Book Review: Desires of the Dead

TITLE: Desires of the Dead
Book 2 in the Body Finder series
AUTHOR: Kimberly Derting
PUBLISHED: 2011
CATEGORY: Young adult
GENRE: paranormal, mystery
PREMISE: Violet is once again pushed into a mystery because of her gift.
MY REVIEW: I'll be honest I'm not as gung ho about this series as everyone else seems to be. I do like a lot of things about it, don't get me wrong and I enjoy it enough to check out future installments from the library. But I don't know it's just sort of lackluster somehow, I feel like the author doesn't bring it as much as she could. Part of the trouble is that Violet angsts about her gift WAY too much for my taste. I just wish she'd get over it and embrace her gift to become a badass detective or something. Second is the mysteries while interesting and creepy are also a tad predictable. I also really hope the author doesn't go for the obvious love triangle angle between Jay, Rafe, and Violet but she probably will because it wouldn't be YA without ONE love triangle. Sigh.
But the good far outweighs the bad in these books. Violet and Jay are possibly one of the most realistic romances in YA nowadays. I like that even though they are together now, not everything is perfect between them. I ADORE Chelsea and Violet's friends. They are hilarious and the perfect foil for Violet's angsting tendancies and how nice is it that she appreciates them and doesn't judge them? Same with Violet's family who supervize her and aren't made out to be villians when they try to actually ;gasp!; ACT like parents.
So perfect this series is not but I do see why people like it and I recomend it if you're in the mood for a sweet paranormal series. I also hope there's a third one coming out because I do think the developement with the FBI was kind of interesting so I hope the author takes that further.
WHO SHOULD READ: those that have read The Body Finder, paranormal mystery fans
MY RATING: Three and a half out of Five dead animals