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 had tired of playing with. But now that a serial killer has begun terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he’s claimed haunt her daily, she realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.

Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet on her quest to find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved to find herself hoping 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.

summary from goodreads.com

This book was fairly entertaining and unique in many ways, only one of which was the plotline. But, I also found that at times where the suspense should have been building, where I should have been sucked further into the story (such as times when Violet got very close to catching the killer or found one of the murdered girls) I wanted to put the book down. That is not to say it didn’t hold my interest—because it did—but there were most definitely times that I felt myself slipping from Derting’s grip. But, the not-so-subtle subplot of romance pretty much made up for that. I also liked seeing the story from the killers’ eyes very much. Despite its flaws, I cannot deny that I loved this book.

The characters were all very developed, and there were little to no questions left unanswered by the end, which is the general put down to stand alones. Violet's unique ability definitely increased my interest, because i wanted to know more, and Jay is the ideal boyfriend. The killer(s) even had distinguishable personalities, and i couldnt help but find myself very intrigued by them. Derting has got some talent up her sleeve!

This book would be a great choice for fans of Eyes Like Stars by Lisa Mantchev, The Darkest Powers Trilogy by Kelley Armstrong, and the Wake series by Lisa McMann. What an incredible debut from Kimberly Derting! I cannot wait to see what she comes up with next. If I were you, I’d grab this book the second it hits the shelf in March.

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