Tag Archives: 3 fire emojis

Good Girl Complex — Elle Kennedy — Avalon Bay #1

“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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ARC — The Make-Up Test — Jenny L. Howe

“You don’t have to take care of me.”
“Yeah, I do. We have a mild truce now, remember?”

Genre: Romance
Actual Rating: 4 stars
Spicy Meter: 3 fire emojis
Content Warnings: As given by the author—Fatphobia both in flashback and in present day, fatshaming from a family member, and deals with death and loss.

“The Make-Up Test” follows Allison Avery and Colin Benjamin, two grad students with the same advisor. Sounds simple enough, right? Except it isn’t. Allison and Colin dated while they were in undergrad and it did not end well, to say the least. Now, years later, and in a more competitive program, they’re left to work together to the best of their abilities. That is, until their advisor tells them she’ll only be able to keep one grad student moving forward. Now, with higher stakes, they end up in the exact same situation they were years ago. Will history rewrite itself? Or will old habits prevail?

You see that endorsement on the cover? Well, I agree wholeheartedly with Ali Hazelwood: I’ll read anything Jenny Howe writes. Her narrative is clever and her (most of her) characters complex and layered. This book had a second-chance romance and lovers-to-enemies-to-friends-to-lovers trope. It’s told partially through flashbacks, which were nice and helped us understand why the main characters act the way they do.

I loved Allison and how she was protrayed as more than just a student. I, myself, am currently in grad school and something I feel like my whole life revolves around that—but Allison’s doesn’t. We get to see her shifting relationships with old friends and how her family dynamics, all but ideal, affect her, but she pushes on.

And then there is Colin. Bland, one-dimentional Colin. Now, I really did feel like he was only there to fill up that romantic void in Allison’s life. Like he had no other purpose than that. We do get a sob story about his family background, but it doesn’t really seem to phase him or define him in any way. He’s just an insecure, white man hoping to thrive in academics. That’s it.

But the story was entretaining and relatively fast-paced. I think it was definitely worth the read. My only complaint is that it wasn’t as spicy as I thought it would be. The sexual tension was there, but the scenes didn’t deliver. I felt like it was missing something. I wasn’t ready to let go of these characters.

I would highly recommend this book, I can’t believe it’s a debut novel. If you like second-chance romance and enemies-to-lovers, “The Make-Up Test” is for you.

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ARC provided by NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.

Publication Date: September 13, 2022

“You don’t like happy endings?”
(…) “I think the problem is more that I like them too much. No one gets that in real life.”

The Duke and I — Julia Quinn — Bridgertons #1

“His mouth captured hers, trying to show her with his kiss what he was still learning to express in words. He loved her. He worshipped her. He’d walk across fire for her. He—
—still had the audience of her three brothers.”

Genre: Historical Romance
Actual Rating: 2.5 stars
Spicy Meter: 3 fire emojis (but -10 on one scene)
Content Warnings: Sexual climax without consent (I consider it rape but others disagree).

Set in the Regency period, “The Duke and I” follows Daphne Bridgerton, the fourth of eight Bridgerton siblings, and Simon Bassett, the Duke of Hastings, as they meet and conspire to make their season more pasable. Daphne is looking for a love match, but no prudent gentleman is interested in her much, while Simon is looking to never marry but wants the mother of all eligible ladies to leave him alone—and so they come up with an agreement: they’ll fake a connection. Men will find Daphne more suitable if a Duke is after her, and some mamas will lay off on the matchmaking if they believe Simon is already claimed. Sounds like a perfect plan… as long as they don’t fall for each other.

This is the novel the first season of Bridgerton is based on, and it shows. The series is almost a scene by scene retelling of the book, with some very minuscule exceptions. I mean, physically the actors match nothing of how the characters were described, but other than that the plot stays the same. Simon is easier to forgive the unforgivable. We get to hear Daphne’s inner monologue when she pretty much rapes her husband, and italia aa horrible as that sounds. I don’t feel like she deserved that happily ever after. But maybe that’s just me.

I would recommend this book to fans of regency period dramas and classical and historical romance books like Pride and Prejudice or Jane Eyre, but making those a little more spicy.

If you click here, you’ll be redirected to Goodreads, so you can add the book to your TBR list.

Or you could click here, and be redirected to Amazon, so you can order the book.