Hard to Hold
Grade : B

This is one of the first books in the new True Vows line that tell the stories of real life romances. It’s an interesting concept, one similar to AAR’s own “Isn’t it Romantic?” contests of the past. While this means it’s different than other romance novels, it also is a nice grounding in reality, and a reminder that HEAs exist in real life.

Anne Miller and Mike Davoli met at a concert through mutual friends and were quickly attracted to each other, but parted awkwardly. Several months later, they meet again, this time when he moves into her Albany, NY apartment building. The attraction is still there, and slowly but surely a real relationship begins to grow between them. However, along the way they have to deal with mixed signals from each other, work pressures, and Mike’s reservations about his struggle with Tourette’s Syndrome.

As this is based on a real couple, I can’t exactly comment on characterization or chemistry or plot. I can say that I liked both Anne and Mike, and enjoyed reading their story. It may be stating the obvious, but was very real: the stupid fights, the miscommunications and mixed signals, the way the reality of work and illness and fear can interfere in our lives. Most romance novels are very fast-paced; it’s easy to forget that most people date more than a month or two before getting married. This book, and Mike and Anne’s relationship, takes things more slowly, and chapters often start with, “Two months later…” It’s a bit frustrating to me as a curious reader, wondering what happened during that time, but a necessary abridgement of two people’s lives over the course of several years.

The only part of the book I can be critical about on a creative story-telling standpoint is Julie Leto’s writing. She does a good job telling the story for the most part, creating suspense and making a generally slow-paced story hard to put down. That said, it didn’t feel like a novel to me. I don’t know how to distinguish the concept of “telling a story” when it comes to a true piece of fiction from “telling a story” with regard to a true couple but it really did feel different for me as a reader even if this true story is written in novel form. It was easy to tell it wasn’t a creative work for Leto, except in the case of her writing style, which I basically enjoyed. I do have to say, though, that she commits one of my pet peeves on a fairly regular basis; in an effort to avoid using “it” or repeating a noun, she’ll come up with some other way to describe something-- like, “She ate the ice cream, and enjoyed the cold creamy treat.” It feels forced and unnatural when a person writes that way when they otherwise have a fairly conversational writing tone.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, and found it compelling in its originality. I’d be interested to read other of these “True Vows” stories, though they are, in my mind, a somewhat separate genre from fiction romances.

Reviewed by Jane Granville
Grade : B

Sensuality: Warm

Review Date : September 18, 2010

Publication Date: 2010/09

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Jane Granville

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