Author: Elle Kennedy
Narrated by: Lee Samuels and Summer Morton
Genre: Romance
Actual Rating: 4.5 stars
Spicy Meter: 4 stars
Narration: 5 mikes
Content Warnings: Discusses parent death, parent neglect, abandonment, alcohol and drug abuse, police/authority abuse, and includes sexual content.
“Bad Girl Reputation” follows Genevieve (Gen) West, a rebel who escaped the small town of Avalon Bay, running away from her past and her reputation—but then, after being a year away, her mother dies unexpectedly, and she is forced to come back and help her father with their family business. So in comes Evan Hartley, Gen’s on-again-off-again high school ex-boyfriend and personal bad boy. As soon as they see each other, they know there’s still something there, and so Gen has no option but to run away from him, constantly. If she wants to break out from old cycles, then she needs to start with Evan. She can’t be dating him if she’s planning on not being her past, irresponsible self. But what if she isn’t the only on that has changed? What if this time apart has also been good for Evan? What if she does have another shot at love after all.
“Bad Girl Reputation” is worth the hype. This second chance romance is both fast-paced and, well, romantic. I was lucky to get my hands on the audiobook ARC of this book, with Summer Morton narrating as Gen and Lee Samuels narrating as Evan. In my opinion, Summer was the perfect cast. Her voice was all I imagined Gen’s voice to be. Evan, on the other hand, took me a few chapters to get used to. I wasn’t feeling his voice, even if the narrator was doing a great job—and even by the end I wasn’t 100% sold on it.
I am happy to say, tho, that I liked “Bad Girl Reputation” so much more than the first book in this series, “Good Girl Complex”. The first book in the Avalon Bay series felt one-dimensional at times and perhaps even a bit bland. “Bad Girl Reputation”, on the other hand, has so many layers and parallel situations that all show their relevance by the end of the book, even if at times they felt like unnecessary filling. Everything from problematic friendships to awkward dating to strained parental relationships being mended to volunteering were discussed and it was precious.
I would highly recommend grabbing this audiobook, even if you haven’t read the first book on this series, as it serves as a standalone novel mostly. Gen are Evan are the sweetest couple and the narration is clear—so clear, actually, that I was able to listen it at 3 times the speed with no problem whatsoever.
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ARC provided by NetGalley and Macmillan Audio and published by St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.
andrea's galley 