Fay and Oliver are an absolute delight in this book. A premise I haven't seen with unique professions and a strong group of characters. I absolutely loved it!

Super quick, easy and cute read. I actually keep floating between 3 and 4 stars for it. More later.

RTC

Playing House, the first book in the Uptown series by Ruby Lang, is a short novella featuring two urban planners in New York City. In just about 100 pages, there isn’t much time to develop a complete love story, but it’s a fun read nonetheless. Fay and Oliver, who have been casual acquaintances for years, run into each other at an open house. Fay is being harassed by a stranger, so she latches into Oliver when he walks in and they’re mistaken as a couple by the realtor. They continue this ruse as they attend more open houses together, all the while starting to develop romantic feelings for each other. After divorcing a year before, Fay is just getting back into dating while Oliver is struggling with his feelings of inadequacy since losing his job and having to move in with his successful younger brother. He’s working freelance and is waiting to hear if he’ll get an interview with Fay’s small firm. However, he fails to mention it to her because he fears she’ll think he’s only using her to get a job. She has trust issues, so it’s not a big surprise what happens next. There isn’t much character development given the brevity of the story, but it’s a cute and sexy read for what it is. Hopefully we’ll get more of their story in Book 2.

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from Carina Press through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

This is my first Ruby Lang and I don't know how I feel about this story.

On one hand I liked that characters are upfront and no-bullshit, but I felt that it was done in such a way where they don't act like real humans. Maybe my problem was that it was too short and ending was too abrupt for my liking.

I'm not a big fan of novellas, so take my review with the grain of salt, obviously.

I wish I had known this was a novella before going into it!

Please note that I received this book via NetGalley. This did not affect my rating or review.

So this one was a very short book but I loved the characters that were introduced, Oliver Huang and Fay Liu. I just thought that the book should have been longer since you don't get a lot of time to see fully developed characters. We had a lot going on with both Oliver and Fay and think that it would have been a more cohesive book if we allowed the secondary characters to shine and we had more insight into Fay and Oliver's past. We just glimpses and remarks here and there.

"Playing House" by Ruby Lang follows urban planners Oliver Huang and Fay Liu. The two run into each other at an open house where Fay is being harassed by a guy that won't leave her alone until she tells him that she's waiting on her boyfriend. Luckily Oliver and Fay know each other because of past get togethers and friendships. However, during the open house they both start thinking of each other in a more romantic way and they both wonder about the other. There's an added complication that Oliver has applied to work at Fay's firm where she is a partner.

I loved Fay's backstory. She's been divorced for about a year and is finally realizing her ex husband resented her success and she really didn't know what to do anymore to make him happy and vice versa. She remembers Oliver and flashes a lot to moments they had over the years. She doesn't want to be with someone not serious, but she keeps calling up Oliver to tour open houses with her.

Oliver is working freelance after his firm went under. He's living with his younger brother and dealing with the fact that his mother and sister see him as being too similar to his supposed feckless father. I honestly wish that Lang had developed that more since I didn't get what happened with Oliver's father. He ran off? Does anyone know where he is? I mean I was so confused.

I loved the idea of focusing on a romance between urban planners. The characters know their stuff and I loved reading about the homes they were touring and the architectural details they had. And I could have enjoyed a heck of a lot more of that, but alas, this book is only a little over 100 pages.

The flow of the book gets a bit stuck towards the end. We have Fay and Oliver come to an impasse and it just seems beyond silly and I don't know we just woosh to a HEA. I just needed more steps in between I guess for me to rate this higher than 3 stars.

3.5 stars

i'll be honest, i read this book mainly because of the cute cover. so i didn't really know much about it going in.

you can imagine my shock when i found out it's a novella.

playing house is actually very cute. i liked it enough to think i should round up my star rating. the only problem i have with this is that it has no buildup. at all. we're almost kind of plunged into the middle and we just go along with it.

which i kind of feel bad about by the way because i thought the characters had their own distinct voices despite the sheer shortness of it. it would have been so much better had we gotten to know them and their world and the side characters more than we did.

but i liked it, truly. not the most memorable anything, but it's a good way to spend time if you want something cute and wholesome (and mature, by the way) to read to pass the time.

both oliver and fay are reasonable and mature characters that are honestly quite hard to come by in the chicklit and adult novels i've read through the span of time i've been reading novels of the said genres. the main conflict between the main characters are handled well and found a good resolution too.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This was a fun and quick read, it’s fairly short and easy to follow. Definitely worth a read.
⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Not a great pick for me. This felt like a first draft that still needs a lot of editing. Nothing happens really but suddenly there are such great feelings? Suddenly their lives change? Nice idea and I liked reading about New York City, but overall this did not feel like a story to me.