Excellent novel! At first I was not so sure if I would like this one but I ended up loving it! The writing is excellent and the characters really showed off in this novel. Great read!

🏖SYNOPSIS: Mackenzie Cabot is born into wealth and to a town where it’s the rich v. the wealthy. She meets bad boy Cooper Hartley who tests everything she’s ever known.

🏖REVIEW: Now this was a romance I could get behind. This one really took me back. Mackenzie, or “Mac,” is in college, and dealing with that first love, tumultuous relationship chaos, and man - the nostalgia just felt good. The author did a wonderful job of describing what all relationships during that time are like, in their immaturity, their passion, their chaos, and I was here for it.

I liked the war between the “clones” (the rich) and the “townies” (the poor) and I thought it showed just what a traitor Mac was going to the other side. The whole bet had me with anxiety the entire time. I liked her finding her independence and her voice through the novel.

Was their steam? Don’t all college kids like to bang?! Yes, there was 🔥🔥🔥

My best advice going into this is to just have fun with it. Was it too long? Yes. There were some things I felt didn’t need to be included, but overall I had a great time escaping into this romance, and that’s all I really needed.

🏖VERDICT: 4 STARS ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🎵Song Rec: needed an appropriate throwback too. “Replay” - Iyaz

https://www.instagram.com/p/CYWbDF0LJvN/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

This comes out 2/1! Thanks to @stmartinspress and @netgalley for a copy!

I did enjoy reading this, and I'm likely to order it for my library, but the main characters were just in that age range (early 20s) that I just can't seem to vibe with. I love YA and I love contemporary romance, so I always think that new adult is going to be my jam, and I also work at a university, so I work with college students regularly. But I guess reading about college students (or students in that age range) just doesn't work for me. Still, I liked the main female character, Mac, who is not your typical rich girl at a private school college freshman. For one thing, she took some time off before coming to college, and for another, though she comes from money, she's actually a self-made millionaire because of a wildly successful website and app she created, #boyfriendfails. The characters are interesting and this follows a pretty common romance novel progression, but there were some unexpected twists that kept me interested. Content warning for toxic parent-child relationships.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press/St. Martin’s Griffin, and Elle Kennedy for the opportunity to honestly review an e-arc of Good Girl Complex.

Mackenzie “Mac” Cabot is a Good Girl. She’s a People Pleaser, putting the needs and wants of her parents and boyfriend before her own. She wants to focus on her booming internet business, but holds off in order to get a degree at her parents’ insistence. Mac heads to Avalon Bay, a community made up of the locals and the rich university students.

Cooper Hartley is one half of Avalon Bay’s bad boy twins. He is rough around the edges and does not like the clones of the college taking over his town every semester. When Mac and Cooper meet, sparks fly but patience and acceptance are also tested. The pair become unlikely friends and Mac finally starts to feel like she has a place in the world. That is, until a secret that Cooper has been keeping threatens everything that they built.

I’m usually not a big fan of the “dating someone for a bet” trope, but I think because Cooper quickly falls for Mac and tells everyone who knew about the bet that it was off and he knows he shouldn’t have done it in the first place, I didn’t mind it quite as much in this book.

My main issue with the book that knocked it down a star was that Mac seemed very Mary Sue-ish. She apparently is a wiz at everything with little explanation of how she came by those skills. Before she had even graduated high school, she built her own major website/app that made her millions, then suddenly her passion and expertise was renovating historic hotels. I would have liked that aspect to be expanded on a little more.

Despite that, I still flew through the book. I was very invested in Mac and Cooper’s relationship. I liked the growth of the two main characters as their relationship progressed. They helped each other overcome issues and pushed each other towards their dreams. If there are more books set in Avalon Bay, I will definitely be picking them up.

I adore Elle Kennedy! Her stories always grab my attention and 'Good Girel Complex' was no different. This book is good girl/rich bad boy vibes but I will say it did remind me of "After" by Anna Todd but WAY BETTER in my humble opinion.

This wasn't my favorite Elle Kennedy book, but it is one I will definitely recommend to friends and one ill probably pick up to read again

I really loved these characters - they were raw, damaged, redeemable. I wish there was some more detail about Evan and what he was going through, but overall, the characters really grab you. The opening scene immediately gets you in the gut - everyone knows drunk hands-y jerks at bars - and as the reader you immediately get the hero in Cooper. I loved that he had a set of long-time tight friends which were women. Usually these stories have the woman working at a small, local business, but turning around the gender roles and having Cooper trying to get his dream career off the floor while she's already a successful business owner was fun to read.

Going into this book, I had no idea what to expect of the characters and their lives. Leaving this book, I now have an attachment to them and wish I could be apart of their lives longer. This book pulled me out of a month long reading slump and I could not be more in love with a book. The characters? Amazing. Love the bad boy with a big, soft heart. Also, love an independent female lead who knows what she wants. All I want to do is reread the book now!

Good Girl Complex is the first book in the Avalon Bay series by Elle Kennedy. I felt like this book was like if After by Anna Todd meets The Outer Banks. It was good, not great, but good and felt a bit basic. For me, this was a solid 3.5 but I’ll round up to a 4 bc smoking hot twins and cute dogs.

In the book we meet Cooper Hartley and Mackenzie Cabot. This is a rich girl meets “townie” bad boy college romance. Mac is an entrepreneur who deferred her first year of college to work on her business and upon joining her boyfriend of four years in college she feels like she doesn’t belong there and is missing something. Cooper is the town bad boy out looking for revenge against the rich “clone” who got him fired from his summer bartending gig.

Honestly, this book was a bit of a let-down. I loved the Off Campus series by Elle Kennedy. She made those characters real and memorable. The characters in Good Girl Complex, though fun and likeable, didn’t quite reach me. This felt like a standard good girl meets bad boy romance. Now, don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love a different worlds kind of meet cute and I will certainly continue reading the series as published but it was just good.

I will say this… Cooper Hartley is a babe and I wouldn’t mind running into him on the boardwalk at all. Elle Kennedy absolutely knows how to give us some good book boyfriends and I definitely want to get an Even book.

this book is gonna give me a major book hangover i just know it.

to be honest i requested this book because of the author. i read elle kennedy's books previously (off-campus and briar u series) and i adored them so requesting an arc for her newest book was a no-brainer for me.

mac + cooper are the new loves of my life (especially cooper hartley where can i get one?). they reminded me of the pogue/kooks from the netflix show outer banks which is a dynamic i enjoy consuming. this book was so much fun and i thoroughly enjoyed myself from start to finish.

there was so much of this book that i loved! the vast difference between mac and cooper yet they find similarities in the most mundane and heartbreaking things were so beautiful to watch and i ADORED mac's character development.

is it too much to ask for a sequel? maybe evan finds love in avalon bay as well...

I wish I can give Good Girl Complex more than five stars because I absolutely loved it. I read the whole book in one sitting. It was addicting and I couldn’t put it down. Elle Kennedy is an amazing story tellers and I will literally read anything she publishes. I can’t wait to have a physical copy. I loved the romance, the steamy scenes but especially the relationship between Cooper and Mac. Rich girl finds a bad boy is absolutely one of my favorite types to read. Thank you so much Netgalley for giving the opportunity to have an early copy.

This is not a bad book.. It was just not for me. I thought it was too typical and a little boring. I felt like I have read this book before, but I haven't. Might be perfect for some readers, just not for me.

4.5/5⭐️

I am so grateful that I got an ARC for this book because it was truly amazing.

This book follows a stubborn, funny & rich girl Mackenzie Cabot and our smexy, chill townie Cooper Hartley. Their worlds collide, what could possibly happen? Well let me tell you… THE GREATEST FRIGGIN SUMMER ROMANCE!!

AGHH I CANNOT TELL YOU HOW MUCH I ENJOYED THIS BOOK.

I think part of why I loved it so much was because I could relate to some stuff the characters went through and therefore got more attached. I loved all of the friendships in this book and how Mackenzie learned to adapt to Coopers life.

I kind of hated Evan, Coopers twin, at first but then he warmed up and I love him.

To sum it all up this book was AMAZING AND I LOVED IT. GO READ IT PLEASE!!

Oh wait nvm it comes out 1st February 😭

Elle Kennedy has been an author on my TBR for the longest time and Good Girl Complex was the first book of her’s I read. Unfortunately this book wasn’t for me, but it won’t stop me from trying her other books. I found the book to be too slow for my tastes and had a hard time getting into this story.

***2 Stars***

*Le Sigh*

It’s been a minute since I read anything by the author, but had enjoyed what I read and decided to give this one a go. Unfortunately, it didn’t go the way I was hoping.

I will admit that I was intrigued by the first chapter, but then the second chapter hit and things kinda went downhill when I realized just what the secret was and how it was probably going to play out.

Unfortunately, again, I was right and while I did push through with the story, because I needed to see how it all played, I just feel meh about the book. In general I liked Cooper and Mackenzie, and did like see them grow throughout the story, but they just didn’t fully grab me and their chemistry was…tepid for me.

And then there was the “secret”...yeah. Not in my wheelhouse at the moment. I mean, I don’t have many tropes I dislike, but I just wasn’t feeling it right now.

I wish I liked this book more. I really do because there were some good moments, but it falls in the “it’s not you, it’s me” shelf. But if you do take a chance on it, I hope you love it.


~ Copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley & voluntarily reviewed ~

This was my first Elle Kennedy book, and I get why she has such a devoted fan base. I enjoyed it, but the good girl/bad boy plot wasn’t anything new. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the introduction to the town and all of the secondary characters, so I’ll definitely keep reading if this gets turned into a series.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

An opposites attract with a little side of love triangle? Hmmmm... Let's see where the start of a new series takes us.

We start the story with some entitled college kids coming into a small beach town to get their drink on when everything goes sideways. It's a case of Clones vs Townies. We've seen this before. The rich kids that think they are better than others and they should get and take whatever they want. Their (parent's) money is what rules them. Meanwhile, the kids from the "other side of the tracks" are always just looking to get by. To survive. They don't have the money, but they have heart. Well, some of them do. Cooper is the tattooed bad boy and he is going to make the Clone that came on to his turf pay. He's going to take his girl!

Mackenzie is a "Clone", but she is also very different than her boyfriend. She comes from money, but she's also someone that likes to work hard and is up for an adventure. So, when she arrives at the college and her outrageous roommate is set on finding a man for the night, these two paint the town red. And that is when Mac and Cooper first meet.

Mac and Cooper were just easy. Their conversation and banter was seamless and their chemistry was obvious. I don't even understand what Mac saw in her boyfriend. I know she tried to stick it out with him because he was the safe bet, but once she realized who those guys were and how they acted, it should've been an easy out. I didn't really like the triangle and how it was being played out, but I knew where the story was going to go. It was pretty predictable.

With that said, I liked Mac as a character and the person she was. Some of her actions were questionable, but so were Cooper's. I enjoyed seeing Cooper change and grow after meeting this girl that was the polar opposite of him. I really enjoyed Cooper's friend gang and am hoping we will see more of them in the series.

His intentions were far from honorable when Cooper thrust himself into Mackenzie’s life. He had a mission and felt no remorse for his actions with this trust-fund kid. But, the more time he spent with Mac, the more Cooper realized she was different from the other rich clones. When the ruse turns real, will the truth derail this burgeoning romance?

Elle Kennedy is one of my go-tos for new adult romances. I wasn’t sure how a non-sports romance from Kennedy would be, but honestly, I really enjoyed acquainting myself with this world. There was a lot of that first book feel, where I got the lay of the land and met all the major players, and, I must say, this was a great introduction to the series.

Standout Elements:

• The Cast – Kennedy assembled a fantastic group of characters for this series. Cooper’s circle of friends had an interesting dynamic. There was the cross dating/hooking up stuff, but they also shared so much history. All the years of friendship led to some pretty strong bonds. I was excited to meet them all and cannot wait for each to have their own story.

• The Romance – I hated how it started, but I did love Cooper and Mac together. They may have come from very different economic backgrounds, but they still had a lot in common. The damage their families had done to them was heartbreaking, but they had each other. There was also fantastic chemistry, passion, and a lot of tenderness between these two.

• Cooper – I knew Cooper was a good guy from the beginning because actions speak louder than words, but I did have a few reservations about him. The more time I spent with him, the more I came to appreciate this man. His life hadn’t been easy, but he worked hard to make something of himself. He was a talented woodworker and was working towards starting his own business. You have to admire that.

• Mackenzie – Her biggest flaw was her people pleasing ways, but wow! She was amazing. A young entrepreneur searching for her next business venture. Thank goodness she met Cooper. She finally had someone in her life who was proud of her, encouraged her, and supported her. And, each moment with Cooper translated to greater confidence in herself. It was wonderful seeing Mac grow and embrace her talents and ambition.

I felt like this story was about chasing your dream, being true to yourself, and finding the people who love the “real” you. There was humor, heat, and a lot of heart in this story. Overall, this was a solid start to this series. I saw so many possibilities as I met each member of the cast, and I am excited to go back to Avalon bay.

I adore Elle Kennedy and when I saw she was releasing a new book I was pumped to read it! I will say that I was a little hesitant after reading previous reviews about whether I would like this book as much as her others, and I have to say I truly did. Yes, this is different from her Off-Campus and Briar-U books, but I loved it.

Mac and Cooper were fantastic characters. On paper, they’re all wrong for each other, but their chemistry was undeniable. Were there some instances that I wasn’t thrilled with? Sure, but I don’t feel like they overshadowed the bigger picture.

This is truly an opposites attract story filled with drama and some angst, and I loved it. I do hope we get more from Avalon Bay because there were some amazing secondary characters that I’m dying for more of!

2022 is already off to a great start for reading. Good Girl Complex is the second book of the year to knock my socks off.

The Good Girl Complex is smartly written and entertaining. What started off as a revenge plot quickly lead to something more. Good Girl Complex is filled with lots of laugh-out-loud moments and angsty ones too. I loved the bad boy/good girl, wrong side of the tracks vibes.

Cooper and Mac were total opposites with amazing chemistry and banter. I loved Cooper and Mac together and couldn’t get enough of them. Sure there were some moments when I wanted to shake Cooper and his friends, but in the end, they all won me over and had me glued to the pages.

Good Girl Complex was everything I was looking for in a NA read. It was fun. It was entertaining. It had great romance and lots of good drama. I had a great time getting lost in Cooper and Mac’s story and look forward to seeing what this author has in store for us next.

What happens when you meet the one person with whom you can be your true and carefree self? What if that person turns out to be your total opposite and the one person your conscience tells you to run away from?

This is the story of Mac and Cooper, and let me tell you, I loved every minute of it. I laughed at loud, I was swooned at some points and I appreciated level of spice that it provided, which I thought it was the right amount.

Definitely a must read!