Scan barcode
A review by beckymmoe
The Uptown Collection by Ruby Lang
4.0
Reviewed on my blog, Becky on Books, on 5/30/2020
A sweet collection of novellas!
Playing House
I loved the premise of this one--watching Oliver and Fay almost fall into their quirky little habit of sort-of posing as newlyweds to tour open houses was a delight, not to mention a highly unusual form of courtship. Their story was a gentle slide from acquaintances to friends to...more, and somehow it managed to be easy going one minute and urgent the next, both sweet and steamy. Of course I would have liked to have seen more from both of the characters, but even at its shorter length it still felt like a complete story. I especially liked how Ms Lang had them resolve their relationship issue; it was realistic and didn't make it seem like either one of them had to give anything up, either to become their best self or to get to an HEA.
Rating: 4 stars / A-
Open House
Magda's book! (She gave Oliver and Fay--AKA Ollie and Darling Wife a tour of her uncle's townhouse in book one--I LOLed when the subject of people touring houses and ruining shower curtains came up, because that was Ollie and Darling! Really, it can be read as a standalone, though--it was a little throwaway comment that was easily missed and not at all important to the plot.)
I enjoyed Magda and Ty's story--an enemies to lovers story, of sorts. A lot like Oliver and Fay in the first book, both Magda and Ty had plenty of personal issues to work out before they could really commit to working on their relationships. Poor Ty wasn't even ready to admit for 80+% of the story that he had a relationship with the people in the community garden, so...as a result, the romance was definitely a slow burn one. Delicious, but slow.
My only real complaint is that the ending felt a bit abrupt--since I was reading this as part of a novella collection ( The Uptown Collection ) it was a real surprise when I realized I was on the last page of the story. It was a cute ending and a complete story, I just wanted a teensy bit more there at the end.
Rating: 4 stars / A-
House Rules
Ms Lang immediately drew me into Simon and Lana's story. I loved that they are both in their forties, which IMO increased the possibility that their second chance romance could actually work. It's been seventeen years since their divorce, after all--who isn't going to change in seventeen years?--and they're not the same people whose misunderstandings and miscommunications made them choose to be apart then.
Of course they're going to have new misunderstandings and miscommunications now--it's a romance novel, and we need conflict!--but now that they both now what they were missing when they were apart and how good they can be together again, they'll work even harder to stay together...right?
You'll have to read House Rules to find out for sure. Except spoiler alert: the publisher tells you right in the blurb that they guarantee an HEA or HFN, so yeah, this time these crazy kids are going to make it. Which means you're going to have to read House Rules instead for the loveliness that is their second chance romance, to see the pleasure that Simon takes in his concerts and his teaching, and to witness the strength that Lana hadn't realized she had in her, to meet Muffin the cat, and to confirm that no, smoking hot sex scenes aren't just for the twenty- and thirty-year olds in romancelandia.
(Thank god.)
Rating: 4 stars / A
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.
A sweet collection of novellas!
Playing House
I loved the premise of this one--watching Oliver and Fay almost fall into their quirky little habit of sort-of posing as newlyweds to tour open houses was a delight, not to mention a highly unusual form of courtship. Their story was a gentle slide from acquaintances to friends to...more, and somehow it managed to be easy going one minute and urgent the next, both sweet and steamy. Of course I would have liked to have seen more from both of the characters, but even at its shorter length it still felt like a complete story. I especially liked how Ms Lang had them resolve their relationship issue; it was realistic and didn't make it seem like either one of them had to give anything up, either to become their best self or to get to an HEA.
Rating: 4 stars / A-
Open House
Magda's book! (She gave Oliver and Fay--AKA Ollie and Darling Wife a tour of her uncle's townhouse in book one--I LOLed when the subject of people touring houses and ruining shower curtains came up, because that was Ollie and Darling! Really, it can be read as a standalone, though--it was a little throwaway comment that was easily missed and not at all important to the plot.)
I enjoyed Magda and Ty's story--an enemies to lovers story, of sorts. A lot like Oliver and Fay in the first book, both Magda and Ty had plenty of personal issues to work out before they could really commit to working on their relationships. Poor Ty wasn't even ready to admit for 80+% of the story that he had a relationship with the people in the community garden, so...as a result, the romance was definitely a slow burn one. Delicious, but slow.
My only real complaint is that the ending felt a bit abrupt--since I was reading this as part of a novella collection ( The Uptown Collection ) it was a real surprise when I realized I was on the last page of the story. It was a cute ending and a complete story, I just wanted a teensy bit more there at the end.
Rating: 4 stars / A-
House Rules
Ms Lang immediately drew me into Simon and Lana's story. I loved that they are both in their forties, which IMO increased the possibility that their second chance romance could actually work. It's been seventeen years since their divorce, after all--who isn't going to change in seventeen years?--and they're not the same people whose misunderstandings and miscommunications made them choose to be apart then.
Of course they're going to have new misunderstandings and miscommunications now--it's a romance novel, and we need conflict!--but now that they both now what they were missing when they were apart and how good they can be together again, they'll work even harder to stay together...right?
You'll have to read House Rules to find out for sure. Except spoiler alert: the publisher tells you right in the blurb that they guarantee an HEA or HFN, so yeah, this time these crazy kids are going to make it. Which means you're going to have to read House Rules instead for the loveliness that is their second chance romance, to see the pleasure that Simon takes in his concerts and his teaching, and to witness the strength that Lana hadn't realized she had in her, to meet Muffin the cat, and to confirm that no, smoking hot sex scenes aren't just for the twenty- and thirty-year olds in romancelandia.
(Thank god.)
Rating: 4 stars / A
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.