lol I read this first even though it is the third in the series. I'm sure I missed out on some important connections but I enjoyed this just fine. ( )

3.5 stars

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

After going through a traumatic experience alone in college and too brittle to share the pain with her friends and family, Leo Dennison strictly follows her own personal rules. Leo always plans, sticks to the plans, and has put all her focus and energy on working to make her family's Inn the new destination for weddings. This doesn't leave room for love but that's too unpredictable for her. When her mother breaks her ankle, Leo is suddenly in charge of getting the new town hermit to guest judge a chili contest.
When Owen opens his front door a crack and sees the year ago one night stand that left without saying goodbye in the morning, he immediately pretends that he doesn't recognize her. He doesn't want to see pity replace the passion that was once in her eyes when she see's how scarred the side of his face is now. Once a Super Bowl winning QB, Owen has been hiding out in his friend's small hometown to get away from the prying eyes of the press and public and the questions of his return to football after a car accident left him with a torn ACL and numerous injuries.
Leo and Owen have plenty of pain but the feelings from their first meeting still strike a chord.

This was her fault for not following the rules. For letting her guard down.

Third in the Rose Bend series, I thought the author did a great job of bringing in new readers while also revisiting past couples. I was new to Rose Bend and instantly felt welcomed in and a part of the world. If you read Jill Shalvis and Lori Foster, you'll definitely want to give Naima Simone a try. There's a wide cast of characters with the Dennison family members, Leo has 6 siblings, giving us good family feels. I would have liked more descriptions of the town, perhaps done in previous books, but I loved the emotional feel, if not the physical, of the setting.

What if Leo Dennison became a hard habit to break?

The first half gives readers more about Leo and her emotional baggage, we don't get the specifically said reason for her pain and anxiety attacks but it's alluded to enough that you'll know before it is revealed around the 80% mark. Since it's alluded to in the first half, I don't consider it a spoiler but I'm going to put it in tags anyway but also want to state it because it's a content warning (Leo had a miscarriage in college). The second half gets into Owen's issues with the fallout of the car accident he was in and the emotional pain from his relationship with his parents. The author gives us very full characters and this lead to a more gradual coming together, the back-end of the book flips the whole not in deed but thought and car hoods get disrespected.

“Focus on me, Leo. Focus. You're not alone. Listen to my heartbeat. Feel it. And breathe with me.”

I thought the Spring Honeybee Festival was a cute additive, especially with this book releasing in late March, A+ planning, but we don't actually get too much of it and I was a little disappointed. We get more of the beauty pageant that Leo gets forced into, which works to bring out her anxiety and gives opportunity for her to deal with it but I still missed some festival vibe. I enjoyed the welcoming in feeling of the gradual paced beginning, thought 50-60% dragged a smidgen, and then the latter second half had too much of a jumping from emotional baggage to emotional baggage between Leo and Owen. With the care, thought, and time going into laying out Leo and Owen's characters, I wanted a little more time to sit with them in their healing.

“Let's be fearless together.”

This was a fairly low angst vibe, that small town setting readers will find reading comfort in with it's calm and loving relationships between the romantic lead couple, family, and friendships. There was a scene between Leo and Owen that had Leo on a tree swing and Owen pushing her with them talking that seemed quiet but had that emotion that will have it lingering in my mind, more tree swing scenes! Family and friend secondary characters filled out the world beautifully and I'm definitely going to go back and see how some couple's came together and looking forward to seeing others get their happily ever after. This was a great coming out of winter thaw to the spring transition heat toned story. ( )