Overview

This was a very sweet romance with very likable main characters and interesting side characters. This is the first book in a series, all of which (three so far) feature characters who work at an LGBT friendly coffee shop in Sydney, Australia, The Pink Bean. Book one, “No Strings Attached”, is the first of the books to arrive as an audiobook.

“No Strings Attached” features Micky; her thoughts, her family and her friends as she struggles to understand, at age 44, a growing awareness that she is attracted to women. Other books have addressed the issue of coming out after decades of a hetero marriage, and while Harper Bliss isn’t addressing the issue in any particularly new way, she does so in a very enjoyable way.

Micky’s best friend is a lesbian, and helps gently push her to understand, accept and act upon her desires. It’s nice that while Amber has been out and proud for decades, she’s not militant that Micky come out of the closet, to herself or to anyone else, in any timeframe but her own. I enjoyed being inside Micky’s head as she struggled whether to call herself a lesbian, and as she struggled with how and when to come out to her ex husband, her mother and her two teenage children. The struggle felt very real, but without the unnecessary excessive angst so often written into lesfic.

There are plenty of steamy scenes between Micky and Robin (yay!!), but it was wonderful that Micky recognizes her initial attraction is based on lust…not instalove. Robin is presented as a sexy, successful woman who has non-relationship rules…but who acknowledges that her rules just might be based on not having yet met the right woman. As a serial monogamist, she is a more likable person than many women in lesfic: the “player” who has sex with disposable women until meeting “the one”.

Micky’s best friend Amber has a significant role, and we learn as much, perhaps more, about her interesting personality and her quirks than we do about Robin. I am surprised that neither book two nor book three feature Amber as the next MC. Perhaps book four??

With the intersecting lives of several lesbians at the Pink Bean, and the feel-good story, there are many elements of “No Strings Attached” that remind me of Melissa Braden’s SOHO Savvy series (but with MUCH less angst), Georgia Beers’ Puppy Love series (also with less angst), or, to a smaller degree, Maggie Cummings “Bay West Social” community.

I liked the book very much, and would very much like The Pink Bean to be my neighborhood coffeehouse. The narrator did a super fantastic job with both dialogue and voicing Micky’s internal thoughts. The book itself would be a 4-5*, but with the great narration, the audiobook is definitely 5* - highly recommended and fun to relisten to!