I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Netgalley & Escape Publishing!

Lawyer Miles Franklin has a secret. She has been moonlighting as romance writer, publishing books under the name Emma Browning. When Emma Browning wins a literary award, the publisher wants to meet the mysterious author.

On the Same Page is a quirky twist on the opposites attract trope. Miles is willing to do anything to protect her secret identity and Lars wants to turn her into an international bestseller. The book is a little slow paced to start but once it picked up, I couldn’t put it down.

The main message that the author conveys throughout the plot is to read what you want. Write what makes you happy. Miles’ parents were quite judgemental of her reading habits and that leads to her hiding her passion. I appreciate the sensitive way in which the author covers the topic of literary snobbery.

This is the first novel that I have read from Penelope Janu but I plan to check out more of her works in the future.

I've been reading a lot of romance novels recently, both contemporary and regency so On the Same Page really appealed to me. Unfortunately, I just couldn't get on board with the protagonist - Miles was annoying and off-putting and I didn't root for her. Not the romance for me.

Thank you to NetGalley, Escape Books, and Ms. Janu for the opportunity to read an ARC of this title. An honest review was requested but not required.

It pains me to be harsh on a book, especially an ARC, but I have to be honest, if this wasn't an ARC I would have DNF'd it.

Here's what I DID like:

-I enjoyed the Australian-ishness of this. It's always fun to have a novel set in a non-US setting, and I did pick up a little bit of local flavor. I also kept imaging the characters from Bluey as the voices which made me smile a bit. (I have little kids, don't judge. Also, Bluey is AWESOME, I have no regrets.)

-I actually enjoyed the side characters very much, and since there were A LOT OF SIDE CHARACTERS, this helped tremendously.

-Ms. Janu's writing overall was very easy to read, despite the formatting issues (not her fault), and kept me interested enough in how things would play out that I kept reading DESPITE...

(and here we switch over to what I did NOT like...)

-MILES. I HATE MILES. I'm sorry, I know that's a strong word, but MILES IS THE WORST. She is unprofessional. She is frustrating. A liar. A hypocrite. She is a pushover to her staff and a passive-aggressive ostrich to the publishing house employees, NONE of whom are able to complete their work since she refuses to answer calls, answer emails, answer questions, or do anything whatsoever as she vainly pretends that if she ignores everything it will just go away. She has significant social anxiety and, it seemed to me, some untreated mental health issues going on. "Placing a peppermint under her tongue" does not seem to be successful treatment, I regret to say, and one would think that after passing out/going practically catatonic MULTIPLE TIMES she would get treatment or one of her many "friends" would sit her down and insist she pursue treatment. But no. One would be wrong. Anywho. Lars' frequent castigations of Miles/Emma, while perhaps slightly aggressive, are nonetheless spot-on and I found myself pitying every single employee who had to work around/with/behind her and compensate for her absolute failure to do any, ANY, part of her job (be it writing OR attorney-work.) And did I recall correctly that she allowed her legal clients to pay her in HONEY and PRODUCE? As she was failing to make her rent? *Sigh*.

-Miles is supposedly secretly Emma Browning the romance author, and it is absolutely the worst-kept secret in the entire world. How everyone does not know, immediately, is beyond me.

-Supposedly Emma has wildly selling eBooks despite absolutely no marketing or effort, which surprises me. Even more surprising, vis-a-vis the writing of the novel itself, is the fact that the snippets of "Emma's" novels were... not very good. Certainly not prize-worthy. They sounded trite and tropey.

-Lars, the love interest, the jet-setting hotshot CEO of Iconic Publishing, develops an absolutely inexplicable fixation on Miles which is even more confusing considering that she gives him very little encouragement and alternates between being weird, hostile, rude and evasive at every meeting. Why does he like her? Why does he KEEP liking her? And even more curious, when does she start liking him back? I get attraction but they seem to have very little common ground for a relationship.

I could not get on board with Lars, I actively disliked Miles, and I didn't believe the two of them together for an instant. It's a testament to the author's writing that I kept reading despite my growing antipathy for the main character. As I said, I did like the side characters and I thought the premise had some promise. I would certainly be willing to try another by this author but this one wasn't for me, I'm afraid.

The cutest cover drew me in. She's shy and he writes romance novels under a pen name. It's an opposites attract romance, that I enjoyed, not my favorite but it was good.

On the Same Page was well written and amusing in parts. I did finish it in one day. However, I am sooo tired of books with clumsy heroines. She bumps her head so many times I'm fearing she's permanently concussed. No human is that prone to haphazard accidents. Bumps, Burns, and Bruises.

This book was such a fun breath of fresh air for me! I love a good historical romance, so to have Miles be a historical romance writer was such a fun element of her character. I really enjoyed the book-within-a-book approach of the story-line and all of the research and drawing on her life that ends up in her different storylines. The supporting characters are enjoyable and add a depth to the storyline - I loved Miles' relationship with her best friend Jack and the pole dancing girls were awesome!

I did feel that there were a couple of supporting characters/relationships that didn't get fully fleshed out or were maybe a little too much with the rest of the story line - first, the relationship dynamic with Tom was kind of an incomplete thread that didn't completely work and the storyline with Ruby also felt like there could have been more there to really tie things together. I also struggled with the first romantic encounter between Lars and Miles. It came a little out of no where - and felt a bit jarring. It didn't feel like there had been a ton of build up between the two characters for there to naturally be that sort of encounter.

When the author mentioned how Lars was reminiscent of John Thornton in North & South, everything clicked! I had been picturing the BBC version of John Thornton as I was reading and hadn't fully put it together. But that was the perfect description of Lars and made me fall in love with these characters a little more.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher & author for an advance copy of this book to read and review!

First of all, we have seen in the first chapter how horrible our FMC's PA is! Her PA just basically forged her signature to a very important document that involves her client and an award show or something like that for writers. Really? This is our plot device for moving the story forward? Aside from that and from the get-go, our FMC obviously needed therapy and help in unpacking her childhood experiences with regard to her parents and their disapproval on her creativity. I mean, this is realistic, but I'm still so tired of using parents' opinions as the main reason for an MC's insecurity and be used as a conflict in a romance story. I felt like the book focused too much on our FMC that it feels like she took up the whole story that should've been about a romance. So basically, what I'm trying to say is that this book feels like a women's fiction kind of thing and the romance between our MCs disappointed me. And I hated the plot device used in this book. I believe there are a lot of other creative and fun ways the plot could've gone into to move forward without irritating me.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an ARC of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
I'm very sorry, but this book just wasn't for me. I wouldn't say it was written deliciously like Sally Thorne's are either. There's not much chemistry between the main characters, and sadly, there seemed to be more chemistry between Miles and Jack when they were weirdly acting out sex scenes.
I would say the issue is, there's too much going on with Miles. With her parents, her writing, her anxiety, her relationships. Sometimes it was overwhelming instead of enjoyable.

This was a sweet story that filled my introverted heart with joy. I loved the dynamic between Miles and Lars..
For any aspiring writing, or current author, this book would be for you! The main character is an author who uses a pseudonym but still finds her happily-ever-after--the love interest is the perfect guy for the main character!

Would recommend for fans of Colleen Hoover.

This book just wasn't for me. I didn't enjoy the style of writing and found it difficult to connect with the characters/story.

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to read it in advance. I wish the author all the best for publication day.

This is a really well written story. With so much potential. However the main character, the plot and the romance just didn’t do it for me.

Miles is a doormat, she lets everyone walk right over her. She doesn’t stand up for herself and lets everyone treat her like garbage while she just figures out plots for her books. While I understand that her insecurities stem from the lack of love and support from her parents, it annoyed me so much through the entire book,

Lars is extremely aggravating to me. He spends most of this book being exceptionally angry and somewhat aggressive. While I appreciate his character development a lot, it’s not enough for me ignore that.

As for the romance. It felt extremely rushed to me. I didn’t see the connection at all. It was just pure sexual angry tension with not emotional or romantic weight what so ever.

I did really enjoy most of the side characters. Not to mention the message of this story; reading, no matter what genre, is supposed to be valued. It should be accessible, relatable and enjoyable to everyone.

With that said. I did enjoy the book overall. But sadly the most important reasons as to why I wanted to read the book, fell short.

Thank to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with a free arc, in exchange for an honest review.

This was a really fresh take on romance, particularly with the added elements of historical romance brought in to the contemporary fore. I really liked Miles and her principles - I hated the reasons for them, but my goodness I thought she was strong. I felt almost determined not to like Lars because of how determined he seemed to strip Miles of the privacy that was so important to her.
I must admit I didn't quite understand exactly where their relationship started, it just *did*. It felt a little disjointed in parts due to feeling I'd missed something. Maybe more of their online history would have filled that in a bit as opposed to the snippets of the book. I did skip through most of those.
Overall though, some good storytelling and an interesting idea. I always enjoy good character growth in a story, and this definitely had it.
Thank you to netgalley, publisher and the author for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

On the Same Page is Australian Penelope Janu’s latest release. It is an easy read for Americans even though it contains a few phrases that aren’t as familiar.

The heroine is Miles Franklin, a lawyer who is very introverted and clumsy. She is the daughter of two literary giants who have belittled her throughout her life. Miles regularly has panic attacks, sometimes faints, and her whole body turns red when she blushes. She refers to herself as ”the giant red condom”. To her parent’ dismay, Miles represents the reclusive historical romance author Emma Browning. Emma self-published three titles as e-books, and they were wildly popular. When she is working on her fourth novel, Pippy, Miles assistant, forges Emma’s name on an application for the prestigious Stapleton Literary Prize.

To everyone in the literary fields’ surprise, Emma Browning wins the Stapleton Prize. Emma now has contractual obligations to her new publisher, Iconic, who sponsored the award. Miles is attracted to lars, the new CEO of Iconic. Iconic is using Emma’s books to try to make their Australian branch profitable. It quickly become apparent to the reader that Miles is actually Emma, and only her childhood friend, Jack, knows.

Miles/Emma is very serious about her research and takes pole-dancing classes so she can accurately describe how a heroine can climb a ship’s mast in Cupid’s Chariot, her current book. The other students and recreation center staff are interesting and add humor to the story. Miles has a personal trainer/boyfriend, Tom, who attempts to get her in shape. She is constantly injuring herself due to clumsiness.

The story contains multiple passages and character descriptions from Emma’s books, Cupid’s Trap, Cupid’s Arrow, Cupid’s Bow, and Cupid’s Chariot. Miles/Emma makes ridiculous demands of Iconic Publishing, in the hope that she can get out of her contract in order to remain anonymous. She develops friendships with multiple Iconic employees. She is a marshmallow to everyone but Lars.

On the Same Page is very well-written and makes multiple references to classical literature and defends romantic fiction. There are many secondary characters who add to the humor and authenticity of the book. This story provides an excellent behind-the-scenes look at the publishing industry.

Thank you to Escape Publishing and NetGalley for providing me an ARC copy in exchange for an unbiased review.  More information on this book is available at Escape Publishing's website http://escapepublishing.com.au/ .

To be honest, I had a bit of a hard time getting into the story. I don’t know the exact reason, but it took me some time to really care about the characters and the story itself. After about 30% I started to like it more and got really into the book. I also started reading it way faster after that, which I think really helped as well. I liked the characters, the tension and the combination of the story with Emma’s stories. It was a fun read and it had a lot of good moments which I loved.

Thank you NetGalley and the writer for letting me read it for an honest review

This was fun to read. Miles was a very interesting and unique character, with her qualities and flaws. I really appreciated the way she was serious about her friendships and how her friends got her back, no matter what. Also, she loved to help those around her and that shaped a lot of her character. Lars was also a very nice character and I enjoyed how he tries to deal with Miles, even though she won't make it easy.

I loved how the book describes a lot of how the publishing world works and how it discussed the importance of romance or how it's not considered true literature as a genre mostly written by women for women. It's how I feel about romance and how it's seen by some critics, so it was great to read it on these pages as well.

I won't deny that Miles really got on my nerves at times. The fact that she simply decides not to answer phone calls and how she runs away from anything that might resemble a conflict was something that I understood at first, but it got really tiring as the story happened. It happened a lot. Her friends were great and really tried to help her, especially Jack and Pippy. It was lovely to see how those characters enriched the story as well and were not just there, in the backstage.

This was a very good book and I'm happy I got the chance to read it.

I had to sit with On The Same Page by Penelope Janu for a bit before I wrote this review. The book was enjoyable to read. I really liked Miles. I absolutely loved the representation of panic attacks. Miles' parents are dreadful and she does what she needs to take care of her mental health. It's time to end the stigma around mental health!

I had a hard time with the need for the publisher to out an anonymous writer. As a reader, I really don't care if people use a pen name and want to remain anonymous. If I like their stories, then I like their stories. I could not identify with the publisher.

I was annoyed with the snobbery from "serious" writers about the romance genre. Miles makes an excellent point, and I'm not quoting because this is an ARC, but basically Romance is written by women, about women, and for women. And the patriarchy wants to tell us that Romance is not important.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this story.

I received an advance review copy for free from NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I will start with what I enjoyed about this book: Miles, the heroine, and Lars, the love interest, had good banter. I appreciated the emphasis on Miles' difficulty with anxiety, her experiencing panic attacks and how that felt very realistic in the writing. I felt emotionally invested in her journey, and her fight to remain anonymous as Emma Browning (her pen-name for her historical romance novels). Also there was some smut, so that was nice.

Miles is a lawyer by day, and a historical romance writer by night. Her assistant signs up Emma Browning (aka Miles) to win a literary award which unfortunately also binds her to a contract with a publishing house, threatening to expose her secret. Miles carries the burden of being the child of two parents who are famous, talented, literary giants themselves, and her parents look down on the romance genre in general which, aside from the anxiety, is another reason Miles wants to remain anonymous. Enter Lars, the CEO of Iconic Publishing. He and Miles butt heads immediately when it becomes clear that the publisher and Emma/Miles's interests do not align.

Despite enjoying the chemistry between Miles and Lars, there is a lot of extraneous stuff going on in this book, and it actually detracts from the relationship budding between Miles and Lars. Ultimately, aside from knowing that Lars enjoys American novelists and knows how to horseback ride, I felt like he wasn't ever a fully fleshed out character. Here is just a brief overview of everything else going on in this book: (1) there's Miles's parents, the drama with them, and multiple partners since they are divorced, (2) Miles's drama with Jack, her best friend, and his on and off relationship with his boyfriend Jules, (3) Pippy, the assistant, (4) all of Miles's classmates from her pole dancing class, (5) Lars and the drama with his fiancee who becomes ex-fiancee, (6) the publisher's lawyer, the editor and his wife, all of the other employees of the publisher, and their various issues with Miles/Emma, (7) Tom, another guy who is a fitness trainer studying to become a cop and who is also interested in dating Miles. All in all, it is way too much going on and I found myself skimming through as much of it as possible. I would have rather had a fully fleshed out love interest and had more focus on Miles herself, and her journey.

Honestly, this book was just not for me. The premise was interesting, and while there were some cute moments, there was much more that was awkward/ uncomfortable.

The characters were frustrating and hard to keep track of, with many nicknames between them, I kept wondering, ‘wait who is that?’.

Miles is so all over the place it was hard to root for her. I appreciate that there was mental health at play, but it was rough to keep reading about her avoiding and lying and getting insulted by her parents… for literally the entire book. The turning point for her came too late.

The romance didn’t grab me and I honestly wanted Lars to go find someone better. I liked Lars, except the licking (if you know you know)… it was weird.

The press conference was a cute way to wrap it all up, but the engagement at the end was so random. He didn’t even ask!

Even though it wasn’t my favorite, I’m grateful to Netgalley and Escape Publishing for the chance to read it ahead of its release April 1st.

Lawyer-by-day and secret romance novelist-by-night Miles Franklin gets the shock of her life when her well meaning, assistant decides to unwittingly push her into the spot light. Miles has to navigate her client's concerns and her own as she tangles with the sexy Lars who needs to make sure yet-to-be seen Emma is finally going to live up to her contractual obligations (well, once Lars lives up to his). Throw in a best friend pining for a lost love, pole dancing class, and overly opinionated parents and you have a must read!

I absolutely loved this book. The humour was awesome and it was very tongue in cheek. I loved how this book seemed to mirror the heroines own books in ways right down to chapter count. I literally could not put it down and finished it in one sitting. I loved the ending and I couldn't have wished for a better HEA. It was romantic and hopeful and yet you could see how the hero and heroine characters grew through the experiences. I loved the pole dancing. You really don't find that in many books. Consent was obvious and helping her fellow pole dancer out with schooling. The representation for anxiety and the blushing was awesome. Even the parents were believable to me..

I could have wished to get to know our "Rupert" a bit more but since it was from a first person narrative we got mostly her thoughts and feelings and she was extremely overwhelmed and I get it. There does need to be another pass through on editing. There was a spot in the first chapter where it was talking about the plants in the office and it said "pot plants" I'm assuming it was meant to be potted plants and not marijuana plants. The beginning of chapter 42 they have Adam and Amy's names switched.

All in all it was awesome and I can't wait to get a finished copy so I can annotate it.