“I lived my whole life without Cooper Hartley. Then, six months together and I’ve forgotten what it was not to know him. Six months, and only minutes to shred it to hell.”
Genre: Romance
Actual Rating: 4 stars
Spicy Meter: 3 fire emojis (spicy, but not my cup of tea)
Content Warnings: Discusses cheating, parent death, sexual harassment, and addiction. Has quite a bit of sexual content.
Full disclaimer: I only grabbed this book because I was approved to read an advanced reader copy of “Bad Girl Reputation”, the second book in this series… but I am so happy I did.
“Good Girl Complex”, the first book in the Avalon Bay series, follows Mackenzie (Mac) Cabot, a trust-fund kid who moves to Avalon Bay to get her undergrad degree at Garnet College. In this small town, she meets Cooper Hartley, a local bad boy. Due to her people-pleasing nature, Mac hasn’t lived much—until Cooper came along. But secrets are being kept. Secrets that could tear their friendship and relationship apart.
Here’s the thing. I am surprised this book has so many mixed reviews. Being a people pleaser myself, I couldn’t have loved this book more. There wasn’t that much character development, and the ending feels a bit rushed if you ask me, but this book was still such a fun read.
This was my first Elle Kennedy book and I can already tell I will like everything she writes. Her narrative and alternating timelines kept me hooked the whole time. I literally read this book in a day.
I would highly recommend this book if you like the good girl-bad boy trope. You know the Rory Gilmore-Jess Mariano dynamics in “Gilmore Girls” and the Kat Startford-Patrick Verona dynamics in “Ten Things I Hate About You”? Well, mesh that into a book and you get “Good Girl Complex”.
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andrea's galley 