She’s given them wisdom and depth, making them multi-dimensional. She manages to bring out a variety of emotions; from anger and sadness to laughter and love. And I can’t forget about the tears. There are definitely moments when the tears flow freely. I’ve thought in the past that Naima couldn’t outdo herself. I was wrong. She can and she has. Naima has set up her Rose Bend series very well. I’m looking forward to more of the Dennison family and watching them all find and fall in love.

The Road I Rose Bend is a poignant story about Cole and Sydney, two lost souls who find each other at just the right time. This is an emotional story dealing with real problems but it is also uplifting with a happy ending.

Sydney hasn’t returned home to Rose Bend, Massachusetts for eight years. In fact, she had vowed never to return, but she is back again, divorced and pregnant. Sydney doesn’t have a good relationship with her parents, so she has no one to rely on, but she is hoping the small town will be a good place to raise her child.

Cole is the mayor and still grieving after losing his wife and unborn child. He finds it impossible to forget them and move forward. Cole comes from a big boisterous family. They are loving and caring and always in Cole’s business. They worry about Cole because he has become so reclusive. He is either working or spending time by himself, all the while trying to pretend everything is fine. When Cole sees Sydney something in him awakens and those feelings scare him and also make him feel guilty.

Cole and Sydney share a bond and easily connect with each other. They both lost someone important to them, they are single and lonely and trying to deal with life the best way they can. I found it easy to get lost in this touching story.