Well I was looking for a great summer romance book to read and I found it in Good Girl Complex. With an amazing story and characters who you will remember long after the last chapters. I loved everything about this story. As a fan of Elle Kennedy I can’t wait to read what she writes next. This is a great beach read that will be a hit!!!

I’m not really sure where to start with this book. I tried to do my own synopsis but I couldn’t figure out how to do that without my feelings getting in the way of this one - so just read the synopsis on GoodReads. .

A couple days ago I posted that I was getting really frustrated with Elle Kennedy books - for a few specific reasons. Her characters are all white, skinny and for the most part, rich. I feel like this book, just like the entire Off-Campus and BriarU series, has a crippling lack of diversity. The fact of the matter is, Elle Kennedy writes rich white kids and struggling young adults really well, and that’s what this book is. It’s a rich kid struggling to figure out who she is and is going to be. It’s a whole crew of broken townies who are making their own way in the world.

That being said, Elle Kennedy has a way of brining you along side her characters and you get sucked right in to all the NA drama. I don’t like the love triangle trope at all, and was on the fence about how Mac and Cooper’s relationship came to be. Mac’s boyfriend Preston was cheating on her and she was essentially cheating on him too. Even though after Coop and Mac’s first kiss, she comes clean, I still felt icky about it. And the dare trope (I don’t really know what else to call it) is getting really old, really quickly. It’s a really shitty thing to do, and my patience for it is 0.

All this being said, I did like this book. I liked Mac and Cooper a lot and their relationship worked really well. I think there was some truly A+ grovelling at the end. I’m just super torn about this book. But if you like Elle Kennedy’s books, I promise you will love this one too.

CWs: Cheating, lying, toxic parental relationships

Thank you to SMP Romance, NetGalley and Elle Kennedy for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own.

I am a huge fan of Elle Kennedy so I was so excited to read this and it did not disappoint! This was an opposites attract romance, as Cooper is a bad boy and a townie, while Mac is a rich girl new to town to attend college. After Mac’s boyfriend gets Cooper fired from his job, Cooper makes a bet with his friends that he can steal Mac from her boyfriend to get revenge on him. He realizes almost immediately after meeting Mac that he actually likes her and they develop real feelings for each other. The only thing I didn’t like about this book was how long it took for Mac to find out about Cooper’s initial intentions with her.

This book set up so many characters to get their own spin-off book, and I could easily see this becoming another popular series like Elle Kennedy’s Off-Campus/Briar U series. Fans of those series will absolutely love this book!

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC!

A great summer romance novel by Elle Kennedy. I couldn’t put it down once I started it. I loved all the characters and hope we get to see more of them in the future. Overall it was a great read the only complaint I had was the rushed ending. I wish there was an epilogue.

I have mixed feelings on this one. I love Elle Kennedy and read pretty much everything she writes, so it bothered me that I wasn't completely loving Good Girl Complex. The beach town setting and the general conflict and animosity between the locals and the rich kids reminded me of the Netflix show Outer Banks (which could be a positive or a negative, depending on the reader). The novel had good basic premise: Cooper, our bad-boy hero decides to seduce and steal the girlfriend of the rich jerk who got him fired from his job. His revenge plan quickly goes off course when he actually gets to know Mac (Mackenzie) and falls for her. I liked Cooper but I couldn't help but dislike Mac and her general wishy-washiness and cluelessness about what was going on in her life. I also couldn't help but feel that there were just a few too many cliches in the story. Maybe these wouldn't jump out to most readers but I have read a LOT of romance and there were things in the book that I'd felt as though I'd seen a million times before. There is a strong element of cheating in this book, so if that is a turn-off for you, be aware that it is a big part of the story. In fairness, I am not the target reader for New Adult and I found myself wondering if maybe I've gotten too old to truly appreciate a good NA novel, but then I would remind myself that Kennedy's The Deal is one of my all-time favorite romance novels, so perhaps this story was just not the right one for me. I'm sure for some readers this would be a five star read. If Kennedy decided to expand on this world and write a novel for one or more of the supporting characters I would definitely be willing to give the characters of Avalon Bay another shot.

It was good overall but the ending felt rushed and I would have liked an epilogue. However I really enjoyed this book and think that it is a near perfect summer read romance.

Elle Kennedy is one of my go to authors. Everything she writes is amazing. I was so excited to get an advanced copy of this book! It has all the hallmarks of an Elle book. Witty dialogue, great settings, high steam factor and swoon worthy romance. This is not one of my catnip tropes, the townie and the rich girl with a side of revenge plot. It does also contain some cheating (mild, if cheating can be considered in levels?). I loved Mackenzie's fire and Cooper's badassery but I got really really frustrated with her wishy washiness. She's basically independently wealthy but can't break free from her parents to do what she wants? No real reason is given for this other than it's hard and I had a hard time buying it. Her blind faith in Preston was also hard to swallow given her intuitiveness in every other aspect in her life. Cooper is an excellent alpha male character with a good deal of heart. Those things aside this was a solid read and I would recommend it to patrons and friends alike.

I think this is the start of another great series for Elle Kennedy. Good Girl Complex introduced a large group of friends who are all "Townies" in a tourist/college town, dealing with the class differences between themselves and the rich students who attend Garnet College. Cooper starts his relationship with Mackenzie in a quest for revenge on her boyfriend, but he wasn't expecting to fall for "Mac". Their relationship felt natural and I loved how both Cooper and Mac were complex people with their own challenges to overcome. Though I never like a "secret" trope, I felt like the resolution was satisfying. I'm looking forward to more books set in Avalon Bay.

Good Girl Complex is told from the POV of Mackenzie (Mac) and Cooper. Mac is from a wealthy family and her parents expect her to continue to keep up the appearances - go to Garnet, marry her boyfriend Preston, and then sit on a bunch of charity boards and essentially be a trophy wife. She did win the fight of a gap year in between prep school and college, which she used to build an internet business. Cooper is a "townie" who has been struggling to save up money to fix up the home he shares with his twin brother and eventually have enough saved to pursue his passion of making furniture. He and his twin currently work for their uncle, who became their guardian after their father died and their mother ran off (she comes back occasionally, looking for money). When Cooper gets fired from his second job at a bar after fighting with Preston, he and his friends are seeking revenge and Mac becomes a part of the plan. Too bad Cooper realizes she isn't a clone like he expected and that they have more in common than he'd thought. This won't end badly, right?

I loved the characters in this story. Both Mac and Cooper felt so real. Neither of them were caricatures of the rich girl/poor boy and I loved that their relationship wasn't just them getting together and being oh so happy until Mac finds out what he did - they actually fought about things that mattered to them. And then had some steamy make up time. And the supporting characters! Bonnie was probably my favorite. The story is predictable, but the characters totally make up for it. I would love to see more books with the characters (Evan/Bonnie especially). Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this one! Mac is really relatable as a people-pleaser. I loved her and Cooper's relationship. Their connection didn't seem forced, and had a perfect ending!

“I make them good girls go bad.” – Cooper Harley, probably.

Take your typical “good girl with a terrible boyfriend with a sarcastic sense of adventure” and your “bad boy with family trauma and a chip on his shoulder the side of Kansas” and you’ve got the essence of Good Girl Complex.

Mackenzie Cabot (or Mac) as she’s called is an interesting main character, an actual billionaire after successfully launching apps similar to Reddit in their execution. A freshman at a small, liberal college at a beachside town full of wealthy people, the romance between her and Cooper starts off as a revenge fueled bet.

As is typical with the genre, Cooper is misunderstood, has some serious anger issues but is sweet as apple pie with Mac. A switching POV story, I found myself being bored with Cooper’s story and his perspective. He’s not an uninteresting love interest and has more depth than what is typical of the genre, but Mac as a character has so much more potential, something that I was disappointed to see be completely washed away in favor of making her the ideal dream girl for Cooper to the point where any potential for friends, interests, or even the apps that made her independently wealthy, being fallen to the wayside for Cooper and his problems.

Good Girl Complex lives up to its name, a story about the complexes that good girls have or really, the ones that we place upon them. A breezy beach read, it’ll leave you wanting more but not necessarily in the way I would have liked.

Lots of things to like about this romance: chemistry between the main characters, Coop and Mac. Supporting characters who are funny. It feels like a comfy read you know because it is definitely a story you already know. Small town guy and uptown girl. They aren't supposed to be together, and she already has a rich, jackass boyfriend. Sexual tension and release ensues. An entertaining, quick read.

Not a book I could use in my classroom but I can see the draw for sure. I wouldn't recommend it to my students but on the other hand can see them enjoying it if found on their own. Easy and compelling read for sure, but not a style that I tend to read. Still, I can see the popularity and draw.

This was a really cute book, much like everything Elle Kennedy writes. I loved the character development, especially for Cooper who realized you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover. I wish more had been done with the Preston, Cooper, and Mac. I feel like the conflict there wasn't really resolved. I feel it was a strong book and hopefully a strong start to another series.

Elle Kennedy is a strong writer in the NA romance genre, and I enjoyed the "Good Girl Complex". Girl meets boy from across the tracks, he's made a bet with friends regarding the heroine, etc. Predictable plot but still an enjoyable journey.

Okay Elle Kennedy, I see you.

When I got the ARC for this I was excited but very nervous. I really liked The Deal but I had read it a while ago and wasn't sure if my taste had changed since then. Definitely did not change too much bUT I HAVE A BONE TO PICK WITH IT. Listen, I hate love triangles, even for a second. If it were a physical thing I could touch, I'd whip every love triangle against the wall until it was sure to have shattered into a billion tiny pieces. I hate them. So, when I caught a whiff of one...... my spidey senses were on red alert. This one wasn't terrible (and honestly, wasn't really one at all once I got into the thick of it all) but I WAS AGGRO'D. Mac and Cooper were nowhere near two ends of the same stick at a glance. The two of them may as well have been on separate planets if you only looked at their lives at surface level but once you swam a lil deeper into the bigger things, you'd notice how similar these two are at heart. Their lives are difficult in different ways, but resulting in very similar ways that could bring them together. Cooper makes sure they do end up together when the reason he got fired from his job (after protecting his friend) is attached to the arm of Mackenzie. She's none the wiser and couldn't see her hotshot, loyal-for-four-years boyfriend doing anything like that, so Coop and his friends make a plan (The Deal, if you will ;)) to take advantage of how naive she is.

Easy plan to make until it blows up in your face.

Coop you nimrod. What the hell were you thinking? This is one of my bones I'm picking. THIS DEAL/BET NONSENSE IN BOOKS..... IT'S REALLY GETTING TO ME. WHAT KINDA BS??? "Hey the boyfriend is a right prick, let's get revenge by humiliating a girl none of us even know and take advantage of her obliviousness to the situation" NO. LET'S NOT DO THAT ANYMORE.

HOW ABOUT FORGET ABOUT THE DUDE. THAT'S IT.

All of that aside, I did enjoy this book and its band of characters. Cooper and Mac were giving me banter and mild spice and I was here for it. Bonnie was kind of a waste of a character in my opinion? Just there to fill some empty space but otherwise not really important in the grand scheme of it all. I loved Evan. I especially loved Evan and Mac's blossoming relationship once he got over himself.

Cooper was.... wow. I wanted to shake him but wow did I love him. Elle Kennedy delivers another addictive romance that I could not put down. I literally read it in one go because I could not bring myself to stop. It was funny and light and what more could I ask for right now?

Thanks to NetGalley for my gifted copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Good Girl Complex is the story of Mac and Copper. Copper is from “Townie” from the wrong side of tracks. Mac is a privileged yet down to earth rich girl “clone”. They couldn’t come from differing circumstances if they tried and yet somehow they are soul mates and are meant to be together.
This is a quick and fun read with surprisingly deep characters, a good girl/bad boy trope and has a lot of heart. 3.5 rounded up to 4

Elle Kennedy delivered a fantastic romance read, as always. I would highly recommend picking up this fantastic beach read!

This is the first Elle Kennedy book i’ve ever read, and i’m not disappointed.
I thought both characters were like able and it was easy to understand the motivations behind their actions. I also loved how the story wrapped up at the end, although it I would’ve loved an epilogue of some sort.

pretty good! i liked the emphasis on how mac and cooper had similarities even in their differences. i thought things were kind of weak in the beginning; i wasn’t really behind their whole plot to get back at kincaid through mac (seemed blatantly hurtful), but i ended up engaged and into the story nonetheless.

#netgalley