Gemma Halliday

I love murder mysteries and I love YA murder mysteries even more. Even though teenagers solving murders are highly unrealistic and you constantly want to scream at them not to go into that dark place, in the middle of the night, by themselves, they are still a heck of a lot of fun to read. Especially when it takes most of the book before you start piecing it together yourself. This was a fun book, minus the murdering, of course. I fell for a couple of the red herrings and even made some show more random off base guesses as to who was the killer. I didn't really start figuring it until pretty close to the end. I don't know if I'm crazy about the motive behind the murders, it seemed a little to far fetched for me, but other than that I really enjoyed the read.

Hartley, our crime soliving heroine, cracked me up. She was funniest when she was dealing with a particular bad situation. Humor as a crutch, that's something we share. After finding a condom wrapper in her boyfriend Josh's locker, she does what any logical girl would do, she assumes he's doing a science project on reproduction. Once she admits to herself that doesn't make sense, she goes to confront him and instead finds a dead girl in his closet. It's not really her day. Before Josh goes into hiding he begs her to figure out who really killed Courtney, and she actually agrees to help him. And so her adventure begins. She enlists the help of her best friend Sam, who I hope we get to know a lot better in the next book, because she was pretty funny, too. They end up partnering with Chase, too, after they need his help with the investigation. I loved Chase! Of course, who doesn't love a beautiful, muscled, bad boy? I can't wait to read more of him in the next book, either!

This was a fast paced, well written mystery. It was full of colorful characters and lots of humor. I am eagerly anticipating another adventure with Hartley and crew. I sure do hope she starts carrying pepper spray or something :0) show less

After reading two emotional heavy books in a row, a nice light fluffy read was seriously in need; and who is better than Gemma Halliday and her Deadly Cool series to lighten the mood?

What I first noticed and mostly liked about the book was Sam’s attempt (which rubbed off on Hartley) to censor using alternate words like fluffing, and fudge, which reminded me a lot of:



Hartley Featherstone is still one of my most favorite female characters: she’s smart, funny, sarcastic, headstrong, and has show more that Veronica Mars/Nancy Drew vibe about her that makes her awesome and set her apart from the all the other Contemporary YA heroines out there.

The Twittercide was funny to investigate with Hartley, Sam, her boyfriend Kyle and the oh-so-brooding Chase. It might comes as incredulous to believe that a bunch of high school kids could lead a murder case, but with Gemma’s writing a good dose of non-cheesy humor, it was cute and I happily gobbled it all down. I wish the romance between Chase and Hart was more developed but I think they are headed the right way; hopefully things will heat up in book 3! show less

Life's a bitch when your boyfriend cheats on you with the president of the Chasity Club, then said Chasity Club harlot is found dead and your boyfriend is the main suspect. Life's a bitch when you have to prove his innocence.

This book was HI-LARIOUS. Honestly, when I picked this up I didn't expect it to be a comedy, I just thought it would be your run of the mill Young Adult mystery. But with a reluctant heroine and a hilarious mystery, this book made me addicted!

The plot was very enticing, show more teenage girl finds out her boyfriend is cheating on her with a "virgin" cheerleader, the cheerleader is found dead and the boyfriend is on the run. I loved every minute of the investigation and the leads that Hartley received from her classmates. Halliday wrote a FUN murder-mystery, which seems like an odd combination but..it isn't. I kept guessing and guessing until the final reveal.

The characters were GREAT. They were all hilarious and I thoroughly enjoyed Halliday's version of "Deep Throat." Hartley is a great conflicted character and Chase is just the sweetest Goth boy I ever did know! Al of the characters fit this story brilliantly and added to the carefree mood of the book.

I think the writing is what made this novel. Hartley's tone of voice is so sarcastic and so teenagery that it made this book easy to devour within a day. Halliday writes with amazing wit and I can't wait to start the sequel! show less

From sentence one, I was right pulled in and could hardly put the book down. It was the kind of book I read until 2 am and resume at 6 a.m.

Hartley Featherstone is your average sophomore girl, doing fine in school, with her best friend Sam, a overprotective mother and a fantastic boyfriend: Josh DuPont, her first boyfriend, her rock, her one true love… well until she found out (and in the ugliest way possible) that he’s cheating on her, with Courtney Cline the president of the chastity show more club nonetheless. Furious and humiliated, she broke into his house only to find said president in his room, dead. On the outside, it was clear that Josh is the killer, but somehow Hartley believes him when he says that he didn’t do it and promises him that she’ll figure out who did it. With the help of Sam, the veggie-oil-working car, and a very mysterious and hot gothic guy, Hartley investigates the murder of Courtney to find the killer, if he didn’t find her first.

Reading the blurb, I was expecting a Veronica Mars retelling and God knows how much I adored (and still do) this show, but as I was going further into the story there was nearly nothing in common between the two girls, except for leading crime investigations with the help of their friends, but I wasn’t the least disappointed.

Hartley is a quirky, funny and smart girl; I liked her so much for standing her own ground, for resisting her boyf- er ex-boyfriend even if at times she flinched a little, for being strong-headed and sarcastic. And Chase was a perfect match, just as funny and smart, a little dark and brooding but totally a hot mixture, their scenes were hilarious to read, especially the striptease scene *wink, wink*.

The writing was so easy to follow and the murder case was a good one. Okay, it wasn’t an Agatha Christie book that let you choke with suspense and with a mouth-hanging shock, but it was well done, especially with the hilarious scenes, the CSI references and the really good cast of characters that gravitated around Hart.

The romance was mainly centered on Josh and Hartley, his cheating on her and her conflicting feelings towards him but then he slowly faded in the background as Chase’s presence began to grow some more. I liked it that the author didn’t conclude the romance between them; it will leave some more delicious tension for the next book that I will definitely read! show less