This review was first posted at http://www.rubysreads.com. 
 Desires of the Dead picks up three months after the events of The Body Finder. Violet and Jay are an established couple, but still making the adjustment from best friends to boyfriend and girlfriend. Violet is preparing to turn seventeen, to spend time with Jay and to live a generally normal life. But she's unable to forget her ability to find and put the dead to rest. As hard as she tries, she can't. When she comes across a dead body, she feels the pull of it until it is properly buried. 
 A great deal of this novel is devoted to Violet trying to figure out how to deal with her ability. Her parents have asked her to keep it a secret--and she sees the wisdom in that. But Violet's desire to keep the secret is at war with the things she knows can do with it. One day, Violet stumbles across the body of a dead boy. Unable to keep herself from taking the risk, she alerts the police via payphone, never imagining it will be traced back to her. Or what she will discover when it is. 
 The thing that I loved the most about this book was the relationship between Violet and Jay. I was a fascinated voyeur into this first love business. I tend to enjoy stories with romance between childhood best-friends, so I wasn't necessarily expecting not to. I just wasn't sure they would hold my interest now that they were a couple. They did, however, and I'm glad to know there's going to be more books in this series. As long as it doesn't result in ever-increasing drama between them. Authors disappoint me when, in an attempt to keep their readers' interests, they resort to sillier and sillier relationship wackiness. Take the TV show Bones, for example. I'm starting to get to the point where I'm not even sure the wait is going to be worth the payoff. 
 Right. Time to get back on track. Violet and Jay's relationship is, as I said, sweet. Violet is confused as to the differences between Jay as a best friend versus Jay as a boyfriend, which I think is understandable. It's weird how increased intimacy can actually make you less comfortable with a person. The problem for Violet is that Jay was the only person she used to confide in. And when she feels like she can't confide in him anymore, there isn't anyone else she's willing to turn to. The character that is her best girlfriend isn't exactly an ideal confidant. She's that girl that you've always know, but now that you're a little bit older, you start to realize how different her values are from yours. We all had them as teens. Wait, you mean it was just me? Aw, crumbs. 
 Violet's difficulty over knowing whom to confide in is also a natural teen thing. Still, when someone from the FBI gets in touch with her, I really wondered why she told no one. That's the kind of thing you don't hide from your boyfriend or your parents, even if you're the one that put yourself at risk in the first place. Tell your cop uncle, for heaven's sake. As an aside, I thought it was unlikely that Violet wouldn't already know the FBI couldn't question her without consent from her parents. Everyone who has ever watched a cop shows knows that. And I refuse to believe that Violet might have made it seventeen years and never seen one. 
 My other complaint with this novel was the abrupt appearance of Mike and his sister, Meghan. It was all too convenient and didn't flow like the natural course of events. They made their appearance in the town felt devised solely to set the events of Desires of the Dead into action. I also felt that the back cover blurb was misleading. The problems that arise between Violet and Jay don't really have that much to do with Jay spending time with Mike. And it's not that Violet has too much time on her hands that sends her investigating Mike's "tragic past." She does it for an entirely different reason. One I can't tell you about without being spoilery. 
 While I enjoyed reading this book, I have another bone to pick with it. Violet and Jay have been friends all their lives, but now their relationship has gone to a romantic level. With those kind of changes happening between them, I was mystified by the completely hands-off attitude of their respective parents. At one point, Jay's mother suggests that Violet go upstairs to Jay's bedroom (where he's still sleeping), just before she's about to leave the house. There aren't any awkward discussions about and/or references to sex. Neither parental unit so much as says, "Now that you're going out, I'd prefer it if you didn't have Jay/Violet in your room with the door closed." That seemed strange to me. Then again, Violet's parents are conspicuously hands-off about everything. Teen novels need a certain lack of parental supervision to work, Derting needs to decide. Either Violet's relationship with her mom and dad is supposed to be a good one, or they're busy and slightly negligent. Violet's relationship with Jay aside, they fail to see that she's been upset when she starts receiving threatening letters and pestered by the FBI. Teenagers aren't that good at hiding their feelings. 
 There are some new characters introduced in this book, ones that I expect we'll see more of. I'm not that intrigued by either of them, yet, and I'm really hoping that Rafe doesn't mean the advent of a love triangle. I think I'd be willing to read book three on the strength of Violet and Jay alone, but what I'm really hoping is that it will be better than this one. Not that I didn't like it--but it wasn't The Body Finder.