My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A romantic comedy that tells the story of one journalist secretly juggling two bylines for competing newspapers on a small island.
Distorting the facts just a little can’t hurt—except when falling in love…
Martha’s Vineyard has two distinct “personalities”—one characterized by its tanned and polished summer people; the other represented by the small-town, salt-of-the-earth year-round residents. The island even has two newspapers, each appealing to its distinct readership. Over the years, an intense rivalry has grown between the two papers; in fact, neither paper will work with writers who have any relationship to the other paper.
Johanna Howes is a Vineyard girl who left the island at the age of eighteen and never looked back. She went to college on the mainland and moved to the Big City to start a career as a journalist. Now she’s returned to take care of her aging Uncle Hank. As neither paper can pay her enough to live on, she creates a false identity so that she can write for both papers at once. Often this means writing the same story twice, coming at it from opposite ends of the spectrum.
Before long, Johanna finds herself caught up in a messy Island political situation. A wealthy, seasonal resident is suing the town government for the right to land his private helicopter on his property. When Johanna agrees to go for a cup of coffee with the handsome man she meets at a zoning board meeting, she has no idea that she has just made a date with Orion Smith, the wealthy off-Islander who is causing all the ruckus. And what he doesn’t know is that Johanna has been assigned by both Island papers to cover the story.
Scrambling to keep her various identities straight and separate from each other, Johanna desperately tries to find a graceful way out of the mess she’s created. But doing so will likely get her into trouble or cause her to lose her writing gigs…not to mention jeopardize her chance at a budding romance with a man she’s doing her best not to fall for.
**********
On the Same Page is just the kind of contemporary romance novel that I want to read. I read mostly thrillers and crime novels. However, now and then do I like to change genre and read something less deadly. I picked this book because I thought it sounded funny and charming. I love stories with a lot of heart and funny problems like trying to write for two different newspapers without either knowing it. It would have been a lot easier for poor Joanna if she had not happened to fall in love with the worst possible candidate. The most hated man on Martha's Vineyard.
I alternated between listening to the audio version and reading the book (as usual) and I really liked the narrator. Amanda Dolan did a great job. Storywise did I feel that the author really managed to not only make lovebirds Joanne and Orion come alive. She managed to do so with the rest of the characters as well. I wouldn't mind reading more books set in this world because I came to really love the characters.
I want to thank the publisher for providing me with the (eARC) copy of the book through Edelweiss for an honest review!
I love that cover and island stories. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeletesherry @ fundinmental