Review--The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

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.

Kimberly Derting's The Body Finder was one interesting read! I thought the idea that Violet could sense the bodies of those who had been murdered to be very intriguing. I mean, she doesn't really sense dead bodies, but more so murdered bodies and she see imprints of victims on the killers. Even unintentional ones, like seeing doctors with imprints of patients they helped to ease their pain.

What was really interesting about this book was the mystery, it was pretty good! I mean once you think you have it solved, it changes on you! Took me completely by surprise, although I did suspect the right person! What was even more thrilling was that every few chapters or so we would get into the perspective of the killer himself. The book is told in third person, so it becomes easy to realize when the perspective changes. His chapters are even italicized.

Violet was a very good character I think. She wasn't necessarily forging ahead to stop the murderer because the police are incompetent, her uncle is even the chief of the police. She finally decides to help when things continue to get worse as more girls go missing, and when Violet accidentally stumbles upon the body of one of his victims, it's when she decides to take action, because she doesn't want someone she knows to become his next victim. So with the help of Jay, she decides to try to track him down, since she knows the echo of the first body she found, she believes she can use that to find the killer, for he will bear her imprint/echo.

The Body Finder was definitely well paced and it intertwined the romance aspects wonderfully! I mean there was a mystery to be solved and yet still a romance to explore. Violet tries hard not to think about Jay too much, but he is her best friend and her feelings for him take her by storm. But just because she wants to be more than friends now doesn't mean it's going to happen lickety split! Oh no it doesn't. There are quite a few obstacles, such as almost every single girl in school has suddenly taken a shine onto Jay and one of Violet's other guy friends has taken a shine onto her. Those definitely present problems for the two.

The ending is where things really pick up and even more suspense comes into play. I really didn't see the major twist coming, but like I said, I did sort of guess to the killer's identity. And the ending had quite shocking result too, I was literally stunned!

Overall a helluva GREAT read! If you're looking for something a little different from the paranormal books, but still want that edge, The Body Finder is the book for you! I give it 5/5 stars! Now onto Desires of the Dead!