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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.
