Multi-project ASP.Net Core C# solution with OAuth and shared layouts

I'm building a solution with multiple projects. The home of the site is a mostly static project (call it MyRazorBlog). The other is an interactive MVC App (MyMvcApp). MyRazorBlog has about 5 razor pages, plus a layout with a Razor component for the Navigation menu. This runs and links to MyMvcApp. MyMvcApp is routed as a self-contained Area. I'd like to use the overall layout of MyRazorBlog, but swap out the NavMenu for views in MyMvcApp. I can get the MVC views and razor pages to appear, but my MVC Views display outside the layout. I have tried moving the layout files into Pages, Pages/Shared, Views, Views/Shared, Areas/MyArea/Views/Shared, Areas/MyArea/Views, etc. There's obviously a gap in my knowledge, since this seems like it should be a quick hit. Setting up the layout is the first milestone. The second milestone will be dynamically displaying my sample data from the included json file. There are 4 objects. There is a hierarchy of File, Record, and Field, plus User. These are simplified in the sample data to be just a few fields as a proof of concept for the larger app. I'll be hosting the final version in SQL Server but that will be bid as a separate project / budget. The third milestone will be setting up OAuth Authentication with GitHub to protect the MyMvcApp, and activate certain features on the views. For the sake of this project, the OAuth just needs to show whether the user is logged in, their username, and ID. I'll give first consideration to bids which break down their cost by milestone. Thank you for considering this.