Desires of The Dead

Violet has a curious gift, the ability to sense the echoes emitted by murder victims. Only her boyfriend Jay and her closest family know. But when she locates the body of a missing boy sought by the FBI she puts herself firmly on their radar. As if dealing with regular calls from the FBI isn't enough, threatening notes are being left on her doorstep, and she feels disturbing echoes around the home of Jay's new best friend. Violet needs answers fast. She can't wait any more, time is ticking. Violet should feel closer to Jay now he's moved from best friend to boyfriend, but she hasn't told him what's worrying her. She tells herself she's protecting him, but is their fledgling relationship strong enough to cope? I really loved The Body Finder, the first book in this series, so I was really looking forward to reading this. It has two of the things I loved about the romance feels real and genuine, and the writing is very visual. The scenes in the snow are so realistic, it's so creepy and the tension is terrifying. Again, I think the relationship between Violet and Jay is a realistic and healthy portrayal of a teenage relationship. Having said that, I did find some of Violet's hesitation to share the truth of what was happening with Jay very frustrating. I know that kind of thing provides some tension in a plot, but I really found it unnecessary. In the first book the romantic tension is "will they get together"? 

In the second book, now that they're together, I guess there's supposed to be some kind of tension, and the most obvious one is "will they stay together"? But this is a cliche used so often, and in this book, the choices both Violet and Jay make were slightly out of character. When they finally decide to be open and honest with each other the story flows much better. I found the introduction of the FBI element really interesting, and I liked that it isn't all what it seems at first. The introduction of the characters related to this element was great and I'm really interested in finding out more about them and seeing where the story goes next. I'm also really interested to see how this influences Violet's feelings about her gift. The story line in relation to the killer was really awesome. It's quite different from other books which is great, because it was fresh and interesting. It was also a bit of a hark back to the kinds of thrillers written for teens in the 80's. It so reminded me of the Point Horror series which I loved as a teen, so I was pretty excited to read a story line kind of like those old gems, very nostalgic. I'm really looking forward to reading on with the third and final book, The Last Echo.