Deadly Cool by Gemma Halliday

Goodreads Description: "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. 

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."

My Review: I loved Deadly Cool! The plot was fun to read and while it wasn't the most INSPIRED of plots, it was still a lot of fun. The book as a whole was really funny and interesting, and I absolutely loved Hartley and Sam! Sam was a great best friend, very funny, and Hartley was a truly great female character. Smart and sassy, but also very funny and girly---which is how I feel REAL teenage girls are. We're very in the middle---not too smart and unfeminine, and not too stupid and girly...but a good mix of both. I laughed aloud several times while reading this book. The plot was part serious-and-scary, and part funny-and-clever. The thrill of murder threw a slightly dark aspect over an otherwise funny book, which made it really...well...COOL. Anyway, I loved Hartley's character and her voice of narration. There's not much else to say except that this is a great, quick read for anyone who likes chick-lit or humor, or even teenage books about murder, I suppose! I can't wait for the sequel, Social Suicide!

Cover: SO pretty! The girl is really pretty (doesn't she look like Hayden Panettiere?) and her eyes are gorgeous (yeah, yeah, I know they're fake; who cares? Still pretty!). The whole look strikes an eerie air---is the pretty girl dead? Or...? 

Overall Grade: A+

The Secret Sisterhood of Heartbreakers by Lynn Weingarten

Goodreads Description: "If there’s an upside to having your heart broken, it’s this: A broken heart makes you brave.

The first day of sophomore year doesn’t go the way Lucy planned. After a summer apart from her boyfriend, she’s ready to greet him with a special surprise and instead gets a shocking one in return: He’s breaking up with her. Beyond devastated, Lucy has no idea how she’s going to make it through homeroom, let alone the rest of her life.

Enter three stunning girls with the unnatural ability to attract boys and an offer Lucy can’t refuse: They can heal her heart in an instant. And then she’ll be one of them—a member of a sisterhood that is impervious to heartbreak and has access to magic distilled from the tears of brokenhearted boys. But to gain their power, Lucy must get a guy to fall in love with her the old-fashioned way, and then break his heart in the next seven days.

While the sisterhood may need another Heartbreaker, Lucy’s only desire is to get her ex back. But how far is she willing to go, and who is she willing to cross to get what she wants?"

My Review: I'm back! Haven't reviewed in a month, because I've been so busy with school! I actually read this book about two weeks ago, but didn't have time to review for a while. Finally, I've gotten to it. And, let's see...The Secret Sisterhood of Heartbreakers...yeah, not a fan of this book. Don't get me wrong, the plot seemed great---broken-hearted girl, magic, witches... I picked up the book and started to read it eagerly, expecting a bright, fresh, and funny chick-lit. And the farther I read, the slower I was turning the pages, because my eagerness was dying out. This book isn't that great. It's main problem is with the main character, Lucy. She's just WEIRD. She's obsessed with her ex-boyfriend (when any reader can see he doesn't really care about her), to the point where I started to wonder if she maybe had some brain damage. (I mean, at one point, she draws a hangman board on her STOMACH for him; who does that?!) She was also strangely blank and impersonal. Her character was flat---except for her insane obsession with her ex-boyfriend---even when she was joining the Heartbreakers. Nothing she did made sense, and nothing she did made me care for her. The Heartbreakers also weren't that interesting; easily the most interesting person in the book was Lucy's best friend. The plot also seemed really random and scattered to me, almost as if the author had no idea where she was going with the story. And the ENDING! Gah, don't get me started. It got chopped off so abruptly...it made no sense! As far as I know, there is no sequel...so why the heck is the ending so blunt? And what Lucy did at the end, to her best friend, made me dislike her even more. WHAT a gal---even by the end of the book, she's barely matured at all. Nice. 

Cover: Yeah, the cover IS cute. That's why I actually picked this book up. The sparkles---so cute!

Overall Grade: D-