Book Review: The Body Finder

Title: The Body Finder

Author: Kimberly Derting

From Goodreads

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.

My Review
Ok so I was really slow in reading this one, but I've wanted to for a long time. I'm so glad I finally got to it! It was truly one of the best book I've read in a while. 

The Characters: I really liked both Violet and Jay.  They seemed "real".  And what I really liked was their relationship was it also seemed realistic for a high school romance.  For once in a long long time the main characters in the book didn't fall in love after only knowing each other for a few days.  It was awesome to see how they had been friends for so long and only now were developing feelings.  Violets actions towards Jay were perfect as she realized she had feelings for him.  She didn't know what to do with those feelings, so as she struggled with that she did very typical teenage things.  She ignored them, over reacted because of them, and became genuinely confused.  It was perfect. 

To go with that I also liked how Violet dealt with her "ability".  I have no clue how anyone would deal with it, but that fact that she kept it almost low key and not consuming her life seemed the perfect way to handle it.  The way Jay dealt with it was perfect as well.  He was there for her whenever she needed it, but he didn't push her to do or say more than she was ready.  He just accepted the way she was and moved on from it.  Don't we all need a friend like that???

The Plot:  I really liked the mystery in the story.  I was kept guessing about who the serial killer was and how everything was being done.  I especially liked how the point of view would switch to the killer sometimes.  That gave some very creepy insight into his mind.  It really built the tension.  I also liked how the tension came and went, so you always felt kind of off balance.  Could you trust that everything was ok or did you still have to worry? Perfect for keeping me turning the pages.  The ending wrapped everything up nicely, so you could stop reading the series after this one.  There wasn't one of those maddening cliff hangers!  But honestly I don't know what you'd stop after this one!

I did have a couple of problems with choices Violet made in the story.  A few of the things she chose to do I just wanted to yell at her about.  They were necessary to the advancement of the plot, but boy did I question her rationale for doing them!!  But all-in-all I understood that at her age and knowing what she did, she did the right thing for the situation from her point of view.  But as a "grown up" I wanted to shake her!

Final thought: Great mystery + great cute romance = awesome story!
Best stick-with-you image: When she finds the first girl right away at the start of the story.  Wow!
Best for readers who: Like a mystery and are ok with romance mixed in.
Best for ages: 13+