I loved this book! Christmas books are my favorite!! It's well-written, enjoyable, and a great read. Naima Simone did a great job of writing in a way that captures the readers attention, and makes you not want to put it down until you're finished! I would highly recommend it!

This was an ok story, I didn’t like nor did i hate it. I like the authors writing style and will continue to read from her.

I truly enjoy Naima Simone's writing. Seeing how she has crafted this little world in Rose Bend where you get the light hearted feels of being in a small town without having to deal with romantic suspense that people like to include in their small town romances. Who wouldn't enjoy a Christmas story in a small town where you get to see people from many different backgrounds and lives. Seeing how Nessa and her little sister, Ivy grow closer together and bond over the course of the book was truly special. I liked seeing how Wolf and Nessa grew toward healing especially with the grief and hurt that Nessa experienced before she gets to Rose Bend. I truly enjoyed this couple and this story.

This is such a lovely series and this addition is no different! Simone creates great characters that are drawn to each other, all in a cute small town.

4.25 Stars / 3 Steam Fans

What do you do when your mother dies, revealing a deathbed secret, and an estranged sister is dropped in your lap for Christmas. On this road trip to Rose Bend, Nessa and Ivy discover what it means to be family and that things are not always as they seem. A bonus is the love story between Wolf and Nessa.

Video review available in Week 43: Oct 24 – Oct 30, 2021, full weekly book reviews available on Steph's Romance Book Talk Patreon.

For other bookish content, check out my YouTube Channel: Steph's Romance Book Talk.

I adore Naima! This small town series has everything that I love. I can’t get enough of Rose Bend. Classic Naima steam and banter.

Christmas in Rode Bend was a delightful holiday read with a lot of heart.

Though not always enthralling, it was very emotional and heart warming. I loved the small town setting and the feel good Christmas vibes. The relationship between the sisters could have been explored more as I really felt like it was the emotional backbone of the story, but the romance really propelled the narrative. Would make an excellent hallmark movie.

Christmas in Rose Bend by Naima Simone is one of my favorite Christmas reads of 2021. This remarkable read hit me with some major feels.

Nessa Hunt world is about to change in many ways, but will she be accepting to the truths of her heart? Nessa gave a dying mans his final wish, bring her little sister Ivy Reed sister age 12 to Rose Bend to spend the holiday.

Wolf Dennison’s Family owns Kinsale Inn which has been passed down through the family. Wolf has never wanted to leave Rose Bend not even when his ex Olivia wanted him to.

Nessa and Wolf’s story was brilliantly written, Christmas at Rose Bend had the right amount of passion, heart, secrets, family drama and a small town feel with a splash mean girl thrown in. I have fallen for the Dennison family. This is my first book of Naima Simone I can most definitely say it won’t be my last.

Rated 5 Stilettos and a Recommended Read by Deb!

I can not wait to read the rest of this series. I loved this book. So charming. The Author writes amazing characters and has built a world I can truly visualize.

I am really loving this Naima Simone's small town series. This book was a delight. Thank you for letting me read and review this book.

Passion, pathos, emotion and heart are exquisitely intertwined in Naima Simone’s latest contemporary romance, Christmas in Rose Bend.

Nessa Hunter is mourning the loss of her mother and reeling from a shocking deathbed confession that turned her entire world on its axis: her dad wasn’t her biological father. On a road trip with her half sister Ivy, Nessa is on her way to the small town of Rose Bend and finds herself stumbling upon the kind of holiday cheer she usually avoids like the plague. Nessa wants to get as far as she can possibly can from Rose Bend, but could handsome innkeeper’s son Wolfgang Dennison change her mind?

Wolf is part of a large, boisterous and tight-knit family that loves the holidays – unlike Nessa who would give Scrooge a run for his money in the grouchy stakes! Nessa might feel like an outsider looking in in Rose Bend, however, the more time she spends in sexy Wolf’s company, the more she finds herself falling head over heels in love with him. The chemistry between them is electric and succumbing to the desire that sizzles between them quickly proves inevitable. Rose Bend seems to be good not just for Nessa, but for her half sister Ivy who is smiling for the first time in a very long while!

As Nessa begins to feel like she has found somewhere she belongs and a place to call home, will her parental baggage and insecurities about who she really is end up coming between her and her happy ending? Or will Wolf manage to convince her that staying in Rose Bend by his side for the rest of her life is where she is meant to be?

Naima Simone’s Christmas in Rose Bend is a heart-rending, poignant and enjoyable contemporary romance sizzled with drama, intensity and heat that readers will find hard to resist. Christmas in Rose Bend is an engaging tale about taking a chance on love, the magic of the holidays and letting your guard down and embracing happiness guaranteed to keep readers glued to its pages.

Naima Simone is a very talented writer who once again knocks it out of the park with her latest contemporary romance, Christmas in Rose Bend.

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of Naima Simone. Her stories ALWAYS get me in my feels. Christmas in Rose Bend was no different. I don't personally know Naima, but I do follow her on social media. Reading the dedication page was tough. Reading the blurb, and knowing what I was going to read in the story made it even tougher but at the same time more heartfelt and genuine.

Christmas in Rose Bend is about love, family, and grief. Nessa Hunt has been thrust into the guardian/caregiver role of her 12-year-old half-sister, Ivy. With a 16 year age difference, the two aren’t close and never really spent time together. Ivy lost her mother when she was an infant. Nessa lost her mother eight months ago. And the girls lost their father, Isaac Hunt, six weeks ago. It's hard losing both parents in such a relatively short time span. But it's even harder when one of those leaves a deathbed confession.

Isaac’s last wish was for his two girls to bond and spend the Christmas holidays together in Rose Bend, Massachusetts. His reason, unbeknownst to Nessa and Ivy is the connection they each have to the town and the Kinsale Inn, owned by Moe and Ian Dennison. Nessa struggles with having a sulky combative younger sister to take care of. And also having to celebrate Christmas, a holiday that holds bad memories, in a place that decorates every square inch and holds daily holiday activities.

Nessa literally walks into Wolfgang “Wolf” Dennison, the oldest of Dennison’s seven kids, in a very visually funny meet-cute. Wolf is a perceptive gentle giant who has his own demons to overcome.

The romance and playful banter between Wolf and Nessa definitely exists and comes through the pages. What makes this story so remarkable is the layers upon layers Naima has created for the characters and the story itself. Yes, this is a romance book but the story is about so much more. It's about a parent's love for their child. And that innate ability, desire, and wish to protect them even from the grave. It's about embracing grief but not allowing it to consume you.

Naima Simone's Christmas in Rose Bend is a must-read story. I'm a huge fan of Christmas but I don't think the story should be saved for Christmastime. The true message of the story can and does resonate all year long. I also recommend having tissues nearby.

~ Favorite Quotes ~

“Love, trust, security, protection and acceptance trumped blood every time.”

“Christmas may mean various things for us, for most, we can agree, it’s a time of peace, love, joy and family. A time when the world is a little bit softer, kinder and yes, more beautiful.”

“It’s not easy trying to hold on to someone so determined to push you away.”

“Things happen for a reason, when they’re supposed to happen.”

“Our history is a part of us, but it doesn’t define us. You have nothing to be ashamed of. So stop acting like it.”

“It’s all a case of mind over matter. You shouldn’t mind because they don’t matter.”

“Christmas is a time for miracles.”

“You can’t change what was. But you do have now. And here, this moment and what you do with it is what matters.”

“We say things we don’t mean when we’re hurt.”

“It’s more of a risk to do nothing than to try, take a risk and perhaps fail. Because even if I fail, I learn something. But if I don’t try, I learn nothing.”

On her death bed, Nessa's mother admitted that the man Nessa thought of as her father, is not her biological father. Now with both parents dead, she is left with her half-sister Ivy. She doesn't tell Ivy the truth, that they are not biologically related, because she is scared of losing her. They arrive at Rose Bend at Holliday time. The small town is filled with holiday cheer, something Nessa usually actively avoids and will take a lot of time to get used to. They stay at the Inn when she meets the Innkeeper's son Wolfgang. He comes from a picture-perfect family, filled with love, laughter, and holiday spirit.

The longer they stay in town, the more Christmas spirit seeps into her, and seeing Ivy find friends, have fun, and smile after long is enough to make her change her mind.

In the town, she doesn't only find the Christmas spirit but answers about her father. And then there is Wolf. Handsome with a troubled past. Their connection is undeniable. :)

It's a beautiful and romantic story, with the happiest ending. :)

Christmas is that magical time of the year when second chances make themselves known, opportunities pop in to view, new beginnings spring up, or the best trope of all -- the hardened heart softens and a broken heart is mended.

In Christmas in Rose Bend, Nessa finds herself in her personal hell, a town that lives and breathes Christmas. She's there with her sister Ivy, a sibling she barely knows. Nessa's family's complicated history has made this one of the hardest Christmases she's had to face yet. Her mother passed away months ago, her father who had left her and her mother years before, passed away recently leaving her to care for Ivy. Nessa isn't ready for this. There's so much unresolved pain and anger from being abandoned by her father, then there's the massive secret bomb that her mother dropped on her before her death that's only compounded her feeling of abandonment and not fitting in. But spending the Christmas season in Rose Bend with Ivy was her late father's wish, and as much as it pains Nessa, she will step up and try to be a big sister to Ivy and not have her feel that she's been abandoned too. When she literally runs into Wolf, she and Ivy become fully embraced in his big family's generosity. His family runs the B&B Nessa and Ivy are staying at so there's no avoiding the family, and in particular Wolf who makes her feel things. Same goes for Wolf who feels an instant like to Nessa but also senses her apprehension. Not that he should get involved with anyone, much less a guest, anyway. His survivor's guilt from coming back from war has made him feel especially vulnerable, broken and feeling unworthy of anyone's love and forgiveness.

The overall story is beautiful. Three people pushing out of their own darkness to discover love, learn to trust and redefine family. And during Christmas when the festive mood facilitates those things. However, there's a lot to wade through to get to the happy ending. Christmas in Rose Bend is extremely heavy on grief, so it's not light or joyous holiday reading if that's what you're going for. Both of Nessa's parents passed away from cancer. Ivy's mom died when she was young. Wolf lost his best friend while they were serving, and his siblings have also experienced tragic loss which was at the center of the first book in this series. The blurb eludes to some sadness, but I wasn't prepared for what felt was an onslaught.

I made my way through it, though. The story does pick up. With backstories in order, and Nessa and Ivy settling in, I started to enjoy the story better. Nessa sand Wolf have incredible chemistry. I particularly liked Wolf's character because he's a modern day hero with some pretty outstanding qualities - attentive, conscientious about how he makes a woman feel with his presence. He's basically a dreamboat in a man bun. I also liked how Nessa was written as a bit prickly and not touchy feely. Her metamorphosis into someone who is willing to trust again and put herself out there is slow-going but she eventually gets there. And Wolf respects her boundaries. Where the story is weighed down by tragedy, it makes up for it with these particular details that modern romance fans appreciate.

It's my first time reading Naima Simone. While I liked Christmas in Rose Bend, it took me a bit to get past all the emotional turmoil and tragedies. Simone is a descriptive writer who's packed in some serious punches yet has somehow made this story palatable despite all the sorrow. As I said previously, this isn't lighthearted fare, but it's perfect if you want a story about redemption and forgiveness that eventually lead to the happily ever after.

The Review

Now I know the new year has arrived and many people may be ready to move on from the holidays, but for me, the holiday season is the gift itself that keeps on giving, and the same can be said for holiday romances. What was so beautiful and emotional about this read was how the author managed to balance the Christmas magic that the town of Rose Bend embraced with the complex feelings and experiences both protagonists (Nessa and Wolf) have had coming into this narrative. The reader is able to connect with both characters through their shared sense of loss, whether it is the loss of a loved one physically or emotionally, and then heated and more intimate moments between the two that develop feel more passionate as a result of that shared past.

The development of other characters was what brought a sense of belonging and togetherness to this narrative. Aside from the main characters, the way the narrative showed the rollercoaster of emotions that Nessa’s sister Ivy went through after losing her father, a man she and her sister have had very different experiences with, and the gap that has formed between the two women was so emotionally captivating and engaging that readers would be hard-pressed not to dive headfirst into this story.

The Verdict

A brilliant and sizzling romance that will heat up anyone’s holidays, author Naima Simone’s “Christmas at Rose Bend” is the perfect next chapter in the romance series. The story takes on so much more than a simple holiday romance as the story plays out though. It is a story of breaking down the barriers within ourselves, connecting the people closest to us when they need us the most, and coming to terms with our past to find a brighter future, and that is what makes this story so captivating.

I am going to pass on this novel, as I had to DNF (did not finish) the first novel in the series. I was expecting a bit of a sweeter romance story. I am low on the steam scale, lol. Here is my review for the DNF

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3846339185

‘Christmas in Rose Bend’ was a beautiful and very heartfelt Christmas story that left me feeling all kinds of emotional. Recommended!

Swoonworthy, steamy, angsty, Christmasy! Everything you want in a holiday read along with 2 kick ass lead characters!

Christmas in Rose Bend is another feel-good romance set in one of my favorite fictional small-towns. I loved getting to know more about the characters I had already met, and of course, I loved the new couple in this one, too.
Simone really knows how to write, and this novel just made me feel both happy and sated.

The past doesn't really stay in the past. It influences everything we are.....

When Nessa and her orphaned teenage half sister head to Rose Bend courtesy of a posthumous legacy from their father, their relationship is rocky and full of landmines. Nessa is trying to pick up the shattered pieces of her life -- her career is a fractured mess and she feels rudderless. And even though she wants to run her hands over Wolf's sexy scruff and broad shoulders when she meets him, any relationships are taking a backseat to her self-imposed hiatus.

Wolf is captivated by Nessa's confidence, curves, and the sadness he can see in her eyes. She tries to hide her struggles from the world, but he has demons of his own, and feels an immediate connection. Wolf is determined to give Nessa a glimpse of the magic that is Christmas in Rose Bend. They bond over sleigh rides, cookie decorating and tree lightings. And every moment they spend together emphasizes their inability to stay away from each other.

As Wolf tells her, they are the same - two people desperately pushing others away, afraid to let others see beneath the surface, dirty street fighters who find each other irresistible.

I absolutely adored this contemporary holiday romance about two people who have been battered by the world finding their way back with each other.

This made me laugh out loud like a hyena, swoon over all the lumberjack vibes, and tearily connect with the characters' struggles. This was my first book from this author - but it definitely won't be my last!

Plot: 4 Stars Characters: 5 Stars Steam: 5 Bonfires

A heartfelt thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.