Gemma Halliday

Hartley and her boyfriend, Josh have been going out forever... so when rumors start flying that Josh is sleeping with Courtney Cline- the PRESIDENT of the CHASTITY CLUB, she ignores them... Until, it seems that EVERYONE knows about it and Hartley decides to do some investigating!

"So I did what any good girlfriend would do. I broke into Josh's locker. Would the more mature thing have been to confront him directly with the rumor? Possibly. Would it have been as effective? I looked at the show more shiny gold-foil square in my hand.
Doubtful."

Dude!! Right? I know!! Hartley proceeds to text, call and all but send smoke signals to get ahold of her estranged boyfriend- with no response, she waits until after school to stalk him at Cross Country practice. Miraculously, he is not there... and Courtney Cline isn't practicing with the other members of the Color Guard on the other side of the field either. Interesting...

"Sam, think I could borrow your brother's car?"

"Probably," she paused. "Why?"

"Because if I find Courtney Cline at Josh's and kill them both, I'm going to need a quick getaway."

"Okay but we need to think of an convincing alibi on the way."

Ha! Seriously, I could have written this entire review based solely on awesome quotes from Deadly Cool! Sam was so freaking awesome, I totally loved her!

Hartley and Sam take off to Josh's house, only to have NO ONE answer the door. But, Josh's jeep is there and Hartley won't be deterred... She climbs through his freaking bedroom window. YES! Josh's bedroom is empty, but upon further inspection Hartley sees a sparkly purple shimmering coming from Josh's closet... the same shiny purple of Courtney's Color Guard uniform!

She opens the door, FURIOUSLY demanding this boyfriend stealing, hypocrite to get up and explain herself! But Courtney doesn't get up and she never will again... because someone has strangled her with her iPod earbuds!

OMG! Right?

Of course Josh is still MIA, until he scares Hartley half to death by showing up in her room in the middle of the night- pleading his innocence as a murder! She decides he isn't a cold-blooded killer, but that he IS in fact a cheating a-hole and breaks up with him... all the while agreeing to help prove his innocence!

Harley enlists the help of the epic-ly awesome Sam, and the uber hot, totally EMO, badboy Chase to aide her in this investigation.

As the tangled web is wove... deeper and deeper into the story I fall. Chase is OH SO YUMMY, and after an 'anonymous' tip, a few leads and Hartley finds ANOTHER dead body on the football field, things aren't looking so hot!

"Why did everyone think that stumbling on dead bodies was somehow my fault? Like I wanted to stumble on them. Like this was my idea of a good time."

Okay, really... This book was full of freaking amazing. Seriously, I took Deadly Cool with me to the RACES (because my hubby insists on going FIVE freaking hours before the race even starts...) and I could NOT stop reading! Hubby kept making fun of me the entire time, "People are looking at you! No one READS at the track babe!" Ha! Well, they aren't as awesome as I am- and they weren't reading Deadly Cool!

Deadly Cool is a MUST READ of 2011! Hartley is amazingly awesome... There is romance, thrills, chills and mystery a plenty, you will NOT be disappointed! show less

This book was a laugh fest for me. Not because I was laughing at it, but because I was laughing with it. Gemma Halliday really knows how to write her characters to feel like real people with really outrageous problems, and with appropriate reactions and dialogue. The relationship between Hartley (the heroine of the novel) and her best friend, Sam, is very tangible and real. Sam might be Hartley's best friend, but she was not afraid of telling it how it was, and vice-versa. Hartley is a very show more likable character as well. She is smart, sarcastic, and pretty, yet she is not stuck up or cliquey. She is loyal to her boyfriend, even though he is not loyal to her, and that's a quality I really admired in her.The plot is a bit outrageous but totally something I would expect to see in a movie. Hartley spends all day fielding rumors that her boyfriend is cheating on her with the president of the chastity club, of all people, and by the end of the day she decides enough is enough and that she was going to face this problem head on. She enlists the help of her best friend to sneak into her boyfriend's house to confront him, only what she finds is not what she expected. She finds the dead body of the girl he has been cheating on her with. This unleashes a series of events that lead to two separate investigations, the official one being headed by the police (where Hartley's soon to be ex-boyfriend is the main suspect) and the unofficial one Hartley heads up to prove the innocence of the very guy who just cheated on her. All this she does, not just because she loves her cheating boyfriend, but because deep down she believes in his innocence.Read full review at JJiReads.com show less

There's not actually anything bad about this book - I just didn't really like it all that much. It was readable and it had a few funny parts - it's just not really my thing. I prefer less ditz in my cozy mysteries. Well all my books really. If you like Stephanie Plum, you'll no doubt love Maddie Springer. She's pretty much a complete carbon copy but without a second boyfriend (well sort of anyway) and a million family members. That or she's a re-imagined version of what a LA fashionista show more Stephanie Plum would look like.

I got tired of Stephanie Plum with her back and forth wishy-washy-ness and the exact same thing happened here. Because it was 481 pages of ditzy flip-flopping idiocy. It was too long by far. Sure the first 40% was decent but it just never wrapped up - it just kept going and going. And to be fair, it wasn't badly written - it was perfectly readable - if I liked the main character more I'm sure I would've loved getting an extra 250 pages than what was needed - but I didn't and it started to drag.

One of the main things that dragged was the is she/is she not pregnant. I just didn't care by the end. Her relationship with Ramirez is problematic for so many reasons - mostly the fact that she MAY BE PREGNANT?! But also because she's not even committing to dumping Richard? Or thinking she should? It was just bizarre. The will they won't they has never grabbed me and it just made me cringe in this.

Overall, not for me. But a good beach read if you're after a bit of mystery, a bit of romance and a bit of ditz. 2.5 stars. show less

Last fall, I read and fell in love with DEADLY COOL. Author Gemma Halliday delivered a story with a funny, but completely sincere heroine, an awesome best friend/sidekick in Sam, a hot and mysterious semi-love interest in Chase, and an intriguing mystery. To say I had high hopes for SOCIAL SUICIDE would be an understatement. I've been bouncing to read this one for months, but made myself hold out until closer to the release. SOCIAL SUICIDE was totally worth the wait.

Once again, teen show more super-sleuth (and I'll admit, busybody) Hartley Featherstone has found herself in the middle of a high school murder mystery. What is going on in San Jose, y'all? First a girl dies by iPod cord strangulation, now another dies by Twittercide?! That's right, Twittercide. I think Halliday has an acute sense for what will draw readers in. When I read the word "twittercide", I knew this book would be the LOL-fest that DEADLY COOL was.

The fact that I still love Hartley despite the fact she does the exact opposite of the smart thing in almost every situation is a testament to her endearing qualities. Hartley is an everygirl. Smart, sincere and brave to a fault, Hartley is willing to do whatever it takes, even dressing like a chicken, to find justice for these poor girls who keep getting offed by technology.

As for the secondary characters, I loved them even more in SOCIAL SUICIDE. Hartley's mom is still a riot, rocking out to Aerosmith in the school parking lot and forcing her to eat things like "texturized vegetable protein balls". Blech. Sam is her awesome self, maybe even more so in this book. She's now choosing clothes for her boyfriend Kyle, obsessed with her GPA and has gone from using "effing" in place of swearing to "fluffing". Too cute! And Chase. Chase is still cool, slightly broody, has that crooked smile, and is always gently nudging Hartley to her limits. I really, really love this character. I may have even put hearts around his name while taking notes. (I totally did.)

The only flaw I found with the story is it's predictability. Having read DEADLY COOL, I could predict almost everything in the plot. I would have liked a bit more of a brain tease, but I still had a great time and enjoyed the story for what it was. And honestly, it's so much fun that I don't mind. If it's not broke, don't fix it.

SOCIAL SUICIDE is a great addition to the DEADLY COOL series. It's a fast paced, light-hearted adventure that's sure to give you a smile on every page. And, I have to say, these books would make a great tv series or movies. I can't wait to see what Halliday serves up next.

Favorite Quote:

(So many great quotes. This is just one of many.)

"This first thing I did was run. Okay, actually, the first thing I did was scream, lose my balance, flail my arms in the air like some kind of uncoordinated bird, then slide down the side of the tree and land on my butt.

Then I ran." (pg. 31, ARC) show less