A cute, predictable romance that reminded me a lot of 10 Things I Hate About You. I don’t love revenge dating as a trope, but I was definitely rooting for Mac and Cooper. Mac was a great female lead because she wasn’t just a rich entitled brat (like some characters assumed she was). She was a self-made entrepreneurwho was resilient and didn’t take shit from her family or men. The “reveal” felt a little late into their relationship, but it still worked.

As someone who loves Elle Kennedy and has reread both the Off Campus and Briar U books a million times (they are my comfort reads) I could not help but be let down by this book. Let’s start with the good. I did love the main couple and I lovedd Mac as the lead girl. She is so smart and strong willed and funny. I loved Cooper as well and learning why he is how he is. I also loved a lot of the side characters like Evan and am interested In his story. So why 3 1/2 stars. I think this book may just have the issue a lot first books in new series have where it has to focus on world building as much as the romance, but the issue is I just didn’t care about this world as much. This book also has some of my least favorite tropes including cheating, rich/poor, and just lots of people hating each other for random reasons. I do have hope for this series. There are some characters I think could have amazing books. I think my expectations may have just been a little too high. This is still an amazing book and a great evolution of Elle Kennedy and a fun start to a new series that I believe can be great.

What happens when a sweet girl next door meets the bad boy? Mackenzie, (Mack) is wealthy and a good girl, but she shares a passionate side with Cooper, the bad boy. Mack has had her whole life planned out. College, sorority and expected to marry Preston.
Cooper has always been a flirty boy, but he accepts a challenge to take Mack away from her current boyfriend Preston. Cooper and Preston met, and did not get along which led to Cooper loosing his job, so this challenge is a good payback. Mack thinks Preston is devoted to him, but she quickly learns he is not who she thinks he is. Cooper and Mack become an item and Cooper’s secrets are revealed.
Multiple story lines, and a lit bit slow for my taste, but the narrator is really good.
Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins Press for this advanced audio.

This was a cute story that reminded me a bit of a late 90s/early 2000s teen drama (I'm looking at you, She's All That and 10 Things I hate About You)! Light-hearted and yes, steamy ... I did want a little bit more depth to the characters at times but overall really enjoyed it! It was nice to see a younger crowd battling with status, class and familial expectations to see them make good choices in the end. Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review an ARC of this book!

Mac has always followed the rules. Growing up part of the elite society, she’s always followed certain expectations from her parents and her boyfriend, but she’s tried of it. But when she goes to college and meets local body boy, Cooper, he turns her world upside down. Cooper usually hates trust fund kids, but as he gets to know Mac, he starts falling for her, but a secret he’s keeping could ruin it all.

Once I started this one, I couldn’t put it down. I loved the growth that occurred in both Mac and Cooper’s lives and how they were able to learn from each other and grow as a result of knowing each other. This unlikely couple had me rooting for them and it was so fun to see them surprise even themselves. There were a lot of fun side characters as well, and I’m hoping for some spin off stories for some of their friends!!

I loved how the audiobook had two narrators - I think it really helped solidify the two perspectives and really get into both characters heads. The narration was full of emotion and I thought both narrators did a great job!

Thanks to SMP Romance, MacMillan Audio and NetGalley for the advanced copies.

I went into Good Good Complex, the first in Elle Kennedy’s Avalon Bay series, a little blind—I knew Elle Kennedy was an author I wanted to try and I fell in love with the cover! Good Girl Complex follows people pleasing and ambitious Mackenzie as she starts college to appease her parents when all she wants to do is pursue her own entrepreneurial efforts, and Cooper, local townie who’s rough around the edges with a hope to make something of himself and he’s ready to break down Mac’s perfectly curated life. This book does take a kind of revenge plot—Cooper starts the book a little cocky for my taste, thinking he can steal Mac from her pretentious, trust-fund boyfriend, and I’m glad the book didn’t sink in that plotline too long. Mac was a beautifully done character. She’s smart and ambitious and I loved watching her come into her confidence and go for what she wanted and find what made her happy. Copper too became so complex. He’s funny and interesting and wants so much more than the life people expect of him. For the audiobook, I love it has two narrators and perspectives. It adds so much to the story, especially in a world like this that deals with the rich kid “clones” and the townies. The characterization in this book is just stunning. I like the openness of the world: there’s so many strong background characters in the background—Cooper has an eclectic group of amazing friends and Mac has been tumultuous family and bubbly roommate—and no one felt redundant or distracting. I cared about everyone but their stories never eclipsed Cooper and Mac. For this, I know epilogues can be overdone, but I wish this one had one, I wanted more of Mac for the ending. It felt a little cut short. But overall, this is a story of young love, going against expectation, fighting for what you want, and passion. It’s steamy and vivid and I just want more of Avalon Bay!

I've been desiring this type of Elle's writing and have been hoping for it for a long time. I was starting to lose interest in her other spin-off books, but this one made me reconsider and fall in love with her male characters all over again. And falling for Cooper has made me a little obsessed with his personality and vibes; though his initial intentions made him a jerk, it's the slow realization that Mac isn't like the other rich assholes that make Cooper a man for loving her the way she is and defending her from his once awful friends that makes Cooper a man. I'm excited to see what else Elle has in store for us in this great series. I need Evan's book, as does everyone else, including Katie and Bonnie. I simply know she'll write their narrative, and if she doesn't, then, oh well... But I'm hoping she does since it's a must-read series. That being said, I am delighted she persevered with this relationship because she did not disappoint.

This was a fun one that had my attention from the get go. The conflict and connection between the two point of views we get - the "rich clone" Mackenzie and the "bad boy townie" Cooper - is introduced pretty early and it immediately piqued my interest. I was ready to find out just how it all was going to play out.

I often felt like I should want to dislike Cooper, because of his intentions - but I ended up really liking him. I actually found myself really disliking some of Mac's choices more - seeing as she was the one in the relationship - but, realistically, neither of them were in the right.

While the events leading up to the ending were a little predictable.. and a couple times I found myself wishing we could just get to the conflict that I knew was to come, I still enjoyed this overall.

Thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin's Griffin for the Advanced Reader Copy!

T R O P E S: dating bet, revenge plot, opposites attract, good girl/bad boy
TW: cheating, mild absentee parents and parental neglect
Synopsis Breakdown: Outer Banks meets After by Anna Todd

I want to start off by saying that this was one of my most anticipated romances of 2022, but I don't think this is Elle Kennedy's proudest moment.

The story reads like her off-campus series does, fast and addictively easy to consume. However, it's 2022. I think it's safe to say cheating on the basis of it being with the "right person" does not grant you a get-out-of-jail-free card for said cheating. The cheating starts at about 30% into the book and isn't a one-time event, either. I mentally checked out of Mac and Cooper's love affair very early on in the story for this reason.

What the synopsis fails to mention is the presence of the "guy dating girl for a bet" trope (you know the one. It's the same plot device in After by Anna Todd). I personally find that this immediately solidifies the male love interest as a morally distasteful asshole, unworthy of the heroine from the get-go. I would have been much more agreeable to this trope if Cooper redirected his agenda toward simply convincing Mac to break up with her boyfriend, in lieu of the cheating.

Early on in the book, I did not appreciate Cooper's consistent provocations to start a sexual relationship as part of this bet. Mac's constant reminders to him that she has a boyfriend and is not interested were met with more persistent goading. Let's come back down to earth here, if this happened in real life, outside the fluffy bounds of rom-com land, this would be recognized for what it is: sexual harassment.

In addition to that, when Mac and Cooper finally got together, they kept secrets and lied to each other. Cooper solved his problems by throwing punches. These are two people who are not emotionally intelligent enough to be in a healthy romantic relationship. And the bitter "ex-girlfriend of the male love interest" character was such an unnecessary addition -- a trope that is overused in this genre and grounded in misogyny. Oh, and the spice wasn't really that great just fyi.

As always, when I received an audiobook ARC, I like to comment on the listening experience. Ava Erickson and Joe Arden were fantastic choices for narrators. I hope they got paid well to read this lol. I would recommend the audiobook version...but I don't personally recommend this romance in the first place. Since I did grow to appreciate the small college beach town setting and the Outer Banks-adjacent dynamics between the townies and rich college kids, I will consider giving subsequent books in this series a chance.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Five star read / listen! Brought me out of my book slump. Listened to this in one day and starting again today for a second listen. Late to the Elle Kennedy train and now can’t look back! Excited to jump into her other books. Loved the characters and their witty banter, steamy scenes, and swoony romance. Different spin on the typical enemies to lovers troupe. Writing and especially narration from dueling POV’s gave the main characters great depth that gave me butterflies throughout the book.
Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and MacMillion Audio for an advanced listening copy in exchange for my honest review.

This story follows Mac and Coop’s “opposites-attract-different-sides-of-the-track” friendship. And I was 100% here for the ride—I already cannot wait to read it again.

The characters are everything you want them to be—real. Raw. Well written.

This is the perfect new romance by a star author! Highly recommend!

I love when there are different voice actors for the different POVs so this was off to a great start!

This is sort of a take on the “bet you can’t date her” trope with some revenge thrown in. Everything that goes wrong is based around communication issues.

It was funny and sweet and our female lead is an entrepreneur badass.

I really like our female lead. Our male lead is a bit pretentious, he thinks he’s so much better than her because he doesn’t come from money and he really looks down on her world. Overall it was a good romance and I’m excited for the next book, I’m sure it will be about his identical twin :)

Thank you @smpromance @netgalley for ALC of Good Girl Complex. I am a huge fan of Elle Kennedy’s book and this one did not disappoint. I love that Mac & Cooper were from totally different upbringing and different economic background and they were friends first. Their attraction was fire and I love the slow burn! I appreciate that their love story is messy and felt so real. I hope Evan gets his story next.

I love the dual POV and the narration was great.

Another addictive ready from Elle Kennedy. Once I started this one I could not stop.

Mackenzie "Mac" Cabot finally agrees to go to Garnet College to please her parents and her long time boyfriend after taking a "gap" year and building an incredibly successful business from the ground up. Mac has spent her life trying to live up to everyone else's expectations including her extremely wealthy parents and her boyfriend Preston who expects her to play second fiddle to him. When she gets to Garnet College she meets local bad boy Cooper Hartley who, unbeknownst to Mac, was recently fired from his job after an altercation with her boyfriend. Despite being from "different sides of the tracks" Cooper and Mac strike up an unexpected friendship which morphs into so much more for both of them, but secrets and lies threaten to tear everything apart.

When this book started and Cooper and his friends made their "bet" I wasn't sure I was gong to like where this was going. There was so much potential for everyone to get hurt and you could see where this was going to go. But as the friendship between Cooper and Mac developed I loved seeing Cooper change and grow. The character grown in this book is stunning and makes it to where at the end when the inevitable confrontation happens it almost breaks your heart.

I loved Cooper and Mac and Evan and all of the friends in this book and am excited for what I hope will be additional spin off stories from this world. I am never a fan of infidelity story lines on a book so I wasn't a big fan of how laissez-faire everyone seemed about cheating. But overall this book was a gripping read and I could not stop listening.

I listened to the audio book which is narrated by Ana Erickson and Joe Ardon and they both did a beautiful job of the narration. I thought Joe was a perfect choice for narrating Cooper's chapters. His voice was exactly what I pictured for Cooper. The narration by both of them was full of emotion and inflection and I through this was an excellent audio book.

I am a big fan of Elle Kennedy's work and this one is no exception. I would definitely recommend this book and look forward reading more from this series

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and MacMillion Audio for an advanced listening copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Good Girl Complex 
by Elle Kennedy

“Mac, when I picture my future, I see myself old and gray, sitting in a rocking chair on a porch. With you beside me. That’s my dream.” 
-Chapter 45 

✨ Mac and Cooper’s story ended up being a cute one, but I am usually not a huge fan of the revenge dating trope. That’s initially how the relationship between Cooper and Mackenzie starts. Cooper plans to steal Mac away from her current boyfriend, Preston, in retaliation for an incident between the two of them. 
✨I liked this book, but didn't love it as much as I thought I would. That is so hard for me to say, because I just recently read The Deal by this same author and loved it. If you’ve read the series After or have seen the Netflix show this book will seem a bit similar at the start. It definitely gave me After vibes.
✨There are quite a few tropes in this book including revenge dating, main characters from opposite sides of the track, good girl meets bad boy, and friends to lovers. This is a fun and steamy read, but if you haven’t read Elle Kennedy yet, check out her Off Campus series first. It’s a good book to curl up and relax with by the fire on a cold day with your favorite drink.
3.5/5 stars. 



Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

⭐️⭐️💫

This book was middle of the road for me. Elle Kennedy really knows how to write a compulsive novel, but some of the story elements just didn’t sit well with me. I don’t love storylines of cheating and lying in relationships, especially when it continues for so long into the relationship. I was hoping the revenge plot line would be revealed to Mac earlier in the story instead of continuing the lie even after “I love you”s were exchanged, keeping the friend group in on hiding the truth, and humiliating Mac. She was such a resilient, take-charge woman and I really liked her character and didn’t appreciate seeing her get hurt by Cooper and continue to be with him after all of that. I mean the ending was cute… but she deserved better.

The audio was extremely well done. Great narration by Ava Erickson and Joe Arden!

Thanks to Macmillan Audio and St. Martin’s Griffin for this ALC.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy of the audiobook!
Good Girl Complex is the fourth Elle Kennedy book that I’ve read. I enjoyed the story line and liked the characters. It was a little less spicy than I was expecting. Not a bad thing by any means it’s definitely still there. Mackenzie and Cooper made a cute couple. Tropes are bad boy good girl. Rich city girl and townie boy. There’s a rescue dog. A lie that eventually comes out and causes the inevitable third act conflict.
So I’m going to tag this as spoilers from this point on because I have some comments that involve plot specifics. Let me first say that I have this four stars. I enjoyed myself it was a good romance. So honestly this book was basically the same story as After (I’ve only seen the movie oops). Like cool guy makes a bet about a girl then falls in love with her but then surprise she finds out and is pissed. I’m sure lots of books and movies have that plot but After is just what came to mind for me. This was better though so I’m not mad about it.
Also I feel like we got a full circle for Coopers plot line but not Macs. Like I wanted to see more about her hotel and the restoration project! But what we got was her making up kinda with her parents and making up with Cooper. HFN. I assume this is because this is going to be a series? It must be. So hopefully when we get an Evan book or a insert other character here book we will get more of the hotel progress in the background of those stories.
Anyway those are minor things. More observation than complaints. I liked the other books I’ve read from her more.
This book releases 2/1 if you’re interested. If you like her other books I’m sure you would like this too.

Cooper and his friends have lived in Avalon Bay all their lives, making them the townies. Avalon Bay is also home to an expensive college filled with priviledged young men and women, who constantly keep the townies on their guard. One night as Cooper is tending bar at a local haunt, one of the rich kids (called the Clones by the locals) won't take no for an answer with one of the waitresses. When Cooper sticks up for her and puts rich clone, Prescott, in his place, he loses his job for it.

Cooper's gang of friends want revenge against Prescott, and learn that he has a girlfriend named Mackenzie, who will be a new student at the college in the fall. Together they brainstorm a plan, where Cooper will seduce her and humiliate Prescott.

When Cooper starts realizing that Mackenzie isn't like the other trust fund kids, he must decide whether he should keep the secret of how and why they got together, or if it will drive her away.

This book has everything that fans of Elle Kennedy have come to love her for, and then some! She does a fantastic job with this rich girl/bad bot type of romance, and their relationship is complicated and messy. The chemistry and spice level is amazing between these characters. This book is everything I want in a new adult romance!

The book is told from the points of view of both Cooper and Mackenzie, and the two narrators of the audiobook were excellent!

Thanks to Macmillan Audio for providing me with an ARC of the audiobook in exchange for my honest review,.

This was my second ever Elle Kennedy novel, and I was a little disappointed with it.
I loved the relationships. I liked how they were growing together. But it also felt really...stilted in a way.
It also, at times, felt like the characters were just floating around and were not in a setting. But that might have just been my interpretation.

This was a fun, dual perspective, steamy new adult summer romance between two twenty somethings from opposite sides of the track.

Mackenzie is from wealth and privilege and is dealing with the mounting pressure of her parents and boyfriend to live up to societal expectations for a woman of her class. Her idea of what she wants out of life starts to change when she begins summer school at a college on an island and meets Cooper, a hot townie she has trouble keeping away from.

Their relationship has a lot of ups and downs with a juvenile type of bet but I really loved Cooper and his twin brother Evan. The brothers are working hard to make something of themselves despite having a toxic mother. Great on audio with two narrators, this book gave me a lot of Gilmore Girls and Jennifer Weiner summer reads vibes. Much thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan audio for my advance review copies!!