This was my first Elle Kennedy book so safe to say I'm not a die hard fan of hers or anything. And honestly this book was fine very quick romance with the poor little rich girl/townie trope. Lots of side characters that could have been developed further. If I had read this book a week ago I probably would've liked it better but there is some drama around Elle Kennedy right now that negatively impacted my perception of this book.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review.

Such a fun and sexy read! Like Gossip Girl on the beach.

Cooper Hartley hates the entitled rich kids who infiltrate his hometown every college season. When one gets him fired from his job, Cooper and his friends decide Cooper should steal his girlfriend to teach him a lesson. That’s how Mackenzie “Mac” Cabot meets Cooper Hartley. She’s only in college and dating her boring, cheating boyfriend to live up to her parents expectations.

As Cooper gets closer to Mackenzie, he realizes she isn’t just another clone trust-fund kid. But if she finds out why he pursued her in the first place, it could ruin everything for them.

The chemistry between the main characters was palpable. The character growth was great and every character was well rounded. The side characters were all interesting enough to have their own books (which may be the goal? unsure.). I would’ve liked this more if it wasn’t borderline miscommunication trope which should honestly be illegal. Like, just talk to each other and be honest. It isn’t that difficult. If you are looking for a quick, easy read, I recommend.

Tropes: rich/good girl / bad boy

Thank you to Macmillan Audio, St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Griffin, and Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Elle Kennedy certainly knows her way around college romance. Her Off-Campus series is one of my favorites as she definitely gets inside the heads of 20-somethings quite well. With Good Girl Complex, the familiar trope of a rich girl finding love with the boy on the 'wrong side of the tracks' is given the Kennedy treatment and the results are very enjoyable.

Mackenzie Cabot is a great character. I liked that she wasn't like her fellow 'clones' who take over Avalon Bay as stuck-up students who thumb their noses at the townies. She had a spark that I just knew would enable her to escape from her robotic and demanding parents and find the life she would and has created on her own without their input or money. Her boyfriend Preston, also a student at Garnet College, is a bit of an arse and his fight with Cooper Hartley is how the great love affair between this townie and his girlfriend is started.

With revenge on his mind to get back at the nasty Preston, Cooper decides to set his sights on the beautiful Mac and all of his preconceived notions about her go by the wayside quickly. These two have real chemistry and their witty banter and determination to one-up each other is for sure the best kind of foreplay.

As the book progresses, Cooper's desire to come clean as to why he pursued Mac gets pushed to the side until the usual blow-up and break-up is inevitable. But I will say the build-up to that point is filled with truly tender moments and the chance to really open up to one another and be each other's everything. There is a sweetness to Cooper and Mac's romance that was nice to see. And despite the fact that it all happens very fast was pretty much ok for me.

However, what I will agree with that other reviewers have pointed out is that there is a real need for an epilogue. Many books by UK authors that I've read in the last few years simply end and don't give us a glimpse into what might happen after the HEA is achieved and all that jazz. And I'm usually fine with that. But there are many loose ends in this book and not knowing if more is to come for the rest of the secondary characters, I'm left feeling a bit cheated. Therefore, I do hope more is to come because Evan, Steph, Alana, Tate, and even Heidi deserve a bit of happiness as well. Not to mention how Mac and Cooper fare once they are back together.

Good Girl Complex is easy to read and isn't too angsty or intense. A great book for a lazy afternoon by the fire, I give this book 3.5 stars!

What happens when the good girl finally says enough? When she finally decides that she wants to live for herself? Will she find herself completely alone, rudderless with no direction? When Mac meets a townie who has some major chips on his shoulder, she is both captivated by him but also wary, since they are so completely different. And maybe this is what she needs in order to face the life she is currently living. She thinks she knows what she wants, but soon she will find out that she is no where near satisfied with her currently life. Cooper finds a way to bring out the best (and worst) in her but what is HIS endgame. Both will need to come face to face with their past and present in order to make a real go of it. Will they be able to forgive and forget?

Good Girl Complex by Elle Kennedy releases next Tues, the 1st.
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The story centers around local, Cooper, an identical twin whose trying to make a good life for himself in spite of his hard upbringing. Mac is a college student in town, who comes from a wealthy family and has found success after developing an app.
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I loved the writing of this story, Elle does an amazing job and sucks you into the story - bringing all the characters to life.
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Friends to lovers is my favorite trope! While Coop knew who she was she didn’t know him prior, so part of me wished for an accidental meeting but - I loved watching their friendship develop.
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The only thing I would have loved was an epilogue…I became so vested in Coop that I was hoping to know if his furniture business takes off and he’s finds the comfort he’s been seeking. But maybe we’ll learn that if there’s a book 2.
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The cover for this is gorgeous and would look amazing on your shelves! A huge thank you to @stmartinspress and @netgalley for an advanced reader copy.

Good Girl Complex had me hooked from page one! I devoured it in 24 hours. The revenge plot felt original and the characters all had their own well thought-out personalities. If you are looking for a rich girl/guy from the “wrong side of the tracks” trope, this book is it!

I’m happy that Elle Kennedy ensured that Mac stuck up for herself after finding out about Cooper’s lies, but didn’t let their fight drag on and on. I can really appreciate some good communication between characters, and Mac and Coop had that where it counted. If a second book comes out of this one, I will definitely be reading!

Thank you St. Martin’s Press for my copy of Good Girl Complex! All thoughts are my own.

I so wanted to love this book. I saw the cover and immediately requested. I read Elle Kennedy’s Off Campus series and fell down the rabbit hole of those hockey boys so quickly. But I think ultimately I was really turned off by this book. The stereotypes were STRONG, the writing not great, and I didn’t really love any of the characters. Kennedy writes pretty heavily from the male gaze but I didn’t find Cooper to be as charming as the Briar U guys. And while I appreciated the journey Mackenzie went on, I just didn’t love the rich girl stereotype. I didn’t feel called to pick it up!
Synopsis:
“Full of romance, hijinks, and longing, Good Girl Complex is Elle Kennedy at her very best.

She does everything right. So what could go wrong?

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. All she 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.

Twenty-year-old Mac has 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.” —NetGalley

What I Liked:
The Setting—I love a good New Adult/College age romance, even though I’m not in college anymore. I liked the setting of a prestigious university and the town around it. It felt summery and fun, plus it felt a lot like Charleston, which is one of my favorite places.

The First 30%—I was into the book when it first started! But then I became less and less interested and didn’t feel called to pick it up.

What Didn’t Work:
The Tropes—The rich girl/townie guy trope is normally one I like but it was just so aggressively used that I was distracted by it.

The Pacing—Like it said, the pacing in the beginning was so great and then things petered out. I would have liked to see a little more tension between Cooper and Mackenzie before they admitted their feelings.

The Side Plots—There was just so much going on between Cooper’s “townie” friends and his mom showing up towards the end, plus the initial dare/bet on top of Mackenzie’s issues with Preston and her parents. It was just a lot.

Content Warnings:
Infidelity; Fighting; Alcoholism; Sexism; Misogyny; Death of a Parent; Drug Abuse; Estranged Parental Relationships

Character Authenticity: 2.5/5 Steam Rating: 2/5 Overall Rating: 2/75/5

I was a HUGE fan of the Off-Campus/Briar U series, so I already knew coming into Good Girl Complex, that I'd enjoy it. Elle Kennedy does a great job at creating likable characters that you root for.

I fell for Mac and Cooper both immediately within the first few chapters. I went on to devour this book. Cooper hates the local trust fund college students. While Mac technically fits this mold, she is also so much more. Watching each of them navigate a possible relationship is just addicting. There is an overall situation of deceit, which I generally loathe. It seemed to work well here. Perhaps because you get a bad boy and I love stories about bad boys!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for my advanced reviewers copy. All thoughts are my own.

This was a relatively enjoyable, quick romance read. I found it very predictable and the characters were a bit too flat for me. There was little growth and they reminded me of many characters in other romantic books. A lot of the good girl meets bad boy, somebody cheats, somebody lies, typical insecurities and they all live happily ever after (sort of!) I never questioned finishing the book, and enjoyed reading it, but it definitely wasn’t a “can’t put down, I am so sad this is over” kind of book.

Mac is a good girl, from a wealthy family, in a boring relationship. When she meets local bad boy Cooper, the wild girl inside of her is released. Will she fall for Cooper and throw out the quiet life she has built? Including the relationships that she has with her boyfriend and parents?

Thank you Netgalley for my advanced reader copy!

i have enjoyed several of elle kennedy's books before, so i was quite excited for this one. i admit, i requested without reading the synopsis, so that's my fault. this book wasn't for me, i wasn't a huge fan of the NA part, the tropes used, the characters. i am sure many people will love this book, i am just not one of them.

Good Girl Complex is the first installment in a new contemporary romance series by Elle Kennedy. I tend to gravitate to books with small town and/or university settings and this book has both. I also typically enjoy romances that feature the good girl/bad boy dynamic so Good Girl Complex just seemed like it would be a great fit for me.

Local bad boy Cooper Hartley is tired of the rich “clones” who invade Avalon Bay to attend college every year and act like they own the community and everyone in it. One night, at the bar where he works, he witnesses one of them forcing himself on a waitress. When the clone won’t take no for an answer, Cooper intervenes and ends up punching the guy. Rich boy whines to the owner and gets Cooper fired, which only fuels Cooper’s hatred of this guy and everyone like him. Cooper learns the guy has a girlfriend and decides he’s going to steal her right out from under the guy’s nose. Cooper’s quest for revenge doesn’t go exactly as planned, however, because when he meets the girlfriend, whose name is Mackenzie (Mac), he realizes that she’s not at all like her boyfriend and his kind, and Cooper wants to be friends, maybe even more than friends, with her. But can any kind of relationship survive between them if the truth about his revenge plot comes out?

I loved both Mac and Cooper right away so it was very easy to become invested in their journey. Both characters are flawed and come across as very realistic and relatable because of those flaws. Yes, Mac comes from money, but she is also an entrepreneur and a self-made millionaire. It’s an impressive accomplishment, particularly for someone her age, so it shocked me to learn that neither her parents nor her boyfriend Preston support her in this endeavor. They have her life mapped out for her and there’s no room on that map for anything that doesn’t revolve around her mother’s charity work and becoming Preston’s wife. Mac has always just gone along with what they’ve dictated, not wanting to upset anyone. But when she meets Cooper and they start talking, Mac suddenly realizes there’s more to life than pleasing everyone else. It’s a true awakening for her.

I also loved that as much as Cooper teaches Mac about being her own person and not letting anyone hold her back, Cooper also learns a lot along the way, particularly about passing judgment on an entire group of people just because he has had a few bad experiences. I also love that there’s so much more to him than his bad boy reputation and that he and Mac aren’t very different from one another, despite their different backgrounds. I enjoyed watching them interact – whether they’re being sassy, supportive, or sexy, their chemistry was off the charts. They made such a great couple that I was truly on the edge of my seat waiting for the truth about the revenge plot to smack them both in the face and hoping that they could survive it when it did.

Good Girl Complex is a great start to Elle Kennedy’s new series and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys watching characters figure out who they’re meant to be as well as who they’re meant to be with.

Sadly, this one didn't work for me. I loved the concept, but didn't end up doing well with it. I'm closer to 40 than 20 these days, so that may be a big reason why this didn't work for me. The whole "secret" was something that I don't love either, so yeah. Not a new favorite. I am positive this is a me thing, not an actual book thing.

It was fine! I was really excited for this book truth be told even though I've since heard some not so great news about the author I was still happy to get this ARC. Unfortunately, this is just a story I was already too familiar with and that I think has been told better elsewhere. I really did not vibe with Mackenzie at all - going from my last book where the protagonist was so lovely and I was rooting for her to this book where I genuinely did not care about her problems was very jarring. Maybe this is because of my cynicism, I'm not sure but it still ended up being just a book where I felt like an outsider to a story I didn't actually care about. My favourite character was definitely the Daisy and truly the scenes she was involved in I was the most invested. Overall, it was fine but I'm glad I won't have to buy a copy to read it :/

This was a light, fluffier book with a dash of humor that I really needed. A great beach read and for any book club. Relatable and realistic. The man candy was nice too!

Recommended!

Thanks to Netgalley, Elle Kennedy and St Martin.s Press Griffin for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Available: 2/1/22

I couldn’t put this book down. I stayed up all night and called in sick the next day to finish it in one sitting.

This book had me laughing out loud multiple times.

It did have some “After” vibes.

Definitely has some 🌶🌶🌶

I love Elle Kennedy's Off-Campus series so I was excited to read this new series. Sadly, it did not hold my interest like her other books have. It took me months to read it and I only picked it back up so I would just have it finished.

I didn't like that Mackenzie had an issue with her boyfriend cheating on her but then turned around and did the same things with Cooper.

I did not like the implication that she was a good girl because she had money, created an app, and had a fancy family.

I wasn't a huge fan of any of the characters and never found myself rooting for Mackenzie and Cooper.

(3.5⭐️) Angsty and full of steam. Kennedy puts a new spin on the good girl meets bad boy trope in this quick and easy read.

Mac and Cooper come from very different worlds. On the outside they seem as opposite as night and day. One is a trust fund kid living a life of wealth and privilege. The other is always fighting to get ahead. But not long after the sparks start to fly between the two, it becomes pretty obvious that at their core, they both just want to be accepted for who they truly are.

And while Good Girl Complex dives into some real issues, at its core this book is pure chemistry. I enjoyed watching Coop and Mac learn to be friends first building the tension. And when that first kiss finally happened, it was pure fireworks. From there the book smolders all the way to that happily ever after. Kennedy definitely knows how to write heat.

But I’ll admit… I like to think I’m still young. But reading the anguish these young adults went through definitely reminded me that it’s been a minute since I was in college. And for that reason, I think younger readers will enjoy this one even more than I did. That said, I will definitely read the next installment in this series.

Thank you Elle Kennedy, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review an advanced copy of this book.

I absolutely LOVED this book and am hoping that Evan and Tate and the rest of the friend group get their own books!

Mac is a college student from a wealthy family who runs her own very successful business. Cooper is a working class guy who is fired after an altercation with Mac's boyfriend at the bar where he worked. Cooper's friends encourage him to seek revenge by making Mac break up with her boyfriend to go out with him...only Cooper finds he has a lot in common with this rich, successful girl. The beach fire scene where they connect is AMAZING! The book is so well written, the characters are so well-developed...5 stars!!

WOW! Elle Kennedy has been a name that has been circling the likes of Booktube and Booktok for a while, and I was always curious, add that with the premise of this new story I knew I had to give this one a try. I was pleasantly surprised! Mackenzie and Cooper are from opposite sides of the tracks in Avalon Bay, a quaint little beach town that just so happens to have a prestigious college campus. Cooper is a local, or a 'townie' as they say in the book, just trying to make it out of this town because his past has had its fair share of heartbreak and Mackenzie seemingly has it all: money, parents that are known in the political spotlight, and a long-term boyfriend who she trusts and cares for, and yet something is missing. I don't know what it was about this book, whether it was the dual perspectives, the funny banter between friends and the hero/heroine, the tropes that were just cheesy enough, or this very charming love story, but I just couldn't put it down, I'm sure this will be in a lot of readers top romance reads lists of 2022! (I'm definitely including it in mine!)