Book Review - The Body Finder

Whoa lookit this! Another review! Yea it's for a book I read 3 weeks ago but at least I'm finally reviewing it right? With any luck I'll be caught up after a week of daily posting :P But less yacking from me and more talk about the book.

Title: The Body Finder
Author: Kimberly Derting
Date: 8/2/2011 PM
Source: Bought
Description: Violet Ambrose is grappling with two major issues: Jay Heaton and her morbid secret ability. While the sixteen-year-old is confused by her new feelings for her best friend since childhood, she is more disturbed by her "power" to sense dead bodies—or at least those that have been murdered. Since she was a little girl, she has felt the echoes the dead leave behind in the world . . . and the imprints that attach to their killers. Violet has never considered her strange talent to be a gift; it mostly just led her to find dead birds her cat left for her. But now that a serial killer is terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he's claimed haunt her daily, Violet realizes she might be the only person who can stop him. Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved by her hope that Jay's intentions are much more than friendly. But even as she's falling intensely in love, Violet is getting closer and closer to discovering a killer . . . and becoming his prey herself. (Description Taken from Goodreads)


My Review
Back at the start of February I was in the mood for books that weren't your standard romance-focused YA fare. The premise of the Body Finder reminded me of the Harper Connelly books by Charlaine Harris and since I really like that series I was pretty sure that I was gonna like this book.


What I got was a truly heart-pounding read that had me flipping pages as fast as I could to get to the climax so I could actually breathe again (I'm sure I forgot to do so a few times).


Violet's ability to sense the bodies of people who've been murdered is really fascinating (in a rather morbid-I-watch-way-too-much-CSI-kinda-way) and I wonder what if there actually were people with this ability? It'd be a godsend for the police who have all but given up on finding the bodies of certain people but obviously in countries as massive as the US there are probably hundreds of thousands of cold case murders and disappearances where no body has ever been found - there would have to be dozens of people like Violet to even scratch the surface of such an endeavour.


What I really loved about the serial killer mystery is that at several points in the story I was stumped as to who was behind the murders and I know I got terribly worried at times thinking that it might be someone who I seriously hoped it wasn't (if that makes any sense). The occasional chapter in the killer's POV really upped the tension and creepy factor with just how chilling and twisted his thoughts were *shudders*


I know you're maybe wondering "when are you getting to talking about Violet and Jay?" but never fear I'm coming to that now. Despite not really wanting to read books with romance in them I still loved the friendship between Violet and Jay and how that evolved over the book because frankly it was almost smouldering at times and every girl wants to feel chemistry like *that*. Violet is a really cool heroine and I envy her a fair bit for having such a hot and yet totally sweet best friend like Jay - I mean who wouldn't want to be her?


I gotta say that Kimberly Derting has done a fantastic job of combing a murder mystery with a romance story - the very different vibes created by each aspect of the book make for a very exciting read. I loved every breathless minute of this and I can't wait to read Desires of the Dead.


My Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars


I've noticed that a lot of what I've been reading recently has had a large mystery component to it which is rather awesome - I like the puzzlement of not knowing how things will unfold :)


LadyV