4 Show more
Review This story left a helluva lot to be desired. The plot is great, two people who were married to each other, got divorced, went their separate ways, end up meeting again after seventeen odd years and wind up being roommates? Hec yeah, great romance story there. ⠀
⠀
Unfortunately this fell flat for me. The writing was choppy at times, the flow of the story was stilted and erractic and there was a great lack of depth when it came to the characters that I felt completely disconnected to them. I wanted so much more from the characters. Also there was so much left unsaid. The bare minimum was explained in terms of the divorce between the two characters and that conversation didn't even take place between the two of them. They were able to just move on together without actually talking about how they ended up divorced in the first place- it's all quite disbelieving.⠀
⠀
I really wanted to love it but this was not it for me unfortunately.

I thoroughly enjoyed this.

It's sweet, amusing, and second chances by close proximity is always a win for me.
I found this book easy to read, light, and because this year has been pretty rough (for everyone), reading this book just made me happy.

House Rules by Ruby Lang (m/f, contemporary, 40ish MCs, 2nd Chance). Their marriage broke up 17 yes ago but an awesome apartment brings them back together & they realize they don’t want to be apart, no matter how over it they were, who they used to be & what they used to want

House Rules ended up as a DNF for me. I just didn't like the storyline or the characters enough to keep reading.

This was really cute! I enjoyed the forced proximity and that the couple was older. I think I would have loved it even more if it was a full length book! Overall I think this trilogy was fun and I recommend them, books 2-3 especially!

Second chance romance is one of my favourite types of romance. I enjoy a couple with a history, because it feels more realistic than strangers all of a sudden falling in love in just a couple weeks. As with other books in this series, it is sweet, short, and satisfying

*~~*ARC kindly provided from the publisher/author to me for an honest review *~~*

Full review to come

5 stars

I thought this was cute. I loved that it focuses on a slightly older couple. I do with it would have been longer because it felt rushed.

Thank you to Ruby Lang for such a great read! House Rules is perfect for a rainy afternoon. Great Job!!

***Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review***

Typical second chance romance. Not amazing, but kept my interest.

An enjoyable second chance romance between two 40 something MCs!

Toss in some forced proximity because now these two who were once married now divorced are living together. Watching them be drawn together again was sweet. Their re-kindled romance isn't without issues trying to get in their way, but in the end they worked it out.

I really enjoyed this entire series alot, and it's the first thing I've ready by this author. I'll be checking out her other stuff too!

It’s too bad that the couple in Ruby Lang’s House Rules hadn’t stayed together in the first place because their second-chance romance is a dull love story. This third standalone installment in the Uptown series features mildly sympathetic protagonists whose largely uncomplicated reunion unfolds at a humdrum pace.

Ex-spouses Lana Kuo and Simon Mizrahi have neither seen nor spoken to each other since their breakup seventeen years prior. When the forty-something divorcées randomly reconnect at a New York City open house, they agree, shortly thereafter, to cohabitate and share the rent on a fab Manhattan apartment. (I support this seventeen-year plan for affordable leasing. If I were to divorce my husband sometime in 2020, we could share the rent on a sweet Malibu beach house in 2037.) Lana and Simon set a four-month trial period on their living arrangement and create a list of house rules (i.e. no parties, refrigerator rights, etc.). The one unwritten rule is to live as platonic roommates. However, residual feelings from Lana and Simon’s young married past fuel an attraction that they are unable to ignore. A familiar issue eventually resurfaces and forces the two to decide whether or not they’re willing to repeat history.

Kudos to Lang for writing middle-aged romance protagonists. Simon is a typical nice guy with sweetheart tendencies; he cooks for Lana and takes care of her difficult cat. Lana is standoffish with Simon for fear of losing her heart and her autonomy to him. Both are considerate and take care with the other’s feelings. And, their self-aware inner dialogues make them appear somewhat relatable. However, I simply didn’t care enough about them as individuals or as a couple to be invested in their future. Perhaps more backstory and/or flashback scenes would have deepened my interest in them. Lang shares limited details about Lana and Simon’s former life together, so unfortunately it’s difficult to fully appreciate their personal growth over the past seventeen years.

While I’m glad to see my age group represented, Lana and Simon’s mundane home life is too realistic for my enjoyment. As a master noodle chef for a popular Manhattan restaurant, Lana often returns home from work when Simon is asleep. And at times, music teacher Simon gets home late and misses Lana before she leaves for work. So Lana and Simon are always waiting around for the other to show up. All they seem to do is work and have sex. There aren’t any scenes in which the lovers enjoy a fun outing or share in an experience that allows them to become reacquainted. Intimate conversations about the past or present are scant, so Lana and Simon’s newfound love, which is told rather than shown, is a little hard to believe.

Even though I have issues with the overall execution of House Rules, I appreciate the novel’s premise – sometimes love needs a second chance because it wasn’t ready the first time around. Lang also raises thought-provoking questions, such as ‘Is love enough?’ and ‘How much of your individual needs and desires would you sacrifice to ensure a lasting relationship?’

To be fair, Ruby Lang’s overall writing style is fine. But her characters lack a certain je ne sais quoi, and her plot, particularly the middle, is tedious. I had hoped that House Rules would turn out to be a great second-chance romance that I could eagerly recommend to those who, like me, believe in the beauty of reclaiming lost love. Sadly, this is the second C-rated second-chance romance review that I’ve written. Maybe three times will be the charm?

Delightful! A warm second chance romance, as two lonely people reconnect years after their divorce. I love the way the characters grow and learn together. 3.5 stars.

I was a little nervous about reading this one since I didn't notice that it was #3 in a series until after I got it, but it read perfectly as a standalone. I read this in one sitting. It was exactly what I needed to get out of my reading rut. I absolutely loved the chemistry between Simon and Lana from the very beginning. And of course you know what's going to happen, but the (short) unfolding and steamy in-betweens and the mature romance made it quite a bit of fun getting there. It was paced perfectly, was just the right length, and even made me a little sad for it to end!

I started this book with high expectations.
Looks like too high expectations.

The writing was nice enough, but so slow and I didn’t feel any emotions from the characters.

I stopped reading it at ~ 25 % and I’m really sorry about that, but it just didn’t catch me.

I stumbled across Ruby Lang when I got the ARC for “Playing House” early last year and I was so pleasantly surprised by the book and the writing style. And then when I saw that this one was available, I snagged it at the first opportunity.

I absolutely love everything about Ruby Lang and her style of writing, also her characters and plots are so unique it makes you smile and squeal a little when you’re reading her work. And in this book, that feeling is no different.

Lana and Simon were married once, many years ago. They got divorced and went on their separate ways. What’s great about these characters is that they’re older (in their 40s) than most of the characters you read in contemporary romance, they’ve got solid jobs and lives that are working out for them. The characters are so strong and powerful on their own and through Lana’s growing and Simon’s learning of himself, you find that you’re rooting for them as individuals as much as a couple.

One of my favourite things about this book was watching Lana and Simon fall back in love with each other, but at the same time rediscover all the things that they didn’t like about each other. But those things aren’t a problem now, because they’ve both changed and they’ve grown and they’re more open to these things than they were before. Making a deal to stay in the same house with your ex sounds like a recipe for disaster, but the seamless way in which the story was written and told makes you really hope that one day, you get to have all of that too!

When Lana returns to New York City after being away for almost 20 years, one of the first people she runs into in a city of millions is her ex-husband Simon. The reunion isn’t angry or dramatic or explosive as you might expect in a romcom, but it’s rather bittersweet. It’s clear that the divorce was heartbreaking for both parties and that their personal dreams were forcing them apart. When Lana finds the perfect apartment, she realizes that the high-priced rent means she’ll have to find the perfect roommate. She turns to Simon, who is desperate to move out of his loud, construction zone of a neighborhood. Boundaries and grounds rule are put in place but old, familiar feelings soon arise rekindling a new spark out of their nostalgia for the past.
House Rules was a nice breath of fresh air, featuring a couple in their 40’s and sweet rather than steamy sex scenes. The hero and heroine know who they are, have realistic issues, and know how to discuss and handle their issues.

This has been a really fun series. I don't believe there are more planned, but I've been wrong before. In any case, these novels have been stand alone, involving different characters each time and wholly different scenarios only relating to the housing market.

I think this is the first time that I've read a romance novel between two people who have been married once, and divorced, and then they get back together again. But that's what we've got here, with Lana even reaching out to Simon to see if he wants to live with her and share the rent on a sublet she's fallen in love with.

Both of them are convinced that it's a terrible idea but, at the same time, Manhattan is terrible for renting.

And so they come up with a whole set of house rules which, heh, almost immediately are forgotten.

I think the representation I liked the most in this novel was Lana's endometriosis. I'm sure I've read other stories with characters who have it before, but I've never read one where it so greatly impacts on a character's workplace like it does in this novel. And it's a seriously important detail.

Of course, Simon goes straight into protector mode, looking after her after he needs to pick her up one night, and that pretty much breaks the ice for both of them.

Although neither one of them are sure where they stand with the other for the majority of this book, they of course manage to work it out in the end. I feel as though the characters could have been a bit more compelling and memorable, but that may have been high expectations carried over from some other books I was reading at the same time.

It starts off slow and kind of dense, but once the action begins, it's hard to resist the story as it drives forward. It reads as a true epic, one that makes you feel the world really has been reshaped as you read it. Would recommend.

<em>House Rules</em> is the third book in the <a href="http://bookbinge.com/reviews/series/uptown/">Uptown</a> series by <a href="http://bookbinge.com/reviews/authors/ruby-lang/">Ruby Lang</a>. It's also a second chance romance that features a divorced couple who become roommates to share bills. I read the last book in this series and enjoyed it so I was looking forward to reading this one as well. Like <a href="http://bookbinge.com/2019/12/review-open-house-by-ruby-lang/">Open House</a>, this book was a really quick read but Ruby Lang did a great job of making me come to care for both Simon and Lana.

They were both normal people with normal people problems. Simon is a music teacher and he's been living in the same apartment for most of his life. He wants to move on, find his own space in New York that wasn't his father's so he starts looking around but when his search makes him realize that he probably can't afford to leave his late father's rent secure apartment, he gets bummed out until he runs into Lana, who is back in New York and looking for her own space to rent. Running into Simon was the last thing that Lana wanted but knowing that they both need a place to live and can actually help each other with bills, Lana does the unthinkable. She asks Simon to be her roommate. Her strictly platonic roommate. They both live different lives and will be in the apartment at different times so they won't even need to see each other or interact with each other to live with each other. So they do it. They sign the lease and they become roommates. Only there's too much history and too many feelings that are still kicking around in each other their hearts so now they have to figure out where to go from here.

Ruby Lang has a great writing style that I enjoy very much. I plan on going back and reading the first book in this series because I haven't yet. I really enjoyed a straight up romance with two characters that I was able to connect with. And I did. I connected with different aspects of Simon and Lana's lives and I was right there with the both of them through all of their story. This was a charming contemporary romance that I ate right up from beginning to end. If you're in the mood for a sweet second chance romance then look no further than this one. It's super cute and perfect for some social distancing fun. I definitely recommend.

<strong>4 out of 5</strong>