The Last Echo by Kimberly Derting

Release Date: Out now!

Publisher: HarperCollins

Pages: 360pgs

The Story

In the end, all that's left is an echo . . .

Violet kept her morbid ability to sense dead bodies a secret from everyone except her family and her childhood-best-friend-turned-boyfriend, Jay Heaton. That is until forensic psychologist Sara Priest discovered Violet's talent and invited her to use her gift to track down murderers. Now, as she works with an eclectic group of individuals - including mysterious and dangerously attractive Rafe - it's Violet's job to help those who have been murdered by bringing their killers to justice.

When Violet discovers the body of a college girl killed by "the girlfriend collector" she is determined to solve the case. But now the serial killer is on the lookout for a new "relationship" and Violet may have caught his eye . . .

The Review

I had so many high hopes for the third installment, THE LAST ECHO, of Kimberly Derting's bestselling young adult series The Body Finder. As expected the author continues to deliver a spine-tingling mystery with that same-old 'creepiness factor' that we love and adore in her writing (because they are so creepy, right?) and her books always leaves me with one eye open throughout the night, but for this time round there was just something missing in this next chapter of Violet Mathers's story and it's rather a pity too.

The main heroine, Violet, has been greatly loved by me from the first two books in the series and even today she still remains to be one of my favourite characters in the YA book genre. Being your not so average teenage girl with literal body-finding abilities and forever finding herself entangled in all sorts of mysterious and deadly cases, ones where she marginally escapes death itself, Violet in her short lifespan has experienced more than your average teenager should and I admire how she deals with every single situation that is thrown at her. That's what we love most about her character. However, while our Vi is strong, capable and determined, but much like with the storyline something has changed in Violet's character. Not in a bad way per se but enough to make me question her motives. From the previous two installments she had so much trust in others, especially with her family and friends, but I thought she trusted her new "family" of friends, her FBI gang with similar abilities as hers, a little too easily. Mostly with Rafe's character whom we met from book two.

Now I've found myself completely frustrated with this book (which was probably the central reason to why I didn't like this book as much as the others), more so when it came to the whole love triangle fiasco that Derting has etched into this story. Not only was it the direction I was hoping to avoid but it was also something that I felt - personally - didn't need to be in there in order for readers to fall even harder for this series. It just wasn't needed since we have Jay to cheer us up, the childhood best friend and now boyfriend of Violet, who is . . . honestly . . . the perfect boy through everyone's eyes and I love him to bits. He's totally in my top 5 of hot fictional boys and unlike those fierce and mysterious fantasy boys, what appeals to me most about Jay is how normal and down-to-earth he is and I want a Jay of my own! Seriously where is my own Jay been hiding? Who knows, really. But what this book lacked in so many ways was Jay himself and it was a total downer to say the least.

In the romance department I still firmly believe that Jay and Violet are made for each other - they're just SO perfect together - and he's always been there for her and her body-finder ability right from the start of things, but for once in this series I just wanted more spotlight put onto Jay's character because he clearly deserves it and he's totally capable of so much more than the author is willing to offer up for his character. Sure the character Rafe, a boy we were introduced to in the second book, Desires of the Dead, is an intriguing character all on his own and I can see what others see in him (you know with him being the mysterious dude with some hair full of secrets haha), but what I don't understand is why Violet would ever think about Rafe or look at him in a way she has always looked at Jay . . . especially when she now has the perfect Jay all to herself. Oh man, Vi needs to seriously rethink her situation because I've had it. *shakes head* You have Jay Vi . . . JAY! YOU DON'T NEED RAFE . . . like . . . EVER!

Overall, THE LAST ECHO was a disappointing third installment (it just didn't go the way I hoped it would) but the whole 'Girlfriend Collector' mystery was equally as enthralling as the other two installments beforehand and it reminded me so much of the Kiss the Girls movie which I loved. So, if you're already a fan of this series and of this author, then you're still going to love this new book no matter the frustrations of its love triangles and teenage angst. It's a killer for sure!

The Rating

3 1/2 / 5 stars