Desires of the Dead (Body Finder, #2)

by Kimberly Derting

[rakesandrogues]

Similar to THE BODY FINDER, I initially had a hard time immersing myself in DESIRES OF THE DEAD. There is something about Kimberly Derting’s writing that throws me off. What it is, I can’t put my finger on it. The novel is told in third person perspective, but I don’t think that would be the reason why. Derting still manages to do a fantastic job to get us into the head of Violet. I haven’t heard anyone else comment her writing style so maybe it’s just me. I had a hard time getting into the story which made it difficult for me to like the book.

Another obstacle that made the first third of the book such a challenge was the secondary characters. Oh my God. Seriously, Chelsea annoys me so much. Violet keeps defending her saying that’s really not how she acts and that’s really not her character when they’re alone, but it’s tough to get over it. Sure she has her bright moments, but it was really annoying to read her constantly flaunting herself to get Mike’s attention. Geez. It came off as needy and desperate and I really had to stop myself from constantly rolling my eyes.

Then there’s the introduction of new character Rafe. I definitely feel like Derting is setting up a love triangle for the books to come. Rafe is okay, I guess, but the fact that he refuses to tell Violet anything about himself no matter how many times he comes up in the book makes him that mysterious guy. And of course, mysterious guy will always end up part of a love triangle (ugh)… Especially since there seems to be a spark between him and Violet every single time they touch. Every. Single. Time. If that’s not a blatant sign, I don’t know what is.

As for the actual plot of the novel, it can basically be summed up in four words: Violet has a stalker. While there is a bit of body finding throughout the book, it ends up being a lot secondary to the point that Violet’s secret may be in danger. Mystery of who the stalker is made you think it was predictable, but Derting came around and made a twist to it. Still, once the mystery started to roll, I wanted to know how Derting would unfold it. Overall, the mystery wasn’t as strong as the first book especially since it was more about Violet than body finding….

Jay/Violet is cute and that is one of the reasons why I kept going especially in the second half of the book…. But if I hear one more time about how hot Jay is and how sick Violet is of seeing all the girls draping themselves over him….. Geez, I know I shouldn’t be one to judge since I am a little superficial myself (I mean, I appreciate good looking men) but I don’t necessarily want to read about it… It gets tiring all the time. It started to feel repetitive and I just wanted to say, get on with the story already.

I wasn’t a big fan of THE BODY FINDER to begin with. I thought it was an okay book and DESIRES OF THE DEAD was an okay sequel. If you are a big fan of the book, then you’ll probably enjoy it a lot more than I will. While the book turned out a lot better than I thought it would, I doubt I will continue on with the series.