Review: No Rings Attached (Ms. Right #2)

Title: No Rings Attached (Ms. Right #2)
Author: Rachel Lacey
Genre: Romance, Contemporary, LGBTQ
Publisher: Montlake
Source: Thomas Allen and Son
Format: Paperback
Release Date: April 12, 2022
Rating: ★★★★★

Goodreads Synopsis:

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?

Review:

Since Lia’s best friend and roommate, Rosie, started dating Jane, Lia has felt like a third wheel in their New York apartment. Lia’s led her family in London to believe that she still has a girlfriend, but when she has to go home for her brother’s wedding, she doesn’t have a girlfriend to bring. Rosie suggests that Lia bring Rosie’s childhood best friend, Grace, who lives in London, as a date. Grace has just moved to London from Spain. She’s looking for a fresh start in a new city but she doesn’t want a relationship. She’s still upset about what she found out about her parents’ marriage after they died in a car accident years ago, so she isn’t looking for a relationship. However, when Lia and Grace meet and go to the wedding together, their chemistry is undeniable. They have to decide if they will give this relationship a chance, even though they live on different continents. 

This rom com had some of my favourite tropes. Fake dating/relationship is my favourite scenario. This story had a bit of enemies to lovers, because Lia and Grace both shared Rosie as a best friend, so they considered each other competition before they met. There was also “only one bed” and a “found family” in the group of friends. 

There was a lot of tension in this story, despite it being a rom com. One of the characters finds a relative that they didn’t know through an online DNA site. There were a lot of conflicted feelings about this discovery. In one way, it was good to find a relative, but it also introduced a lot of questions about how they came to be related. This was an intense subplot that ended up playing an important role in the main storyline. 

No Rings Attached is a great sequel to Read Between the Lines!

Thank you Thomas Allen and Son for sending me a copy of this book.

What to read next:

Other books in the series:

• Read Between the Lines (Ms. Right #1)

Have you read No Rings Attached? What did you think of it?