Naima Simone writes contemporary romance, romantic suspense, erotic romance, paranormal romance, sports romance, small-town stories, and darker mafia retellings. Her bibliography ranges from compact category romances to longer community-based series such as Rose Bend.
The books do not belong to one continuous universe. Rose Bend, WAGS, Bachelor Auction, Secrets and Sins, Hunted Kingdom, and her billionaire series each have their own characters and continuity rules.
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For most readers, the best starting point is The Road to Rose Bend. It opens Simone’s largest small-town sequence and introduces the community before its holiday stories, novellas, and later romances.
Readers who prefer suspense should begin with Gabriel. For football romance, choose Scoring with the Wrong Twin. For a darker recent series, begin with Huntsman.
The Fastest Way to Choose a Series
Naima Simone’s catalog falls into several clear shelves.
Small-Town Romance
Start with The Road to Rose Bend.
Rose Bend is the largest connected series and contains full-length novels, novellas, holiday stories, and recurring families.
Romantic Suspense
Start with Gabriel for Secrets and Sins, or Witness to Passion for Guarding Her Body.
Billionaire Romance
Start with The Billionaire’s Bargain, Vows in Name Only, or Beauty and the Bachelor, depending on the series you want.
Sports Romance
Start with Scoring with the Wrong Twin for professional football, or read Played as a separate hockey romance.
Dark Mafia Romance
Start with Huntsman and continue directly to Ember.
Higher-Heat Contemporary Romance
Start with Only for a Night or Sin and Ink.
Rose Bend Books in Order
Rose Bend is a Massachusetts small-town romance series built around homecomings, family ties, grief, second chances, local businesses, and a community that repeatedly becomes involved in its residents’ relationships.
The books focus on different couples, but former leads return and family developments carry forward. Publication order is strongly recommended.
Slow Dance at Rose Bend
Slow Dance at Rose Bend (2021): A visit to Rose Bend places two people in a quiet second-chance romance where an old connection resurfaces through music, memory, and small-town proximity.
This novella is commonly numbered as book 0.5.
Status: Optional prequel
It can be read first, although beginning with The Road to Rose Bend gives a stronger introduction to the town.
The Road to Rose Bend
The Road to Rose Bend (2021): Sydney Collins returns to the town she once fled while pregnant and grieving, then reconnects with Cole Dennison, the childhood friend who has never stopped caring about her.
This is the main series opener and the most reliable starting point.
A Kiss to Remember
A Kiss to Remember (2021): A Rose Bend couple faces an unexpected romantic connection shaped by memory, emotional risk, and the town’s tendency to turn private feelings into community business.
Status: Optional novella
Read it after The Road to Rose Bend.
Christmas in Rose Bend
Christmas in Rose Bend (2021): Nessa Hunt returns home carrying grief and responsibility, only for local innkeeper Wolf Dennison to challenge her belief that she must handle everything alone.
The holiday setting adds seasonal events without reducing the importance of the continuing family relationships.
The Love List
The Love List (2022): A carefully written list of romantic goals becomes less useful when the right person does not fit the qualities its creator thought she needed.
Status: Optional novella
Place it after Christmas in Rose Bend.
With Love From Rose Bend
With Love From Rose Bend (2022): A woman rebuilding her life in Rose Bend becomes involved with a man whose own history forces both of them to decide whether the town can offer a permanent home.
The novel advances the community beyond its first group of couples.
Trouble for Hire
Trouble for Hire (2022): A professional hired to solve a problem creates a new complication when attraction develops inside a situation that was supposed to remain practical.
This story is often numbered as Rose Bend book 3.5.
Status: Included companion story
Read it after With Love From Rose Bend.
Mr. Right Next Door
Mr. Right Next Door (2023): A woman’s fresh start becomes complicated by the attractive man living nearby, whose closeness turns neighborly contact into an increasingly personal relationship.
This is the fourth full-length Rose Bend novel.
The Husband Situation
The Husband Situation (2024): A marriage-related problem places two people in an arrangement that looks convincing from the outside before either is prepared for it to become real.
This companion novel is commonly positioned between Mr. Right Next Door and The Single Dad Project.
The Single Dad Project
The Single Dad Project (2024): A single father becomes the subject of a relationship plan that quickly grows beyond organization, good intentions, and the boundaries originally placed around it.
The novel brings parenthood and family integration to the front of the Rose Bend storyline.
Like a Summer Love Song
Like a Summer Love Song (2026): A romance connected to music, summer memories, and Rose Bend’s close community gives another couple the chance to turn a temporary season into something lasting.
This is the sixth confirmed full-length Rose Bend novel.
The Best Rose Bend Reading Order
For the complete experience, read:
- Slow Dance at Rose Bend
- The Road to Rose Bend
- A Kiss to Remember
- Christmas in Rose Bend
- The Love List
- With Love From Rose Bend
- Trouble for Hire
- Mr. Right Next Door
- The Husband Situation
- The Single Dad Project
- Like a Summer Love Song
Readers interested only in the main novels can skip the half-numbered stories, but they will miss relationship updates and additional community connections.
Hunted Kingdom Books in Order
Hunted Kingdom reimagines fairy-tale figures inside a modern criminal underworld. The series is darker than Rose Bend and Simone’s category romances, with organized crime, revenge, violence, family power, and morally compromised characters.
These books should be read in order.
Huntsman
Huntsman (2025): A woman robbed of her family, position, and mother returns to a criminal kingdom where vengeance brings her into conflict with the dangerous man assigned to hunt her.
The story uses Snow White imagery within a modern mafia setting.
Ember
Ember (2026): A Cinderella-inspired heroine becomes trapped inside a violent power struggle where desire, revenge, and criminal loyalty threaten to consume everyone involved.
This is the second Hunted Kingdom novel and continues the dark fairy-tale world established in Huntsman.
Secrets and Sins Books in Order
Secrets and Sins follows four lifelong friends bound by their knowledge of a disappearance. Each man receives a separate romance, but the shared secret and its consequences connect the books.
Publication order preserves the gradual revelation of what happened.
Gabriel
Gabriel (2013): Gabriel Devlin is forced to confront the disappearance known only to him and his three closest friends when romance places his carefully guarded loyalty under pressure.
This introduces the four men and the secret at the center of the series.
Malachim
Malachim (2013): Attorney Malachim Jerrod becomes involved with a woman whose presence brings danger, attraction, and questions capable of disturbing the pact he has protected for years.
The suspense expands beyond Gabriel’s story while retaining the same shared mystery.
Raphael
Raphael (2014): Raphael Marcel faces a relationship entangled with violence and buried history, forcing another member of the group to examine the price of silence.
Returning characters make this more rewarding after the first two books.
Chayot
Chayot (2014): Security specialist Chayot Gray struggles after his darkest secret becomes public, leaving him emotionally exposed when a new relationship demands trust.
The fourth book completes the principal sequence of friends.
Do Secrets and Sins Need to Be Read in Order?
Each central romance can be understood separately.
The mystery and friendships develop more effectively in publication order:
- Gabriel
- Malachim
- Raphael
- Chayot
Starting later may reveal personal and suspense developments from the earlier books.
Bachelor Auction Books in Order
Bachelor Auction follows wealthy men and women whose lives are disrupted by public auctions, strategic arrangements, revenge plans, and relationships that refuse to remain transactional.
Each novel follows a new couple.
Beauty and the Bachelor
Beauty and the Bachelor (2015): Sydney Blake expects to bid on her fiancé at a bachelor auction, but billionaire Lucas Oliver uses blackmail and a marriage proposal to pursue revenge against her family.
This opens the series with a Beauty and the Beast-inspired marriage arrangement.
The Millionaire Makeover
The Millionaire Makeover (2016): Khloe Richardson recruits an auctioned bachelor to transform her appearance and make her oblivious boss jealous, only for her makeover partner to become the more compelling possibility.
The romance questions whether changing the outside can solve a problem rooted in being overlooked.
The Bachelor’s Promise
The Bachelor’s Promise (2016): A promise made around the bachelor auction binds two people to an agreement that becomes harder to keep once attraction and emotional history take control.
The third book adds another independent romance to the same wealthy social circle.
A Millionaire at Midnight
A Millionaire at Midnight (2017): A determined heroine and a wealthy man collide around a midnight encounter, social expectations, and a relationship neither can dismiss as a passing attraction.
This is the fourth and final confirmed Bachelor Auction novel.
WAGS Books in Order
WAGS follows players connected to the Washington Warriors professional football team and the women who become part of their lives.
The title refers to wives and girlfriends of professional athletes. Each book resolves a different relationship, but teammates recur.
Scoring with the Wrong Twin
Scoring with the Wrong Twin (2017): A woman agrees to impersonate her twin and becomes involved with a professional football player who believes he is falling for someone else.
The mistaken-identity romance begins the Warriors continuity.
Scoring Off the Field
Scoring Off the Field (2018): A football player’s loyal assistant decides she can no longer remain unnoticed, forcing him to choose between their comfortable professional bond and a real relationship.
The book turns a long-standing workplace connection into romance.
Scoring the Player’s Baby
Scoring the Player’s Baby (2018): A night with a Washington Warriors player leads to pregnancy, tying two people together before they have decided whether their attraction can support a future.
This completes the three-book WAGS sequence.
Love on the Radio Books in Order
Love on the Radio uses titles inspired by well-known songs and follows relationships shaped by music, memory, family, and unresolved history.
Each book focuses on a different couple, but the thematic and character connections make publication order preferable.
Jessie’s Girl
Jessie’s Girl (2022): A man’s attraction to a woman connected to someone close to him recreates the emotional complication suggested by the title, forcing desire into conflict with loyalty.
This is the first Love on the Radio romance.
Don’t You Forget About Me
Don’t You Forget About Me (2022): Two people with a shared past are forced to confront whether time has erased their feelings or only made the unfinished relationship harder to ignore.
The title signals a reunion romance centered on memory and second chances.
Please Don’t Go, Girl
Please Don’t Go, Girl (2023): A relationship reaches a breaking point where one partner must decide whether asking the other to stay is enough to repair the damage between them.
This is the third confirmed Love on the Radio novel.
Billionaires of Boston Books in Order
Billionaires of Boston follows wealthy families, business rivals, secret heirs, fake relationships, and strategic marriages in Boston.
The books feature separate couples but share a social and corporate world.
Vows in Name Only
Vows in Name Only (2020): CEO Cain Farrell is blackmailed into marrying Devon Cole, the daughter of his enemy, and intends to keep the union purely legal until attraction destroys that plan.
The marriage begins as punishment and protection rather than love.
Secrets of a One Night Stand
Secrets of a One Night Stand (2021): A supposedly isolated encounter creates lasting complications when secrets, business interests, and an unexpected connection make walking away impossible.
The second book shifts to another wealthy Boston couple.
The Perfect Fake Date
The Perfect Fake Date (2022): A carefully chosen pretend partner becomes an increasingly convincing romantic match, threatening the purpose for which the arrangement was created.
The fake relationship unfolds inside the same billionaire social network.
Black Sheep Bargain
Black Sheep Bargain (2022): A family outsider enters a calculated bargain that offers status or protection, only for the negotiated relationship to become emotionally dangerous.
This is the fourth Billionaires of Boston romance.
Blackout Billionaires Books in Order
Blackout Billionaires begins during a citywide power outage. The darkness creates encounters and revelations that continue after the lights return.
The Billionaire’s Bargain
The Billionaire’s Bargain (2019): A wealthy man proposes a practical arrangement that gives both participants something they need, but desire changes the terms before either can leave cleanly.
This establishes the billionaire circle and its transactional romances.
Black Tie Billionaire
Black Tie Billionaire (2019): A formal event, a powerful businessman, and a woman caught inside his public world produce a relationship where appearances conceal private emotional stakes.
The second book continues the wealthy Chicago setting.
Blame It on the Billionaire
Blame It on the Billionaire (2020): Executive assistant Nadia Jordan falls into CEO Grayson Chandler’s arms during a citywide blackout, and one kiss leads to a night that cannot remain hidden once the power returns.
This concludes the blackout-linked trilogy.
Lick Books in Order
Lick centers on an exclusive Boston club founded by three men who escaped criminal connections. The books contain higher heat and more explicit sexual settings than Simone’s Harlequin romances.
Each novel follows a different partner connected to the club.
Only for a Night
Only for a Night (2016): A woman from Rion Ward’s past enters his private club seeking one night of forbidden freedom, reviving an attraction he never truly abandoned.
The book establishes Lick and the friendship between its owners.
Only for Your Touch
Only for Your Touch (2016): Another Lick partner meets a woman whose emotional and physical boundaries challenge the control he maintains over his club and his life.
The second romance keeps the nightclub at the center of the story.
Only for You
Only for You (2016): The final Lick owner faces a relationship that forces him to separate desire from the deeper loyalty and vulnerability he has resisted.
This completes the three-book series.
Sweetest Taboo Books in Order
Sweetest Taboo follows brothers connected to a tattoo studio and family tragedy. The romances deal with grief, guilt, forbidden attraction, and the lasting consequences of loss.
Sin and Ink
Sin and Ink (2018): Knox Gordon falls for the widow of his late brother, turning shared grief into a forbidden relationship shadowed by guilt and family loyalty.
The book establishes the tattoo shop and the Gordon family’s emotional wounds.
Passion and Ink
Passion and Ink (2019): Another tattoo artist enters a relationship that exposes hidden pain and tests whether passion can exist without repeating the family’s earlier damage.
Read it after Sin and Ink for the complete family context.
Burned, Inc. Books in Order
Burned, Inc. follows women who help clients recover from betrayal and the men who complicate their carefully managed approach to revenge.
Heated
Heated (2022): A woman working inside a business designed to punish cheating partners becomes involved with a man who tests whether anger and attraction can coexist without destroying her plans.
This opens the revenge-centered series.
Ravaged
Ravaged (2022): Another Burned, Inc. relationship is shaped by emotional damage, retaliation, and a connection powerful enough to challenge the heroine’s certainty about guilt.
The second book completes the published sequence.
Guarding Her Body Books in Order
Guarding Her Body combines romance with personal protection, stalking threats, and danger.
Witness to Passion
Witness to Passion (2015): A woman who witnesses something dangerous is placed under the protection of a man whose presence creates as much emotional disruption as the threat itself.
This begins the connected bodyguard duology.
Killer Curves
Killer Curves (2015): A curvy heroine becomes the target of danger and the focus of a protector who must keep professional judgment separate from growing attraction.
The second book returns to the security world with a new couple.
Fairy Tales Unleashed Books in Order
Fairy Tales Unleashed contains erotic contemporary retellings rather than the mafia framework used in Hunted Kingdom.
Bargain with the Beast
Bargain with the Beast (2013): A modern Beauty and the Beast arrangement places a woman at the mercy of a powerful, isolated man whose bargain develops into intimacy.
This is the first fairy-tale retelling.
A Perfect Fit
A Perfect Fit (2021): A Cinderella-inspired romance uses transformation, desire, and the search for a matching partner to reinterpret the familiar tale.
The second story was published years after the first but belongs to the same retelling collection.
Earlier Paranormal Series
Some early Simone books were grouped differently by retailers and bibliography databases. The most stable approach is to keep the paired paranormal titles together.
Under His Wings
Under His Wings (2013): A woman becomes involved with a powerful winged protector whose supernatural world places desire beside danger and ancient obligations.
This is commonly listed as the first Dark Judgment book.
Bitten by Ecstasy
Bitten by Ecstasy (2013): A supernatural bite binds the central couple inside a paranormal conflict where physical hunger and emotional possession become impossible to separate.
This is commonly positioned after Under His Wings.
Shared-World and Publisher Series Books
The books in this section belong to larger projects involving multiple authors. They are not sequels to one another.
Flirting with Sin
Flirting with Sin (2015): A romance touched by danger and temptation opens Simone’s contribution to the multi-author Noble Pass Affaire setting.
Status: Separate shared-world novel
Sweet Surrender
Sweet Surrender (2017): A member of the Sutherland family faces a relationship where surrendering control becomes the only way to claim a lasting future.
Status: Multi-author family-series installment
It is commonly listed as the ninth Sutherlands: One Family book.
Ruthless Pride
Ruthless Pride (2020): A wealthy man associated with the sin of pride is forced into a relationship that threatens his status, certainty, and emotional control.
Status: Dynasties: Seven Sins book one
Other books in that publisher series were written by different authors.
Trust Fund Fiancé
Trust Fund Fiancé (2020): A false engagement involving inherited wealth and family expectations becomes difficult to contain when the couple begins wanting the future they are pretending to plan.
Status: Texas Cattleman’s Club shared-world romance
Back in the Texan’s Bed
Back in the Texan’s Bed (2021): Former lovers reunite in Royal, Texas, where an earlier relationship and a powerful family secret force them back into intimate proximity.
Status: Texas Cattleman’s Club: Heir Apparent book one
Broody Brit
Broody Brit (2021): A guarded British hero enters a passionate romance that challenges the emotional distance supporting his carefully controlled image.
Status: Hero Club novel
No other Hero Club books are required.
Church Girl
Church Girl (2024): A sheltered woman becomes nanny to a divorced single father, then surprises him with her bond with his daughter, her artistic talent, and the sensuality beneath her innocence.
Status: Afterglow shared-world novel
To Conquer a Bride
To Conquer a Bride (2023): A powerful man enters a marriage-centered struggle where desire, social expectations, and the need for control threaten any chance of genuine partnership.
Status: Separate publisher-series romance
Standalone Naima Simone Books
Sweet Ultimatum
Sweet Ultimatum (2009): A relationship reaches a decisive moment when one partner demands commitment, forcing the other to choose between emotional safety and lasting love.
This is Simone’s earliest confirmed published book.
Desire in the Dark
Desire in the Dark (2010): Darkness and anonymity create a brief erotic encounter whose intensity exposes desires the central characters usually keep hidden.
This was released as part of a short-form erotic publishing line.
Love and Protect
Love and Protect (2011): A protective hero becomes emotionally involved with the woman he is trying to keep safe, complicating both his duty and her recovery.
This is a standalone romantic suspense story.
Stroke of Midnight
Stroke of Midnight (2012): A midnight encounter transforms a familiar fairy-tale setup into an adult romance involving secrecy, desire, and a rapidly approaching deadline.
This title is sometimes grouped with Simone’s early fairy-tale romances.
Claiming Christmas
Claiming Christmas (2015): A holiday relationship becomes a direct pursuit when one character decides that Christmas is the right time to claim the future they want.
This is a short standalone seasonal romance.
Grading Curves
Grading Curves (2019): Attraction develops around an academic connection, creating a romance complicated by authority, reputation, and the risks of crossing professional boundaries.
Some earlier listings use the singular title Grading Curve for an earlier edition.
Her Best Kept Secret
Her Best Kept Secret (2023): A woman’s carefully protected truth becomes impossible to hide when the man connected to it re-enters her life and demands answers.
This is a standalone category romance.
An Off-Limits Merger
An Off-Limits Merger (2023): Two business figures become involved during a corporate merger, placing forbidden attraction against family loyalty and professional consequences.
The romance stands independently from Billionaires of Boston.
Played
Played (2024): A grieving woman discovers the burned journal of widowed hockey player Solomon Young, creating an uneasy connection between two people who recognize the same pain in each other.
This is a standalone hockey romance rather than a WAGS installment.
Twisted Ink
Twisted Ink (2026): A tattoo-centered romance explores attraction, emotional scars, and secrets capable of twisting a creative bond into a dangerous personal conflict.
This title is separate from the Sweetest Taboo series unless a future edition establishes a stronger direct connection.
Collections and Duplicate Editions
Collections should not be counted as new novels.
Fairy Tales Unleashed
Fairy Tales Unleashed: This collection packages Simone’s fairy-tale retellings rather than adding another romance.
How to Catch a Bad Boy and Secrets of a One Night Stand
How to Catch a Bad Boy and Secrets of a One Night Stand: This two-author volume pairs Simone’s Secrets of a One Night Stand with a separate novel by Cat Schield.
The Secrets and Seduction Collection
The Secrets and Seduction Collection: This multi-author bundle contains previously published romance stories and does not belong inside one numbered Simone series.
Harlequin Two-in-One Editions
Harlequin frequently republishes one Naima Simone novel beside a book by another author.
These editions may have a new combined title, cover, or publication date, but they do not represent new stories.
Naima Simone Books in Broad Publication Order
This timeline lists the principal original releases without counting later bundles.
2009 to 2014
- Sweet Ultimatum (2009): A demand for commitment forces a relationship toward a final choice.
- Desire in the Dark (2010): An anonymous encounter allows hidden desire to surface.
- Love and Protect (2011): Protection becomes personal inside a dangerous romance.
- Stroke of Midnight (2012): A fairy-tale deadline drives an adult midnight encounter.
- Under His Wings (2013): A supernatural protector draws a woman into his dangerous world.
- Bargain with the Beast (2013): A modern bargain creates a Beauty and the Beast romance.
- Bitten by Ecstasy (2013): A supernatural bond turns hunger into emotional danger.
- Gabriel (2013): Four friends’ buried secret begins threatening their adult lives.
- Malachim (2013): A lawyer’s romance becomes entangled with danger and the old pact.
- Raphael (2014): Another friend confronts violence, loyalty, and concealed history.
- Chayot (2014): Public exposure forces a security specialist to face his deepest shame.
2015 to 2018
- Witness to Passion (2015): A witness falls for the man assigned to protect her.
- Beauty and the Bachelor (2015): Revenge leads a billionaire to force his enemy’s daughter into marriage.
- Flirting with Sin (2015): Attraction and danger meet inside Noble Pass.
- Killer Curves (2015): A threatened heroine becomes involved with her protector.
- Claiming Christmas (2015): A holiday pursuit turns attraction into a demand for commitment.
- The Millionaire Makeover (2016): A makeover plan directs a heroine toward the wrong millionaire.
- Only for a Night (2016): A woman enters Lick seeking one night with a man from her past.
- The Bachelor’s Promise (2016): A promise from the auction circle develops romantic consequences.
- Only for Your Touch (2016): Another Lick owner faces a relationship that disrupts his control.
- Only for You (2016): The final club owner must distinguish desire from lasting love.
- A Millionaire at Midnight (2017): A midnight encounter draws another wealthy bachelor toward commitment.
- Sweet Surrender (2017): A Sutherland family romance makes emotional surrender unavoidable.
- Scoring with the Wrong Twin (2017): Twin impersonation complicates a football player’s romance.
- Scoring Off the Field (2018): An assistant refuses to remain invisible to the player she loves.
- Scoring the Player’s Baby (2018): Pregnancy creates lasting stakes after one night with an athlete.
- Sin and Ink (2018): A tattoo artist falls for his late brother’s widow.
2019 to 2022
- Passion and Ink (2019): Another tattoo-shop romance confronts pain and family history.
- The Billionaire’s Bargain (2019): A practical agreement turns emotionally costly.
- Grading Curves (2019): Academic boundaries complicate an intense attraction.
- Black Tie Billionaire (2019): Public elegance hides a more vulnerable relationship.
- Blame It on the Billionaire (2020): A blackout brings an assistant and her CEO together.
- Ruthless Pride (2020): Pride becomes a liability when a powerful man falls in love.
- Trust Fund Fiancé (2020): A fake engagement grows beyond financial necessity.
- Vows in Name Only (2020): Blackmail forces a billionaire into marriage with his enemy’s daughter.
- Back in the Texan’s Bed (2021): Former lovers reunite amid a Texas family scandal.
- Slow Dance at Rose Bend (2021): A quiet romance begins before the main Rose Bend sequence.
- The Road to Rose Bend (2021): A pregnant widow returns home and reconnects with her childhood friend.
- Broody Brit (2021): A guarded British hero is forced beyond emotional distance.
- A Kiss to Remember (2021): A Rose Bend kiss creates lasting emotional consequences.
- A Perfect Fit (2021): A modern Cinderella searches for a relationship that truly fits.
- Secrets of a One Night Stand (2021): One night produces secrets that refuse to remain buried.
- Christmas in Rose Bend (2021): Grief and family responsibility shape a holiday romance.
- The Perfect Fake Date (2022): A pretend relationship becomes the more convincing choice.
- The Love List (2022): A romantic checklist fails to predict the right partner.
- With Love From Rose Bend (2022): Another couple searches for belonging in the small town.
- Jessie’s Girl (2022): Loyalty clashes with attraction to an off-limits woman.
- Heated (2022): A revenge business places anger beside growing desire.
- Black Sheep Bargain (2022): A family outsider makes a bargain that becomes personal.
- Don’t You Forget About Me (2022): Former feelings return through an unavoidable reunion.
- Ravaged (2022): Revenge and emotional damage threaten another Burned, Inc. romance.
- Trouble for Hire (2022): A hired solution becomes a romantic complication.
2023 to 2026
- Mr. Right Next Door (2023): Neighborly closeness turns into a serious relationship.
- Her Best Kept Secret (2023): A hidden truth threatens a woman’s renewed connection.
- Please Don’t Go, Girl (2023): A damaged relationship reaches a final plea for another chance.
- To Conquer a Bride (2023): A marriage struggle pits desire against control.
- An Off-Limits Merger (2023): Corporate consolidation creates a forbidden workplace romance.
- The Husband Situation (2024): A marriage arrangement becomes more real than planned.
- The Single Dad Project (2024): A carefully managed plan draws a single father toward love.
- Played (2024): Shared grief connects a widowed hockey player with a woman who reads his private journal.
- Church Girl (2024): A sheltered nanny disrupts a divorced father’s controlled life.
- Like a Summer Love Song (2026): Summer, music, and homecoming shape a later Rose Bend romance.
- Huntsman (2025): A displaced mafia princess returns to reclaim power and revenge.
- Twisted Ink (2026): Tattoos and emotional scars become part of a dangerous attraction.
- Ember (2026): A Cinderella-inspired mafia romance expands the Hunted Kingdom.
Publication Order or Series Order?
Series order is more useful than reading the complete catalog by year.
The early romantic suspense, paranormal stories, billionaire books, football romances, and small-town novels do not form one timeline. Alternating among them by publication date would repeatedly interrupt continuing casts.
Use publication order within each individual series because it:
- Introduces friends and families before their later appearances
- Preserves the mystery in Secrets and Sins
- Keeps Rose Bend novellas beside the novels they support
- Protects earlier couples’ outcomes
- Maintains the progression of the Hunted Kingdom world
Recommended Naima Simone Reading Plans
For the Largest Connected Experience
Read Rose Bend from Slow Dance at Rose Bend through Like a Summer Love Song.
This route offers the broadest town continuity and the largest recurring cast.
For Suspense and Danger
Read:
- Secrets and Sins
- Guarding Her Body
- Hunted Kingdom
These are separate continuities. The order simply moves from romantic suspense toward darker mafia romance.
For Billionaire Romance
Read:
- Bachelor Auction
- Blackout Billionaires
- Billionaires of Boston
The three series are separate. Each should be completed in its own publication order.
For Sports Romance
Read:
- Scoring with the Wrong Twin
- Scoring Off the Field
- Scoring the Player’s Baby
- Played
Played is a separate hockey romance and does not continue WAGS.
For a Short Completed Series
Choose:
- Guarding Her Body, two books
- Sweetest Taboo, two books
- Burned, Inc., two books
- Lick, three books
- WAGS, three books
Latest Naima Simone Book
As of August 4, 2026, Naima Simone’s latest confirmed release is Ember, published on July 14, 2026.
It is the second Hunted Kingdom novel and follows Huntsman. The series combines dark mafia romance with reimagined fairy-tale heroines.
No later original Naima Simone title with a firm publication date could be confirmed reliably enough to add as an upcoming release.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Was Naima Simone’s First Book?
Sweet Ultimatum was published in 2009 and is the earliest confirmed title in her bibliography.
It is a standalone romance rather than the beginning of one of her larger series.
What Is the Best Naima Simone Book to Start With?
Start with The Road to Rose Bend for small-town romance and the largest connected cast.
Choose Gabriel for suspense, Scoring with the Wrong Twin for football romance, Vows in Name Only for billionaire romance, or Huntsman for dark mafia romance.
Do the Rose Bend Books Need to Be Read in Order?
Yes, publication order is recommended.
Different couples lead the books, but families, former partners, businesses, and community events recur throughout the series.
Is Slow Dance at Rose Bend Required?
No. It is an optional prequel novella.
Readers can begin with The Road to Rose Bend and return to the prequel later.
Are the Secrets and Sins Books Standalones?
Each book resolves a different romance.
The four heroes share a secret connected to a past disappearance, so publication order provides the strongest suspense experience.
Is Played Part of WAGS?
No. Played is a separate hockey romance.
WAGS follows professional football players connected to the Washington Warriors.
Are Bachelor Auction and Billionaires of Boston Connected?
They are separate billionaire romance series.
Similar themes, such as strategic marriage, wealth, and family power, do not establish a shared continuity.
Must the Hunted Kingdom Books Be Read in Order?
Yes.
Begin with Huntsman, then continue to Ember. The books share a dark mafia world based on reimagined fairy tales.
Is Fairy Tales Unleashed Connected to Hunted Kingdom?
No confirmed continuity joins them.
Fairy Tales Unleashed contains earlier erotic retellings, while Hunted Kingdom is a darker modern mafia series.
Are Sin and Ink and Twisted Ink Connected?
Both involve tattoos, but Twisted Ink is currently listed as a standalone.
Sin and Ink and Passion and Ink form the confirmed Sweetest Taboo series.
Why Do Some Naima Simone Books Have Different Publication Dates?
Category romances are often released in digital, paperback, international, and combined editions at different times.
Use the original story release rather than the date of a reprint or two-in-one collection.
Are Harlequin Two-in-One Books New Stories?
No. They package an existing Naima Simone novel with another previously published romance.
Check the included titles before purchasing to avoid duplicates.
Conclusion
The best all-purpose Naima Simone reading order begins with The Road to Rose Bend and follows the town’s novels and novellas in publication sequence. Rose Bend offers the clearest long-form continuity, with recurring families and earlier couples remaining active throughout the series.
Readers wanting a different tone can begin with Gabriel, Beauty and the Bachelor, Scoring with the Wrong Twin, Only for a Night, or Huntsman. Those books open separate and clearly defined reading paths.
Within each series, publication order remains the safest choice. It preserves suspense, introduces recurring characters naturally, and keeps short companion stories beside the novels they support.
Frank is the editor of BookSeries.blog, focusing on publication order, chronological timelines, and spoiler-free reading guides for book series and fictional universes.