(Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for a honest review)

Publication date: 01 April 2022
Publisher: Escape Publishing

Plot

Miles Franklin leads a double life of lawyer by day, author by night by the name of Emma Browning. No one knows of Emma's existence or the way she looks. Trouble knocks on her doors when one of 'Emma's' novels wins a prestigious literary award. When Lars Kristensen, the CEO of the publishing house which would publish 'Emma's' novels insists on meeting with Emma, Miles becomes all the more stressed. Miles and Lars are like even poles of a magnet: they bicker all the time and there is an unavoidable sexual tension. However when they start spending more time together, things start to change. Miles is hell-bent on keeping her identity a secret even though she has to deal with all the judgements from her parents' and the publishers.

Miles is not someone who backs down before she gets what she wants and with Lars's constant pushing and probing to get his way, is it possible for Miles and Lars to ever agree?

Thoughts

This is my first book from Penelope and I especially chose it for its illustrated cover (I'm a sucker for it if it isn't clear yet!). The hate-love relationship between Miles and Lars gave me [book:The Hating Game|25883848] vibes so do check this book out if you enjoyed it.

I liked the effort and dedication she put behind her books. We were given glimpses of her books (a book within a book!) and I found it interesting that she went to great lengths to gain inspiration for her books. She also had references to other authors and books which was nice to read. But this is the only part I liked in the book (other than the cover).

I found it really hard to relate to Miles because her thoughts were erratic. I didn't like that Miles did not deal with the problems and instead chose to ignore them. The relationship between Miles and Lars lacked emotional depth and connection, it was instead built up on their sexual attraction which felt shallow.

Lars appearances in the book were little at the start and then it progressed on. However, it was a slow burn between Miles and him which was frustrating to read. He also had this image of being prim and proper yet grumpy always which got a little too much to read. He seemed immature, resorting to calling Miles names whenever they had a disagreement.

The side characters also had the spotlight on them too often that I had to go back to read and remember who were they and why were they in the scene. Miles' disapproving parents had too much to say as compared to her and I kept waiting for her to do something about it. The book was also too long I found myself skimming past some parts.

Overall, the plot could have served something better but this was a little messy for me.

Very grateful to have been given a chance to read this book! I wanted to love it but the story did not quite hook me. DNF. That said, it is well written, it just didn’t draw me in enough to keep reading.

2.25 stars

This was a chilly flake on the spice scale with fade to black scenes. Note that the excerpts read from Miles' work was steamier than anything that happened between the main characters.

On the Same Page provides some interesting commentary regarding the disdain many literary readers and writers pose specifically on the romance genre, especially regency romance.

Our heroin, Miles, has a very valid fear of exposing her identity as both her parents are critically exclaimed writers that fail to see the value in romance. Miles also works with many other romance authors who receive similar negative remarks.

I did find the writing quite convoluted with an excessive use of complex terms. The pacing was also a bit off where some scenes would abruptly end making it difficult to tell who was speaking in a scene. I felt like I skipped a chapter at points and had to reread sections to make sure I didn't miss anything. For one there was barely any build up to Lars interest in Miles and the hotel room scene.

Although the plot was intriguing, I felt like I was walking in circles with Miles wishy washy behavior. I failed to see why she couldn't be with Lars. What was stopping her from doing so? There needed to be some discussion about how the power dynamic between her and Lars would be seen as a form of favoritism. There are also plenty of writers that write under a pen name. I see no reason for Miles not to mention her true identity with the people at Iconic. I stayed up late into the night waiting for Miles to own up to her mistakes and admit to her feelings and now I'm still longing for more. With further editing this novel could really come to its full potential.

NetGalley and Escape Publishing provided an e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

2 ⭐️

I really wanted to like this book, but I just could not get into it.

Our MC is Miles, who is a lawyer by day, and transforms into Emma, historical romance author at night. When Emma wins a national literary award, Miles jumps through hoops to keep her identity a secret and finds love along the way.

The book started going downhill for me when we spent more sentences than I thought was necessary toward the beginning talking about the color of her eyes and how they look when she wears certain clothing. It was giving very much Wattpad-esque “big, blue orbs” vibes.

As a self-proclaimed smut lover, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but the enemies to lovers plot did not flow for me - it felt very rushed. Also, the thing that could’ve saved this book did not occur. Where was my smut?!? You can’t “Much later, after we made love”’d me!

The reason I did not rate this book 1 ⭐️ is because a strong cast of supporting characters attempted to pick up the slack when the book fell short.

Our female main character, Miles, is a lawyer by day and successful, historical romance writer by night. Her parents are both literary giants and so her writing is done in secret under the name Emma Browning. Romance is low brow in their opinion. Emma is up for an award that her friend and assistant Pippy entered her in and if she wins, Miles would no longer be anonymous. Lars is the CEO of the publishing house that sponsored the award. Miles presents herself as Emma's legal counsel and meets Lars when he wants to speak to Emma. There is much back and forth between Miles and Lars and their attraction to each other. Miles parents' really were so involved in their own lives and careers that they didn't give her a good home life and as an adult she is insecure about herself and suffers panic attacks. I'm glad Miles and Lars finally got on the same page. It would have been nice to see how her parents handled the revelation of Miles being Emma.

I only made it to chapter 9 before deciding I couldn't keep going. I don't know if this will be a permanent DNF but right now, pushing through will only leave me dissatisfied and result in a low rating.

Miles is secretly writing and self-publishing historical romances. She has parents with high literary acclaim who look down on romance, and as she suffers with severe anxiety she wants to stay out of the spotlight. But when she wins a literary prize her new publishers want to push Emma into the public eye and honestly, it made me feel a little ill. I don't know if this is an accurate reflection of publishing but the minimal royalties, disdain for her genre, and complete disregard for an authors wish to remain anonymous made me feel disgusted. And I know we're supposed to feel sympathy here but I didn't enjoy any of this to the extent that I don't want to keep reading. Something about the writing didn't work for me either. It feels like the plot is a little bit everywhere and I honestly didn't follow some of the conversations. It read so formulaic. I just don't care about anything and have no interest in what may happen next.

This was just not for me. Truthfully, I don't think I would have finished this book if it (a) wasn't an arc and (b) wasn't as fast-paced as it was. I liked the premise, but unfortunately, I didn't like the execution.
The romance between Miles and Lars felt off. I feel like at times, there was missing information in their conversation or I just didn't understand how they one second are hating each other to making out. Overall, I didn't really understand why they each did certain things.
Also, Lars becomes obsessed with Miles for no reason (I don't even think it was explained other than love at first sight). He is just hostile to Miles the entire of the book until he suddenly isn't, and then is again... I think this is a case of lust and not love. Also, he abruptly loves her?? There wasn't enough build-up to their romance and no explanation as to why they were suddenly making out.

The two main characters are unlikeable, mostly Miles. Miles never answers her phone, which makes everyone's life harder than it needs to be. I did appreciate the representation of anxiety but also she didn't really get any actual help. Also, she is terrible at keeping the one secret that mattered, everyone turned out to already know, except the general public and her dipshit parents.
Lars was just confusing and rude mostly.
Jack was even more confusing. I don't understand his relationship with Miles at all. Throughout the first half of the book, I thought he was bi because of the way they behaved.

As for the side characters, there were just too many and too much going on:
1. Miles' parents
2. Jack and Jules (so irrelevant in my opinion)
3. Pippy
4. Pole dancing characters
5. Lars and his ex
6. Amy (kind of cute but mostly irrelevant)
7. Tom (again, so irrelevant and could have been removed from the book)

There are probably more but I can't even remember.

Overall, it was confusing and I didn't really care for the romance (which is a key factor in a rom-com).

I have tried multiple times to read this book, but I cannot get over how it's written. The sentences are so short and choppy it feels like it was written by one of my middle school students. Sorry. This book is just not for me.

DNF at 15%

I have no idea what I just read. The writing felt so choppy and disjointed, which prevented me from connecting with the characters at all. What did me in was Miles asking Lars, the owner of the publishing company that 'Emma' aka Miles just won a prize from to pose shirtless to prove his allegiance to the romance genre...who in their right mind would ask a professional acquaintance this 10 seconds into knowing them? I hope others enjoy this book, but it was not for me. I can appreciate wanting to tackle the literary stigma that romance tends to attract, but this book isn't successful in that.

ARC received via Netgalley for an honest review

Lawyer by day. Romance author by night. This is the life of Miles Franklin - not THAT Miles Franklin though!

But she is so keen to keep her alter-ego-writer a secret, that when she wins a big competition she does everything she can to get out of the obligations. And oh the lengths she goes to.

And in the meantime falls for the guy who is pushing those obligations.

Miles is a bit of a door mat for most of the story, and I just wanted to scream in frustration when she let it all happen. Her parents are the worst kink of literary snobs and I wanted to snot them. Her besty/PA/harginger of all her current troubles, she is so sweet and I loved the way she tries to get Miles to come out as the author, you can't help but love her.

I adored the Sydney setting, and could picture so many of the places so clearly it brought an extra dimension to the story for me, as I wandered down the streets of my home city with Miles.

This was my first experience of a Penelope Janu story, and I will definitely be reading more in the future.

I wish this book was better. It had so much potential. This book gave me whiplash! Some scenes seem to have come out of nowhere, because there was no build-up to! There was also quite a few timeline holes.

Thank you for NetGalley and the publisher for sending me a copy of this book in exchange of l’y honest opinion.
This book was a breath of air. The characters, the storyline, it was was really great.
I loved Miles, and the fact that she had a double identity. She was complex, and I loved how she had those quick replies.
It was a fast paced book, with a great plot. Having short extract of Emma’s books was truly a plus.
The enemies-to-lovers was there, but I didn’t really understand the end, and how it went next level.

A big thank you to NetGalley and Escape Publishing for the ARC.. Really enjoyed this book. The feature of panic attacks was well-written and characters were developed well.

The premise of this book seemed so interesting and I thought it would be a fun romp but I ended up DNFing this one pretty quick.

I just couldn't bring myself to root for the characters at all. Given that Miles is a lawyer, it seemed very unrealistic to me that she wasn't able to get herself out of a contract especially when her entire specialization is working with authors, most of them who write romance, like she did.

I also didn't like how her assistant forged her signatures and entered Emma for a price without ever asking for permission and then didn't seem to suffer any consequences. Well, she hadn't till the part I'd gotten to. Can't be sure if she was later, but seeing the reviews, it doesn't seem so.

It just wasn't for me.

I found it quite hard to really get in to, but once I did, I really enjoyed it. It was a very fun read and I really recommend it!

This book has me hooked since the very beginning. And I really enjoyed it. The characters were so fun. I really loved the banter, and the chemistry between both the MCs . Especially that ending was everything. Overall, it’s a 5 stars read for me.

📚BOOK REVIEW📚

On a the Same Page by Penelope Janu
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I finished this book a mere matter of minutes ago and could not write a review fast enough. On The Same Page follows Miles, an attorney and a literary legacy who has been secretly writing romance novels. Her world turns upside down when her PA enters her for a prestigious writing award.

Miles has to risk being outed as the writer Emma Browning (her pseudonym), while continuing to write and grow. Oh, and of course there’s a grumpy and absurdly hot ceo of the publishing house.

I absolutely devoured this book. There was a great cast of supporting characters along with the leads. My favorite aspect is that the book followed the same formula as Emma’s own books. If you love enemies to lovers romance, run don’t walk to get this book!

Thank you @netgalley and #escapepublishing for the opportunity to read this book! This gem is being released on April 1st!

The moments of humor in this book had me hooked within the first few pages! The characters had a fun meet-cute, followed by a realization soon after that they were "enemies" of a sort, and then chaos ensued as the heroine desperately tried to retain her sense of control over the situation. The secondary characters were unique and engaging, and I frequently wished for more scenes with them so we can see the banter and charm. Not having read very many books set in Australia, I appreciated that the book was written with minimal slang that would make it hard for readers outside of Australia to read. It was interesting to read about the publishing industry as well, since this book is all about a company publishing a romance novel for the first time. Seeing the prejudices up close and personal was impactful, especially with recent conversations on the respect the romance industry deserves.

The last thing Miles Franklin wants is for her secret to get out - that she is really the popular romance writer named Emma Browning. As a lawyer who works frequently with writers and has two author parents, she knows the challenges writers face in the publishing world...and the need for consistent publicity. With her anxiety, that's never going to be something she is comfortable with, so she self publishes and stays off social media. However, when her assistant and friend forges her signature to enter her books into a literary competition, and she wins, she realizes her days of living in anonymity are over. Desperate to cling to her privacy, she uses all her legal knowledge to thwart the publisher, including the attractive CEO, Lars Kristensen. As chaos reigns supreme, Miles is faced with a dilemma of the heart as well. Does she trust Lars with her books and her heart? Or will his desire to do what is best for his company get in the way of doing what is best for the woman who may be falling in love with him?

I enjoyed the banter between Miles and Lars so much, I have half the book highlighted on my reading app. The romantic tension is fraught with sidelong glances, brief touches, and encounters that make you think that a steamy scene is just around the corner. It's a slow burn, folks, but it's the best of slow burns. While I got frustrated with Miles often for her treatment of Lars, I also could see that it was justified. She would faint due to her anxiety, get terrible migraines, and her ability to be in the spotlight was just not something she could physically become comfortable with. Lars just didn't see that soon enough, and so despite his affection and concern for her, it took a long time for him to realize he needed to make a choice. Her health and happiness...or his business and paycheck? Miles' friends were fun as well, as she navigated learning new skills as research for her novel. The pole dancing classes were hilarious, and the carriage ride scene with her gay friend, Jack, was a masterpiece. Jack was so fun. I didn't quite understand why Tom was in the mix, though it was funny to see her navigate yet another relationship she wasn't into. Poor thing did not have good luck with men. Thankfully Lars was much better than all her previous boyfriends...eventually.

I look forward to exploring more books by this author! I hope we see more with this cast of characters, though I don't think it's intended as a series. Regardless, I will definitely be checking out what she writes next.

I liked a lot about this book. The whole plot idea was really great and there were a lot of funny moments in this books. I really liked all of the side characters. At the start of the book I didn't like the main character that much, but her development and change throughout the book was really great and at the end of the book I really started liking her.

The only thing about her that I didn't like and that I never understood was her feelings for the love interest. I hated Lars if I'm being completely honest. He seemed so controlling and manipulative throughout the whole book and even though he changed right at the end, it didn't change how he was as a person and it certainly wasn't an excuse for being such a bad guy.

The books was also really fast paced and I felt like Miles fell for Lars too quickly, which sometimes is cute, but with him acting like a complete jackass 98% of the book it seemed unlikely.

I did however really like the way the book was written and I will definitely check out other books from this author.
I know there are some people out there that loves the whole girl falls for the jackass guy trope and if you enjoy that I have no doubt that you will enjoy this book!

This was a DNF at 25% for me. It was too disjointed (the story didn't flow logically) and there wasn't enough romance. It read more like chick lit than rom com.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.