I’m not sure how I feel about this one still. I liked it while I was reading it but I found it very forgettable. I did really like the characters and the story line.

A gorgeous sapphic romance - really fun storyline and wonderful characters. I enjoyed my read of this one thoroughly.

This book was just sadly not for me! I was hoping for something different but it turned out to be something I was not expecting, which is okay and I'm sure someone else would love it!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

I liked Lia and Grace's connection and believed they had great emotional and physical chemistry. I wanted them to get together because I thought they would make a great relationship. The friendships that are shown in the book also struck me as being really reassuring and authentic.

The romance, in my opinion, was overshadowed by Grace's background and her quest for information about her parents' relationship. While I suppose Grace's self-sabotage was psychologically believable, I also found her frequent fleeing to be incredibly annoying. But she was so incredibly obstructionist that I didn't always like her. Additionally, I thought the last event that brought Grace and Lia together was a little melodramatic and contrived.

I read a few book of this author already and i loved book on of the Ms Right Serie, so I couldnt wait for book 2. And it definitly delivered. The story is about Lia, a young woman who is about to visit her family in the UK. Beeing the only single left her family and friends kind of nag her about it so she comes up with the idea to bring a girlfriend. Her roommate Rosie - who we know from book 1 - is there to deliver. Enter Rosies best friend Grace. I love the little battle along the lines between old best friend and new best friend between Grace and Lia, its just so fun to read. The two ladies hit it of right away but didnt expect that a fun fake girlfriend situation could become so much more, they have to handle so many inner demons along the line. We get to see them growing close, growing appart and growing together. I loved this book a lot and i cant wait to discover more from Rachel Lacey after she gave me another joyful reading time with this book

Tired of always being the only single child at family functions, Lia is desperately looking for a fake girlfriend for her brother's wedding. Enter Grace. A mutual friend of Rosie (from the first book in the series) Grace is single and living in England. Though they were only supposed to be fake dating, real feelings begin to creep in. Unfortunately due to past trauma, Grace doesn't date. Anyone. Ever. No matter how strong her feelings for Lia are.

Though this is your stereotypical fake dating trope, it's anything but a stereotypical read. Grace and Lia's chemistry is instant 🔥! The dialogue is smart and sexy, and the stories are well rounded. Rosie and Jane from book one make an appearance, and it's a delight to see where they are in the universe currently. Thought I've saw a few reviews labeling Grace as asexual, etc and being forced into dating by Lia, I truthfully didn't see that in the slightest. Grace was dealing with a traumatic experience that changed her opinion on dating, and once she worked through that experience there was nothing holding her back from being with her. Again, this isjust my personal opinion, but I found the book a truly beautiful love story with Grace's story wrapped inside. And as usual, Lacey brought the 🔥!! You know you'll get the perfect amount of love and sexy where she's concerned. 😅

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Thank you to NetGalley, Rachel Lacey, and Montlake for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This book was not for me. I won't do a big review. In this book there's a demi-sexual lesbian, Grace, who doesn"t want to get invloved in a relationship, and yet, Lia keep insesting on it. And the book clearly villainized Grace.
I loved the first half, a fake dating trope, I'm a big sucker for it. But after Lia's family's part... it just went downward.

Okay, I really like the fact that Lia communicates. But she can be too pushy. And Grace is not well written, and all of the family drama around her, seems so forced.

Also, I hate that the author had to recreate a trauma of her MC, for her to confess her love... A big NOPE for me.

It was fun and great and went big meh. But it was a fast and short read.

These women were juvenile. Plus there was too much info dumping about who the characters were from previous books. I was not about that. I had to DNF.

This was a cute fake-dating romance. It didn't really stand out amongst the heap of similar stories, but it was a perfectly fine book to enjoy on a lazy afternoon.

Lia desperately needs a date to her brother's wedding, since she has been dropping hints to her mother about a non-existent girlfriend to stop her mother's meddling. She can't just show up alone, right? Thank god her best friend Rosie has a solution: Grace, Rosie's friend from way back when. Grace, who hates weddings and isn't looking for love. But she feels like she owes it to Rosie to help out Lia, so she agrees to be the perfect girlfriend for a weekend. Sounds easy enough, until the chemistry between Lia and Grace starts to feel a little bit too real.

Grace was an incredibly frustrating character. The urge to yell at her was overwhelming at times. And as for her tragic backstory, it was ridiculously easy to figure out what had actually happened. Lia, on the other hand, came across as completely delightful, although I suspect that may have been just because the contrast between her and Grace was like night and day. Their relationship was okay, with a handful of intimate scenes that at times felt like they only existed to make Grace come across as a softer character than she actually was. However, when it came to their respective relationship with Rosie and their petty competition to be Rosie's best friend, those were the scenes where the book kind of lost me. It made them both come across as incredibly childish.

And yet I enjoyed the story itself. I guess I'm just a sucker for fake-dating-at-a-wedding stories.

2.75 stars

Thank you to Netgalley and Montlake for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

No Rings Attached follows Lia, who needs a date to her brother's wedding when her best friend suggests her childhood best friend Grace. Lia and Grace meet in London, hit it off, and attend the wedding where the novel ensues.

I was so excited for this novel because I thought it would have fake dating and weddings - both things I love! Although I felt that Lia and Grace had a lot of chemistry, I found that this book was really bogged down by a secondary plot. Without giving too much away, I would say about 60-70% of the novel follows Grace's backstory and complicated relationship with her parents, and I felt that it all could've been solved if she asked the right questions to the right people. Because of that I felt a little frustrated while reading the book, and by the time I got to the end (and specifically to the incident where Lia and Grace were brought back together) I was a bit annoyed.

If anyone wants to read this but not the first book in the series, that wouldn’t be a problem as both books can be read easily as standalones. The link between them is that Grace and Lia (the protagonists of this book) are both best friends with one of the protagonists in the first book, so there are very minor spoilers for the plot of book one.

So initially I thought I preferred No Rings Attached to Read Between the Lines. But now that’s I’ve had more time to think on it, I’m really not sure.

This book opens with Grace agreeing to fake-date Lia at her brother’s wedding, although it then rather quickly morphs into more of a road trip plot line. The road trip probably was my favourite aspect in fairness, but overall the story kind of felt like it was going around in circles the whole time.

Lia (big talker) kept wanting Grace (not into commitment) to change, and Grace would only become more adamant that she couldn’t. As you might expect, this got kind of frustrating at times. The two of them have opposite approaches to dealing with their feelings/problems; Lia always wants to talk stuff out and Grace prefers to ignore them (I probably relate more to Grace in this), and try to just enjoy the moment. However, this dynamic led to a lot of repetitive plot points where Lia would want to talk and occasionally Grace would, but more often she’d get annoyed with Lia and cement herself more firmly in not talking about their relationship.

Yeah I don’t know, I also found everyone constantly telling Grace that she needed to change kind of irritating, lots of people really are perfectly happy on their own and no one should feel pressured to get into a relationship if they don’t want to. While Grace’s backstory was sort of convoluted, it also entirely made sense why she was afraid of commitment, and didn’t want any sort of romantic relationship as a result of her past.

Overall, I had fun reading this, there were sweet moments and I feel basically the same way I did with book one; it was a fun time and I’m not mad about reading it, but I won’t be raving about it either.

3 1/2 stars.

This book was nice. It was an easy read, if a little… bland. Not because it didn’t have depth, because the characters were well rounded and fleshed out etc. and I definitely bought into their connection. But maybe it was a me thing? Non-fantasy, contemporary books always feel a little bland to me. Especially if everyone is just… nice. And I know that, so that’s on me.

However, the sex was well written and I did find it refreshing however how the writer didn’t fall back on the easy miscommunication trope, having one character be so blunt and forthright about everything--and especially for that to actually be the issue!

Solid romcom, I'm just probably not the target audience...

Sometimes a person just needs an emotional, healthy sapphic romance to get herself through the day. That person is me. In No Rings Attached, readers are treated to the love story between a bi woman and a demisexual (*squee* at some ace rep!!) lesbian. It all starts with fake dating, a promising first step. Lia doesn't want to face her family at her brother's wedding, alone yet again and victim to her mother's unwanted matchmaking schemes. Luckily for her, Lia's best friend has a friend in London who hates weddings but would be happy to do her a major favor. Grace never got over a shocking revelation about her parents after they died in a car accident when she was 17. After further emotional blows in the dating department, she's sworn off relationships. Since being demi makes one-night stands unenticing, Grace has embraced solitude with strong emotional boundaries firmly in place.

Lia and Grace develop an attraction that they ignore due to the complication of sharing a mutual best friend, the anticipated fallout of a fling, and Lia's off-putting (to Grace) need to discuss feelings and communicate intentions clearly. An unexpected road trip to discover more about Grace's family and answer questions that have long plagued her challenge the status quo with inconvenient vulnerability, romantic settings, and a classic "only one bed" scenario.

This book deals with some heavy topics while also keeping a fast pace and providing both levity and/or swoon-worthy content at appropriate intervals. Both leads are strong and nuanced with individual growth in addition to their journey as a couple. I found it compulsively readable and could have devoured it in one sitting, given the opportunity. Thanks to Montlake for my copy to read and review!

"Fixing" an arospec character is a no.

*ARC provided by the author via netgalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review

This is exactly the kind of book I needed to read.

The characters were so easy to love, especially Lia. I was engaged with this book from start to finish, although I think I would have benefited a bit more from it if I had read the first book in the series. This was a really great contemporary love story with all the feels!

Great characters, great storyline, this is a HEA book you want to read. I really enjoyed it. Thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book

Charming
Lia is feeling left out and lost. All her roommates have found love and she feels like an outsider in her own family. Her mom is constantly trying to get her back together with her ex and now that her brother’s wedding is coming up, she told her mom she has a girlfriend she is bringing. Oops…. She turns to Rosie (from “Read Between the Lines: A Novel (Ms. Right Book 1)”) for help. Enter Grace. Grace is Rosie’s other best friend and lives in London. She has not been back to New York in years, more or less hiding from painful memories. She hides her insecurities well and never lets anyone close enough to see them. She hates love, relationships and especially weddings but when Rosie asks, she agrees to help Lia. What starts out as two awkward strangers who only really have Rosie in common, they find themselves attracted to each other but Grace doesn’t do relationships and really doesn’t need anyone, or does she?

This is a sweet book that picks up a bit after Read Between the Lines. I loved that we got to see how Rosie and Jane are doing and I loved being able to see Lia again. The fake relationship trope is one of my favourites and this book is really well done! There is so much more going on than just the wedding and watching Grace and Lia help each other with problems that the other has is so nice. I loved watching Grace warm up and move past her pain and I loved watching Lia support her and be there for her through it all. They have such a tender bond that grows and blooms into something wonderful! I really loved this follow up but standalone drama and was so glad I had the chance to read it!

No Rings Attached is the second installment of the Ms. Right series by Rachel Lacey, however, you do not have to have read the first one to be able to jump into this one.

Lia Harris is set to go to her brother's wedding in London but is dreading it because of her mother's constant needling about her love life, or lack thereof. During a conversation with her best friend Rosie, she finds a solution -- take Rosie's friend Grace as her date and pretend so be in a relationship. I mean...what could go wrong?! Grace lives in London after recently moving and leaving behind her own trauma. She hates weddings and isn't interested in being in a relationship but agrees to fake date Lia and attend this wedding as a favor to her friend Rosie. Of course, the more Lia and Grace get to know each other, the less faking that is required.

This is a great, fake-dating, only-one-bed, wedding date story. I really liked both Lia and Grace and the way their characters evolved. This book has me wanting to go back and read the first installment as this was a quick, fun read that was well-written and charming.

Thank you to Montlake for allowing me early access to this title in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Lia is on the hunt for a fake girlfriend to go to her brother's wedding with her, and her best friend Rosie offers up her childhood friend Grace as an option. Sparks fly when the two meet, but Grace has a complicated past and is wary of relationships.

This is the second book in the series, but reads perfectly well as a stand-alone. Though the story starts off with the fake-dating trope, things quickly heat up between the couple until they enter a complicated relationship while on a road trip to meet Grace's newly-found half-sister.

I thought Lia and Grace had a lot of chemistry, emotional and physical, and enjoyed their relationship. They fit together very well as a couple, and I was rooting for them to get together. I also found the friendships depicted in the novel to be quite comforting and realistic.

However, I thought that Grace's backstory and her search for answers about her parents' relationship overshadowed the romance. I also found Grace's constant running away to be very frustrating, though I suppose her self-sabotage was psychologically realistic. Still, she got in her own way so colossally that I did not always like her. I also found the event that united Grace and Lia in the end to be a little contrived and melodramatic.

Overall, an engaging romance but an often frustrating plot.