Devious Desires

Desires of the Dead by Kimberly Derting

*I read this ARC via Star Book Tours. 
*Some spoilers in the review but nothing big.

This book gets a pretty great 3 gnomes and a gnome hat out of 5 gnomes for having some great characters but a mystery that ends up not being mysterious enough.  The gnome hat that brings it up to almost four gnomes is the potential in the story of Violet doing more with her powers.

It starts off with a prologue of Violet finding a body.  Then it does that TV staple of stopping at a tense part and then starting the first chapter almost a month earlier.  Violet and Jay are still a couple and everything seems to be going along normally.

A new family has moved into town.  Jay being the nice guy that he is, shows them around.  Mike and Megan are an interesting pair because he is more outgoing while she holds back more.  Jay quickly becomes friends with Mike.  Violet's jealous because Jay doesn't spend as much time with her.  

While in the city Violet finds a body but can't physically reach it so she gets that unsettling feeling when a body is not at rest.  Violet's powers may be growing because she has dream/visions of what the body she found went through.  This is an interesting development because nothing like this has happened to her before so maybe her seeing and hearing the death echoes is also leading to more of an empathetic aspect of her abilities.  This body really bothers her and after leaving an anonymous tip the FBI starts to seek her out.  

There are plenty of problems for Violet.  A stalker's after her and the FBI won't leave her alone.  I think Violet's just a little too fond of keeping everything a secret from everyone, even those who already know everything.  I really hate her decisions in the book concerning secrecy. Also I seriously wanted to smack some sense into Violet when after one fight with Jay, who she's known for just about her whole life, she stops talking to him and tells everyone that they broke up.  Basically there is no real communication just her feeling sorry for herself.

I wish the book had concentrated more on the FBI aspect and what they are doing.  The mystery this time is not a surprise which really makes the tension fall considerably.  Kind of wanted a little more crazy thrown in and the stalker mystery wasn't as mysterious as it could have been, the reader actually knows the name of the stalker this time.

Overall, I guess I just wanted more from the story.  I am excited though because it seems to be hinted that there will be more of a team aspect in the future.  Now that her ability is more out in the open, I do like where the story is going.  Also very curious about the other special people at the FBI, especially Rafe.  Can't wait to see what happens next and where the story goes from here.