Review: Playing House

Playing House by Ruby Lang
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"Playing House" by Ruby Lang was a cute, sweet, quick read. There was a surprising amount of character development for such a short story, but even so, I wish more had been said about what happened with Oliver's father. Oliver was so worried about being "feckless" like his father was, but it's unclear exactly why he and the rest of his family thought his father was that way. The only time I remember his father's behavior being directly mentioned is when Oliver's mother tells him that he is "too nice" like his father, who apparently used to help others before he helped his own family because he was afraid of letting other people down. When he could no longer do that, he left. What exactly does that mean, and how is it relevant to Oliver's situation? Oliver's worries seem to center on the fact that he doesn't have a full-time job but has instead been freelancing since his former company closed down. Is it just that he's worried about letting his family down because he's not making a huge salary like his brother and sister? I'm not sure who else Oliver is expected to (or would want to) help besides his family, except possibly Fay.

Also, I was expecting the fake relationship between Oliver and Fay to be a bigger part of the story, but it ended up barely being a factor. Truthfully, it was kind of disappointing to me because that's usually a fun trope, and I was looking forward to seeing what kind of mischief "Olly and Darling" managed to create.

Overall, while this was a cute story and I enjoyed it, I think it had the potential to be so much more if it had been expanded into a full-length novel rather than a novella. It seems like there's a lot more that could have been explored here.

*ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

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