2.5 stars for the world building. ( )

I normally don’t really do books about angels. Too often it results in a lot of talk about God and belief and I’m not a big fan of that. Still, I decided to give All For You a chance without actually knowing why. I think it may be because it sounds more like a romance with a hint of paranormal, than a paranormal with a hint of romance. Does that make sense or is it only understandable to me?

Anyway, I’m very glad I decided to give it a shot. I loved the angels. They are kind of like the X-Men with different ‘superpowers’ and their power kind of marks them. It was awesome! Seth was far from being the angel with the greatest power, but his was all right. He does, however, have an amazing personality and he’s both funny and charming. The other angels are a lot of fun too and I especially liked the idea about Gabriel as angel-boss – the one the rest of them respected and feared. Abby is quite interesting and her history is very intriguing, but it takes too long before anything is really revealed. There are tons of hints and some of the story is slowly revealed, but the whole deal was postponed again and again and it ended up bugging me a lot! I just really wanted to know!

The story itself (the main story, not Abby’s story) is neither innovative nor fantastic but it was all right and it kept me reading. The best parts of the story were the relationship between the angels and the bantering and sexual tension between Abby and Seth. You need to read this story because of the romance and people-part instead of the paranormal parts. I have the next one in the series (The Fire Within – about one of the other angels) waiting for me and I’m looking forward to once again embarking on an adventure with some hot angels!
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Starts off with our 'angels' speaking a lot of profanity. Abby is a target of the Shemzaya and Seth is her protector and is in love with her. There are some really stupid moments there he swears not to ever leave her alone and then turns around and leaves her alone, not just once but several times.... really?
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I really wanted to like this book but I had a hard time doing so. It had a really interesting premise with Nephilims but....
1)it could have used a glossary as there were many different types of Nephilims and Shemyazas (their arch-nemesis) most of which we were told via dialogue between the main characters but many had no part in this particular book so it felt like she was info dumping instead of world building.
2)The hero got mad at the heroine because she did something that labeled her TSTL and actually said "Even you aren't that stupid." at which point I would have giving him a big F.U. and left his winged butt where he stood, but not her. Nope she was just smiling like an idiot because she realized he didn't frighten her (which after a violent past as a battered woman it was understandable why a man shouting at her in anger would have made her curl up in a ball but the man said she was stupid! Come on!)
3)The heroine then proved repeatedly that she truly was that stupid and continued to do TSTL things.
4)The hero eventually proved that he was also TSTL.
5)The mystery was explained in a way that I felt completely let down.
6)The heroine has something like 20 best friends (slight exaggeration) all of whom were mentioned at least once during the course of the book even though some were not actually in the book at all.
7)Abby is being stalked and she's terrified it's her ex who is supposed to be in prison for life yet she doesn't try to contact the prison to make sure he is still there. No one does.
8)This book uses a version of the 'mated' theme to explain why couples are together yet it appears that a mate is not a once in a lifetime thing and a Nephilim can indeed have more than one during the course of their lifespan. This seems a bit confusing and it's just not explained enough.
9)The Nephilims have something unique about each one of them but they are essentially human. They don't appear to be super hard to kill. They are not bullet proof and their lifespans are the same as humans. I really prefer my supernatural boyfriends to be a little like Superman. Sigh, yet another disappointment.
10)I had a hard time grasping how old the characters were as their dialogue seemed quite juvenile. I thought the bunch of them were teenagers for a moment (especially when the heroine thought to herself "She hoped they understood how tired she was, because soon she'd be seeing little ponies prancing on the ceiling, farting rainbows everywhere." Really?)

Anyway, it really did have potential and the suspense on who was stalking Abby and why was compelling. I found myself wanting to get back to the book to find out what would happen but I ended up just disappointed. On a side note I think Dana Marie Bell generally writes erotica and it was evident in the wording during the sex scenes. Although I am not a fan of erotica I didn't hate the sex scenes in this book. I liked that the plot was not overshadowed by the sex and the sex scenes did not feel out of place when they occurred.

Overall, I will give this author another try and read the second Nephilim book when it comes out sometime in the future. 2.5 Stars

(I received this book from NetGalley for my honest review.) ( )

Check out my review and a few teasers here: http://frommetoyouvideophoto.blogspot.com/2013/01/made-grade-nephilim-series-boo... ( )