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.

Firstly I would like to thank NetGalley and the publishers for this arc.
Unfortunately, I wasn't a fan of this book. I really and I mean really disliked it, which is a shame because I found the concept intriguing. I don't want to be mean or anything but this was probably the most poorly written book I've read in a while. Almost everything that was happening in the book didn't make any sense. The relationships were all over the place, the pace was weird and the characters were flat. The MCs had no chemistry whatsoever and their getting together didn't make any sense. They literally went from 0 to 360 real quick. A read that really wasn't for me but one I also wouldn't recommend. They only thing I slightly enjoyed was what Lars did at the ending, which was also very rushed.

On the Same Page is a sweet romance story between a secretive author hiding behind her lawyer/lit agent persona and the CEO of her new publisher. Miles Robinson is the daughter of renowned high-brow readers, a poet mother and novelist father, who inherited their literary skills but chose to secretly write and publish historical romance novels under a pen name while pursuing a law career. But when her self-published novels with a cult following are suddenly thrown into the limelight, she's forced to decide what's more important to her - her privacy or her writing. Because her well-meaning assistant submitted her for a prestigious writing prize, one that comes with not only an award but also a contract to release her backlist as well as all her new novels mainstream by a highly-regarded (and kinda snobby) publisher. Figuring that she has no chance when compared to all the poets and literary authors she's up against, she's very surprised to find herself winning the award - the problem is she doesn't want it, or the publishing contract it comes with if it means she has to give up her privacy. Because that publisher very much wants to exploit the author for their new romance imprint, which is supposed to save the company. Which is how she finds herself across a conference room table from Lars, the CEO of said company, fighting to save her author's privacy (meaning her privacy) as well as some very strong attraction. As these new enemies face off over issue after issue and Miles continues to create roadblock after roadblock trying to delay the inevitable public debut of her secret identity, the pair grow closer and closer while fighting their mutual attraction.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. It was a quick and easy read, but did not come off as light and breezy, yet still had some humorous scenes. There are some nicely handled issues of mental health, anxiety, and parental emotional abuse. The supporting characters of Pippy, Jack, and the pole-dancing girls were fun and helped balance out Mile's seriousness. There is some low-level steam here, but I more enjoyed the frustration of the pair fighting their mutual attraction. Their banter back and forth really set it up as an opposites-attract love affair. If you like enemies-to-lovers, opposites-attract, or hidden identity, you'll like this book!

Many thanks to Escape Publishing for the opportunity to read an early copy ahead of the publish date - all opinions are my own.

I wanted to stop reading this book the second I got it. But since I received an ARC of this novel, I stuck through it in order to give the most honest review I could. Let's get into it.
Repetitive. As a reader, I did not see any growth in any of the characters. This book is written in the first person, and repetition often happens more in that tense, but it didn't seem like there was any attempt to develop the character of Miles more. The author wrote her and stubborn and standoff-ish (which, mission accomplished), but aside from those qualities, the character was very flat. There was absolutely no chemistry between Miles and Lars (the love interest). If this was written in the third person, I think the readers could have gotten a better glimpse of Lars as a character, but I would not tell you a single thing about the character except that I got whiplash from his scenes. Because I knew nothing about the character, I couldn't predict where the story was going to go, in a bad way.
There were entirely too many side characters, with unnecessary (and sometimes uncomfortable) storylines. !Spoiler free! The character of Ruby was underdeveloped, seemed to be thrown in last minute, and made me uncomfortable as a reader seeing not only how she was portrayed, but how the other characters treated her.
I was really tired of 'Emma' being treated as a character. Maybe if it was done less often it would have been okay, but I found myself getting annoyed very very easily. And annoyed by the premise itself. I get it, there is a huge group of people who don't believe romance novels count as literature, obviously stemming from inherent misogynistic ideals in society - namely, anything loved by women as a majority is not seen as legitimate, etc. I get it. It is a very good premise to tackle in a romance novel, featuring a romance author as a main character. But it was not done well. The character came off whiny, and honestly I didn't care about her "big reveal" being the romance author, and I feel as if a point was not made. Characters defend the romance genre in the book (as they should! It's fantastic), but the point was entirely missed. I feel like this novel was written in order to make a statement, and then forgot to make it. This one was a miss for me. But, as always, read it for yourself. Maybe my thoughts won't reflect yours.
Also, at multiple points the character of Miles is noted as being a maestro of writing sex scenes? And that is her only merit? That was super weird and unnecessary. And there were barely any steamy scenes in this book, so it didn't really make sense, since this novel tried to closely reflect the fictional novels written by the main character.