e-ARC, NetGalley
Author: Penelope Janu
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 made it more believable that they were falling in love.
There are also too many secondary characters whose role in the actual development of the story is 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.
