Book Review: The Body Finder, by Kimberly Derting

Title: The Body Finder
Series/Sequel? The Body Finder #1
Author: Kimberly Derting
Genre(s): Paranormal, Mystery, Romance
Age Level: YA
Page Count: 327 (Hardcover)
Perspective: 3rd Person (Female)
Summary: 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 that 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 the 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.

Review: This book was great. I was pretty indifferent going into it, and then when I saw that it was in third person POV - which I typically dislike because I don't feel as connected to the characters while reading third person - I felt a bit of foreboding. Like an "Oh no, I'm not going to like this book" feeling. But despite the fact that it was third person, I still really liked it.

This book can fall under a few different genres: romance, mystery, paranormal, even some could count it as almost realistic fiction. Because everything in this book was very subtle: it wasn't a paranormal book, or paranormal romance or paranormal mystery. It is a variety of genres, with emphasis not being placed on a particular genre, but just the story as a whole. And because of this, it can attract a variety of readers with a variety of tastes.

And looking at the genres as separate, they were each written very well in themselves. The romance was definitely both swoon- and aw-worthy, the mystery was wonderfully laid out, and the paranormal portion was explained well. And no matter your preference, the suspense and addictive quality of this book will keep anyone reading!

This is the first in a four-book series, but I'm intrigued to see what is coming next, because the way that this book was neatly tied up at the end would make me think it was a standalone, if I hadn't know better.

No matter your tastes, I would definitely recommend picking up this book!

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