I tried with this one - I really did.

Elise Hellman, playwright, was once hailed as 'the next best thing' .. and since then, not a lot has happened. However, with an unexpected - and generous - commission, she begins writing down her thoughts each morning, like a kind of diary, knows as Morning Pages, to get her back into the groove. With only sixty five days to go, she needs to get the job done.

Try as I might, I just couldn't get into this one, which is really unusual for me. Having read that it was 'clever and witty' I expected to enjoy but it just didn't happen. So, I took a break, read something else and came back to it, plodding through a bit more. Five more books passed in between struggling with this one and I'm afraid, for me, it didn't get any better. I'm quite sure that others will have a different experience and may even love it but, for me, it was like wading through treacle. 1*.

My thanks to the publisher for my copy via NetGalley; under the circumstances, I won't share this review on social media. This is - as always - my honest, original and unbiased review.

I initially requested this book because I thought the premise was interesting and novel, having heard about Morning Pages on social media. I quickly realised when I started the book that it wasn’t for me and stopped reading it early on.

I felt that it began in a confusing way, the journal entries felt a little chaotic (which I appreciate reflects the stream of consciousness) which I did not find it as interesting to read as I thought I would, nor was I invested in reading more. It felt like more work for me to try and unravel the and pick out the important parts from the parts of the entries, so I stopped reading.

I think this would be a great read for someone in a creative profession that is curious about the inner world of a writer or might like the idea of sifting through someone’s journal. Perhaps more for someone reflective that likes to ponder rather than someone looking for a quick read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for early access to this book!

Morning Pages is an easy read about Elisa, a playwright, who is writing her next play and chronicling life with her stoner, teenage son and her meddling mother in her morning pages. Some parts of this novel I really enjoyed and some I just skipped over. Not quite sure what the disconnect was for me. I really enjoyed the authors writing style though.

Morning Pages is a fun read with an interesting structure about a playwright stuck in sandwich generation duties. I breezed through this. The author tells the protagonist’s story in journal entries in the style of Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages, from her blockbuster book The Artist’s Way.

There’s something delicious about reading a diary or journal, and the author taps into this to keep us turning the pages.

Are you sick of aspirational characters? Come right in. This protagonist struggles with a pothead teen son who shows no interest in school. She plods through post-divorce life, while her ex husband has moved on with his new, younger wife. She owes a play manuscript to a director, but she believes her best work may already be behind her. And her aging mother won’t stop calling with mundane daily updates.

An enjoyable read that falls into cliches at times but that kept me turning the pages.

Morning Pages is about a struggling playwright as she navigates her relationships with her elderly mother, her teenage son, her ex-husband, her best friend. I enjoyed the different dynamics she experiences as a parent and a writer and as an adult-daughter and would like to read more from this author.

I had moments of absolute adoration and others where I felt completely lost. I ADORED the play within the story, the overarching concepts, and *most* of the characters but, it suffered from convolution. I think the idea of Morning Pages and the way it can help us, or not, as writers is brilliant, however; I am unsure about the execution of this particular book.

I think with a little trimming and editing this could have been a 5/5 read for me.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with this Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is a totally unique book and I really enjoyed it! The novel consists of the main character's "morning pages" which is stream-of-consciousness journaling as taught by author Julia Cameron. Through these pages, we learn about Elise's life- her overbearing mother who needs a lot of care, her seemingly-delinquent son who has nothing to say, her ex-husband and her feelings about their divorce, as well as her best friend who isn't acting normally.

But the best part of the story is that Elise is a successful playwright who has been conditioned to write a new play... and there's a deadline looming. Within her morning pages, we get a sense of her main character, Laurey, who is grappling with similar feelings but in a totally different, unique context. There are many excerpts of the evolution of the play (creatively titled "Deja New") within Elise's morning pages and it's interesting how the play evolves as Elise evolves.

As an author myself (women's fiction, not plays!) I enjoyed commiserating with Elise as the deadline approaches- her thoughts and feelings, including self-doubt, fear, and exasperation, are all true to the creative process and I found that encouraging.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for an Advance Reading Copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

What emerges is a witty confessional in which Elise chronicles her life with her teenage stoner son and her overbearing and eccentric mother, who is losing her memory but not her profanity. She writes about her lingering feelings for her ex-husband, her best friend who is acting oddly, and the confusing encounters she has with a handsome stranger in an elevator.

As she writes, the marked-up scenes from her play, Deja New, are revealed, as a story within the story.

Morning Pages is about what life throws at you when you’re trying to write