Quite honestly, I've never read a romance like this, and I absolutely loved it. It has such a unique voice and I adored Miles, so refreshingly smart, strong-willed, blunt and ambitious. I did wonder if she is neurodivergent, something I'd like to ask the author.
The writing style is very sparse, nothing like I've ever read before. Janu manages to convey as much tension and angst in the space between words as other writers do in a paragraph. I will definitely be seeking out her back-list - especially as it promises more Norwegian heroes!
Lars is now one of my favourite book boyfriends. His actions to support Miles were so swoon-worthy, what a man. The steamy scenes were fantastic, just wonderfully written and leaving the reader breathless and flustered.
I loved how the book explores so much more than an enemies-to-lovers story-line - Miles' relationship with her parents, the work she has had to do to deal with the trauma of their horrible treatment of her and their terrible snobbery and lack of respect. I also really appreciated the other relationships in Miles' life, and how she is so kind and always reaches out to help the women in her life. The pole-dancing lessons were a great touch, and Miles' insistence on doing proper research for her love scenes was fantastic and at times hysterically hilarious.
In short, will be recommending this book to everyone.

Thank you to Escape Publishing and Netgalley for providing this ARC. This was not my favorite book as I did not love the main characters personality or the writing style. This may be fun for other readers though!

This unfortunately was not a book for me. I initially requested it cause I adore illustrated romance covers and I like to try all of them. However, I did not like the writing style of this book as it felt really young to me and I could not get past that. I liked the main character well enough but again, the writing style was the reason I did not enjoy this one. I definitely think many romance readers will enjoy the romance though and I do not want to dissuade them from reading this book.

First I wanted to thank Escape Publishing for providing an ARC in exchange for a honest review.

While scrolling through NetGalley I saw the cover of this book, and I can't pass up a drawn cover. I read the synopsis and I was so intrigued to read a book based in Australia. I am so happy I requested it and got accepted cause it provided a Sydney fix I didn't even know I needed.

What I Loved:
- Sydney, I don't read a lot of books based in this amazing city and it always adds more to me when I know EXCATLY where the characters are meeting up or places they are experiencing
- Jack, I think everyone needs a best friend like him. He is super supportive and continues to go above and beyond for Miles throughout the book
- The ladies from class, I don't want to give much away but I enjoy Miles' interactions with these ladies and how they support each other
- Maurice and April, they are a sweet old couple you get to know and are the type of couple I associate with #relationship goals
- Book excerpts, I LOVE that the story includes excerpts from Emma's books since they were so well placed and fun to get a little historical romance in the middle of a contemporary romance.

This story is a little chaotic at times, but there is so much great humor, growth and romance that I couldn't put it down. If you enjoy stories with romance authors, unlikely romance and a great cast of characters I would encourage you to pick this book up!

This book comes out on April 1st, you can find where to buy here - https://www.romance.com.au/9781867244486/on-the-same-page/

I received a complimentary copy from the author and all opinions expressed are my own

On the same page tells the story of lawyer by day and romance writer by night whose life is disrupted when her publisher wants to meet her. The author weaved together such a beautiful story that was heartwarming ,funny and a perfect read for a lazy afternoon. I look forward to reading more books by the author

I had two major issues with this. The fact that the story is told only from Miles point of view make it feels like there is something missing. I could have lived with this and still enjoyed the book (although I always prefer dual povs) if not for the fact that Miles was such a horrible, annoying character! Even while witnessing her internal monologue and therefore being part of her thought process she still came across as irresponsible, unreasonable, impulsive and overall unlikeable.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I haven’t come across a heroine this difficult and unlikable recently. Dear god, I wanted to shake her many many MANY times THROUGHOUT THE BOOK.
She didn’t give an inch to the hero, always being dishonest and running away from things she doesn’t want to deal with.
Also the protagonists had zero chemistry.
I disliked majority of secondary characters. Don’t make me start on her PA’s unprofessionalism. And heroine’s too. She constantly ignored important calls, meetings and emails.
Even the climax I found over the top dramatic and that too not in a good way.


The only thing I loved was hero Lars. He was patient (much needed in his dealings of the heroine) honest, honourable and smitten with heroine from the beginning itself (don’t know why). Though it wasn’t conveyed very clearly.

Miles Franklin is a successful lawyer, representing writers, but what people don't know is that, behind very closed doors, she's "Emma Browning", historical romance writer. She hides this from everyone because she not only is named after a famous author, but she's the daughter of two very high-bow, uppity, stuck-up parents who are also accomplished writers and who think that romance novels are less than trash. 

When "Emma" wins a prestigious literary award (courtesy of a well-intentioned meddling assistant who submitted her work unbeknownst to her), Miles has to deal with the CEO of the publishing house attached to the award and with the fact that "Emma" is going to be now published by Iconic and she's contractually obligated to do promotion for them. There is no way in hell that she's going to come out of the literary closet. The problem? Lars Kristensen is too hard to ignore and to resist and soon enough he is the model in her head for her heroes. The battle of wills begins and who's going to win?

This novel, on paper, seemed to have everything to make me love it - the romance novelist, the secret identity, the banter. Unfortunately, it fell a little flat for me. 

Told exclusively through Miles' point of view, we only see her side of things and after a while she doesn't feel tenacious, just stubborn and sometimes childish. I understand she comes from a horrible background of neglect from her parents and her anxiety plays a gigantic role in her life, but to someone like me, who suffers from anxiety herself, it came to a point that it was triggering. 

I also couldn't see the chemistry between the two main characters, mainly because Miles spends 70% of the book avoiding Lars like the plague. Maybe if we had his POV it would have me it more believable that they were falling in love. 

There are also too many secondary characters whose roles in the actual development of the story are very unclear to me. 

I loved that it is a book by an Australian author actually set in Australia! 

Sadly, though, this wasn't a favorite. 

Possible Triggers: extremely distant and judgmental parents, young women in vulnerable situations, anxiety and panic attacks (on page)

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you, NetGalley for the advanced copy.

On The Same Page by Penelope Janu is a story of a woman living two different lives. She comes from a family who have always been hard on her and never accepted the things she loved. I truly appreciated this story for the representation of therapy, anxiety, and panic attacks. The CHEMISTRY, and I mean CHEMISTRY, between Miles and Lars was HOT!! I could feel them coming apart off the pages. From the moment they met each other, you could just feel how they felt and it as such a good time reading about them. I also loved how she added Emma Browning’s stories into the mix of this story, it was definitely a unique take. I also adored the simple, but spicy scene because I could feel the emotions between the characters even more, which is hard to portray. This book was really well written and had a lot of heart put into it. I adored all but one of the characters, because I did not think he was necessary, and he came off really sleazy and it made me uncomfortable. I also have a hard time with more than the two back and fourths between the couple in the story, it felt like it went on a little too long, but I think that is a me thing. Overall, this book was genuinely a lovely to read, and I would definitely read it again.

I had high hopes for this book but it did not meet them. This felt like it attempted a modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice but instead of finding the balance of Darcy the author just made the male lead mean. He had very little redeeming and his moments of kindness were immediately met with cruelty. I was barely able to finish this book and only did so to see if it was redeemable.

I've never wanted a book to end more than this one. Miles was awful.and if I'm honest this book is a 2.5 star. I'm glad she finally gets the balls to say who she is but omg it was hell to get her there. She was just an awful character and I didn't buy the romance between her and Lars. I did predict that she'd have sex by chapter 45 because that's what all her characters did in her books. I did like she gave you glimpse into her book. That was a cool aspect. I'm mad it took me til the middle of the book to realize Pippy didn't know about her being Emma. This book was not a good time

Miles a lawyer who is writing historical romance novels under the pen name of Emma. Lars is the CEO of a company who is trying to acquire Emma as a talent thanks to a contest that Miles' secretary entered her in. As Miles tries to fend of Lars on "Emma's" account, there is a battle of wills and attraction that may just destroy everything.

This book is written from the point of view of Miles, so you always knew where she stood. I could never tell whether or not Lars was really interested in Miles or if it was just a ploy. Even if that had been part of the plot, I still would not have been a big fan of Lars. I feel like he was just in and out of the story and there wasn't time for us as readers to connect to him and Miles as a couple.

Overall, I do think this was a good read and I would recommend it. Thanks to NetGalley for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

On paper, this premise really seemed like something I would thoroughly enjoy. But as the novel went on, I found myself getting more and more frustrated since it became clear that it was all shallow with no depth--something that is vert possible in romance.

But this, I mean that the novel sets up this Important Literary Award and how impossible and even disgraceful to the literary community it is when a historical romance novel is nominated, and later wins. And it is true that romance as a genre is one of the best selling in traditional publishing, and even in self-publishing. But the story doesn't go into any depth with this, and while I did enjoy how we got to read excerpts from the so-called award winning historical romance novel, the writing was stilted.

In a romance, the least I ask for is a relationship that has chemistry, and at least believable dynamics. After all, this is a romance! I don't care if there are sex scenes or not, I just want to believe that these people fall in love. I am willing to overlook awful cliches and poor execution of a premise, but alas.

Unfortunately, that wasn't present, and I fail to see how the mains even saw in each other. On the topic of characters, all of the "non-literary world" people were all variations of the same quirkiness, as if to show that they have personality, but it was all stale since they overlapped a bit too many times.

Despite the intriguing cover, I couldn't get into this book. Romance books about romance books sounded like something I would enjoy, but the characters did not appeal to me. I found myself more confused at the half way mark, so I just gave up because I did not like the writing style.

Thank you to Netgalley and The publisher for the ARC of this book. This was a honest review.

After two weeks of trying, I DNF at 49%...

A book about a romance writer and a publisher : it should be at total hit with me. But it was such a miss, it's comical.

Sorry, Miles is a lawyer and should fight the contract. If not, she should just tell Lars the truth so they could hire a model or whatever other solution could protect her identity. And she should fire Pippy.

The lying thing is sooo wrong to create a healthy relationship (at least Miles' reasons are not good, according to me).

I am not into historical romance, so reading some extracts could have been ok if they were really as steamy as they were sold to be. Which they were not unfortunately.

I wanted to like this book, I just didn't.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing an eARC in exchange of an honest review.

This book was slightly infuriating. Sometimes it worked, Miles and Lars banter was witty and new but the chemistry between them was forced. Miles is an attorney from a very famous author and poet and writes romance under a pseudonym. She is unexpectedly entered into a contest and thrown into a position where she will have to tell the world who she is. Then there’s some random pole-dancing class with a host of people who make no sense to the story. Also, not nearly enough about horses. But that’s just me.

Thanks to Escape publishing, the author and Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Being an Australian and seeing a character's name is Miles Franklin, I was really looking forward to reading this book. Miles Franklin (the real one) had a bit of a reputation for being a 'difficult woman' and I was anticipating that the main character in this book might bear some of her traits. I was not mistaken - the Miles in this book is prickly and awkward in social situations, but she has very good reasons for being so.

I like the way contemporary romances seem to be broaching the subject of mental health and attempting to illuminate the challenges people with mental health conditions have when compared with the people around them.

Lars provides this contrast as he is confident where Miles is not, and cannot bring herself to be.

That being said, I didn't like Miles as a character very much. And there wasn't enough emphasis on the romance between these two for me to invest in the story totally.

It was an enjoyable read though and funny in parts. 3.5 stars from me,

(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.