Ash’s review of The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting
Young Adult Paranormal published by HarperCollins 15 Feb 11

With me, a book doesn’t have to have the best writing, it doesn’t have to be deep and thought provoking. In fact, I don’t like those books much. I want to be happy when I turn that last page, and The Body Finder left me very happy and wanting more.

The big thing is that I like Violet throughout the whole book, even when she is doing stupid things. Or ignoring the obviousness of her best friend’s feelings for her. Violet’s relationship with Jay is a big part of the story, and, of course, that makes me happy. I always worry that young adult books won’t give me the amount of romance I like in a book, since they are for teens, but it’s just right in this one. The scene where things change between them is perfect in its own innocent way. Plus, I am a sucker for friends-to-lovers plotlines.

Violet’s ability to find bodies is not an easy one and she could have been a whining teenage girl, but she handles it surprisingly well. The premise of what she does works because it is so simple to understand, but the way it works for Violet keeps it interesting. For example, each body has its own scent, sound, or sight that only Violet can sense. Violet doesn’t get any more information, so there is plenty of mystery. Kimberly Derting doesn’t shove a ton of stuff down your throat. Violet just happens to be a girl who can find where bodies, human or animal, are.

With me, young adult books seem to either have too much story or not enough. I took a chance and bought The Body Finder and I’m glad I did. It’s the newest addition to my keeper shelf and I am ready to start the second book.

Grade: A

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.

Read an excerpt.

Other books in this series:

This just in…

Avon has three terrific historicals on their site that you can read right now at no charge whatsoever!!!

~ Lorraine Heath’s In Bed with the Devil, Sarah Gabriel’s Keeping Kate, and Margo Maguire’s The Bride Hunt are 100% free to read on the Avon website.

~ Plus, with HarperCollins’ new Browse Inside feature we told you about recently, you can also check out other goodies like Glitter Baby by Susan Elizabeth Phillips, At Grave’s End by Jeaniene Frost, Tempt the Devil by Anna Campbell, The Highland Groom by Sarah Gabriel, and Wild by Margo Maguire, most of which are brand new, upcoming titles, to see if they’re something you’d like to read before you actually buy.

~ Check it all out here.

Consider yourself flashed.

This just in…

HarperCollins has a new feature for all Avon books on their site you’re just going to love.  Now you can find out if you’re going to like a particular author or new release before you buy!

~ When browsing the HC website for Avon titles, click their new Browse Inside button. All kinds of goodies pop up at the touch of that button.

~  You’ll have the option of more info on the book you’re considering, more about the author, a list of the author’s other books,  and you can sign up for their Author Tracker to receive future news about the author.

~ The coolest part of Browsing Inside at HC, though, is you’re now able to read up to 20% of any Avon title.  So if you’re not sure about that new author you’ve heard about or someone told you they didn’t care for a book, you can decide for yourself right on the spot!

~ As an example, Browse Inside the new Julie Anne Long book, Like No Other Lover, to get a feel for this great new feature.

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Consider yourself flashed.

This just in…

Kathryn Caskie and HarperCollins have teamed up and are offering you an early Christmas gift.

~ Kathryn’s first book in her Royle Sisters series, How to Seduce a Duke, is being offered at HarperCollins for free!

~ Here!  Here’s the link!

~ Hurry, though.  The offer is good only until November 25, and that’s an important date.

~ The first book in her new series, The Seven Deadly Sins, goes on sale that day.  So while you’re at HC, you can also read Chapters 1 -3 of To Sin With a Stranger for free too. Check it out here.

~ How to Engage an Earl and How to Propose to a Prince round out the Royle Sisters trilogy.

~ The second book in the Deadly Sins series is The Most Wicked of Sins and is to be released August 2009.

Consider yourself flashed.

This just in…

HarperCollins is offering free gallies of Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Sharing Knife: Horizon, her latest release in the series, in exchange for a promise to review it so HC can then post it on their blog.  How easy is that?

~ Just send an email to eosbooks@harpercollins.com for your copy.

~ Horizon is the fourth book in the series, and if you haven’t read the previous three and would like to, just include that information in your email and HC will send you all four books!  Now, that’s a great deal!

~ This new book is a standalone, however, so reading the prior three is not necessary, according to HarperCollins.

~ There’s only ten gallies available, so hurry!

Consider yourself flashed.

This just in…

Remember a few of those bad dates way back when? Well, tell the world about ‘em and win big if you’re the one chosen with the worst-date-ever story…

Rachel Gibson’s heroine, Adele Harris, in her new book Not Another Bad Date (released 27 May 08), is the inspiration for a new contest sponsored by Rachel and HarperCollins.

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~ There will also be five runners-up who will win copies of the first three books in Rachel Gibson’s series about four writer friends trying out the wild side of life: Sex, Lies and Online Dating, I’m In No Mood for Love, and Tangled Up In You.

~ Check it all out right here!

Consider yourself flashed.