I wanted to love this book. I really would have loved this book….if not for how much I disliked Miles. I had sympathy for her situation with her parents and her mental health, but whenever presented with the opportunity to tell the truth or just act like an adult and treat others respectfully, she never did. I found myself actually feeling anger at the way Miles would lie or avoid telling the truth to everyone she cared about. Her persistence in making everyone’s lives a living hell was so annoying and dishonorable. Additionally, despite being a lawyer, Miles is as unprofessional as they get. I literally could not stand to read about her business practices, and there were no scenes or glimpses to indicate that she was actually a capable professional. Due to my overall dislike of Emma, I probably wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone.

However, it would be remiss of my to leave out that I enjoyed the story’s premise. My favorite thing about the book was the humor. There were multiple scenes that had me burst out laughing because of how hilariously unique they were.

I literally finished reading the last page of On The Same Page twenty minutes ago, but I have to write this review immediately, so it’ll be able to deliver the euphoria and joy I feel right now to do this book justice.

To put this review in a nutshell: I love every single page of this wholesome, fantastic romance. The idea to write a book about writing one may not be entirely new, but the execution was exceptional and unique. I mean, a story revolving around literature and publishing, how much better can it get?

Penelope Janu uses snippets of the heroines novel to give an insight into her soul and personality, which makes her strong and independent on one hand and very vulnerable on the other. It reflects the double life of the heroine perfectly, being a lawyer during the day and an author at night. Her characters give her strength and she uses them as an outlet without exposing herself.

I loved the references to famous literature and the various quotes show the authors’ passion for books, like her personal love letter to literature.

Have you ever been frowned upon because you enjoy reading romance? This book deals with these preconceptions and the heroine fights passionately like a lioness against stereotypes and not being taken seriously. She is of the strong belief that romance should be a safe space and uplifting and I love that approach.

I’m so sad that this story is over and I can’t read it again for the first time. So in the meantime, I have to dive into Penelope Janu’s backlist and enjoy her other books.

This book was so rushed. Scenes ended mid conversation. The writing of it was actually pretty good, the dialogue was fun, but the structure of the story was all over the place. I struggled to understand why I should care what Miles was doing. Simply being an award-winning author isn’t really a captivating plot point on its own. I’d say the only reason why I had any interest in this book was because it’s set in the city I live in. Not just the city, but in suburbs I visit regularly in my own real life. Also, it’s about the story of an author and I’m an aspiring author myself. The ebook I read wasn’t formatted at all but since this is an ARC, I presume that’ll be remedied for the copies that are sold. It made it extra difficult to read though (the dialogue especially). I liked Janu’s other book—Up On Horseshoe Hill—but I’m sorry, I DNF On the Same Page at 22%.

I really loved how the author mirrored Emma’s books and Miles’ life. Particularly, I enjoyed the structuring of the book. My favorite part of the entire novel was Miles’ defense of romance books. I felt a huge part of my inner monologue vocalised in that moment. Specifically, I loved how the author pointed out how the continuous ridicule of romance novels is directly linked to the fact that the audience is mainly women.

While I thought Lars and Emma’s relationship felt a bit rushed/unsubstantiated, I generally enjoyed it. I did not enjoy, however, the repeated fatphobic comments made throughout the book at the expense of Miles. I found it extremely bothersome that they were included as if they were like saying “the sky is blue” or any other “normal/factual” statement.

As a law student, I appreciated a lot of the legal analogies. I also loved seeing Miles with Pippy and Chrystal. I felt like we saw a lot of her character in those moments.

I'm so upset that I didn't enjoy this as much as I thought I would. It's not a bad novel by any means, but it just felt really scattered. Lars and Miles had chemistry, but didn't really seem to have much beyond that for almost the entirety of the book. I found it a little hard to keep up with all the side characters, most of which I found to be a little annoying. I always love bookish books, I just wish that this one would've hit the mark for me.

On the Same Page is the story of lawyer Miles Franklin who has a secret she is desperate to keep. She writes historical romance novels. Being the only child of two literary snob parents doesn't help her situation. To complicate matters further, her pen name Emma Browning is submitted for consideration of a prestigious literary award, which she, to her surprise, wins. Now everyone is wondering, who is Emma Browning?

This is not an ideal situation for socially anxious Miles, whose parents already disparage her chosen career, and the idea of romance novels.

On this premise alone, I dived into this book. I love a good secretly-an-author story. There were some things I liked about this book, and some things I didn't like as much.

Jack, Miles' best friend, was one of the highlights of this book for me. We all need a Jack in our lives. The other supporting characters all had distinct personalities, which really added to the story. And it was refreshing to see a romance set elsewhere (this one is set in Australia).

An on the subject of Miles' social anxiety, I appreciated how that was dealt in this book. It's easy to say that communication could have solved the problems Miles faced, but the thing about anxiety is that it's not easy to deal with, and it's frustrating to have, and to see other people just not getting it. If you have anxiety, this book will resonate with you.

Now, for the parts I didn't like as much, that would be the love interest, and some of the writing. I just think that the love story needed a bit more development so the readers could actually see some growth in the relationship. As for the writing, I think it was evident that some bits of the story were rewritten. I felt a little disconnect in some passages at times.

But overall, I would still recommend this book.

I give this 3.75 stars.

Thank you, Netgalley and Escape Publishing for this e-arc!

Reviewed for NetGalley:

I tried to like this book, but I just really couldn’t get into it. The characters did not much of anything for me and I didn’t see the Sally Thorne (whom I love) comparison.

Miles is the daughter of two literary heavyweights who are unabashed snobs about romance novels - which happen to be her favourite and also what she writes under a pseudonym while juggling her day job as a lawyer. However, her carefully-constructed secret identity comes under threat when her well-meaning assistant enters her for a major literary prize, with all sorts of unwanted complications attached. Including the CEO of the publishing company behind the prize, who seems very interested in Miles herself.

I found this book refreshing in several ways. It was nice to read a romance novel that wasn't set in London, New York, or a quirky small town. Miles's own writing (and its parallels with her life) was cleverly scattered through the story, and I liked the way it explored attitudes towards romance in general, not to mention the other apposite literary references. I did, though, find the writing style quite complicated and chaotic (as it's in first-person, I guess that could reflect the fact that Miles herself is both complicated and chaotic), and would have liked to get more of a handle on Lars, who we only see through Miles's eyes. In summary, 3.5-4 stars for an engaging and thought-provoking read.

I really enjoyed this one. Although sometimes confused by all the characters names and the pacing, I thought the book was very entertaining and interesting to read from the start.
Not sure I really like the main character (Miles) but I did love Lars and his honesty regarding everything he does. I loved the mention of Miles’ books and book references that were added here and there throughout the novel.
Overall an enjoyable, lovely and quick read I’d definitely recommend if you’re looking for something cute and quirky.

I really liked the idea of the whole story, but I was confused half the time reading it. I just could not keep up w all the names and characters. I really had to push myself to finish it, it just wasn’t a easy fun read I was hoping for.

Thanks to NetGalley and Escape Publishing for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I didn't hate this book but I also didn't love it. The plot itself is one I was really attracted to but when it came to the characters, I felt all of them lacked a bit more of development. We really didn't get to see a lot of growth and there were many side plots that kind of made things seem unfinished in a way.

Overall it was an easy and sweet read but, unfortunately, it fell a bit short for me.

I really wanted to like this book but it was very difficult to get through. Like one of the other reviews mentioned, there are way too many characters in this book and some have multiple names. It was very hard to keep them all straight. The plot seemed intriguing and I could see where there could be sparks between characters, but it just fell flat. Overall, this isn’t a book I would be quick to recommend nor have a desire to reread.

thanks so much to netgalley, and escape publishing for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

a quick, fun and easy read!

this was a little hard to get into as it started pretty slow, but that's alright. i love books set within the publishing world, though i don't think i enjoyed our main heroine that much. still, i had a nice time reading this and breezed through it.

A book about a series of books. An author that writes about an author. It's quite the "nesting doll" of a story! I liked it a lot! It started slow at first, but around the 25% mark it picked up quite nicely.

Miles and Lars just can't help but be attracted to one another. Miles fights it hard. So hard. But Lars fights time and again for Miles. He's like a tether ball that keeps coming around for her. And the literary references to classics in this book are little treats that you run into once in a while. The defense of romance novels is something I have come across lately and a point that Miles tries to impress upon those that wish to oppress her writing. In Miles' defense she picks a few great Austen quotes to defend herself.

"Let us leave it to the reviewers to abuse such effusions of fancy at their leisure, and over every new novel to talk in threadbare strains of the trash with which the press now groans. Let us not desert one another: we are an injured body. Although our productions have afforded more extensive and unaffected pleasure than those of any other literary corporation in the world, no species of composition has been so much decried."

Miles isn't perfect, and hell, Lars isn't either. But they both see that in each other and accept each other as is. Most other rom-coms have the perfect polished h and the muscular, tanned H and everything is all dreamy and perfect. Not this story. The characters have their ups and downs and they get themselves through it. The part that bothered me was the lack of consideration and care that Miles seemed to start to show people who didn't do things her way. She didn't answer phone calls or emails to people she didn't want to talk to and replied right away to their coworkers with the same questions. Rude.

This was a quick but somehow still challenging read. There are like a million characters in this short book, and some have multiple names, the female lead goes by 3 names and then her fictional character that she gets compared to as well. It was all very confusing.
The plot itself was intriguing at first, but then felt unnecessarily complicated/avoided.
It was also difficult to get into the romance of this book, it felt very insta-lovey from the male lead. Which is fine if it is attraction, but we did not exactly get scenes where the two connected on a personal level except for references to Emma’s book.
Overall, I did not hate this book but I also did not like it.

The true writer under the pseudonym Emma Browning, winner of the Stapleton Award for her historical romance novels, is about to be revealed.
And Miles wants to do everything to stop that from happening, so she can continue writing.
There were a lot of time skips in this book, which made it frustrating to read. For one, it made it difficult to actually appreciate the romance during the first 65% of the book because the interaction between Miles and Lars is… not there as much as I had hoped.
I liked the premise of this book, it was going places… until it left my mind as soon as I finished reading it. I was more interested in the books Emma Browning had written than the book she was the main character of.
Unfortunately this book just was not it for me.

This is a tough one. On the whole the premise was interesting and kept me relatively interested. But I found that I felt the way about Lars as he did about Edward.... He's a f***wit as he states. I could not get to like him, so I just was not rooting for Lars and Miles to end up together. He seemed to be so judgemental and rude and unkind to Miles yet he got a pass because he was his superior and he was attractive. Not a big fan of romances that reward bad qualities in men.

What a great book! I thoroughly enjoyed the story and the wonderful characters along the way. Written really well and kept me up reading half the book!
I was so engaged with the storyline throughout the book.
The characters are amazingly developed and I couldn't have enjoyed them more than did.
I love a feel good romance story and this was that type of book for me.

“I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

Escape Publishing,
Thank You for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!
I will post my review closer to pub date.

Thank you NetGalley, Escape Publishing, and Penelope Janu for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! I’m sad to say that I wasn’t a big fan of this book for a couple different reasons.

My main problem with this book was the writing. The writing was not my favorite and I feel like there were a lot of odd quotes that kept me from truly engaging in the story. The author also wrote the characters strangely and relied too much on telling and not showing. The writing made it hard for me to engage and connect with the story, but other people may like it better than me. I still recommend that you give it a chance, because it is a cute read, I just had some issues with it.

I did enjoy the pacing, parts of the storyline, and focus on romance novels. I loved that Miles was ashamed of her work and love of romance novels because I can relate to that. A lot of people around me treat the romance genre like it’s not real and it was nice seeing that represented and how it can make people feel about what they love.

Overall, this one wasn’t my favorite, but it’s not bad! I recommend to give it a chance.

She is a regular lawyer but in secret she writes Romance Regency books under the name Emma Browning . When she is being nominated for a book award she is nervous and believes that she will be discovered . Both her parents are authors for fiction or non fiction books and they judge her for writing love stories . When she wins the award the publicer who now is to represent her want to know who the writer is . She is trying very hard to hide who she is . The CEO of the publishing company is very persistent to meet Emma . She makes him do things that will make him mad but he is the stubborn . Will she be able to keep her secret or everything will came out ? I loved all the scenes of her novels and that she had to perform some scenes so they were realistic .
I received this book from net galley and the publisher as an ARC. Thank you! All thoughts and opinions are my own