The Body Finder (The Body Finder, #1) by Kimberly Derting (2010)

Description 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 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.

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Recently I have been reading only high fantasy books, so I though it would be nice to tone it down a little, and choose something to read that could actually happen, but still has a slight fantasy element to it.  So, as I had been wanting to read The Body Finder for ages, I decided to give it a try; the description promises thrilling scenes and unrequited love sounded just perfect for the current mood. And I wasn't disappointed!

A killer is roaming free at Violet's city, and one by one pretty and young girls turn up dead. The murdered got his own point of view and chapters which made the already scary atmosphere even more threatening. The readers get to see how the man stalks the girls and thinks the whole process as "hunting". The killers becomes obsessed with these pretty girls, and eventually he needs to kill more often and more often. It was a brilliant choice from Derting to add chapters from killer's point of view as those made shiver (even though they could have been even creepier, because that's the way I like my stories sometimes).

I loooved the relationship between Violet and Jay. I want a best friend like that, even if I would be in love with him! It was so heartwarming to read about their daily activities, sense of humour, and trust. I was really surprised as I wasn't annoyed when Violet became jealous of Jay, because usually the jealousy makes the main character needy. But not when it came to Violet! I was so glad that even though she had a major crush on him, she couldn't bring herself act on these feelings as she was afraid what would become of their friendship. Their relationship seemed really realistic and it wasn't rushed which I really appreciated. You don't seem to get those too often nowadays.

Even though the plot was rather suspenseful, it was also quite predictable. I don't want to spoil anything, so I won't give you any examples, but for me it was pretty obvious what the plot curve would look like. If the plot would have been more surprising, I think I could have thought about giving even 5 stars. But no. The book is part of a trilogy, so I have quite high expectations for the other books, because I have no idea the story will continue. I hope book 2 and 3 will give some delicious twists.

The book was thrilling and cute at the same time, and I think quite many will enjoy it. Like I already mentioned, the predictability is a major downside, but otherwise I really enjoyed everything else. Jay was handsome and sweet (basically perfect) while Violet was very likeable and relatable. I will definitely read the book 2, just because I'm curious how the story continues! The actual rating is more like 3.5 than just 3.

“She allowed herself to look his way, pretending she was glancing at the clock on the wall above the door. He was meticulously lost in the lesson, taking notes well beyond the scope of what was written on the board.She was grateful that at least one of them was listening, because she knew he was going to have to explain it all to her later. And he would, without every knowing that he was the reason she hadn’t heard a word of the lesson.”

☆☆☆