3.5 ★

Magda, on unsure career footing is currently working in real estate. We find her selling two properties in Harlem, NY! One of these properties belongs to a widowed family member and the other is a vacant lot turned community garden. This garden is currently occupied by some oldies with their green thumbs... and the absolutely gorgeous, sweetheart, accountant Tyson. He moonlights at the garden in his free time, shovelling dirt, being eye candy. And.... Magda is supposed to sell the place out from under them.

The writing was undeniably good. It was entertaining, with a few laughs and real feels. The most surprising thing was the chemistry between leads. These two were supposed to be on opposing sides, fighting a battle on behalf of other people. So yeah, you have that underlying enemies to lovers thing going on. However, they were both such good people, that always shined brighter, they were kind to each other. Best of all, they had this raw attraction. The intimate scenes were quite explicit, normally not my thing but it was amazingly executed here! I don’t know if I just adored these characters, and them together or if I was experiencing some superior sexy writing. Maybe a bit of both.

This was a slightly long novella, a palette cleanser, perhaps? Open House was a unique experience because Lang did absolutely everything she needed to do, just in a lot less pages. I requested this because I adore this type of romance cover and it turns out, I was pretty happy with this gem.

(ARC kindly provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review)

Let’s pause a moment to celebrate the fact that Ruby Lang is writing again, after a pause that in real life was very short but experientially was like TEN THOUSAND YEARS OF DEPRIVATION. Any romance writer who can write a line like “He didn’t want to be her weakness; he wanted to be part of her strength” is already to be treasured. Add to that Lang’s gift for vivid settings, complex family relationships, and reliably funny, affectionate, crackly banter between the leads, and you’ve got one of the best contemporary romance authors currently working.

Open House is the second novella in Lang’s Uptown series (first one is reviewed here!), and it follows realtor Magda Ferrar as she tries to unload her recalcitrant uncle’s brownstone on Strivers’ Row and a vacant lot on 136th St. Unfortunately (for her), the lot has been turned into a community garden, and the community — including sexy accountant (yes) Ty Yang — isn’t any too thrilled at the idea of losing it.

The love story in a romance novella can feel rushed and incomplete, but Open House never does. Nor does it depend on uncontrollable mutual attraction to justify the leads’ interest in each other (no shots btw to uncontrollable mutual attraction, which can be very fun sometimes!). Ty and Magda like each other because they like each other: because they’re each kind and funny and engaged, because they challenge and encourage each other out of easy false narratives, and also YES I ADMIT because they find each other really hot. But principally, their relationship is founded — despite this being an antagonists-to-lovers story — on trying really hard to be in each other’s corner. I loved it.

I should also mention that Lang has a true knack for writing family dynamics and exploring the way they affect people in romantic relationships. Insofar as her leads face obstacles (and these are typically quite low-conflict books), they are typically internally generated and respectfully explored over the course of the book. I loved seeing Magda in a position of trying to navigate an adult relationship with her much-older sisters!

A chef’s kiss to this book, in honor of my hope that Lang will set the next series after this one in restaurants LIKE SHE CLEARLY WANTS TO. (I see you, Ruby Lang.)

I love this author, which is why I was excited about this book. I always enjoy Asian male leading men, and with a brown chick on the cover, I was a little scared but ultimately discovered my fears were valid.

The book itself is cute. Pacing felt right, chemistry wasn't golden, but I liked the hero and heroine together.

Why such a low review score? The author looked to be following the trend of making Afro-Latinx heroines without researching what that identity is.

It's become a buzzword now, but it used to mean a Black person who is visibly undeniably Black, but hails from a Latin American country based on colonizers history with the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. Now people use it as freely as saying I'm Latino. Latino isn't a race, which is why the term used to allow Black people from the diaspora to have a term that acknowledged their Blackness and history to Western African but also having branches in a country you now see as your culture.

A line read "My family's Afro-Latina, not African-American". That felt like saying "I'm not Asian, I'm Chinese." Maybe she meant to say a certain culture, but Afro-Latina is not a culture. It's like stating you're Black. What would've been better was if she'd said I'm Afro-Colombian or an actual country that followed Afro.

This isn't her fault. I honestly don't blame the author for not knowing, because the term has gotten so mainstream, the meaning has changed. She didn't have any culture notifiers on the page. She could have just been a raceless face and it wouldn't have mattered.

I wish authors wouldn't use this marginalization lightly. I feel like as soon as I started seeing myself, the meaning got lost into the abyss, and now we're in this place where everyone can claim access to Blackness, and it honestly felt better to be invisible. Because then people weren't effing up the term you created for yourself just to get inclusivity points.

I will read this author again, but if she has BLACK characters, I might pass...

I could not finish this book. Nothing was happening and I was bored. I didn’t like the characters for some reason and couldn’t get into them. I DNFed this book at 40% so I feel as though I have it a fair chance of just wasn’t for me unfortunately.

This was a raw, multiracial, cute romantic novel. Magda needs to sell a lot Ty uses to help the community plant a garden. Both have their reasons for wanting the lot but do not account for the instant attraction they feel for each other. I enjoyed the descriptions of the city. i felt the author created realistic depictions of the city and it's inhabitance. The only thing missing was a deeper connection between the heroes. Yes they argue and understand each ones hardships but the story left me wanting more from them.

i really enjoyed the first one in this series but was not expecting it to be so short. because it was so short, i felt like i was missing out on some things but i read it in one sitting and it was so adorable i ended up not minding. with this one, i expected it to be shorter so perhaps my expectations for the actual story were higher? i don't know. it was super cute and i liked the characters but i wanted more. this one took me longer to read even though it was so short, and i just feel like the story did not make up for how short it was and what we end up missing. that's not fair to hold the length against the book though, since i knew about it beforehand. i just wanted a bit more. i feel like we miss out on a few things, especially with the time jumps between scenes. i felt like those time jumps were the perfect spot for more character development/relationship development. But that would have made it longer, which perhaps the author doesn't want. Either way, I will continue this series/read other books from this author because I do like her writing and they are fun books. I like the characters, I like the settings, I just want a teensy bit more. But I'm not mad I read it and I do recommend it if you're looking for something cute and short to read :)

I loved Magda and Ty. They both had family obligations to overcome and also embrace, but more than that, they had each other. Every interaction was magical, and I was rooting for them and that garden from the very beginning! I loved the side characters too, because they added so much to the story. Just simply great!

Well drawn characters and rich historical detail make Open House a standout novella. Ruby Lang surrounds Tyson and Magda's enemies-to-lovers story with a strong sense of community and family, adding rich realism to the overall story. Their romance feels organic, even as the story keeps throwing them in each other's paths. And hey, there are rooftop and phone shenanigans to keep things sexy.

Open House is a fast read that proves there is room for more in novellas than just a central love story executed in a compressed time frame. Although this is a standalone, I found myself much more invested in Ty and Magda and their families than I did with Oliver and Fay in Playing House, the first book in the series. I also loved that we've got two main characters who are people of color, but no one ever mentions it. Culture is just a part of who they are.

This is the second story in the Uptown companion series, so you can totally read this as a standalone and totally get what is going on.
I appreciate the fact that Ruby Lang tried to give readers something new, a community garden and real estate business are not what you usually find in romance books, it was a nice change.
The chemistry between Ty and Magda worked and it was well developed even though this book is actually a novella.
If you're looking for a quick and cute romance, you might want to check this out!

Open House is a fluffy novella and the second in a new series by Ruby Lang. I enjoyed this one, especially the urban garden and the description of the older townhouses in Harlem (and now I'm going to be googling the area- so fascinating). It's a fun little romance, but I think there could've been more story to tell here. I'm all for fluffy fun, but I prefer stories that have a little more depth to them.

Thank you @Netgalley and @Harlequin for the ARC of open house. This book was so fun and cute and I found myself just really drawn to Tyson. He was so charming and passionate about the community garden. To bad he falls for the lovely real estate agent trying to sell the place where the illegal garden is located. This is an absolute gem!!! Definitely recommend.

I thought this was cute, but for whatever reason, I could just not get interested enough to not feel like reading it was a bit of a slog.

Open House by Ruby Lang was fun! In this story, we meet Magda who has tried many different professions but is now settled on being a real estate associate. However, it is not really working out for her because the house she is trying to seel has an impossible owner and the land she has given to handle has been taken over by the neighborhood elders and youngsters who have a garden there! There, Magda meets Tyson, a young accountant with his own demons but a heart so big he just cannot not help the people of the community garden. So, are they enemies? Can they fight the chemistry?
This book had quite a few time jumps between scenes and it did make it a bit confusing to follow. I found myself wondering what happened during the scenes I did not get to see since both characters were rather obsessed with each other. I feel like we would have gotten to know the characters a bit more that way.
I really liked that this book had so many diverse characters and they seemed authentic as well. I found myself loving reading about the grumpy and charming side characters and wanted everybody to have a happy ending.
I think this book is great for romance lovers.

I think I have gone and found myself a new favourite author!

Like others who have read this one, I didn't realise before picking it up that it was the second in the series. However, I don't know that it even references the characters from the previous book, and no other book is needed to understand what's going on here.

Magda is just trying to prove herself as something other than the youngest and the stuff up in her family. The way she's doing that right now is through her job in real estate. It would be a real nice thing if her boss, Keith, wasn't such a dick, though.

She's just minding her own business when she gets given a job to sell a lot that is nearby her current location. Little does she know that it's not a barren lot; it's a lot that the nearby residents have turned into a garden.

Despite saying that he doesn't belong as part of this group, Tyson has been part of this project since it first began. He's a little shut down at the beginning of the novel, a hangover of having not processed his mother's death. It doesn't make him an asshole though, and the chemistry between he and Magda is instant.

This isn't a typical enemies to lovers kind of narrative, because Magda and Tyson are friendly with each other despite being on opposite sides of the whole selling the garden/lot plot. I absolutely loved the way these two interacted with each other, surrounded by the chosen family supplied by the cast of supporting characters.

Open House was so lovely! It's the second in a series, but you don't have to have read the first (though I recommend it - it was great). Anyway, Magda Ferrer is a newly minted real estate broker who's desperate for a sale - she's bounced from career to career and is buried in student debt. At 29, she's also tired of being treated like the baby of her family. She is simultaneously trying to sell her cantankerous uncle's brownstone and an empty lot. Except the lot isn't empty - it's been taken over by community gardeners. Tyson Yang is an accountant who helps out at the garden. He doesn't quite feel like he belongs, and his family is in upheaval. But he knows he wants to stop Magda from selling the lot. I love this series because Lang's characters are adults trying to make it through all of the difficulties life continuously throws at you. They are kind and caring but feel stuck. Magda and Ty don't solve all their personal problems in the course of this book, but they make great strides and realize they can let other people in. And their relationship is just wonderful. I'm looking forward to the next in this series but in the meantime - highly recommended!

While I never read the first book by Lang in this series, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this story. Ty and Magda feel real. I love the fact that this story revolves around a community garden...how cute?!?

A short story about real estate broker, Magda, and Ty, a rebel gardener trying to save his community garden from being sold by Magda's firm. I liked the slower pace in Magda and Ty's relationship, slowly turning from "enemies" to lovers and then to friends. A cute story with a wonderful happily-ever-after!

I received this book complimentary from NetGalley however all opinions are my own.
This was really cute!! The characters were great. Magda and Ty had great chemistry and rapport. I really enjoyed the plot as well. It was unique and interesting and I liked how the characters were semi-opposed in a natural and interesting way. I just really enjoyed reading this one.

I enjoyed this book as much as the first one but again it's too short and i need more of the character development and their relationship to grow more.
The writing is still good and their intimate moments are hot but their dynamic feels a bit off as in her insecurities and his dominance or overwhelming her at times.


Thanks for my review copy to the publisher, author and NetGalley

Heat Factor: Holy awkward phone sex, batman!
Character Chemistry: That thing where he teaches her to have better self-esteem
Plot: Gentrification in Harlem makes our relationship complicated
Overall: This is mostly a sweet little novella, but I HATED their dynamic

Let’s talk about our heroine, Magda Ferrer. She has a serious case of being hard on herself.
1. She has debt, so she must be a garbage person!
2. She dropped out of a graduate program and also culinary school, so she must be a hot mess!
3. She doesn’t really like her job - in fact, it seems to be eating away at her soul - but she has to prove that she can finish something, otherwise she’ll never get her life together!
Look, she may have floundered a bit in her early twenties (but who hasn’t? Ask me about the doctorate I don’t use sometime), but she is way too hard on herself. And because she is hard on herself, she never stands up for herself. So her boss treats her like garbage and her family treats her like an incompetent child. She doesn’t seem to have any friends or a roommate (as a single twenty-something with tons of debt in Brooklyn???) or a community of any kind, because she is too busy constantly working and being miserable and feeling like she deserves the misery.

Enter Ty. Magda meets Ty because she is given the thankless task of selling an empty lot to a developer - except the lot isn’t empty. Instead of a blight, it’s been repurposed into a community garden, full of too many zucchini and some prized tomatoes. Ty pretends like he’s not a member, but he spends every weekend turning compost. Naturally, Magda and Ty find themselves on opposing sides of the debate about what to do about this garden.

What makes this book interesting is that Lang doesn’t make this fight easy or simple for either Ty or Magda. They are both complicit in the gentrification of the neighborhood, but also both invested in supporting the community that exists there. Magda doesn’t really want to see the garden destroyed, but she has to pay her rent. And Ty loves his neighborhood just the way it is right now - you know, now that he owns a condo with a brand new luxury kitchen. And the way the fight is resolved is satisfactory to all parties, including me.

My problem with Open House stemmed from the dynamic that develops between Magda and Ty. Ty convinces Magda that she should stop being so hard on herself. A lot of people have debt - it’s the economy, not a moral failure. It’s great that Ty helps Magda be her best self, but in this case, Magda was a little too reliant on Ty to recognize the fact that she works hard and therefore deserves a modicum of respect. There’s also a lack of mutuality: Ty fixes Magda, but it doesn’t go the other way, which makes for an inherently unequal power dynamic.

If a man teaching a woman to love herself annoys you less than it annoys me, you might enjoy this read. It’s short, charming, and thoughtful. The sex is poignant, because Ty and Magda just know that there’s no future for them (**insert eyeroll here**), but also hot. And there’s a booth at a fundraising selling dumplings of the world, which is really all I’ve ever wanted in life.


I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. We disclose this in accordance with 16 CFR §255.

This review is also available at The Smut Report.