Matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match . . . dot.com. An on-line dating service is not Michelle Snow’s idea of how to find love but when the Big 3-0 hits, Michelle decides she has nothing to lose since she hasn’t brought a date home in ten years, she’s professionally burned out, and her climb up the corporate ladder has come at the expense of abandoning her sweet dream: to own a boutique cupcakery.

Todd Bracken, early thirties and a successful technology consultant, isn’t exactly a player after being off the market for ten years, and pours himself into his dual passions of martial arts and home-sweet-home renovations. Only there’s no one to come home to so he decides to give Match.com a try. Todd isn’t so sure the Internet dating scene is his thing – until a message pops up in the wee hours on a weekend night: “I like your smile.” Todd likes – a lot – the whole package that glides into a French bistro in Washington, D.C.

It’s serious mojo-at-first-sight but there’s a glitch: Todd and Michelle live in different cities. Will love find its way in the digital age with a You’ve Got Mail courtship when video cam kisses just aren’t enough? And when Todd challenges Michelle to not only go for her dream but also let him share it, will they be able to make it happen together despite obstacles more plentiful than a shower of rainbow sprinkles?

Title: The Icing on the Cake
Author: Alison Kent
Series: True Vows, Reality Based Romance ™
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: HCI Books
Year of release: 2010, September 14
Format: Tradesize Paperback
Source: received e-copy for review from Publisher as part of a blog-tour from TLC

First line: "Michelle! Dana’s here!"
Elbowing open her bedroom door while fastening the clasp on her necklace, Michelle Snow called out, "Be right there!" in response to Christina's update.
Memorable Scenes:
- Todd and Blake's banter in the gym's locker room > very funny
- Bakery tour in NYC > sweet in every sense of the word, and made me crave cupcakes

THE ICING ON THE CAKE is a sweet, contemporary romance about Michelle Snow, who puts up her profile on an online dating site after a talk with her longtime friends about dating or rather, the lack thereof. Cute and witty software consultant Todd Bracken is the one picked by Michelle based on his online profile. They hit it off immediately, both online and in real life after their first face-to-face meeting and a lovely romance develops through emails, texts and dates, which were funny and endearing.

Michelle is the middle child of three and in real estate marketing but she dreams of opening her own cupcake bakery. She’s independent, considerate and not a loner but used to doing things alone and on her own. Slowly she learns to lean on, trust and share with Todd.

Todd is the youngest child of three and the proverbial anchor in the storm. He’s dependable and romantic. He’s also cute and funny. He uses humor as way of defense and coping with stuff. Though he’s had plenty of dating experience he has never met and felt immediately so comfortable with someone as he does with Michelle.

Both Michelle and Todd are sweet and easy-going, yet driven and with passion for everything they do. It’s a perfect match, completing and complementing each other and compatible in many, many ways.

Though both True Vows books I’ve read cover different stages and origins of a romantic relationship and do this on different intensity levels I think each one describes romance, love and relationships in it’s own original and unique way.

What I did miss in THE ICING ON THE CAKE was a bit of intensity, a bit of conflict and yet that’s also what makes it real, because that’s funny enough I saw a lot of similarities with my own love story (I also “met” my husband online and there isn’t much conflict in our relationship). Alison Kent delivered this lovely book through very smooth writing and laced it with the humor I love so much in my romances. Subtle humor and teasing banter alternated and gave the book a genuine feel-good vibe.

THE ICING ON THE CAKE is a contemporary romance that initially starts as an online dating romance but quickly moves on to a true real life romance and slowly evolves into a solid and deep loving relationship. It's very hard to pinpoint what I love about these Reality Based Romance ™ books but I definitely love the down-to-earth, boy/girl next door, "real" characters, they appeal to me on a whole different level than non- Reality Based Romance ™ characters do. I find them wonderful to read as they form a down-to-earth counterpart to the high-intensity imaginary romances I normally read and I am definitely looking forward to the next one in this series.

One last thing about THE ICING ON THE CAKE. It made me crave cupcakes like mad and if I wasn't on a diet I'd whipped out the cake pan and made myself some of the cupcakes described in this book because they sounded just heavenly and delicious!

Favorite Quote:
Was The One really out there? Someone not to complete her, but to complement her? To see the good in her and make her better? To allow her to do the same and to build on that trust, creating something together that would be bigger than either of them could be alone?

New York lobbyist Michael Davoli feels like he’s been sucker punched when he meets Anne Miller at a concert. When fate leads him to move into same Albany apartment building where Anne lives, Michael falls hard. After all, Anne’s hot, his dog likes her, and she’s catnip to the senses after she picks a lock faster than Sydney Bristow can disarm a nuke.

Always fiercely independent, Anne’s crackerjack reporting skills and keen intellect are no match for the chemical reaction she has to this man with electric blue eyes. But while Mike effortlessly holds her with his gaze, he withholds the embrace she longs for. Why is he so distant? Has Anne misread his signals? When he finally confesses that he suffers from a neurological disorder that he’s learned to disguise from others but could keep him from ever holding her through the night—she makes a choice that changes the rest of her life.

Anne isn’t about to let anything like Tourette’s Syndrome keep her from the man of her dreams. But Mike has a second secret. Will this secret be the one that even a grand passion cannot survive?

Title: Hard To Hold
Author: Julie Leto
Series: True Vows, Reality Based Romance ™
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: HCI Books
Year of release: 2010, September 14
Format: Tradesize Paperback
Source: received e-copy for review from Publisher as part of a blog-tour from TLC
First line: "Your problem is that you're too picky."

Anne Miller is a journalist, a crime reporter. She’s witty, bubbly, cheerful, and open. She’s in a knitting-group and an avid fan of Jack Bauer. The moment she decides that she’s quite happy being single and not going to search after love, fate bumps into her in the form of Mike Davoli at a music concert. Mike is a campaign coordinator for the Quality Education Initiative. He has Tourette's Syndrome. He’s organized, sweet, honest and a very big fan of a band called Phish.

I really like this concept of romance novels based on reality. Reading romance in various genres has made me believe in easy, almost magical solutions to hurdles that inevitably surge in a starting relationship and HARD TO HOLD made me see again that building and maintaining a relationship is hard work and the road to a Happily Ever After is paved with struggles, disappointments, conflict and challenges to go with the chemistry, sexual attraction and soul-mate kind of love.

There was one minor thing that bothered me reading this books and that was the conflict/argument between Anne and Michael and Michael's reasoning. This felt a little forced and didn't quite work for me, but I did love that it wasn’t brushed over or easily solved, which made the romance that much stronger in my opinion.

The second half of HARD TO HOLD tells the story where other romance novels end and to me portrayed the real story after the Happily Ever After where most romance novels end. Reading this book was refreshing and I heartily welcome this new brand of romance.

A sweet, warm and funny contemporary was just what I needed and just what I got from HARD TO HOLD. This book proved to me that you don't need hot and heavy dirty sex scenes to write an excellent and poignant contemporary love story and make me a fan. Don't get me wrong, I like hot monkey sex scenes, a lot, but they are not obligatory for me to thoroughly enjoy a book as reading HARD TO HOLD definitely proved to me.

Seeing the attraction build, slowly but intensely was just delightful to read. I smiled and grinned numerous times at the subtle humor that was delivered as easily and smoothly as the love story. And the wedding put the cherry on the cake by making me tear up.

I highly recommend HARD TO HOLD if you love subtle humor, sweet romance dosed with a healthy bit of reality and a HEA that is just perfect. And I am also definitely going to read more of Julie Leto's work as I do have some on my huge TBR and this first encounter with her writing has definitely left me wanting more.

Favorite Quotes:
There was a special place in hell for people who insisted on fixing up their friends--a place only slightly less horrifying than the dungeons reserved for those who sprang arresting-looking guys on their neighbors with no advance notice.

"You like dogs?" he asked.
Okay it was a stupid obvious question, but with moisture absent from his mouth and his bloodstream pumping with the kind of powerful attraction he hadn’t felt in a very long time, he was lucky to form even three words of coherent conversation

One of them shut the door, probably with a foot since both arms and hands were engaged in the finest make-up kiss ever shared between a guy who’d temporarily lost his mind and the woman who had the amazing capacity to forgive.