PJV Quickie: A short paranormal romp. Great for entertainment and nothing else?
Title: Love Can Be Dangerous to You Health
Genre: Paranormal/ Adult/ Romance
Author: Liz Strange
Source: Author provided ebook
Published: March, 2010 Passion Print
Rating:
Rating: 
Blurb: Sometimes love can suck the life out of you…literally.
Jake can’t believe the beautiful woman he takes home is in his bed. He finds it even harder to believe when she’s implicated in several strange murders. And it stretches the boundaries of his mind when she not only claims she wants a relationship with him…but also reveals a secret about herself.
Now Jake needs to balance being a homicide detective with what his heart wants. But can he really give this beautiful woman everything she asks for?Warning this is an adult book and contains adult material. Not for anyone under 18.
Like most book reviewers I read. A lot. Whether or not I like to admit it, I am a genre reader. I spend days at a time pouring through paranormal and horror books. So every once in a while I pick up a short (less than 100 pages) book to read to sort of clean my reading palate. This is not a book that I would do that with. It is a paranormal romance/erotica but the romance was not there. At all. Yeah they end up being a couple at the end but like, big deal.
This is actually my first book about a succubus. I was excited to read about something new. I know the general myth behind succubi and this little story stuck right to that line. I really like it when an author takes a know mythos and twists it. There were, literally, no surprises in store and I gained nothing out of this book other than losing 20 mins. of my life. Am I mad about that? Not really. I finished it, which meant somewhere along the reading I enjoyed something (or it just killed my boredom). I, just for the life of me, can’t figure out what it was. Hmm…Anyone know? Seriously. It’s a real brain teaser here.
What really disappointed me was that I went into this expecting some sort of erotica (come on, who doesn’t read a little smut to break their reading patterns now and then?) and I didn’t get it. While there is sexual situations in this book it was more romance type sex than erotic sex. I know what you may be thinking…what did I expect from 40 pages? Well, a whole lot more than what I got. This story falls into what I would categorize as” monster porn lite”. Which means it features a human and something paranormal. But not in a YA sense, if ya catch my drift. I wasn’t actually grossed out! Not even a little bit. I think I was saddened a bit by this as well. Don’t judge, those books are good for giggle. Or a lolgasm. And sometimes we all need to have one of those. 
It was just a flat read all around.
Over all this book is recommended for people who have time to kill, who like light monster porn, and light erotica. It is not recommended for anyone named Lori Parker. Oh, and, I realize this book has a publisher, so it’s not really an indie. But it is from an independent press. So therefore, I am still calling it an indie.
Do you have a genre or type of book that you read when you are getting burnt out on the same ole same ole books?
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Wow, OK ill start with I have read this book so I can have an opinion just like you and I also read and review for 2 difference sites and for authors themselves, the difference is that I would never be as rude and as immature as this review even if I didn’t like it. Its one thing to not enjoy a book and give it a critique which includes exactly why you didn’t like it, or what you felt was lacking to help the author grow as a writer, but to blatantly be so crude is just well mean.
Your Statement: “…losing 20 mins. of my life. Am I mad about that? Not really. I finished it, which meant somewhere along the reading I enjoyed something (or it just killed my boredom). I, just for the life of me, can’t figure out what it was. Hmm…Anyone know? Seriously. It’s a real brain teaser here.” is just flat our mean. I don’t know if you think this is helpful to your followers to be this way if so well than I hope your followers never visit my sites. I would never want people to follow me that appreciate such crudeness and such immaturity in a review because I pride myself of professionalism.
I cant help but be offended on behalf of the author, I personally have worked with countless authors on a personal level and have become close friends with a lot of them and if for some reason I do not enjoy their work, they actually want to hear about it, but never in this manner its not helpful in anyway. I am always happy to give them an honest, RESPECTFUL, helpful review of their work. I am also a beta reader and receive ARC’s from several authors, I would be ashamed if I were you to portray myself with such little class and professionalism.
I hope you found my review of YOUR WORK to be helpful in your future work.
O I forgot you contradicted yourself in these two statements:
“It is a paranormal romance/erotica but the romance was not there. At all.”
“What really disappointed me was that I went into this expecting some sort of erotica (come on, who doesn’t read a little smut to break their reading patterns now and then?) and I didn’t get it. While there is sexual situations in this book it was more romance type sex than erotic sex.”
Just wanted to be helpful and point that out so you dont make the same mistake in your next unprofessional review.
There’s no contradiction. First statement was about lack of romance, second statement was about lack of erotic sex.
I won’t be in no way professional with my response to you Lori, because if some one can be crude and do it well, its me. I think you live your life filled with hate because you could not make it in the literacy world. I think what you did was disrespectful and ridiculously childish. Okay well you didn’t like the book. But there is many ways to go about the situation without having to hurt the authors feelings and then at the same time take the readers away from her to. You are LAME for that, and you get no kuddo’s WHAT-SO-EVER. Like Charity I do help out many authors as well and I would never in a million years be so reckless with there feelings like that. This author put her heart and soul into this story just like many authors do when they write and you just tried to shut her down(Not Happening). I think you enjoyed the story so much that you wish you actually came up with the idea and didn’t. I will make sure to spread the word that this site is hot monkey crap and doesn’t deserve any attention what so ever… I seriously doubt you sleep at night because of the guilt…Maybe you should do a review on the book I wrote, its called “Your website sucks in 50 different ways” <3
“Like Charity I do help out many authors as well and I would never in a million years be so reckless with there feelings like that.”
Reviews aren’t there to help authors, they are there to help readers make an informed choice. I found this review very helpful, so thanks Lori for that.
Also, the only one here harming the author is you.
Thanks Brie, I am glad that is was helpful. I didn’t hate the book. I gave it two stars. If I had not enjoyed something then I would have rated it one star.
Like Charity….sounds exactly like Charity. Author’s trolls??
To counterbalance the negative comments here, I have to say that I actually really like reviews like this, as they help me decide if I should waste my time on reading something or not. In this case that’s obviously a “not”.
Writing a negative review does not make a person mean, immature, childish, lame, etc, it just one person’s opinion on a book/novella/whatever. That’s exactly why I prefer book blogs to “professional” reviews, because I can trust that I’ll hear the reviewers personal opinion on the book. If you don’t like reviews like that, you probably shouldn’t be reading book blogs..:)
Hey ladies. Lori is giving a review of a book and now you are attacking her as a person, calling her mean and hate filled, just because she stated her opinion. I think you might want to look inside yourselves and see who in fact is hate-filled. I am leaving these comments, because I don’t delete comments unless they are spam. But I think it is quite upsetting that you would try and bully a new PJV reviewer just because of her opinion. The review might be snarky, but reviews are opinions – and everyone has one. Thanks for the comment about my website being hot monkey crap and sucks in 50 different ways. That was lovely. Nice analogy. But, again — I could care less. Because it is your opinion and unlike Lori, who put her name behind her opinion, yours is just an anonymous comment.
I agree with Nina. I have seen plenty of reviews where they have ripped the book to shreds. This review was honest and not once did she talk ill of the author. Reviews are subjective and everyone has a right to their own opinions. Lets not be bullies because you didn’t like the review.
+JMJ+
The cover and the fact that it’s a short would make me think it’s Erotica, too. And while I’m not a fan of twisting the mythos, it’s enough of a PNR convention for you to expect something more than what this story delivered. I don’t blame you for being disappointed. Thanks for the review.
Thank you everyone. It was and is still my opinion. I have never and will never negatively comment about an author in a review. I review their work and not their person. I was remiss in not stating in my review that the writing itself was not bad just the content and storyline were not something that I enjoyed. The technical aspect of her writing was good.
While I understand that we all have our own personal opinion and that’s why we write reviews, I’m a bit confused by yours…
The first thing I’m confused about is your utter disappointment in the lack of smut in Love Can Be Dangerous To Your Health. It’s not listed as Erotica anywhere that I’ve seen so far (unless it was shelved there by a reader), and Liz is not a graphic sex writer. None of her books are, and she never claimed to be anywhere that I’ve seen online. So that was the first issue I had with your review, your bashing of the fact that it was “more romantic type sex” when the book is classified as a Paranormal Romance/Paranormal Thriller.
In addition, from a review perspective, while you clearly didn’t hold back in bashing certain things, it’s actually unclear as to whether or not you really liked it. There are sentences in your review where it sounds like you did, and then in the next breath (or a previous breath) you’ve call it a waste of 20 mins of your life (something I found completely uncalled for by the way from a self proclaimed bibliophile and reviewer).
The other piece that confused me was your confession that this was your first succubus book, but your obvious contempt at the fact that it stuck to the general myth and legend behind succubi. If you had read other books about succubi you’d know that a VERY large percentage of them stick to that mythology and use the plot to bring the twists. I read this novella and I was actually pleased to see the differences with the plot in relation to the succubi mythology that the author brought – the fact that she didn’t stick to the succubus being an entire sensual being, but one with a dark and not so beautiful side as well, the fact that she didn’t have the succubus fight her true nature for the sake of her relationship with the human, etc. Those were unique twists and set the story apart from other books and novellas with the same general premise.
I, like you and the ladies who commented above, read A LOT and work with numerous authors as a BETA Reader and Reviewer. I also run my own promo and review site. With that all said, I was shocked to find a review this unprofessional on a site that I had previously followed with interest and respect. Authors look to reviewers for buzz and constructive criticism. It’s completely unnecessary to be so uncouth in a formal review. Again, I know that we’re all entitled to our opinion, but it’s very unclear to me how you intended for this review to be helpful to a reader or the author at all. It seemed like a venting of a bad day to me, and that’s not what ‘formal’ reviewers are supposed to bring to the literary community.
Nothing is wrong with this review. If you view your blog as a “promo and review site” then you are misunderstanding the purpose of most book bloggers. Book reviews are not meant to be promos, but to give readers an honest opinion on a book. Lori gave her honest opinion so she did her job.
Lori don’t let these people get you down. This review was informative and written actually quite kindly for a book you did not like.
It really saddens me to see people attacking the reviewer. If you don’t agree with her, don’t use her opinion to influence YOUR buying choices.
Lori – I look forward to reading more reviews from you and am so thrilled to see indies being featured here on PJV.
Thank you. Kelly and everyone else. I just want to make a few things clearer about myself and this review. I think everyone missed the point that I picked up this novella to take a break from review books, beta projects, and life in general. If I am reading for fun I am not, nor should I be expected to do a formal and constructive review of this book. I was writing what I thought about the book. You can like it or not. My positive reviews are no more professional than this one. They are filled with horrible sentence structure, fan girlisms and sarcasm. That’s me. That’s how I write. I have never, nor will I ever, claim to be a professional or formal reviewer. I can and am constructive to authors when they personally ask me to do so. Like others I have several authors I beta for. The rest of the time I am just a person who reads.
In response to my hate filled life. I am a good place. My daughter is healthy and happy, I have roof over my head and my mom got another clean (cancer free) xray back from her Dr. recently. I am doing great. I sleep at least 5 very restful hours every night. So I thank you for your concern.
Rachel, I am sorry that my review is causing you this much grief and losing respect for your site.
I cannot and do not like everything I read. I have every right to say so. Just as everyone else. I would promise to never again write another negative review with a dash of sarcasm but I am sure I will. I’ll just put a disclaimer at the top so that you can skip over that one. And if you think my review is bad please never venture over to goodreads. You will be horrified by some of the people there.
Lori – we love sarcasm here!!! Bring it on. I’m sorry this happened to you your second review out. Keep it coming, we are book bloggers, not professional reviewers — never claimed to be. We are here to entertain…pass on a book recommendation and maybe drop a bit of funny. It really is sad that some peoples first instinct is to get really nasty when they hear an opinion that differs from their own … as my Granny says, “Ignore the Stupid People or you’ll join their ranks” or at least I think that is what she said…
First off kudos Lori for stating your opinion on a book that you read. In no way did you put down or diminish the author in any way. This is a review written for readers, not for the author. Reviews generally give honest opinions, while helping readers understand exactly why they either loved/hated/or just didnt care for a book.
I think it is particulary cruel that some of you come on here calling Lori out for being a hateful person who just couldnt hack it in the literary world. Really? In no way in this review is Lori being hateful to anyone! Go back and reread it, maybe you will see what I mean.
If you want sugar filled reviews with nothing but praises for a book, try another reviewer or blog. If you want honest reviews from Lori stick around, she is a pretty awsome person.
After about the 3rd bad book in a row… I tend to reread one of my favorites just to pick me up out of the slump. I will admit that recently, I’ve been declining short stories for this reason. I’ve read too many in the last couple of months that just fall flat. Maybe I personally need a little bit more than 80pgs to fall in love with the characters. Either way… I am taking a hiatus on short stories. Maybe one day I will come back to them but not today. LoL
Great review of the book by the way. Considering how short the book was, it’s always difficult to write a review for a novella without giving away everything in the story. If the book was a little longer I would definitely pick it up because Incubus stories are few and far between but like I said before… novellas are just not for me.
Howdy! Just want to say that I don’t think this was a bad review. I mean, reviews are basically just stating one’s opinion, and that’s what you did. Yeah, it has a few things other people didn’t agree with, but that’s them. You stick with what you’re doing! I myself, LIKE honest reviews. I like knowing what other people think about books so I know if I want to read them or not.
Thanks for the review & keep ‘em coming!
Thank you.
Thank you for sharing your review Lori
!!!! Don’t worry about what people say, what matters is that you gave your honest opinion!