"Demon Can't Help It" by Kathy Love

Practical Josephine "Jo" Burke has no patience for the paranormal - even if she's been having some strange visions lately. But if she is losing her mind, at least it would explain her new attraction to her co-worker, the last suitable man she could ever fall for... Maksim Kostova has no idea why he's so drawn to feisty mortal Jo, but he does know how she feels about the supernatural. Forget about her accepting him for what he really is, she'd never even believe him in the first place. Or would she? When Jo confesses to him that she's been seeing visions of a dead girl, it seems anything's possible...

I've been reading Kathy Love for a while, starting back when she was still writing "regular" romances (ie - no vampires or demons as characters). The books are light reading with hot guys and even hotter sex, and almost always have a happy ending. I finally got my hands on this book a few months ago and it's typical Love, although not my favorite.

Maksim is a devil of a demon, good-looking beyond belief but condescending to anyone human. He uses and abuses women of the mortal variety, and right now, he really doesn't have time for even that - he's searching for his lost sister. Enter Jo, the one mortal woman who seems to be completely oblivious to her. Well, you know what will happen next - men hate to be ignored! The story doesn't deviate from the standard format: demon meets human woman, woos human woman, falls in love with human woman, then must find a way to either leave human woman or tell her what he really is and hope for the best. It's still a decent read given the material.

Now having said that, I did have a few problems with this particular work, namely the editing/proofing - or rather, extreme lack thereof. I felt at times as if I was reading a submission, rather than an actual published work, it was so bad! Typos out the wazoo, incorrect words choices (there vs. their), extra words thrown in that made no sense whatsoever. And my biggest beef was the lack of contractions! I'm sorry, but if you're a modern writer, you need to write the way people speak, and I know of hardly anyone that speaks in full, complete, wordy sentences the way Love's characters do. I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt on Maksim - his being a demon means that English isn't his "native" tongue, and many foreigners learning a new language will speak in those complete sentences. But Americans? When was the last time you heard someone say "I will go to the store. I am willing to go to the store."?

Then there were the sex scenes. I love me some good sex scenes, but maybe I'm starting to get old or something. I found myself skipping over the "hot" stuff more and more, trying to get to the story itself. I know there a lot of readers out there who love the sex and want more of it, so maybe that's the audience Love is writing for.

Finally, there was the "big secret" that Jo had from the very first page, the one she was just sure would drive her friends away, and later on, her new lover. Oh my god, if you have any brains at all, you'll figure it out as quickly as I did, so I'm not sure why it was written as it was. I think the author would have done everyone a favor by just putting it out there right away and getting on with the story.

But I still enjoyed the book enough to review it for all of you! LOL!