What if you have a smart, playful and faithful boyfriend?
When dating, he said: “I have no interest in these sort of things. But if you kiss me every ten minutes, I am willing to do any sort of silly things with you.
When jealous, he said: “Compared to me, this man had stupid written all over him. The only good point he has is that he knows you are a good woman too.
When making love, he said: “Although I have no experience, my intelligence and ability to learn far surpass normal people. Just to add, I am very observant as well.
When proposing, he said: “I have no words to express myself. But if I have to sum everything up – I love you with all of my wisdom and life.
I took him from a lonely world, back to the warmth of the bustling city.
While he drags me from a quiet and ordinary life to a exciting and unpredictable life.
First book of Ding Mo I read after watching the drama and the book I've read more than twice. I don't know why even though I really liked it as much as the other books, something was slightly missing. And as always with all the unofficially translated Chinese books I've read, I hope they publish an official English translated novel cuz damn these covers are soooooo gorgeous. If they say don't judge a book by its cover, it clearly doesn't apply to this. The story is just as beautiful as the cover.
There seemed to be a good balance between the criminal cases and romance between the leads. I'm usually into gentle and outgoing male leads, but I didn't really mind the arrogant and "low-EQ" male lead here. I think the leads were cute!
My review is basically a comparison between the book and the drama:-
Warning: There are certain gruesome/violent scenes mentioned in the book.
All the while I was reading this, Wallace Huo starred as Prof. Bo in my imagination. I guess I should thank the drama? *Giggles
Thankfully, I'd watched the drama around three years ago and I could almost, almost enjoy this without spoiling it for myself.
You should definitely read this before watching the drama because all those little loopholes which you otherwise miss out on is clarified here.
For instance, the drama showed an insta change in Bo Jin Yan's character after he realised that he loves her. While the book also heads in a similar direction, it hints at the inner thoughts and emotions of BJY that allows the readers to easily accept this change in him.
Jenny and Prof. Bo are so much more romantic here, whereas in the drama the spotlight is on the homicide cases that they solve. But the book balanced both the aspects very well. So I obviously liked the book better.
Another miss in the drama was that the "extra" chapters of the book weren't shown there. I remember being dissatisfied with the ending, but the author wrapped up the plot very well, and I'm so glad I took this up. I kinda got a closure after reading about how happy they are in the future, post the closure of the main arc.
This story takes place at the same time as "When A Snail Falls In Love" happens. I concluded this from one of the extra chapters provided by the author as Ji Bai and Xu Xu make a cameo appearance as husband and wife.
You should definitely go for all the three books in this series if you're into mystery, criminal psychology or even just romance.
// I read the translated version of this story. //
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
These two are too cute! Love Me If You Dare is one of my favorite Chinese dramas. I watched it for the first time 4 years ago.
I put off reading the book version, but I'm glad I finally read it. Ding Mo's female characters are well written and her male characters are engaging and unique. I would have liked more information about Jian Yao's past, but I love that no family members were trying to split them up and the couple focused on their investigations more than any other drama. All while being really cute with each other and developing Jinyan's EQ. 🥺🥰
Bo Jinyan is shown in the first few chapters as a recluse with poor social skills. He shuts himself in his home and is quite cold. When he's in public he can come across as slightly creepy to other people and awkward. His background was mysterious before he meets Jian Yao. As you keep reading, the interactions between him and Jian Yao become more romantic and adorable.
Romance and crime investigations are definitely my cup of tea. Thrilling mysteries, crime investigations, learning from each other, fluffy romance, and long-lasting love puts me in a perfect mood. I'm excited to read Ding Mo's other works, and I'll be reading more Chinese books and webnovels in the future.
This is similar in style to "When a snail falls in love", but this story better than that one. The cases solved are very interesting and give a lot of insight into criminal psychology. The leads are amazing too. The ML is a criminal psychology genius who is very determined, proud, strong and loving. The FL is very kind and compassionate and loving and is lured in by him to be his assistant. The MLs actions were sometimes very funny. The side characters are good too. The twist in the end was awesome. It's a really good read.
Es completamente perfecto. Misterio, romance (sin cosas especialmente cursis), asesinatos, juegos psicologicos, comentarios sarcasticos, personaje principal al que literalmente no le importa nada.
Es una pena que la unica manera de leerlo es por medio de blogs, ya que no se encuentra traducido de alguna otra manera, pero bue. Esta novela lo vale completamente El drama chino "Love me if you dare" esta basado es esta novela, y es originalmente la razon por la que queria leerla. Son basicamente lo mismo (cosa que me sorprendio. El drama es practicamente igual) solo que en la novela, obviamente, hay mas detalles que tuvieron que dejarse fuera del drama. Espero que otros blogs puedan traducir las otras novelas de esta autora.
In terms of the cases and details, they remain exactly the same as the television show (which makes me question my wording, considering the show came after). Point is, it’s nothing I haven’t seen before hence the missing and much needed wow factor. What the book does with excellency however is portray the romantic relationship between the two leads, which wasn’t given enough screen time in the show. It highlighted a tenderness that just doesn’t translate onto the small screen which is a real shame.
As a translation, it was alright. But it didn’t sweep me off my feet, nor did it stimulate my mind. It simply was, alright.
Eu Procurei este livro por causa da série chinesa "Love me if you dare". A série é fantástica (assisti duas vezes) e quando soube que era baseado numa livro fiquei louca para ler.
Imagine minha surpresa quando nao achei ele traduzido ainda para o inglês !!
O Série está famosa mundialmente e ainda nem data de previsão de "romanização" deste livro.
A sorte é que encontrei uma fã que montou um blog onde foi traduzindo aos poucos para o inglês.
A tradução está amadora, mas quem é fã da serie vai adorar !!!
It's been a while since my last crime novel so I really enjoyed this one.
We follow along with our female lead Jian Yao as she slowly gets sucked into the ML Bo Junyan's world of using criminal psychology to solve local crimes. He's extremely picky, but she passes his test for a temporary translator job and ends up working under him long term as his assistant. In the process of working together, she develops an attraction to him as he's a physically good looking guy, and eventually he recognizes he has feelings for her too.
Honestly I'm not a huge fan of the ML. Brilliant guy, but as a person he was quite eccentric. Your typical high IQ, low EQ genius with plenty of arrogance to spare. For example, he loves eating fish and has a super expensive fishing rod, but he has no patience for the sport of fishing itself. So what he does is leave his fishing rod at the river and come back hours later in hopes that some curious soul has helped him do the fishing. Who does that?? He's also not great at social situations, so he always speaks abruptly and requires someone else to smooth the situation over. This is done by his only friend initially and the FL once she starts working for him. The author plays his eccentricities off due to his being a genius, and I can understand why since folks with high IQs think differently, but personally I wasn't a fan.
The FL was much a easier character to like. She's smart and pretty and gets along with everyone. She learns quickly on the job and, through the ML's tutoring, is able to solve simple crimes by herself by the end. I appreciated that even though she was traumatized as a kid by her father's death, she eventually finds the courage to pursue her dream of law enforcement and dates someone involved with the police against her mother's wishes.
The romance was all right. The FL falls first, but it didn't take the ML as long as I expected to recognize his feelings, given how clueless he is in most social situations. I was afraid of a long period of misunderstandings but luckily the author didn't put us through that. Once they got together, things were pretty sweet and their physical relationship starts not too long after. The ML showed himself to be surprisingly aggressive about intimate activities. He has no sense of embarrassment when talking about their sexual activities in broad daylight and keeps embarrassing the FL XP
More so than anything else, where the story really shone for me were the homicide cases, which range from a local serial killer to a homicide at the FL's company to a series of arsons and kidnappings targeting the ML. Some of them were smaller cases, but there was a thin thread running through all of them linking the ML to a serial killer he helped put behind bars in the past. This thread really comes into play in the last big case / arc, which starts and ends with a bang and had me sitting on the edge of my seat. I absolutely loved . If that's not brilliant I don't know what is!
I also loved following along with the ML's criminal profiles based on the crimes committed for each case but especially for the last case involving 4 kidnapped people in Hong Kong who seemingly had no connection. It's clear the author did her research thoroughly for this, and I was seriously impressed at what the ML could deduce based on the limited clues available. Makes me realize how powerful of a tool criminal profiling is for catching serial killers.
I definitely want to try watching the drama based on this novel! It's called Love Me If You Dare.
3.5 stars rounded up because I legit laughed out loud.
First, this is a mystery/ romance with a heavy side of graphic serial killings. Be prepared for gruesome descriptions of corpses, torture, and a bit of cannibalism. It rarely felt excessive and I loved that no one was truly safe.
So... Why did I find myself laughing?Because the ML is the most arrogantly direct character I have ever encountered in a romance. BJY was brilliant but he was also a jackhole.
Second, the romance gets equal billing with the mystery.
Jian Yao (the FL) was a good foil for him and I enjoyed reading her experience of him, especially in the beginning. I liked that he respected her. I loved that she was actually involved in solving the cases.
Third, the last 20 chapters (there are 88 of them) brought the rating down.
I knew I would be suspending my disbelief early on because BYJ was NEVER wrong. He figured everything out with little to go on and he was always ten steps ahead of everyone *including* the killers.
However, when the mastermind finally gets into the mix things went a bit nuts. Like, it was hammered into us how great BJY is and how he never misses anything... Until the plot needs him to miss a huge thing.
All of the stuff about American prisons, the FBI and criminal investigation seemed to be cribbed from TV shows. And the less said about the omnipotence of the drugs that were used by our big bad the better.
Overall a good read but it really could have been a great one.
ตั้งใจมาอ่านเล่มนี้เพราะอ่านเรื่องหอยทากแล้วชอบ ไม่รู้มาก่อนว่าเรื่องเดียวกันกับ Love Me If You Dare คืออ่านคำนำแล้วถึงรู้ ก็ชะงักไปแปป เพราะว่าเคยดูเรื่องนั้น 2-3 ตอนแล้วรู้สึกไม่ค่อยชอบ
สุดท้ายตัดใจอ่าน พอได้อ่านก็รู้สึกชอบกว่าดูนะ อาจจะเพราะหนังสือมันเป็น Original อ่านแล้ว convincing กว่า ซีรี่ย์ดูเยอะกว่าหนึ่งสเต็ป
This was such an addictive read. The crimes in this story are undeniably dark, but they're written with so much tension and intrigue that you can’t help but be drawn in. Every case is unsettling in the best way—clever, mysterious, and impossible to look away from.
But the real heart of the book is the main characters. I absolutely loved them. The male lead is a lovable, eccentric genius—brilliant, awkward, and completely oblivious to his own emotions at first. His emotional intelligence might be low, but once he finally understands his feelings, he’s all in, and it’s honestly so cute to see. The contrast between his sharp mind and his cluelessness about love makes him incredibly endearing.
And together? Their dynamic is perfection. Their slow-burn connection, the soft moments, the shy but sweet affection—it all balances out the darkness of the plot beautifully. Their relationship feels genuine and heartwarming without ever overshadowing the mystery.
A dark crime novel with a soft, adorable romance running through it—this book has everything. I can’t recommend it enough!
I have watched more than one Ding Mo's series, and as usual I prefer Novels compared to TV series because it expands our imagination and get us to think more about the Characters and Plots.
I liked the way this Novel is written, Romance genre and Investigative thriller genre goes hand in hand, keeps up the pace with each other in a steady way. I like the way Simon is portrayed - Arrogant / Proud Psychologist compared to his Gentle / Considerate Boyfriend nature and Jenny for showing so much improvement throughout the story. Character development for both the leads are too good to comment here.
I am not against low IQ / EQ leads, but it is always better to show some character development as the story develops. I liked the way it had been handled by Ding Mo in an awesome way.