Rachel Lacey

No Rings Attached

❓ #QOTD What was the last road trip you went on? ❓

🦇 Between not fitting in with her family and being the spare wheel in a group of WLW couples, Lia has always felt like the odd one out. Exhausted with her mother's meddling in her love life, Lia decides to attend her brother's wedding with a fake girlfriend--her best friend's original best friend. Grace Poston is absolutely gorgeous, but her insecurities have her leaving everyone at arms' length. While their relationship might be fake, the chemistry is certainly real. Can their relationship last longer than one short weekend?

💜 I was so glad to find that the Ms. Right series continued with bookshop manager Lia's story (I mean, how often have you wanted to learn more about a side character's life and perspective, right?). Lia is an absolute delight, speaking her mind while remaining respectful and sweet. She helps Grace through emotional moments, patient and empathetic when Grace so readily pushes her away.

💜 At the story's start, it sounded like Grace was aspec ("I refuse to accept this societal notion that I need another person in my life to be happy, because I don't. I'm very happy on my own. There's nothing missing from my life.") which was refreshing to see. She prioritizes friendships over romantic bonds and has built a life she's proud of, despite the physical and emotional distance she's put between herself and her past. As she gets to know Lia more, it seems that Grace is demisexual instead, needing an emotional connection to form a sexual one (which is just as refreshing!). 

💙 I do wish that Grace wasn't as PUSHED toward romance as she'd been (by both Lia and their mutual friend, Rosie), and instead had the chance to self-actualize. The parallel between Grace's childhood trauma (losing her parents) and Lia's accident was so well placed, Lia even sustaining a concussion as Grace's father had right before he died, but we don't linger in the panic. Readers don't get the chance to marinate in Grace's stress as history repeats itself; the moment she recognizes the parallel, she sees there's nothing to worry about. There are so many opportunities for readers to form an emotional connection with the characters while the characters form emotional connections with each other. Instead, there's a lot of tell and less show. Even when the two women say "I love you" (after a trauma, because "life is too short") it feels flat and hollow instead of heartfelt. 

🦇 Recommended to fans of Alexandria Bellefleur and Anita Kelly.

❝ "You could be dangerous," Grace murmured. "If I let you." ❞

❝ "You make me want things I shouldn't want." ❞

❝ How ironic that a woman who translated languages for a living was so unwilling to verbalize her own feelings. ❞

Jazelle H

🦇 No Rings Attached Book Review 🦇

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

❓ #QOTD What was the last road trip you went on? ❓
 
🦇 Between not fitting in with her family and being the spare wheel in a group of WLW couples, Lia has always felt like the odd one out. Exhausted with her mother's meddling in her love life, Lia decides to attend her brother's wedding with a fake girlfriend--her best friend's original best friend. Grace Poston is absolutely gorgeous, but her insecurities have her leaving everyone at arms' length. While their relationship might be fake, the chemistry is certainly real. Can their relationship last longer than one short weekend?

💜 I was so glad to find that the Ms. Right series continued with bookshop manager Lia's story (I mean, how often have you wanted to learn more about a side character's life and perspective, right?). Lia is an absolute delight, speaking her mind while remaining respectful and sweet. She helps Grace through emotional moments, patient and empathetic when Grace so readily pushes her away.

💜 At the story's start, it sounded like Grace was aspec ("I refuse to accept this societal notion that I need another person in my life to be happy, because I don't. I'm very happy on my own. There's nothing missing from my life.") which was refreshing to see. She prioritizes friendships over romantic bonds and has built a life she's proud of, despite the physical and emotional distance she's put between herself and her past. As she gets to know Lia more, it seems that Grace is demisexual instead, needing an emotional connection to form a sexual one (which is just as refreshing!). 

💙 I do wish that Grace wasn't as PUSHED toward romance as she'd been (by both Lia and their mutual friend, Rosie), and instead had the chance to self-actualize. The parallel between Grace's childhood trauma (losing her parents) and Lia's accident was so well placed, Lia even sustaining a concussion as Grace's father had right before he died, but we don't linger in the panic. Readers don't get the chance to marinate in Grace's stress as history repeats itself; the moment she recognizes the parallel, she sees there's nothing to worry about. There are so many opportunities for readers to form an emotional connection with the characters while the characters form emotional connections with each other. Instead, there's a lot of tell and less show. Even when the two women say "I love you" (after a trauma, because "life is too short") it feels flat and hollow instead of heartfelt. 

🦇 Recommended to fans of Alexandria Bellefleur and Anita Kelly.

✨ The Vibes ✨
💍 Sapphic Ship
💍 Bi/Lesbian FMCs
💍 Only One Bed
💍 Fake Dating
💍 Dual POV
💍 (Kinda) 3rd Act Breakup
💍 Second in a Series

💬 Quotes 
❝ "You could be dangerous," Grace murmured. "If I let you." ❞
❝ "You make me want things I shouldn't want." ❞
❝ How ironic that a woman who translated languages for a living was so unwilling to verbalize her own feelings. ❞

Cheri Fuller

Enjoyed this one more than the first in the series. Grace and Lia were great together and Lia's demand for open and direct communication was aces! I will say that the issue at the center of Grace's troubles seemed super obvious to me and sort of set off my BS meter that in a decade, it wasn't ever considered as a possibility but, as my wife likes to remind me, it's pretend.

Rosie and Jane appear regularly in No Rings Attached but it's not necessary to have read Read Between the Lines first. My general dislike of Rosie persisted and I still like Jane. :-)

Definitely a solid offering from Ms. Lacey. I'll be taking on her very new novel, She'll Steal Your Heart, soon.

KADY BURNS

Loved this sequel. I am so glad to have characters didn't instantly change for each other but actually seemed to talk about things

Maya Rice

This book is the second book in the Ms. Right series, but can be easily read as a standalone novel. This book follows Lia and Grace and their relationship. They meet through a mutual friend, Rosie (the first book in the series is about her) because Lia needs a date to her brother's wedding in London to get her family and ex-boyfriend out of her hair. Following the wedding, the two return to Lia's home in New York, where they spend time before embarking on a road trip so Grace can solve a mystery that's bothered her for years.

The synopsis of this book only focuses on the wedding, so I was very surprised when it was over about 30% of the way through the book. Though I was pleasantly surprised to be able to explore the relationship between Lia and Grace in several other settings. I think the wedding is a good set-up for their chemistry, their relationship, and the overall story and conflict that they will later face. I wish Lia's traditional, career-oriented family and the ex-boyfriend had been utilized more because they were introduced, but we rarely heard about them following the introductions. 

This book has the fake dating and one-bed trope, which are always enjoyable in a romance. I think there might have been too much communication, repetition, and crossing boundaries between the characters at times, but I think it mostly worked well with the story and helped build the personalities of the characters. I loved being able to see the relationship between Lia and Grace grow and enjoyed being able to get the internal monologue and viewpoint of both of the characters.

Overall, the book is a fun, mostly light-hearted sapphic romance that explores the complex relationships between queer women and their romantic interests, friends, and family. I really enjoyed the story and I hope to be able to read the first book in the series soon as well.

Thank you to NetGalley, Rachel Lacey, and Montlake Publishing for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

No Rings Attached

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