Young Adult Murder Mystery
Paperback, 303 pgs.
Published: Oct. 11th, 2011 by HarperTeen
Source: Gift
Hartley Grace Featherstone is having a very bad day. First she finds out that her boyfriend is cheating on her with the president of the Herbert Hoover High School Chastity Club. Then he's pegged as the #1 suspect in a murder. And if that weren't enough, now he's depending on Hartley to clear his name. Seriously? Not cool.
But as much as Hartley wouldn't mind seeing him squirm, she knows he's innocent, and she's the only one who can help him. Along with her best friend, Sam, and the school's resident Bad Boy, Chase, Hartley starts investigating on her own. But as the dead bodies begin to pile up, the mystery deepens, the suspects multiply, and Hartley begins to fear that she may be the killer's next victim.
Deadly Cool was a rather fun murder mystery. The fun mostly being Hartley and her fabulous personality and the snark her inner voice voices quite loudly. While it was fun it had plenty of more intense moments and a lot of moments that I felt I would go insane if I didn't figure out the murderer. With life or death at stake there are some serious scenes but I do appreciate that the author kept this a bit on the lighter side and I found it much more enjoyable for that reason.
Now I wasn't sure how I would feel about Hartley, I mean why would she want to help her ex boyfriend who cheated on her? Well, the reason is quite simple and it's because she's a good person and knows he's innocent. So she becomes quite the Nancy Drew. Armed with her best friend and the hottie Chase they track down clues as to who is responsible.
Chase is everything I look for in a guy. While there's no real romance between Hartley and Chase you see the spark and the banter between them. And when Hartley starts to notice he's not hard on the eyes, well I started to see her point! I definitely want to see if anything more develops between them (it better!) in the next book. And Chase is going on my book boyfriend list right now! I think sometimes just the spark is better then any actual romance. Well, it's part of the build up I guess because you really get behind them and hope that something will happen already. You know, where you chant in your head "Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss ALREADY!"
Hartley was a great character and I really loved how devoted she was in finding the killer. But I have to say that her devotion to finding him/her made her kind of stupid. While in the end it didn't ruin the book or anything I have to mention it because I was kind of screaming at her. I mean, people are dying here and she seems to think she's invincible. Why would she totally disregard any common sense whatsoever?! So that was the biggest downside to this book.
But regardless of that one issue I had with Hartley I really enjoyed this one and it's a series I'll definitely have on my to-buy list. I must have them on my shelves!
4/5 stars
