Thanks to St. Martins Press and netgalley for the eArc for an honest review. Unfortunately I was very underwhelmed by the Bad Girl Reputation, it started out promising but I didn’t like how the Hero and his brother blamed a grown man’s actions on a woman. Especially since said woman was trying to clean up her act. The story didn’t have very much depth and was an easy read which I’m sure some readers will enjoy.

Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to review this ARC!

Bad Girl Reputation is a second chance romance following Gen and Evan's as they attempt to stay away from each other even though they are pulled together. I love a "return to where I grew up" type of book, and this book did not disappoint there. Gen left, and everything is basically the same as she left it.

While I enjoyed Gen and Evan's (toxic) relationship, the timeline was a bit short for them to figure everything out. Evan's personality was a bit irksome although when I remind myself that they are only 22, it makes a lot of sense (LOL).

Overall, I enjoyed the book and gave it 3.5 (rounded to 4 for GR) stars! I will definitely read future works of Elle Kennedy, and have a few on my TBR to catch up on.

I really enjoyed Good Girl Complex (book 1). Evan and Gen were alot more toxic than Cooper and Mac. I think I preferred Cooper and Mac's story over Evan and Gen, but I still enjoyed the read.

Their character development was very admirable and sweet. They both put in the work to be better for themselves and each other, which gave so much more depth to their relationship. Very much so the bad boy being good for the girl.

The ending? I was blushing over fictional characters so hard. Such a good story, and I would recommend.

3.5 stars rounded down.

I was a nervous picking this book up since I did not enjoy Good Girl Complex, the first in the Avalon Bay series. Despite my reservations, I ended up liking Bad Girl Reputation so much more than I was expecting and found it a very fun summery read.

Genevieve West was my favourite part of the story. I loved learning about her and seeing her make an effort to improve herself and her life after a troubled and toxic past. She was funny and smart and I was happy to see her be given a second chance at love and at a life in her home town.

I liked Evan, however I did not love him. It felt more like we were just expected to believe he was this great guy and that he deserved a second chance with Gen without being shown what exactly made him so great. I wanted more from their relationship to truly be able to root for them as a couple. This being said, I still enjoyed parts of their relationship and some of the sweeter moments between the two.

Thank you St. Martins Press and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This story is so outrageously hilarious and entertaining. Evan and Gen are returning characters from the first story in the series. Evan is the twin brother who was always up for a fight and some drunken fun. Gen has been his partner in crime since they were teenagers. The author has given the characters rapier wit with which to communicate. Evan and Gen are on a discovery to change their lives and fall in love all over again. The reader will be entranced by their journey through self discovery, service to others (leading to mishaps) and the moments they lose the battles. They will learn to poke fun at themselves, laugh a lot and love really well.

These books! I love them.

The brothers! I love them.

The friends who are family! I love them.

I loved being back in Avalon Bay and hearing Evan and Genevieve’s story. These two have had a lot of life thrown at them early in life. Gen leaves town and Evan devastated.

One year later after her mother dies she returns to town and tries to avoid him at all costs. She is doing her best to turn her life around and she doesn’t know how to do that with him around.

Losing Gen and having her return has Evan doing everything he can to be better for her and show her he’s changed.

Fall in love with characters and their journey!!

Firstly, Thank you to St. Martins Press and NetGalley for providing me the ARC. Secondly, I loved Elle Kennedy’s Off Campus series so I was Excited to read this.
Now is the not so great part. This book just didn’t do it for me. For some reason, in my mind I pictured the couple to be older (mothers funeral, second chance romance) Dunno, I just Assumed they were in their 30s? But I guess They were much younger. Highschool sweetheart on again- off again couple who used to get into drunken trouble. Our FMC decides to leave town and get her act together but is now back after a year because her mom died and she’s helping out her dads business. MC for some reason isn’t mad at her that she ditched him and is trying to get back with her. I cant Concentrate well when there’s too many side stories and side characters and this book had plenty. It felt like fluff just to fill in the lack of plot. Couple seemed very toxic for eachother and the romance was way lacking. Hoping there aren’t many more book in the Avalon Bay Series but I’ll still check them out!

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC. I was so excited to read this after the first book in the series. By the time I got to it, however, I couldn’t remember a think about the first book. There are few (if any) likeable characters in this novel, including those that were in the first one. Too many friends, too many entanglements to keep up with, too many flip flopping emotions. I struggled to get through this and while I’m typically a completist, likely won’t read any further books in this series (if there are any more to come - feels like an Alana/Tate/Wyatt story is inevitable).

This is the second book in the Avalon Bay series, and while reading Good Girl Complex before this isn't absolutely necessary, I would definitely recommend it to get a better backstory for Evan.

This book follows Evan and Genevieve. Two ex's with an extremely rocky past who are forced back into each others lives when Gen returns home for her mother's funeral. While Gen intends to keep her distance, Evan has other plans to change her mind and show her how he's changed.

I would love to say I really enjoyed this book, but something just didn't work for me. I found myself having a hard time connecting to either character and felt that their actions were so toxic and childish at times. While I read this book really quickly, I found myself constantly stressed with the immaturity of the characters and frustrated with their miscommunications. The relationship felt extremely motivated by lust, which was fun, but I wasn't able to buy into their true feelings for each other.

I can see readers truly enjoying this book, even though it wasn't personally for me.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Elle Kennedy for the ARC and opportunity to read this book.

Thank you Elle Kennedy, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Can I just say how excited I was to receive an arc for an Elle Kennedy book? I sincerely love her writing and it was truly an honor.

Gen and Evan were on and off high school sweethearts that had all the chemistry but could never seem to get the relationship part right. Gen up and leaves seemingly out of nowhere and Evan is left lost and confused. When Gen returns in the wake of her mothers passing, the chemistry is still there and Evan can’t stay away. Unfortunately Gen seems to want nothing to do with him.

Gen was such an awesome character to learn about. She has for sure been through it, but is trying to come out on the other side a better and more mature person. She’s just not sure she can do that with Evan around.

Evan has always loved Gen and it feels impossible to stay away from her. He’s always been known as the bad boy and that doesn’t fit with Gen’s style plans to rid herself of her bad girl reputation. How can these two possibly stay away from each other though?

I did really love this book and Evan and Gen’s relationship really blossomed into something great. I would definitely recommend this book and it was a joy to be able to read another one or Elle Kennedy’s pieces.

I thought that the first book in the series was a little problematic, but I didn’t hate it and I have loved Elle Kennedy books in the past, so I wanted to give this a try.

While I didn’t find this book problematic, I did find it a bit boring and one dimensional. The main characters felt flat, and nothing really happened in the plot. I think I may have just outgrown Elle Kennedy books, or this series just isn’t for me.

3.5/5
This was my first Elle Kennedy book and I have to say, I was not impressed. It may just be that I don't connect with her writing style, which made me reminisce on my Wattpad days. I've never loved when authors feel the need to impose explicit adult activities onto high schoolers. Though Genevieve and Evan are now in their mid-20s, they continuously speak of the "good old days" when they were getting blackout drunk, high on drugs, and having copious amounts of sex at age 14-15. I get that the premise of the book is about "bad" kids maturing and ending their old ways, but it just feels so unrealistic and out of touch with reality.

Given all of this, you'd think that Genevieve and Evan had major character development and truly grew as individuals, right? Wrong. The character growth consisted of Evan no longer having random hookups or getting into fights every night, and Gen staying away from hard drugs and alcohol. There was no development of their relationship as a couple. It was so focused on the physical and lacked the emotional component that's needed for readers to feel invested in the plot. I cannot see this couple staying together much longer than the epilogue.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins Press for the advanced e-copy and audio copy of Bad Girl Reputation!
I was so happy to hear about this book’s release because I read (and enjoyed) Good Girl Complex last year. These books are apart of a series. They could be read separate, but there are some minor spoilers throughput Bad Girl Reputation that relate to Good Girl Complex – so proceed at your own risk!
Overall, I thought this book was pretty good. It was a fun read and I think I even liked it more than the first one. The audio was so fun to listen too because of the different characters and voices. It made it really easy to decipher who was speaking which can sometimes be challenging with audio books.
In relation to the story though, I felt like the middle was a little slow for my liking. It felt like there was a lot of back and forth and situations that just made the book longer than it could have been, but overall the story was pretty fun. This book was the perfect end-of-summer romance with lots of great character development and growth!

Bad Girl Reputation by Elle Kennedy
I listened to the audio version of the book narrated by Lee Samuels and Summer Morton. I really enjoyed both narrators. They were very emotive, and had distinctive yet pleasant voices that made it very easy to follow along. I didn’t realize when I requested the book that it was the second book in the Avalon Bay Series. I thought this book could be read as a standalone just fine. There were definitely references to the main characters from the first book, but it didn’t bother or confuse me. I thought enough information about them was provided and made it easy to understand the story and what was going on. I’m a sucker for second chance romance, and throw in a little spice, made for a very enjoyable book.
Many thanks to Elle Kennedy, NetGalley, and Macmillian Audio for the advanced audio copy in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely adored this one!

I was really looking forward to the second book in the series after loving the first. This is such a great second chance romance story. I loved “Fred” / Gen’s character and they way her character developed in the story as well as Evans.

There was some really great buildup and steam in this one. I can’t wait to read more from this author and this series.

This story was about a young woman, Genevieve, who gets called back to her hometown for her mothers funeral, and stays to help her father with the family business. The reader immediately meets her ex boyfriend Evan at the funeral and it is quickly established that their relationship was hot and cold, off and on, and a bit toxic. They partied hard, lived fast, and often got into trouble. When Gen moved she sought to reinvent herself and shed her Bad Girl reputation.
Being back in town, she and Evan feel the sparks immediately but Gen puts her foot down, insisting that things had to be different. If he wanted her back then he would have to grow up and get serious.
This story was a quick, easy read for me, but I didn’t quite connect with the characters how I’d hoped to. I was never truly convinced that Evan was as “bad boy” as the writer claimed him to be. Possibly because during his POV we only heard how much he loved Gen and wanted to be with her.
The side issues gave the story a bit more depth, and in the end Gen did grow and mature, officially shedding her bad girl reputation.
This story of navigating true love through the stages from childhood to adulthood would be impactful for young adults or new adults the most.
Overall, a sweet story. The angst just didn’t make it there for me.
I felt like I was intended to have one impression of the characters and instead I recognized the good they both carried under their surfaces.
Fave parts involved Evan and his Big Brother volunteering. I am also hoping Alana gets her own story!

Second chance at love, childhood best friends tropes.

I love @ellekennedy33 books so I was thrilled to read an eArc of Bad Reputation. Thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for early access in exchange for my honest review.

✔️ Second Chance
✔️ Small Town
✔️ Family Drama

I enjoyed book 1 (Good Girl Complex) and I liked this one slightly more. The second chance emotional setup worked well for me - how one character (Evan) was like "Let's pick up where we left off" and the other (Gen) was like "We absolutely cannot pick up where we left off" and both are baffled at how the other feels the opposite. 🤣 - deliciously fun.

I loved both characters and their journey together. I laughed at Evan's attempts at trying to be a changed man for Gen. This is one of Elle's character superpowers - creating a cutie dumb-dumb who earnestly tries to woo and does a hilariously terrible job but it's so endearing (see John Logan from The Mistake and Blake Riley from Good Boy).

Steamy and funny and there were good stakes so the journey to the HEA felt earned. I'm only mad I gave Good Girl Complex 5⭐️ because I did like this one better but the scale is what it is. 5⭐️ for this one too. It publishes next month (Oct 4th!)

Steam 🔥🔥🔥
Banter 🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣
Swoon 💕💕💕💕

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for an advanced ecopy of this book!!
Bad Girl Reputation is the second installment in Elle Kennedy’s Avalon Bay series. While Good Girl Complex follows Cooper and Mac, this book follows Cooper’s twin, Evan, and Genevieve. I loved this book SO much more than I expected! These two have so much history and chemistry and I am a sucker for any complex decade long love story. They are the blueprint for childhood best friends to lovers and second chance romance! I really enjoyed the plot in this one and feel as though readers get to really watch the twists and turns of character development as opposed to simply being told that it happens. It was also fun to see glimpses of Mac and Cooper’s relationship throughout this story as well. If there is another installment of this series in the future, I will definitely read it!!

Genevieve returns home for her mother's funeral with the hope that she can get out of town again before running into her ex-boyfriend Evan. They had a powerful but messy relationship. She works hard to stay on solid ground during her visit but Evan is willing to do anything to get her back. This was a very fun second-chance romance. I really enjoyed the character development of both Genevieve and Evan so their reconnection made sense by the end of the book. I did not realize that this story exists in the same universe as Kennedy's other book Good Girl Complex. I did not read the first book and I don't think that impacted my enjoyment of the story but now I will go back and read it to get more from these characters.

Thank you to Elle Kennedy, St. Martin Press, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This is the second book in the beach town Avalon Bay series. While the first book, Good Girl Complex, was about Cooper and Mac, this time it's Gen and Evan's story, Evan being the twin brother of hottie bad boy Coop and Gen being Evan's on and off love who suddenly left Avalon Bay without an explanation. While this book started off really strong, I felt the plot kind of fell through in the middle and it got a bit boring. There's only so much growing up two kids in their early 20s can do in a matter of months. I would have liked to know more about Gen's life before she returned to Avalon Bay. However, if possible, the steam was even hotter than in the first book (and that one had a lot of steam).

Read this if you like:
- Second chance romance
- Dual POV
- Childhood sweethearts
- Reformed bad girl (and boy)
- Character growth

Thank you Netgalley and St Martin's Press for an eARC in exchange for my honest review