3.5/5

I haven't read anything from Ruby Lang before, but I've been meaning to read her books because they sound super cute. When Playing House showed up on Netgalley, I was quick to download a copy. I simply could not resist the cute concept as well as that cute cover. I did not realize going into the book that it was a short story, so it felt a little shorter than I would have liked. However, Lang's writing was very lovely, so even though I wished the book were longer, I still quite enjoyed my time reading it. Oliver and Fay are urban planners in NYC who get into a fake-dating situation. You all know how that's one of my favorite tropes, so naturally, I devoured that up. I liked both Fay and Oliver's personalities. They were both smart and kind individuals dealing with just a bit of baggage. The flow to their relationship was very smooth for me personally, but I would have liked to see more of them together - that's just a sign that I enjoyed these characters and their chemistry very much. I also liked seeing all the side characters in this book and I'm hoping we get to see books for some of them. Playing House was a nice little introduction to Ruby Lang's writing for me. I most certainly will be reading more of this series and this author in the future.

Short (honestly felt like a novella rather than a novel, I don't know the exact word count but it's definitely on the short side for a non-category) but EXTREMELY sweet and enjoyable! Everyone is refreshingly adult about conflicts and their problems are very adult, too -- getting over a divorce, navigating a career change, coping with aging parents. I'm not personally into architecture or house hunting for fun, but Oliver and Fay enjoy geeking out over their house tours so much that it's impossible not to get carried along for the ride! Without giving spoilers, I felt that this story resolved the central conflict (Oliver is a candidate for a position in Fay's firm) perfectly, and I really appreciated the thought given to the ethics of the situation, which a lot of workplace romances gloss over. If you like fake dating or debates about urban planning or both, give Playing House a shot!

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Fay and Oliver had been running in the same circles for over a decade, but his buried feelings for her emerge, when she unexpectedly kisses him in an attempt to put off another suitor. Their afternoon together blossoms into more, but their insecurities may keep this relationship from taking root.

I really enjoyed meeting Fay and Oliver, and thought the set up for this story was great. Two urban planners, living in NYC, who were both experiencing some sort of transition in their lives. The shared career gave them lots to talk about, and the fact that they had already known each other for so long, allowed the chance meeting to plausibly progress to more, quickly, without all that awkwardness associated with getting to know the basics about someone.

I actually enjoyed taking the architectural tours of the city, and I thought the moments shared with Oliver's family were great. I appreciated the little bits about urban planning, that Lang peppered the story with, and I found both Oliver and Ruby to be interesting and fully formed characters.

I think the only problem I had with this book, which kept my rating in the "good" zone, was that I needed more of their story. What was there was great, and I enjoyed seeing these two wade through their personal baggage and to each other, but I needed a little more.

That said, I am happy with my first Ruby Lang experience, and would love to read a full-length by her. She created characters I was able to embrace, incorporated things that were new and interesting to me, and I would love to read more of her stories.

A delightful romance novella. I love how important their careers were to the story. Sweet and fun, I'm excited to read more books from Ruby Lang.

Arc provided via netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I don't have a ton to say about this book since it's a novella, it's short and doesn't feel super developed. I'm not really invested in the characters but I did like the setting and all of the urban planning stuff that was shown. I feel like I can only recommend this if you're into those themes, otherwise you can really take it or leave it.

Playing House is a contemporary romantic comedy by Ruby Lang. The sweet witty repartee is funny and s satisfying as we watch this budding romance flower. Oliver and Fay are urban planners who bond over their profession as the play house while touring architecturally interesting houses as if they were married. Oh and it is sexy too! I would recommend this novel to my patrons.

I really wanted to like this story, but it was way too simple to develop any sort of attachment to the characters.

The book does a poor job at building up everything. Not only did I feel like I was reading book 2 in a series or a flashback kind of novella. I felt like I already should’ve known the characters and their backstory. That’s how little the book explored them.

It was cute, don’t get me wrong but it was so short (like under 10 chapters short and the chapters are not full packed either) and that really took a lot from the story. I cannot pinpoint any characteristic, nor I can say I remember a lot of the plot.

It’s such a pity this ended up being this meh because I was very excited to read a cute and sexy contemporary romance.

There's honestly not a lot for me to say about this book. This is a short romance novella (which I didn't know before requesting the ARC but thankfully found out before I started reading) with two Chinese-American protagonists.

It is an enjoyable and fun little novella if you need something light for an afternoon read. Both characters are interesting and have a surprising amount of development in this small novella.

I liked their relationship a lot, even though you should definitely not go into this one expecting much of a fake relationship trope. It is there in the very beginning but it gets pretty real rather quickly, which I appreciated simply because of the length of this book. This didn't really have much time for a fake relationship if you want to build an actual relationship in only 100 pages but it was a fun start to the story.
And just a heads up for all the smut fans out there – this isn't a very smutty read. There's one small sex scene but it's not very explicit and fades to black after the oral sex.

As with most novellas, I just find it hard to be invested in the characters, if I don't already know them from another series or book, which is why I ultimately could not give this more than 3 stars. And in all honestly, had I known that this would only be a novella, I probably would not have requested the ARC in the first place.
In the end I enjoyed the reading experience but will probably not return to this series.

Oliver Huang is flabbergasted when acquaintance and fellow city planner Fay Liu plants a big smooch on him after he arrives at a home tour. Olive has always had a crush on Fay but he thought she was married. And he just submitted a resume to her team and she just may be his boss soon. Doesn't she know?

As it turns out Fay needed a fake boyfriend to stop the unwanted attention of a fellow tour attendee, and Oliver is more than happy to play the part. Plus, Fay is divorced and doesn't seem to know Oliver applied at her firm.

Fake dating for the day turns out to be way more fun then they expected, but when real feelings enter the mix, both Oliver and Fay will need to figure out which parts are real and which parts are simply play.

I adored this novella and gobbled it up in one sitting. I especially enjoyed the details about being a city planner, the different tracks that can take. and how different familial pressures can lead one to make choices, or not. I liked that Oliver wasn't a super high driven career guy; he is a hard-worker but needs to find his own path.

Also, major bonus points for showing Fay masturbating! Huzzah!

Thank you to the author for the advanced reading copy!

If you like realistic romances this is definitely the book for you. There was never a moment this was cheesy or rushed. This was a romance between two adults that takes place at a realistic pace. This is a short read and added to the how well it’s written and all that takes place it makes it one fast fun read. Highly recommend!!

This was a very lovely read about two people who revolved around each other professionally for years who end up falling in love! I loved Oliver and Fay, but I wish it was longer! I would absolutely read a full length novel about them. I feel like some parts were a little rushed and could have been fleshed out a little more.

Two Asian leads?!! Holy smokes, I think this is the first time I've read anything with two Asian leads from a traditional publisher. And I LOVE this. The way being an urban planner mixed with their relationship was so perfect and made me laugh. MORE ASIAN LEADS PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!

Cute story just way too short. This is definitely a novella. I think if it had been longer it would have worked. Thanks Netgalley for the Arc

I received an e-ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review – thanks as always to Netgalley for sending me a copy!

Playing House is a super-sweet novella about two Chinese-American urban planners – a profession I personally wasn’t familiar with, but it makes sense that this is a thing! I always enjoy it when characters in books have professions outside of the norm, it’s nice to learn something as you read. We follow Oliver and Fay, two people who’ve been running in the same circles for a while due to their profession, in which everyone seems to know everyone. When Fay is accosted by a guy at a house viewing who is determined to date her and won’t take no for an answer, she spots Oliver and improvises, pretending he’s her boyfriend in order to escape this stranger’s advances. The two of them then decide to continue the charade and they start having a great time running around Harlem pretending to be a newly-wed couple looking for a house, when really they’re just a couple of nosy parkers (in the best way!)

To be up-front, this book is very short and I feel like that was to its detriment. If Playing House had been developed into a full-length novel, I feel like we could have really leaned into all the things it was doing well – the fake dating aspect, for example, was kind of neglected after the initial incident, and since that was my primary motivation for picking up the book (fake dating is a god-tier trope, fight me) I felt a little let down. The characters were great, the concept was cute, their relationship was solid and I felt they had fantastic chemistry, but ultimately it felt like fast-forwarding a movie. There simply wasn’t enough room to develop this story to its full potential, and that led to things like slightly choppy time-jumps, a surprisingly fast-developing relationship and some instances of showing instead of telling, where events were being summarised instead of shown to us.

Don’t get me wrong, this book was fun and cute and it had some special moments – the characters’ first sexual altercation springs to mind, I felt that was perfect and I really believed in their connection during that scene – but ultimately I would have preferred it as a full-length in order to help it achieve its true potential.

This book flew right by. It was short and sweet. Cute characters with a fun career path. Interesting conflict of interest when the characters reconnected. Fun plotline with them posing as a couple for a week or two. It went by a little bit TOO fast for me, but I knew it was short going into it so I wasn't taken aback by this. Definitely a cute little feel-good story!!

My first read by Ruby Lang. I really enjoyed this book, it had all the elements I look for in a great read. I planned on reading a few chapters then stop, but I found myself unable to stop reading. Great job!!

2.5 stars
For the first few pages I was like “this is going to be awesome!” And then it started to lose me when there were no directives in the dialogues. And then everything started happening really quickly. Which is when I figured out that this is somewhere between a short story and a novella. Probably only about a hundred pages. And by then I was feeling like way too much time was being spent on the description of the houses they were visiting. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good HGTV remodeling show as much as the next person, but I don’t want to read about one.

I loved that the cast of characters was so diverse. You have asian leads, gay siblings, ethnic coworkers, it was great. A realistic mix of people. But that was kind of the shining moment for me. Unfortunately, at times it felt like this had been some sort of writing exercise.

I wanted so badly to enjoy this sweet little book, but I just couldn't get there. I understand that novellas have to move a bit quicker than full-blown novels, but everything just felt so rushed. I never got a chance to care about the characters before jumping into the romantic plotline. It was almost jarring. I also didn't care for the author's writing style, it just felt a bit too formal for my taste.

Some books feel like they were written for you, as if an author is eavesdropping on what you want in a book and what you like in books, and part of me wants to accuse Ruby Lang of bugging my house. Playing House is charming and almost breezily free of plot. It’s two messy people going through big changes in their lives and finding each other at the right time.

When I say it’s free of plot, that isn’t exactly true, but there is no driving external plot, so the story focuses on these two people who are trying to decide how to say what they want and also figure out what that is. Fay is coming off of a divorce that has left her a bit insecure in personal relationships, while Oliver is dealing with unemployment and freelancing (or really having his own consultancy) and the fear of being too like the father who abandoned him.

Here’s the secret to why Lang’s books work for me: the easy and playful conversations.* The rhythm is fun, comfortable, and welcoming. These two people know enough about each other to know how to joke and tease and be themselves. And in a way, Playing House is about two people figuring out how to be themselves again. It might also be just a very over-30 romance in that you’ve made choices in your life and some mistakes, and maybe you lost yourself for a few years because of expectations, and then you hit some magical age (35 for me) and you start realizing that what others see isn’t as important as being able to exist as yourself.

So, the biggest threat to their relationship is the fact that Oliver has applied for a job at Fay’s firm. And he spends a significant amount of time thinking about the fact that he hasn’t told her that he sent his resume to her firm before they met at the first house tour. Even though I kept screaming at him to just tell her and we’d all escape some hurt, I have to admit that this is something I would do because pretending that you didn’t try for something is harder than admitting you did try and failed. It’s that messy human thing where we make mistakes because of all the things that inform who we are.

My only complaint, as ever with novellas, is that I could have spent more time with these two. Except, I also sort of loved the abruptness of the ending.

One more note, this isn’t really a fake dating romance - it still is, just not in a typical way. The fake dating (or really marriage) is all done for the ease of viewing real estate and because people assume it of the characters.




*As a good editor, Suzanne will want me to say “banter,” but I refuse for reasons.

[Editor's Note: I have kept her original phrasing only because this is funny.]




Content Warnings: crappy father, divorce, unemployment




Margrethe received a digital copy of this book from the publisher for review via NetGalley.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.

Oliver and Fay are urban planners and are acquaintances who have known each other for about 10 years. She sees him at a tour of old property and pretends he’s her BF to shake off a creep who apparently doesn’t know what the word no means.

Even though Fay just got divorced, she’s honest about not wanting a fling and wanting something serious. That’s where Oliver comes in. They both have a lot in common including the same job.

Cute novella and I ultimately wish it was longer. But I definitely recommend this as a cozy romance and a lovely afternoon read.