No Rings Attached

A Novel (Ms. Right, Book 2)

By: Rachel Lacey

Narrated by: Zara Hampton-Brown

Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

From award-winning author Rachel Lacey comes the second installment in the Ms. Right series: a captivating romance about a reluctant bookseller finding love in unexpected places.

Lia Harris is tired of being the odd one out. She’s never quite fit in with her uptight family, and now that her roommates have all found love, she’s starting to feel like a third wheel in her own apartment. Fed up with her mother’s constant meddling in her love life, Lia drops hints about a girlfriend she doesn’t have. But with her brother’s London nuptials approaching, she needs to find a date to save face. Lia turns to her best friend, Rosie, for help, and Rosie delivers - with the fun, gorgeous Grace Poston.

Grace loves to have a good time, hiding her insecurities behind a sunny smile. Her recent move to London has provided her with a much-needed fresh start. Grace isn’t looking for love, and she hates weddings, having weathered more than her fair share of heartache. Friendships are different, though, so for Rosie’s sake, she reluctantly agrees to pose as Lia’s adoring girlfriend for the wedding festivities.

Both Grace and Lia are prepared for an awkward weekend, complete with prying family members and a guest room with only one bed. As it turns out, they get along well - spectacularly, in fact. Before they know it, the chemistry they’re faking feels all too real. But is their wedding weekend a fleeting performance or the rehearsal for a love that’s meant to last?

©2022 Rachel Bates (P)2022 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“Narrator Zara Hampton-Brown does an exemplary job with the British and American women in this audiobook.… Hampton-Brown's portrayal of Lia is spot-on, infusing her with calm seriousness. Rosie is exactly right—loving, lighthearted, and sweet. Grace is portrayed as being full of anxiety over her past. Together, the three women make for an entertaining and well-done listen.” —AudioFile Magazine

"An original lesbian romance about a reluctant bookseller finding love in unexpected places, deftly narrated by Zara Hampton-Brown.” —Midwest Book Review

“Fans of fake dating and road trip tropes will find plenty to enjoy.” —Publishers Weekly

Love it!

The one telling the story is always spot on! This novel was beautiful. Not what I expected at all.

Therapy Should be Attached

Normally a story’s central conflict is revolving around different personalities styles, makes for a good story.

But in this story, the central conflict was due to unresolved trauma that should be addressed with therapy. This made much of the story excruciating to listen to.

4.5 Stars

No Rings Attached is book two in the Ms. Right series. This is a FF, fake relationship, friends to lovers book set in New York and England. There is also some heavy emotional stuff in this book. I actually got a little choked up at one point, which I love.

The two main characters were introduced in the prior book for this series. Lia is the best friend and roommate of Rosie, and she manages Rosie’s bookstore. She is bisexual. Lia is English but has been living in New York for many years at this point. Grace is Rosie’s other best friend. She is a lesbian and is American. She lives overseas and hasn’t been back to the states for a while due to some emotional stuff. In this book, Lia had to go back home to England for her brother’s wedding but due to her meddling family hassling her about being single and trying to set her up with an ex-boyfriend, she leads them to believe she has a girlfriend. Rosie reaches out to Grace and asks Grace if Grace will pretend to be Lia’s girlfriend for the weekend since Grace is currently living in England. And thus begins our story.

The author is a good story teller. I really enjoyed the book but for the story, not the romance. The romance was okay but I didn’t really feel the passion or connection. It is almost like women’s fiction with romance as an after fact. I liked the characters a lot. I love all of the roommates and friends. I guessed the twist early on. As soon as I heard what the emotional issue was for Grace, I knew what would end up being the twist. Even though it was predictable, it was still a good story. The author writes well and the book seems well edited. The only big complaint I have is the same from book 1. Why are the people of color introduced the way they are? In this book, this is how the black doctor was introduced: “Grace lifted her head to see a young Black man in a white coat.” It is just weird to me because every time some other random character is introduced, the author doesn’t say, “a white woman walked in the door” or anything like that. It is only with black people.

Overall, I am giving this book 4.5 stars but rounding down to 4 for the above reasons.

Still reading hot review on accident

Will review once done!
So far, good.
Took me a little bit to remember who was who

A must read!

You know you are invested in the characters when you are shouting advice to them while listening to the book! Rachel Lacey is skilled at character development and drawing the reader in. I couldn’t stop listening and finished the audiobook in a day. Only con is that it is over! Zara Hampton-Brown does a great job with narration, making listening a pleasure.

The first book was better, this was... meh!

This could've been a short story but it was unnecessarily drawn out. Grace irritated me so much and Lia, deserved so much more than her. Grace acted like there is only one way to make a child. Her first instinct was to ruin her entire life by jumping to conclusions instead of using her brain and mouth to talk to her loved ones to clear the matter up. While she was at it, she also decided to forget about the love and care her parents provided her, instead, she chose to ruminate over an alleged affair. The icing on the cake is her decision to not allow anyone to get close enough to her to call them her girlfriend oh, but sex is cool. Grace was a mess and a half and Lia should've left her to it while she instead sought out the meaning of self worth. I almost didn't finish this book but I was really hoping things wouldn't workout between the but unfortunately, it did. Ugh!

Good Listen

I enjoyed this audiobook, but Grace started to bother me with her running away issues about 4 hours in... the other woman practically begged Grace to talk, to stay, to agree to let her visit her back in England, etc.... and Grace wouldn't budge, but she sure f***ed the other woman the whole road trip. I would have thrown my hands up and said, "i give up" to Grace and walked away at the end of the road trip. Grace acting like a child sort of took away from the happy ending of the book for me.... good, but... wanted something to change sooner for her

so sweet and heartbreaking ❤

absolutely LOVED the first book, Read Between the Lines. couldn't wait to get my hands on this one!! downloaded it to KU as soon as it released and was thrilled to see that it also came with included audiobook. this story is so lovely!

Enjoyed the story, not the narration

I really enjoyed the first book in the series, and the narrator for that book was much better. It made enjoying this story much harder, especially when you're expecting the characters to sound a different way. Thankfully, the main characters' voices weren't the worst. Good story and worth the listen if you don't mind the narrator.

Not bad but not great

Grace was excruciatingly terrible. The way the audio book performance portrayed her almost made her seem extremely manipulative. Grace is by far the worst character in an otherwise sweet wlw series.