REVIEW: All Wounds by Dina James

Genre: YA, supernatural

Rating: 2/5

Rebecca is a young and inexperienced girl, who has to put up with crap from people at her school and taking care of an ailing grandma. Then she learns she’s a Healer (a doctor, basically) to Ethereals (vamps, werewolves, etc…) and that on her 17th birthday, she will come into her power, which might possibly kill her. Not to mention that the Demons are after her also. The only thing standing in their way is a vampire (Syd) and a werewolf…. (I apologize for the crappy summary).

While the idea of this story is great, I do not see how this book has managed to get such great reviews on Goodreads. It was fast paced, which will draw you in, but the plot…well, it seemed pretty wonky to me. For example: the entire time, everyone says “don’t fall in love with Syd! What you feel isn’t real! Don’t believe it!” Syd says “don’t fall in love with me, it’s not real.” yet most of the descriptions and things he does scream “ITHINKYOUARESOSEXY….” while the other half are…”blahidontreallycare.” and in the meantime while they’re both trying to deny stuff, its like “ohh! Let’s throw in another guy, who actually DOES seem to love her, and she loves back.” but then it’s like “ha-ha, sucker, NEVER MIND.” another good point made by Naomi Clark on Goodreads points out “Rebecca somehow becomes the most super special Healer ever for no apparent reason. I also felt that Rebecca’s actual powers were a little too loosely defined - a mix of innate talent that just comes to her when she needs it, and actual practical healing skills that she seems to acquire without any on-page training. We’re told she’s being trained, but we don’t see much of it, and the overall result is that sometimes she appears to psychically know and do things when it’s convenient to the plot.” exactly.

Would I recommend it? NOOOOOOO.  It was a wasted $5 that I’ll never get back (I bought it for my kindle). The first few chapters of this were originally (I believe) published as a short story in the anthology The Eternal Kiss, which is where I first found it. I liked it much better that way. But the final choice is up to you.