She does everything right. So what could go wrong?
GOOD GIRL COMPLEX by ELLE KENNEDY
Series: Avalon Bay #1
Publication date: February 1, 2022
Published by: St. Martin's Press
Genre: new adult college romance
SYNOPSIS
Mackenzie “Mac” Cabot is a people pleaser. Her demanding parents. Her prep school friends. Her long-time boyfriend. It’s exhausting, really, always following the rules. Unlike most twenty-year-olds, all she really wants to do is focus on growing her internet business, but first she must get a college degree at her parents’ insistence. That means moving to the beachside town of Avalon Bay, a community made up of locals and the wealthy students of Garnet College.
Mac’s had plenty of practice suppressing her wilder impulses, but when she meets local bad boy Cooper Hartley, that ability is suddenly tested. Cooper is rough around the edges. Raw. Candid. A threat to her ordered existence. Their friendship soon becomes the realest thing in her life.
Despite his disdain for the trust-fund kids he sees coming and going from his town, Cooper soon realizes Mac isn’t just another rich clone and falls for her. Hard. But as Mac finally starts feeling accepted by Cooper and his friends, the secret he’s been keeping from her threatens the only place she’s ever felt at home.
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Praise for Good Girl Complex:
"With plenty of steam alongside the youthful romance, this winsome story about following one’s heart will especially appeal to hopeless romantics." ―Publishers Weekly
“Elle Kennedy’s ability to build a college town universe that is delicious, complicated and drama-filled, is unparalleled. Cooper and Mack were fire and ice. The push and pull, banter and high stakes made it impossible to put the book down. I read it in one sitting, and you will, too.” ―LJ Shen, USA Today and WSJ bestselling author
“A deliciously sexy story with a wallop of emotions that sneaks up on you.” ―Vi Keeland, #1 New York Times bestselling author
"Elle Kennedy delivers another sexy and addictive read, and my latest personal favorite from her! Love Cooper. Love Mackenzie. Love the twins!” ―Tijan, New York Times bestselling author
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author, Elle Kennedy grew up in the suburbs of Toronto, Ontario, and holds a B.A. in English from York University. From an early age, she knew she wanted to be a writer, and actively began pursuing that dream when she was a teenager.
Elle currently writes for various publishers. She loves strong heroines and sexy alpha heroes, and just enough heat and danger to keep things interesting!
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Good Girl Complex by Elle KennedyMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
Title: Good Girl Complex
Series: n/a, unannounced
Author: Elle Kennedy
Release date: February 1, 2022
Cliffhanger: no
Genre: new adult college
When this book landed on my kindle, it was (in my mind) most likely going to be a guaranteed five star read. Elle Kennedy is a master at light-hearted new adult books. She has lots of experience under her belt at writing characters that you should probably hate on paper but still end up loving with every fiber of your being. She's a master at flirty banter that flies back and forth so fast, your laughter can barely keep up. Her groups of characters are detailed from book one in a series, making you root for each individual secondary character to have their own HEA. That's the magic of Elle Kennedy. On top of that? One of my favorite tropes in books just happens to be revenge. Which is very strongly in the forefront of this particular book. So why, oh why, did this book fall short? The details surrounding the revenge plot soured everything for me in the first half. So much so, that I even wondered if I was going to have to DNF. Thankfully, the book did improve in the second half so that wasn't necessary. But my feelings were a far cry from love. They landed right underneath the borderline of like.
This story has a rich girl/poor guy theme that could have worked if not for the over-exaggerated characterization of the "clones" vs. the townies. On one hand, there were the "townie" locals who basically put up with constant abuse from the spoiled, entitled, kids who attend Garnet College. The "clones" or rich kids are portrayed as trust fund babies with more money than human decency. They are all one, snobby unit that think and act alike-as if the townies who serve them are dirt beneath their feet.
I'm not particularly fond of painting one group as a mustache twirling, caricature to be hated and scorned. The hero's prejudice towards the rich kids (as well as all of his friends) led to the revenge plot that sets out to intentionally and maliciously humiliate Mackenzie. A girl whom they know did nothing to deserve it and would simply be a pawn played with in their game. His female friends were actually gathered around gleefully rubbing their hands together and joking about humiliating her publicly and "dumping pig's blood" on her Carrie style. In real life, every single wealthy person who comes to a coastal town to attend college would not behave in the same exact abusive way. And yet, this is used as a plot device to explain away Coop and his friends' abhorrent behavior.
All it took for Coop's guilty conscience to kick in was one night getting to know Mac. He started to see her as an individual, a human being. Not an inanimate object to be used and abused. Unfortunately, having an inside perspective of his true intent to harm her soured the first half for me completely. The flirting that went on between the two of them should have been fun and entertaining, but that underbelly of dishonesty was very apparent in every exchange. Her ignorance of the truth only served to make matters worse.
Mac had her issues as well. She was dating a complete douchebag and seemed to have not the first clue about his true character. He's a serial cheater and a hateful snob of the worst kind, yet we are led to believe that she has never had even the slightest clue about any of it? They grew up together and she still thinks of him as a "nice" guy who is compatible with her in all the right ways? There is a difference between explaining away uncomfortable truths and being totally clueless. It just wasn't realistic that she could be utterly duped into thinking she's with a prince of a guy. She knows there is a culture of cheating and looking the other way in her social group...but trusts HIM irrevocably and absolutely. Mac (rightfully so) judges those around her who allow their boyfriends to cheat on them in order to get an engagement ring on their fingers. This ends up being hypocritical because she was emotionally cheating on her own boyfriend while spending time with Cooper. She knows she's physically attracted to Cooper and developing feelings. Yet she continues to play with fire and push the boundaries of what's acceptable. Mac knows what she feels isn't just platonic or else she wouldn't lie to her boyfriend about her activities.
I didn't care for Mac's total subservience to her parents' wishes. It didn't add up to me that she is a strong-willed person who likes to argue and speak her mind with Coop, and at the same time she's willing to marry the man of her parents' choosing simply because of his good social standing. It would be one thing if she felt financially trapped by them and feared being cut off of their support. That wasn't the case. She created her own websites in high school and became a financially independent millionaire. I just didn't get why she would let them manipulate her life to suit them when it clearly made her unhappy. She was going to a college that she didn't even want to go to and dating a guy that was nothing more than comfortable just to make two people happy who only cared about themselves. At any time she could have spoken up and told them her true feelings because she had a nice, cushy nest egg to protect her. I get that she was scared to break status quo, but her personality was a bit inconsistent for all of this to be plausible.
All of that being said, the second half did get better. The revenge scheme fizzled fast, and true feelings developed. Cooper's friends and twin brother accepted her into the fold as part of the group and everything was moving along well. Then came the "moment of truth." With a romantic relationship built on deception, you can expect a big bomb to have to eventually drop. Only the "moment of truth"
was covered up with more lies by the entire group which only added to the betrayal. When THAT bomb dropped...boy was it a doozy. She moved out, and moved into the home of her newfound friends who were part of the scheme all along? She hated him, but ran to them for shelter. Hmm. Now that was yet another thing that didn't add up for me. How was she so easily able to let their part in everything go? I couldn't see it.
Unfortunately, the deception running through the book was too pervasive. Cooper and his group of friends' prejudice ran deep and it was not a good look. The plot was not cohesive enough, and if there were to be a full series with the secondary characters here, I wouldn't be excited because I can't say that I loved any of them. I will say, this was a very fast read just like all of Elle Kennedy's past books despite all of my issues. I think that's why I was able to power through quickly and finish it all. If Cooper hadn't seen the error of his ways so quickly, I doubt I would have had the ability to continue. And there was groveling-necessary groveling. I wish I could have felt that old Elle Kennedy magic that I've gotten used to, but for me, this was for the most part, a loss.
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