Member Reviews
This book is a wild ride from start to finish. I never felt like I understood Miles or her motivation or how she became a lawyer. I thought there was some cultural differences (being the story takes place in Australia) but I think it just wasn't good. Miles' relationships with her friends, family and coworkers didn't make sense and her avoidance tactics to get out of a contract she didn't sign make her seem so flighty throughout the book.
I was hoping that her romance novel exerpts would be interesting and fun but either they lose soemthing without the rest of the plot or they are just boring and incongruous with the rest of the book.
This is my first time reading something by this author and I really enjoyed it. The story caught my attention from the beginning and held it all the way through. This is a fun and romantic comedy and I enjoyed every minute of it. The storyline had a nice smooth flow and the romance was wonderful and there were plenty of humorous moments that had me laughing out loud or just generally left me with a smile on my face.
Although a lawyer by day, Miles' true passion is writing historical romances which she does in secret. She writes under the pen name of Emma Browning and no one has seen who she is. Her parents are both successful authors and look down on the genre, so it's important she hide her identity so they don't find out. But when one of her stories is up for a literary award, her secret identity is in jeopardy. Also adding to her stress is the CEO of the company that is publishing her novel, Lars, pushing her to reveal her identity and make herself know to the public. Lars is a grumpy, broody sort of man and is relentless in his pursuit of revealing Miles' true identity. The two are constantly butting heads, but as they spend more time together, their feelings start heading in another direction and their relationship begins to change. Wonderful characters, witty banter, and an engaging storyline will keep you captivated till the end. This is a lovely, light, and fun story and am happy to have had the opportunity to read it. I am hoping to read more by this author in the future.
I received a complimentary copy from Netgalley and am voluntarily leaving my review.
I received this book as an ARC, and all opinions are my own. I've never read a Penelope Janu book, but if you do like Beth O'Leary, Sally Thorne and their like you may enjoy. I was kind of neutral on this book. Miles/Emma was a real bummer, a little too neurotic and down on her own qualities for me to really get around to liking her. How is someone who is so smart to write popular books while being an attorney during the day become such a door mat? It just annoyed me and it didn't make her more likable, nor did I sympathize when other people took advantage. I think the contrast with the earnest, suspicious handsome Lars it really made me not like either of them. On the Same Page was somewhat entertaining, the dialogue despite what I thought about the authors made the book shine. I think with more likable characters, this book would have been more satisfying for me, but it was a fast, diverting read.
Unfortunately, I could not connect with this books at all. The storyline had potential but I don’t think it was met.
I also found the writing very uncomfortable.
This book was a 3 star for me, it was a fun read but some points were a little slow/hard to get through. The writing of this book was done well, there were just some things about Miles I was not a fan of. She just always seemed to be angry, and never stood up for herself when needed. I didn’t get much growth from her
This book was read thanks to NetGalley
I really enjoyed this book, I was on a heavy book drought, and this book was light and easy to read. The plot is that our protagonist is a book writer but does it under an alias, one day she wins a prize and the CEO of the company in charge of publishing her story wants to meet with her,
At first they have nothing in common but as the days pass by and they interact more the relationship is build between them.
As I said it's funny and pretty easy to read.
Thank you to Netgalley for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review!
This book was cute. I loved the concept and the plot. I loved the relationships, especially between Miles and Jack. But I think this book needed to go through another round of revisions. The dialogue wasn’t natural, many scenes jumped all over the place, and I felt like there could’ve been lots of general cuts that would’ve made the book more succinct and flow better.
I really enjoyed the premise of the book. It had romance, a main character who writes books, and slight regency romance. Everything just felt too forced and I found myself skimming the pages in order to finish.
Thank-you NetGalley and Escape Publishing for the chance to review this ARC.
This was a cute read.
It took me a bit to really get into it but once I did I had a great time reading the story.
This is my first book by Penelope Janu and I hope to pick up more.
Miles was an interesting lead and she will not be everyone's cup of tea but there are some really nice traits to her personality that mad me warm up to her character.
Overall On the Same Page was a fun quick read.
Thanks to NetGalley and Escape Publishing for a free e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
This book follows Miles, who is secretly a romance author. However, when Lars, the CEO of a publishing company insists on meeting Emma (her alias), chaos ensues.
There was barely any plot in this book, and what little there was, was both confusing and utterly ridiculous. There are so many unnecessary scenes that add absolutely nothing to the book, while there is zero relationship development. I’m talking none whatsoever.
I don’t have much to say about any of the characters. Miles was annoying, and I can’t give an opinion on Lars because he’s barely in the book. The only characters I found mildly interesting were the girls in Miles’s pole dancing group, and Jack.
The writing wasn’t technically bad, but it didn’t do much for me. There were a few scenes that were written in such an unrealistic way that they made me cringe, and there were also multiple scenes that felt completely out of place and unnecessary.
This is a short review because I honestly have nothing to say other than this book simply wasn’t for me. The only reason I finished it was because it was a review copy.
I would like to thank Netgalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Overall an OK read for me. Unfortunately it didn't capture me as much as I thought it would. I was really looking forward to identifying with the characters as it is set in a premise that I love reading about, which is books and publishing. However, I felt that the characters were not given enough space to develop, and I find that I wasn't rooting for them as much as I would like.
What I do like though, is that it is set in Australia, which is different from most books that are set in America or England.
I had such high hopes based on the summary and I wanted so badly to love this book but it just fell flat for me. Everything just felt too forced. I didn't really see a lead-up to the relationship/the characters' feelings; it was just kind of suddenly there. Additionally, the obstacles just did not feel as big as the author clearly wanted them to. I just wanted to sit Miles down and tell her to stop being overdramatic.
This was a rather cute telling of a story about a super shy romance novelist who, for complicated inexplicable reasons, has seen her books acquired by a publishing firm that wants the anonymous author to start appearing publicly to sell her books. Miles Franklin doesn’t want to appear as her alter ego because…reasons, mostly revolving around the contempt her family has for such popular literature. Lars, is the CEO of the publishing company who keeps jetting in to Australia to nag Miles about her supposed client, the anonymous author who is actually Miles. Got that?
This plot required a lot of suspension of disbelief, but I still enjoyed this opposites attract story. I wasn’t quite clear on why Lars was so immediately attracted to Miles since she seemed awkward and shy. But go ahead and suspend your disbelief and enjoy. I voluntarily reviewed an advanced reader copy of this book that I received from Netgalley; however, the opinions are my own and I did not receive any compensation for my review.
*2.5 stars rounded up*
Navigating the double life of being a lawyer (as everyone knows her) and a historical romance writer (under pseudonym Emma Browning, with only her best friend knowing) has been going pretty smoothly until Miles Franklin's well-intentioned assistant submits Emma for a literary award... which she wins. Enter Lars Kristensen, the CEO of the publishing company now in control of Emma’s books, who can’t understand why Emma’s lawyer (Miles) can’t get Emma to comply with the publisher’s contractual needs.
A little bit of deja vu struck me as I began reading but this story didn't feel like a re-tread. This moved quickly but my attention would wander. The push/pull between Lars and Miles ceased to become charming after a while because Miles seemed all over the place/inconsistent as the story progresses. I DID, however, enjoy reading Lars's thoughts about Emma's books and how seriously he took it.
Now… can someone have a discussion with Pippy about decorum and learning to read a room? It's cringeworthy when she keeps spouting out details that will sink MIles further into hot water. While I understand this is how we further the plot, it made me want to throw my e-reader.
Thank you to Netgalley and Escape Publishing for this ARC.
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.
I must admit that the first half of this book just didn’t do it for me. I did not connect with the characters, the only one I liked was Jack but I kept reading and the last half of the book manage to change my opinion. I enjoyed reading the last chapters very much.
The book was maybe a bit too long tough and I would have loved more indicators that Lars was in love with Miles. At the beginning I didn’t really care for their love story and found miles quite irritating to be honest. She do make some decisions that is hard to understand and you have to give it to Lars for keeping showing up for her.
It took me much longer to finish this book then I regularly do and not only because it’s quite long. The main reason was I did not really care for the characters until the last ten chapters, by then I could not stop reading. However I think that there are parts of the book that does not make total sense, Tom being one of them. After not swing miles for a year he just acts like he’s her boyfriend and she just goes along with it. Even though I understand how the plot line with Ruby contributes to the whole story I think that’s one thing that could have been cut. The book was just a bit to long for my personal taste. I personally find romance novels that are about 350-400 pages to be the optimal length.
A enemies-to-lovers(?) story that just wasn't for me.
Emma Browning has been shortlisted for a prestigious literary prize. But when it turns out she's won, there's just a little problem: she doesn't really exist. Miles Franklin (named after the famous writer) is Emma's lawyer/agent and also secretly Emma. But Lars, the CEO of the publisher reissuing Emma's backlist as part of the prize, is insisting on meeting Emma in person. As Miles holds him off and they work on editing Emma's works, sparks fly.
First off, I love the premise of this book and I like reading banter and seeing two people who "hate" each other really push each other for success. Plus all the chemistry. However, I didn't really feel any of that in this book. I didn't really believe that Miles and Lars were attracted to one another (even sexually, which seems to be the driving factor for their relationship). Additionally, the actual set-up in practice for the conflict was ridiculous: it doesn't matter how good of friends they are, Pippy forging Miles' signature to enter Emma into the prize consideration and forcing her into a terrible financial contract was terrible and should not have been tolerated. Most of the friends were honestly not that great either, except perhaps for Jack. There's also a lot of discussion about how Miles should stand up to her parents, but I didn't really see that happening either.
Overall, the best part of this book was the glimpses at what Emma was writing.
A secret writer, slow burn, and set in the publishing world? Sign me up!
On the Same Page follows Miles, a lawyer who is secretly historical romance writer Emma Browning. Miles’ assistant enters Emma into a competition, she never expects to win as she’s up against literary fiction. Miles doesn’t want Emma to win as then she will lose some of the profits of her books and her identity is threatened. Lo and behold, Emma does win and Miles’ life becomes entangled in a series of webs that she struggles to escape from!
‘My life hasn’t been normal since I met you.’
Miles decides the best way to get out of this contract is to make the publishing company drop her. Lars, the CEO of the company, insists on meeting the author. And they demand they need the author for promotional opportunities and events. The romance in On The Same Page is a very very slow burn, but it is worth it! Miles slowly begins to understand and trust Lars, although there are quite a few issues that need sorting between them.
‘All I could see was the colours in your eyes, the way you held your pen. I wanted to touch your face when you blushed.’
Whilst this book is listed as romance, the protagonist does a lot of self-reflection and discovering who she is, which I loved. She takes up pole dancing to figure out how to climb a drain pipe for her work in progress. The scenes with the pole dancing girls show how caring Miles is and I loved that about her.
This was a fun read and I recommend if you want a romance with a lot of self discovery!
Such a cute story!! I always love to use these fluffy romance books for a nice pallet cleansing and this one 100% hit the spot. Janu did an amazing job at building that slow burn and angst when it came to Miles and Lars. I loved how descriptive Janu writing is and I mean REALLY descriptive. She goes in full visual detail on everything from side character looks to the food Miles and Jack are eating. It was also a really great idea to ad excerpts from Emma Brownings (the authors name in the book) novels. Its a book within a book...A BOOKCEPTION!! (sorry I had too haha) I would recommend this to all my angsty, hate to love fans out there!!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I don't know what to say about this book. Although it started out promising, it kind of lost me on the way. The characters were more or less enjoyable, but I found the 'monologue' of the female heroine really fatiguing and... boring. Also, I didn't like the fact that it was kind of a book inside a book, so I had a really hard time with those parts.
Some of the reactions that the characters had were a little unrealistic, which made it even more challenging for me to relate to them or whatever they chose to do. It was a relatively enjoyable read nonetheless, but it probably wasn't the right one for me.