The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting
Series: The Body Finder #1
Source: Kindle copy
Publisher: HarperCollins
Publication Date: March 16, 2010
Age Genre: YA

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 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 dead birds her cat left for her. But now that a serial killer is terrorizing her small town, and the echoes of the local girls he's claimed haunt her daily, Violet realizes she might be the only person who can stop him.
Despite his fierce protectiveness over her, Jay reluctantly agrees to help Violet find the murderer—and Violet is unnerved by her hope 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.

Okay, I'm a little angry too...

This book just might be the biggest disappointment of my year. Seriously, I expected this really interesting mystery with a paranormal twist, a race against time to find a killer, with a side-dish of awesome friends-to-lovers romance.

What I got?

The exact opposite; a bland romance with the whole awesome body finding bit being just an after thought, just something the author throws in to make things a little bit more exciting and unique.

BUT IF THE WHOLE THING IS MENTIONED ONCE IN FOUR CHAPTERS BETWEEN moans and groans about Jay and their relationship and his turning hot, and how she's worried about ruining them, and gasp other girls are noticing him too, the vain, stupid imbeciles! look at them fawning over him--oh, hello Jay *fawns* then IT'S NOT REALLY GOING TO WORK.

Seriously! You can see how unimportant Derting found the whole murdering girls thing by how the murderer has no identity whatsoever. She didn't ever design to give him a name. Seriously, at all times, even after being caught, the characters in the books refer to him as the killer/the murderer/insert other title.

And he has no background, no added information to his character aside for the whole "I like killing girls" bit. Where are the motives, how he came to do it, the little things that make his brain tick, all the things real, exciting murder mysteries have?

And the romance itself? There was nothing to it! I love the friends-to-lovers theme, it's my favorite, but here, I didn't feel it was well done at all. First of all, it seems like Violet only woke up to Jay's romantic appeal when... well, when he became hot.

And then... well, it's just... there wasn't very much of them here. Big parts of this book showed them fighting, tying to make each other jealous, or Jay kind of being the really overbearing boyfriend (without him actually being a boyfriend...)

Which is the main problem, really. Before all the drama started, they were already acting like a couple. Why couldn't it be just a natural progression, without all the BS and drama? Because they were really cute and sweet without all that..

And then, there is the matter of Violet's powers. We don't explore them, at all. There is no real background to them, nor even a curiousness about them from our characters. Violet has powers, and that's it. And everyone freakin' accepts this. No one but the killer even wonders what the f the police captain doing bringing a 16 year old to a crime scene!

There were a lot of interesting concepts in this book, but the execution, or lack of thereof, made this book so very meh. 

Sadly, the only way I'll be reading the next books, is if they're at bargain price, like this one was...

Nitzan★

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Series: N/A
Source: Gifted
Publisher: Harper Collins
Publication Date: May 1, 1933

Paulo Coelho's enchanting novel has inspired a devoted following around the world. This story, dazzling in its powerful simplicity and inspiring wisdom, is about an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried in the Pyramids.

Along the way he meets a Gypsy woman, a man who calls himself king, and an alchemist, all of whom point Santiago in the direction of his quest. No one knows what the treasure is, or if Santiago will be able to surmount the obstacles along the way. But what starts out as a journey to find worldly goods turns into a discovery of the treasure found within. Lush, evocative, and deeply humane, the story of Santiago is an eternal testament to the transforming power of our dreams and the importance of listening to our hearts.

"Listen to your heart. It knows all things, because it came from the Soul of the World, and it will one day return there."

My experience with The Alchemist can only be described as enlightening. It really was an enlightening read. I liked the kind of mindless cadence that I could read it with - a lot of it sunk in. And it was so short that I covered it in just a few hours.

The writing was beautiful, even if it tended to be very repetitive in themes. A lot of "finding your personal legend" and "listening to the Soul of the World". Thankfully, they didn't take away from my overall enjoyment level - they were good messages, honestly.

I enjoyed the point of view that was used - I can rarely get into third person, but this one was just easy to slip into. Like an ancient myth or a legend. Santiago is only named one time, ever, and he's our main character. Throughout most of the book, he's referred to as "the boy", and other characters are referred to as "the old king", "the alchemist", and "the englishman" (along with a few others). The only characters that are truly named are the women... which I actually find to be an interesting statement. Is it a metaphor, or is it just a weird quirk? Whatever it was, it made things pretty interesting.

The only thing that was a bit of a disappointment was the character development - it was thrown to the side in favor of Santiago's story. His finding himself, and finding his personal legend took the spotlight from his development, which I didn't really mind, even though I love development. So, all in all, The Alchemist was a really interesting read. I'd definitely recommend giving it a shot - for some reason, I thought it would be boring. But it wasn't. It wasn't at all.