Spying in High Heels

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 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 show more 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

No erotica and minimal explicit violence despite two murders. Lots of OC references and boob talk. Loads of situational humor. The publisher's blurb doesn't tell you that Maddy designs children's shoes, or that her mother's idea of a bachelorette party is a male strip club. All I can say without doing the spoiler thing is that I laughed myself silly, and the suspense and plot twists were great!

So I bought Gemma Halliday's series in bulk, something I never do. I mean what if I hate the first book, then I am out all the cash and stuck with the rest of the books in the series. But as ashamed as I am to admit it, I decided I liked her before I even read the book, because of a cover of hers a saw (shockingly enough the cover I liked was of a book I didn't even buy). Well thank goodness, I loved the first book. I have already moved onto the second book in the series and I am enjoying it, but more on that later.

I've always liked a good mystery, and I have always liked an author who can paint a picture of the main character with humor. I think Halliday excels at both of these. There were several points during the book where I show more laughed out loud. As a character Maddie is totally a mess. But she's a great mess. She is living in LA in a studio apartment, in a relationship with a man it turns out she doesn't know as well as she thought, and spends literally the entire book avoiding finding out something that could change her entire future. But I love that she is a mess, she's quirky, has a hilarious job designing kiddie shoes, and is constantly running from one drama to the next (all of which could have been avoided if she didn't have the ever-increasing desire to find out what is going on, but where's the fun in that?)

I also really love the cop in the story, Ramirez, he just rolls with the crazy that is Maddie. She follows him all the time in her bright red Jeep and she is so convinced he doesn't notice her, but of course he knew every time and thinks it's funny. I think part of the reason why I enjoy the dynamic between Ramirez and Maddie is because Halliday is so good at creating anticipation between the two of them. I found myself waiting for the two of them to be in the same room together, and then I kept pulling for them to find a way to be together. Halliday is also really good at making the reader (i.e. me) believe that Ramirez is super hot. I can only imagine how good he looks.

I have to say that in terms of the mystery element, I thought I had it figured out. And to be fair, I was pretty close to being right-ish. It wasn't until like 2 pages before Halliday revealed all that I had actually figured it out correctly. It was fun reading it, and I did enjoy watching all the different elements of the mystery coming together.

I would have to say just about anyone would enjoy reading this book. It's got a great mystery, a lot of fun humor, and a great steam factor that I can only hope gets better in the next book. Give it a try! show less

This is the first book in the High Heels series. I have to confess that I downloaded it when Dorchester offered it for free a year ago.
It languished on my laptop, unread, until I decided to load on to my Sony and read it on my holiday in Turkey. I am glad I did, since after what happened in Oslo, I needed something light and funny. I read it on the plane trip back, and it hooked me from the start. What hooked me wasn’t the plot. No, it was the characters and how they reacted. They got worried, they made reckless decisions. But what made this book was Maddie. She was a bundle of witty determination. I loved how she continued to search after her missing boyfriend, no matter what Ramirez told her. I also loved how she did the right show more thing at the end, which is NOT marrying her boyfriend. The end took my by surprise, I had someone else pegged as the murderer. show less

The main character in this book had me laughing one minute and wanting to strangle her the next. I'm not quite sure how to understand her because her mouth and emotions contradict her actions at times. I certainly didn't like the whole sleeping around aspect that the book condoned. The mystery part of the book kept me guessing for most of the book because Maddie did some really stupid things to try to find the killer. I didn't connect with her character very well because she simply wasn't believable for the most part. Was the book interesting? Sure. Will I read the next in the series? Not sure.

Didn't like it to start, but the character really grew on me. Too much of a fixation on designer duds and such in the beginning, but Maddie was funny and engaging (and pretty much a disaster) and I enjoyed the book. Nothing earth-shattering, but a silly, fun read.

Shouldn't have read this so soon after [b:The Mysterious Affair at Styles|16343|The Mysterious Affair at Styles|Agatha Christie|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1266451495s/16343.jpg|3366260], because Agatha Christie obviously puts Gemma Halliday to shame. On the other hand, the title of the book is Spying in High Heels, so I should have known that going in. It was a Kindle freebie, so I didn't waste any money on it, at least, and it did keep me moderately interested all the way through.

Two annoying things: it takes the main character literally the entire book to take a home pregnancy test successfully. (Mild spoiler alert: she manages to break at least one, another is expired, etc., etc...) Who knew peeing on a stick could be so show more suspenseful?

Also, she constantly refers to her "two-inch" heels and how much height they add to her sub-5'2" frame. I'm not even sure Jimmy Choo makes two-inch heels, but if he does, I doubt they qualify as high heels. Two inches is a medium heel at best -- just check your eBay definitions (high = 3" or above). show less