Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Yet another Elle Kennedy book that I enjoyed! Mackenzie is a rich girl and Cooper is a local bad boy with tattoos. Cooper and Mackenzie have the banter and the chemistry! The only problem is that she has a boyfriend. Her boyfriend is the reason that Cooper was fired so he plans on getting revenge by seducing Mackenzie.

Now there were times where I was annoyed with Mackenzie and being like “honey that’s a big RED FLAG”! But I was glad to see Mackenzie’s growth throughout the story and her finally sticking up for herself and standing her ground.

I really wanted an epilogue though. I hope we get more books for us to get back to Avalon Bay because I want more of all the characters.

I have been an avid Elle Kennedy fan for years and was so excited to be approved for the ARC of The Good Girl Complex. Her writing has only gotten better with each book and The Good Girl Complex is a great example of that.
Mac is this girl stuck on a path to a life decided for her by everyone around her. Until, of course, she meets Cooper. The plot for this book was original and full of emotion. I really sympathized with Mac’s character and her feelings towards her parents. Her chemistry with Cooper was well written and I enjoyed the pacing Mac’s character development as the plot continued.
I did feel that the plot had some slower points to it and was dragged down at times by the inner monologues of the main characters.
Elle Kennedy has a was of making her characters timelines realistic/believable in a way that I haven’t seen in another author. However, the plot did feel distracted at some points and that caused the pacing to slow for me. However, I really loved the characters and hope we get more books featuring the characters mentioned in this one

Did I finish this book in less than 24 hours? YEP.

Good Girl Complex was just a well-thought out romance book. Set in a coastal town with a selective university, you get the classic townie vs. rich college student dynamic. I enjoyed both the hero and heroine of this story - they both felt like real, whole characters with their own problems, ambitions, and qualities.

Also, the steam wasn't too frequent, but when it happened - WOAH. I loved it so so much.

This was the first book I've read by this widely known author. I was completely blown away, it was such a fun quick read. I loved every aspect of the story.
The whole grumpy sunshine trope was brought to the next level in this one, and I absolutely loved it. The whole way Mac and Cooper came together was a great plot line. And I enjoyed the spicy scenes a lot!
I highly recommend this to any fan of romance, or someone trying to get into romance. The story itself was amazing and the intricate plot line was excellent. I can wait to read more by this author!

Good Girl Complex is the perfect beach read(or winter read for a more tropical setting to escape to). Although there are some typical tropes - bad boy meets good girl, love triangles, opposites attract, the characters are well developed and add something different. I didn't grow to like the characters as much as I sometimes do, but it's well written and an overall easy and enjoyable read.

A fantastic book with characters you can't help falling in love with that brings out the hopeless romantic in anyone who reads it!

Good Girl Complex has sweet characters, plenty of hijinks, a lot of steam and steam build-up, and overall, a story about overcoming hang-ups to become a better person. That said, this was a good story that has hints of stories like 10 Things I Hate About You-Cooper is fired from his bar job after a brawl with a rich jerk making advances on another waitress. To get revenge, Cooper finds out who the guy is dating and decides, along with his friends, that he's going to basically steal the girlfriend, then drop her once the guy is humiliated enough. (Sounds a little toxic, no?) Anyway, Cooper catches feelings and scraps the original plan, and of course, keeps the whole revenge plot a secret.

So yeah, super fun read, and the plot moved pretty fast! I enjoyed this one, and recommend it for you if you like sweet grand gestures, spice, the idea of rich people and "townies" and that dynamic (a la Outer Banks), and just romance in general!

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an e-ARC!

This definitely gave off After series vs Outer Banks vibes??

Bad boy gets with good girl for the wrong reasons (the after vibes), takes place in a beachy South Carolina town divided by “townies” and the wealthy (the OBX vibes)

Overall I did enjoy it! It was fast paced and easy to follow along, but nothing revolutionary.

Also for two people who have a lot of sex, not much of it was shared. It just started.. then ended. No details. If you’re looking for smut, you won’t be satisfied here.

I live Elle Kennedy—she’s an auto buy for me. And Good Girl Complex did not disappoint. It had steam, and sass, and sweetness, and angst. New characters you’re sure to love!

I loved this book! This book is about Mac who is wealthy with a boyfriend and is forced to go to college when she wants to focus on her online business and then there is Cooper who is the local bad boy but works hard. Both work together and Cooper realizes that Mac is not a rich clone and falls for her hard. Ok so this may sound like the After series but let me tell you that this book is so much better. The writing in this book is amazingly done as I was legit hooked from the first line and couldn't stop reading until the end. I enjoyed the setting which takes place along the coast and the pacing was perfect. I loved how the conflicts all mingled together and didn't seem too much as the characters solved their problems along the way. This book is also written in dual povs so you can see what both characters are going through and what they are thinking of each other.

Mac and Cooper are the main characters of the book. Mac is such an amazing character as she wants to focus on her business and doesn't care about her wealth while her parents are threatening her to get a degree. Cooper is the bad boy and has some issues but let me say that I just love reading about bad boys. I would say that he is a character that is misunderstood and only certain people can crack through him in order to know who he actually is. Both characters developed throughout the story and I enjoyed reading their journeys. There were many side characters involved in the book and I did get a little annoyed with Cooper's friends in the beginning but then you kind of grow onto them once they open up. The romance for this book is a bad boy/good girl trope which I absolutely loved. The romance was also steamy in a sense of 3/5 level of steaminess.

The ending was well done but I have to say that one conflict was very similar to After. I was kind of fine with the similarity as Kennedy wrote the story so much better but at the same time I would like to see a new conflict. Overall this book was very well written and I honestly couldn't stop reading until the end. I totally recommend reading this book because it's amazingly well done with many conflicts, character development plus the romance is just good. This book is perfect for fans of Tessa Bailey and Anna Todd.

Totally Outer Banks vibes reading this new book by Kennedy. It was a cute and sassy read but it just wasn't as good as some of her precious books have been for me. Overall, left me a bit disappointed. Thank you netgalley for this arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

Mixed feelings, mixed expectations, mixed worlds ..... and a story that has enough elements and potential to keep the reader's attention until the very end. A book in which not everything is black and white, but a whole rainbow of feelings and descriptions that will make you get to know the characters and experience their story .....
She was born with a silver spoon in her mouth, a rich heiress who from an early age must adapt to other people's hopes, other people's plans, other people's expectations. Everything must go according to the plan, a plan made by other people. Then who is she? An entitled chick or just an ordinary pawn in the world of the rich ..... Is she even allowed to feel?
He is the bad boy from the neighborhood, everything about him screams danger, get as far as possible on a neon sign, but how can she avoid all the excitement that his words arouse? How can she resist the temptation of his kisses? ...
One kiss, one risk, one feeling ... but can that feeling break the shackles of social norms? Can an unpredictable encounter break the predictability of the prison, called her life?
Elle Kennedy's style is definitely something that brings about the familiar mix of sweetness and cruelty that I have always liked in her books. As parts of this new puzzle that she has created are slowly being revealed, I am increasingly drawn to the mix of new and well-known elements that are part of her stories. With a light tone she mixes silly with serious topics and forces the reader to become more and more invested in the characters who somehow come to life through the pages, we get to know them, we get to learn how to predict their reactions in a given situation, but more and more we want to reach the end- the finale while at the same time we want it to last a bit longer. The balance of the descriptors and the details are absolutely perfect, neither too much nor too little so as not to bore the reader, but just enough to get them fully interested in the story. Unlike the previous works I have read, here the level of sexual tension, as well as the emotional attachment of the characters are not so explosive, which honestly suited me at this moment. Mackenzie is a character who is most certainly a perfect heroine, a well-mannered young lady trying to find her way, her place in this world. A girl who is not afraid to see her flaws, nor to face challenges. Cooper, on the other hand, will surely not be on my list of favorite book boyfriends. From the very beginning with that infamous bet, through the petty bourgeoisie, until the stereotyping, the hero in this story did not delight me in any way. To want to revenge upon someone who did you wrong is one thing, but to include innocent people ….definitely not my cup of tea, hot as hell or not. The idea of ​​a story about a princess and a bad boy is quite intriguing, but I'm not sure that creating such a character achieves the desired realization. I think the whole behavior of the gang is incredibly disgusting, to want revenge and ruin the life of someone you have not met is ultimately horrible, to hate someone for being different is repulsive…..
But as we all know, perfection rarely exists, maybe the characters have flaws, we all do, right? But I have to admit that this book has the potential to provide you with a perfect journey into a different world.

MacKenzie and Cooper - a disaster waiting to happen? Or the pairing of two highly attractive opposites?

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Cooper is a Townie in a small coastal North Carolina town. MacKenzie, daughter of a congressman, is "wifey" material - born and bred to be the "arm-candy" wife of an equally socially prominent scion of a filthy rich corporate big wig. - also known as "the Clones."

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Naturally the Townies resent the Clones and their pompous ways. West Side Story meets The Devil Wears Prada and then some!

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One fateful night, Cooper gets on the wrong side of MacKenzie's boyfriend, Preston. There is a bit of rough housing and Cooper loses his job, all because Preston can't keep his hands off the hired help. Lines are drawn in the sand and the Townies vow revenge against "the Clones."

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But what starts out as the perfect cat and mouse game of revenge turns into a complicated dance of red-hot attraction. Things get real, fast, and Cooper finds himself caught in his own trap.

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Elle Kennedy knows how to stoke a sizzling fire so that when these two gorgeous specimens finally give in to their undeniably incendiary sexual chemistry, you can't help but groan with relief.
FINALLY!!!!!

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Elle Kennedy surely knows how to spin a stormy, passion-laced tale! She manages to put a different spin on all the usual tropes so that you don't feel you are going down a too familiar road.
And that ending! Cooper laid it all out there - the candles, the passionate speech, the rocking chairs........
Big sigh.... way to go, Dude!

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This is my first Elle Kennedy book and I totally get why everyone loves her. She is an amazing writer and I will definitely be reading more from her. This is the basic outline of ten things I hate about you set in college, with a rich driven girl and a local bad boy, added spice, banter, and chemistry. I loved this and couldn't put it down. The two characters completely worked together. They each had solid back stories that made them feel like completely flushed out characters. I was nervous about this being about a girl cheating on her boyfriend (even if he wasn't a great a guy) but the way it handles this is something that I can still enjoy the book with. Things start out as friends but once the girl realizes she has feelings and kisses the boy she stops things and the next day tells her boyfriend about it. I felt like it was the best way to handle the situation in this plot.

The two characters romance is completely adorable and filled with chemistry. One of the best couples I've read about in a while.

This was definitely a cute and easy read. I was drawn to this because of the author and the cover - and the cover definitely sets the vibe for the book in my opinion. The book is set in the beachside town of Avalon Bay, where the community is made up of locals and wealthy (and often at least a bit entitled) students from a nearby college. Mackenzie, or Mac as she tends to go by, is technically one of those wealthy students although she is fairly down to earth and doesn't act super entitled. When Mac meets Cooper, a local bad boy of Avalon Bay, i found it to be under ideal circumstances. I wasn't the biggest fan of their first few interactions but I did like the friendship they come to have for a good portion of the book. I was also glad that nothing really happened between the two while Mac still had a boyfriend.
The side characters in the book were also pretty great. I admired how much a lot of them obviously cared for Cooper and wanted to protect him when Mac first came more into the picture. I thought how Cooper's friends came to like Mac in the end felt genuine and didn't seemed like it was being forced. I really did enjoy the friendships along with the side characters of the story.
I thought the romance wrapped up well in the end and I was happy with the outcome. The only think I did have an issue with throughout the book is that it seemed like there was a fair amount of misogyny. I felt like the views most of the men in the story had about romance and relationships seemed a bit outdated and I wasn't the biggest fan of that.
Overall I thought the book was sassy, upbeat, and a quick read. I'd give it 3.5 simply because the misogyny wasn't something I enjoyed at all and it drew my focus to that, otherwise I did find the book quite likeable. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.

Such a great book! I rated Good Girl Complex five stars for its relatable characters, despite their differences, and the plotline that kept me swiping from one page to the next as fast as I could! Loved this one.

Stars: 4
Spice: 1.5
Tropes: college romance, good girl/bad boy, miscommunication/lies, cheating
MCs: Mackenzie “Mac” & Cooper

I enjoyed this book. It starts with Cooper & Mac’s boyfriend getting into it. As a way to get back at him, Cooper’s friends decide to trick Mackenzie into falling for Cooper. Their plan falls apart with Copper starts to actually fall for Mac.

Cooper & Mac had instant chemistry, and I loved their banter. Cooper was extremely sweet & his groveling after his mess up was great. This book reminded me a lot of the After series by Anna Todd. My only complaint is that this did not have an epilogue, but maybe that leaves it open for more.

In this new series by Elle Kennedy, a man set on revenge finds something a whole lot sweeter.

Cooper Hartley is your typical bad boy.
A string of one-night stands.
Tattooed.
Drop dead gorgeous.
That spells trouble for one good girl, Mackenzie "Mac" Cabot, who enters the Avalon Bay area attached, but not necessarily unavailable.

Mac becomes Cooper's target when her boyfriend, Preston Kincaid, causes him to lose his job. So, of course Cooper and his friends come up with a plan to make Preston suffer, by stealing his girlfriend. Sounds like trouble, but I was fully on board, nevertheless.

Given the situation between Mac and Preston, the plan almost seems too easy.
The two have been dating for years as some sort of Southern rich family expectation, with the end goal being marriage. Only problem is the spark has fizzled, at least on Mac's end. What we the reader also know is that Preston isn't exactly faithful as he claims to be. With that said, and given all the temptations Cooper presents, Mac is puddy in his hands.

What I enjoyed about this story was while Cooper went in with bad intentions, it is pretty clear early on that his feelings become genuine. That doesn't mean there isn't some silly drama later, but I knew that if Mac could get past the early deception, she'd see she has something very special.

This book also introduces the reader to a cast of side characters, who I'm hoping will each get their own story - especially Evan, Cooper's twin brother, and Heidi, the "troublemaker". This beachy romance was the perfect escape for the Winter Blues, and I'm looking forward to more in this series!

This is my third Elle Kennedy books and I just love reading them. Her college romances are just so swoony.

I got some West Side Story and Gossip Girl vibes from this one. Two people who come from different worlds and whose friends don’t welcome the other. Also, some insanely rich twenty year olds.

Cooper and Mack had chemistry for days. Their back and forth was amazing and I loved Cooper’s flirty ways.

I loved the side characters in this one. Elle Kennedy always fills her books with friendships that I love and it adds to the romance so much.

For my none steam reading friends, this one had quite a few spicy scenes!
★ ★ ★ ★/5
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥/5

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This sweet, steamy, seaside romance is one I definitely recommend!

I'm a sucker for a good good girl/bad boy, opposites attract romance and this one was so, so good! Both of the main characters were great, and the chemistry and banter between Mackenzie and Cooper was perfect. Mackenzie, the sweet people pleasing good girl, and Cooper, the damaged bad boy with a heart of gold. Their character development throughout the book was amazing.

I really liked how Mackenzie had made a name for herself outside of her family, and how she grew to independence throughout the book. I loved how one was rich and one wasn't, but neither had good families showing that money doesn't equal happiness!

I absolutely loved the setting of this book. Avalon Bay, a little seaside town with a great divide between "townies and clones". I love that it was set in the South - I grew up in South Carolina so I loved all the references to place I have been many times (Charleston, Hilton Head etc.).

I loved the side characters! From Bonnie, the energetic college roommate, to Evan, the troublesome twin, wow, they were all so good. I am hoping they all get their own book because I'm not ready to leave Avalon Bay yet!

Thank you St. martins Press for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. This book is due for publication 2/1!