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.

From Goodread.com

            How many of you remember the Smart Chicks Tour? Well, I have never heard of Kimberly until Alyson introduced me to her at one of the stops. She’s a darling and I was interested to see how the story I was hearing about could possibly sound on paper. By the way, parts of this are spoiler-ly so beware!

            The Body Finder is a wonderful story of a girl who is trying to figure out how to live her life with an ability like no other. Such a morbid ability and yet so much potential to use it for the greater good. Violet is a sixteen year old girl who many can relate to. Granted, we cant sense dead bodies but we have all gone through that stage of discovering ourselves. I loved reading about her struggles, and Kimberly’s voice is easy to understand and connect to. Now, Jay is a sweetie! A guy next door every girl dreams about. I love that even though we find out at the end that he’s been crazy about Violet all this time, he’s not pushy about it. He’s protective, kind and fun. Kimberly portrays their relationship in the innocence that it is at the age of sixteen.  

            The story was beautiful. I loved the creepy element because often that particular trait is overlooked in YA fiction. Sure, witches, vampires and werewolves are present. But something about this particular creepiness makes it seem all too real. You can almost see yourself meeting Violet at a mall and having a conversation about echoes with her. 

            I cant wait till “The Desires of the Dead” comes out and if anyone wants to send an ARC my way, I might love them forever!

            I recommend this book to anyone who can relate to romance, making life altering decisions, and figuring out what your purpose in life is. Kimberly has done a marvelous job with her debut and I cant wait to see more from her!

Happy reading,

Valia

PS Let me know what you think!