I bought Good Girl Complex because netgalley had given me the opportunity to read Bad Girl Reputation, and I knew I needed to read it first! I loved Good Girl Complex, and thankfully, Bad Girl Reputation did not disappoint!
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Genivee comes back to town after a year of being away and of course the one of the first people she sees is her ex-boyfriend. Evan and Gen had a fun and exciting, possibly even toxic relationship in the past, but Gen has changed. She is becoming a new version of herself, and Evan is so unconditionally in love with her, he is trying to do the same. However, it is hard to change your reputation, especially in a small town.
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This was a good, quick read for me. There has to be another book coming out, because Alana’s story (One of the Avalon Bay Locals) is not complete! I am dying to know what is next for her!

*4.5 Stars
Genevieve and Evan have known each other since their teen years. Growing up, they drank, did drugs, partied, and got into enough trouble to become the notorious trouble-making couple of their small town. One night, she leaves town and everyone behind, including her passionate and toxic relationship with Evan. After a year of absence, she returns for her mother's funeral. She's no longer the party girl she once was. Surrounded by those who knew her during her notorious years, her renovated self is tested, especially when Evan appears.

Evan is the textbook bad boy. He's hot-headed and passionate and nothing stands in his way when he wants something. The problem is, the only thing standing in his way of being with Gen is...his old self. As the story unfolds, he understands what happened and Gen's reasons for making a change. And I loved that he was supportive. And even offered some helpful advice to temper her change with moderation.

I loved that Gen made a conscious decision to change for herself. And the author's use of memories/recollections of events comparing now vs. then showed Gen's level of growth. We learn of the events that led up to that fateful night when she left town, her fears of being branded the Boy Who Cried Wolf, and the genuine regret she feels at the devastation she left in her wake. We also witness the sheer courage and strength it takes to overhaul one's self, especially in a small town setting where ghosts from the pasts still linger and hold a grudge.

Gen and Evan's chemistry lights up the page. It was evident in every look, word, and interaction. And while there is heat in the story, it never overshadows their personal growth. It actually fuels it in both a steamy and sweet way and shows just how symbiotic their relationship is and drives Evan's own change. I felt their connection. I felt their passion. I was cheering them on and hoping they both found a happy medium where they were content with their "new" selves without losing the fire they shared and kept them together.

There were a lot of secondary characters. I loved how Evan's mother also went through her own personal growth. I especially loved Riley and how he brought an amazing level of character development with respect to Evan. The only thing I didn't like was the repeated use of Harrison throughout the story.

As a bonus, we get Epilogue Evan. He still has that spark of mischief, but it's balanced by such control that it was even more attractive.

While this is the second book in the Avalon Bay series, it can be read and enjoyed as a standalone.

/I received an early edition of this book. This did not affect my opinion of the book or content of my review./

enjoyed the first book in the series, and was excited to get back to Avalon Bay. This book was quite a bit easier for me to get into, since we already know the setting and the major players. The friend group is still really large, and I did find myself forgetting who was who in terms of the side characters. I read the book in 3 sittings, and overall enjoyed it.

Like the first book, it feels solidly NA/college aged versus mid/late 20s, but you’re starting to see a bit of the ‘adulthood’ turning point. There’s a definite coming of age slant, where both Gen and Evan are trying to learn what their adult selves look like. Evan and Gen’s chemistry was great from the start, and I loved the second chance aspect to their story. The Outer Banks + Gossip Girl mashup comparison from my review of the first book still holds true. There’s also a new character who also totally steals the show. Got to love a cheeky teenager to add some color to the storyline. Overall I really enjoyed it, and it felt like a great summer vacation type of read. (just wish it came out before October so y’all could enjoy it this summer as well) The comment in the acknowledgments is spot on: a story of redemption, forgiveness, and second chances

I love Elle Kennedy books so much and this one did not disappoint. Gen and Evan’s second chance story was a good one. Kennedy knows how to give the read tension and her plots give her characters all the feels. Thanks for the ARC NetGalley, I would highly recommend this book!

I got the privilege of reading this as an ARC. And I gotta say, I think I liked it even more than the first (Good Girl Complex). Evan and Gen are such a fun couple and very relatable. I loved their banter and their romance. I was rooting for them the whole time. The villain of our story hit me hard because bad cops really do scare me, especially in this day and age. But this book really was a great read. I highly recommend checking it out.

I’m leaning towards a 3.5 rating. This book was angsty and about becoming a better version of themselves however, i just could not connect with or seem to care about Evan.

Thanks netgalley for giving me the chance to read this before release!

If you’re looking for second chance romance, then look no further. Reading this book is like watching 2 flames try to wrestle and win out, but eventually meld into one. I enjoyed seeing Gen’s internal struggles come out in a realistic way and the beef with Randall had me fuming. It spoke to a lot about wild things growing up into responsible adults, combating the stereotypes or expectations they’ve been lumped into and that was really heartwarming for me. For more than just the MC’s. Idk why but Evan is giving me huge golden retriever energy, even though he has that fire in him, and I adore him for it. I might even have to pick Evan over Cooper 🙈 Because y’all know I’m a sucker for character growth and then Elle Kennedy ties that all up neatly with a HEA bow? Yeah, the spice helps too 🥵🌶👌🏼

Bad Girl Reputation releases on October 4, preorder now!

genre: contemporary romance
pages: 320
rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨4.75/5
spice rating: 3/5

Second Chance Romance
Ex-Boyfriend
Best friends-to- lovers
Character Growth
Secrets
Dual POV
Drama
HEA

Sensitive topics: Substance Abuse, addiction, broken homes, toxic relationships, corrupted law enforcement. ..etc

Bad Girl Reputation is the second book in Elle Kennedy’s Avalon Bay series. This is my first time reading a book written by this author. I have heard about her all over booktok with her “Off Campus” series .

Genevieve West left a year ago without saying a word to anyone, even her boyfriend then, Evan Hartley. Now she has to return home for her mother’s funeral. Gen has no intentions of sticking around. She wants to pay her respects, be there for her father and brothers and go back to her new quiet life. A boring life but one without drinking, partying or a reminder of her bad girl reputation. But it’s hard when she wants to keep her distance from her ex-boyfriend Evan. Too much chaos and bad decisions happen when she’s with him but there's always hot consuming passion and love.

Evan is a bad boy. Gen wants to stay on her new path especially since her stay in town is temporary. Until her father’s business is in order and he finds someone new to take over the administration part of it. But Even is not have it. He loves Gen. He’s mad she left without a word but he’s going to get her back. Even if that means turning a new leaf himself.

Both Gen and Evan are working on themselves. But what happens when the dark truth behind Gen’s unexpected move comes to light?

I can’t say I enjoyed this book or disliked it. I feel like I am in the middle. There were fun parts but the toxic relationship, the push and pull between Gen and Evan was ehh. I liked Even more than Gen. I felt she was blaming him too much for her own actions. I know some readers dislike Evan’s behavior of showing up to her dating, harassing her, pushing his agenda and being jealous but that is literally the traits of a possessive main male character.

I wish the topic of sobriety was touched upon more. So that shows the importance of it. Or more on what happened in the event that led Gen to leave. I feel more of that could've been explored.
There were moments that I could stop laughing ..like the nursing home -bird incident. Or Evan’s experience with the big brother program which I loved. Despite being a bad boy I felt he had a sweet heart, especially with what he did at the end for the other 2 characters. The book has a lot of potential but it was still an entertaining read .


Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Griffin for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Another great book by Elle Kennedy. This one has a couple of romance tropes, second chance love and friends to lovers. When Gen returns to her hometown sparks instantly fly again between her and Evan. She isn’t sure she wants a relationship but Evan is determined to win her over. Evan’s life is also further complicated by the return of his mother. This a second book in a series but can be read as a standalone. Check this out for a great summer or beach read!

Bad Girl Reputation is the continuation of the story of the Hartley twins at Avalon Bay. This one focuses on the relationship between Evan Hartley and his on again, off again girlfriend, Genevieve. Given how much I LOVED the first in this series, this one fell a little flat to me in comparison. I love Elle Kennedy and will read anything she writes, but this one was a lot slower paced than the other ones I have come to love so much. I, of course, recommend it anyway considering, but it really is slower and I didn't feel as invested in the characters as I did in the previous installment. I give this one 3.5 stars for holding my attention, but don't feel right giving it any more.

Omg I devoured this book!!!! So good. Haha to the publisher for the ARC.
I highly recommend this book!

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Bad Girl Reputation is the second installment within the Avalon Bay series. If you've read the first book, we meet Cooper and Mac. In this, we follow Cooper's twin, Evan, and Genevieve. She's a blast from his past and somebody he can't seem to get enough of. Or quit either. They are both (sort of) addicted to one another but before anything happens, they seriously need to talk about what happened beforehand.

Of course, they don't actually do that and so much drama unfolds. Their group of friends is a one-way ticket for the hot mess express. No real destination in sight until they learn to grow up. So, yeah, things were kind of rocky between Evan and Gen once they reunited with one another. It also doesn't help that while she's sort of with Evan, well, she's also sort of dating some other guy too.

On top of all that nonsense, we have Rusty the sleezy cop. Not sure why he's so obsessed with her, but I absolutely despised this guy. Kept hoping for someone to fire. I also kept wondering if he was the real reason as to why she left with no word before.

After things were revealed, the healing and moving on could finally start. I'm actually surprised with how much I ended up liking Evan and Gen. It definitely took me a while because they were just way too much at times. Destructive but could eventually find to love one another. Correctly that is.

In the end, things worked out for these two. As for their friends, yeah, they definitely need help. Not sure if we will get another book in this series but I wouldn't say no to one being about any of Gen's brothers.

After reading Good Girl Complex and falling in love with Elle’s writing, I was ecstatic that I had an arc waiting for me of Bad Girl Reputation. Cooper and Evan are such wonderful characters who both go through amazing character development in their own stories. I devoured both of these! Evan and Gen’s story is a story about growing up and second chances. Gen’s character sucked me in with how much growth she showed despite her shortcomings, and with such grace. It also touches on law enforcement abusing their privileges, which is so important to highlight. Not only was this book spicy, but it had so much depth. You truly route for these characters all along, and cheer when things work out for them. I’m hoping there’s another story coming in the Avalon Bay series! :)

Bad Girl Reputation is the second novel in the Avalon Bay series that follows Evan and Gen after their explosive and sometimes illegal highschool shenanigans. Gen returns home after a year-long absence to find her attraction and pull to Evan hasn’t lessened.

Evan and Gen’s chemistry is some of the best I’ve read. They’re explosive when they’re together and every moment is filled with angst and heat. Their pull towards each other is hypnotic and charged. I honestly loved every high and low of their relationship.

Considering how tumultuous Evan and Gen’s relationship is, there’s very little drama. This lack of useless drama as filler allowed Kennedy to focus on Evan and Gen as individual characters as well as a couple. Also, the final hurdle at the end of the novel was dealt with quickly, which I appreciated very much.

Despite all this tension and angst, a large portion of the novel is dedicated to Gen and Evan becoming responsible and mature people with goals and aspirations for their futures. Most of Gen’s development as a character happens off page while readers follow Evan’s development on page. What I enjoyed most about their development was that it wasn’t drastic or completely life altering. This allowed for a believable transition from reckless to more introspective.

I will say that Cooper annoyed me very much. I don’t remember him being such a wet blanket in the first novel, but I might be misremembering.

Overall, Bad Girl Reputation is an angsty and explosive novel about two people who are drawn to each other but have to fight their own inclinations and the boxes society put them in. Also, Evan is as swoon worthy as they come.

Well, that was underwhelming. At least it wasn't problematic like Good Girl Complex, I guess. Personally, I think Elle Kennedy's writing style, as well as her characters are very awkwardly dated. Her stories often read like problematic, early 2010's romcoms. The main female character is always supposed to be a badass, but the way this is shown is by having all the other female characters around her be incredibly one dimensional to make her look better, and the men around her will often openly compare all the women in the book without any repercussions. This book is no exception from this pattern. However, the main problem I have with Bad Girl Reputation had nothing to do with the writing style or cliche characters, as sadly, I was expecting that. It had to do with the lack of plot, stakes, and character growth. This book follows Genevieve and Evan, two exes, however we never really see their relationship develop. They constantly state that they are bad for one another, and then they'll tell a short anecdote about when they were kids and first falling in love. Then, at the very end of the book, after being on again off again for years, they decide their love is worth it and get together, but there is nothing to say that this is the end of their story. We haven't seen them grow as characters or partners. There have been no scenes of their relationship or the status quo changing in ways that it hasn't already done so before. Everything was very cyclic, so when you get to the epilogue, there is no sense that this is the the end or that Genevieve and Evan have at all grown, matured, or even fallen deeper in love. This made the entire reading experience very weird, as I never could tell what point of the plot I was supposed to be at and if things were going to pick up more or fi this was it. Overall, I'm sure some people will enjoy this as a quick and easy read, but personally I found it quite dull.

This book was great. I loved the relationship between Evan and Genevieve. To me it’s a great beach and poolside read. There were some parts that made me smile beyond belief and want to cry the next. Overall it’s a great book!

Thank you to NetGalley and Elle Kennedy for the arc!

I love Elle Kennedy and have read almost all her works. This book gave me so much anxiety! In a good way. Our on-again/off-again couple definitely had all the hallmarks of a toxic relationship, before Gen leaves town to work on herself. When she returns, he is determined to get her back although some of their destructive tendencies are hard to shake. I enjoyed the growth of the characters, though I kind of wished Gen had stayed gone a bit longer to make their new "grown-up" relationship a bit more believable. I also felt like her issues with her mom were tied up a bit too easily. Overall, it was a good time.

Elle Kennedy is a well-known author amongst romance readers from her Briar U series. Kennedy has a very clear, authoritative voice in her books. She creates vivid settings with fun characters that we compulsively read. I read the first book in the Bay series, Good Girl Complex, which wasn't as good as her Briar U books. It was slower, with fewer enjoyable characters, but not bad. I picked this one with higher hopes, that she'd catch her stride with the series. Unfortunately, I found this book disappointing. It started slow and never picked up, neither protagonist was convincing, and the book lacked the sense of setting that Briar U had. Again, not a *bad* read but not very fun or particularly enjoyable. I won't be recommending this book as I do Briar U but for big fans of Elle Kennedy it would be worth a read!

I didn't like a lot of the side characters in the book and even though the main character annoyed me a few times I was still rooting for them. Not necessarily rooting for them to get together (I don't think the author did a good job in this aspect), but I was rooting for them as individuals to improve themselves. Even after reading good girl's reputation and for the most part, liking them I didn't like the part they played in this book. Finally, I think that in both books the author has tried to sell this group of friends as good friends, but they are clearly not. I don't understand how they're still friends after constantly dating their exes, keeping secrets, and going behind each other's back and I assume this is to give them all their own books/stories, but just ultimately decreases my enjoyment of the book. It wasn't terrible, but if the series does continue I do not think I will be picking those up.

I wasn't sure what to expect after hearing all the hype around Elle Kennedy's books and starting with this one. The main characters are childhood friends who dated through their adolescence then lost their way, and reconnect in this coming of age story.

I thought they were both pretty immature and a bit toxic to each other at the beginning of this book, but learned to love themselves and each other through the story. I struggled a bit to relate and connect to the characters, and couldn't feel much of a connection between them beyond their sexual chemistry. I just crave a bit more of a deeper connection between best-friends/childhood lovers stories than I got in this one. I also felt that with how much they wanted to feel like 'serious adults', the characters could have been aged up a bit because they are both only 22 and what they're going through doesn't really seem that unrealistic for their age (that's just my opinion though).

All in all, it was a sweet story of two characters shedding their bad girl/bad boy reputations and maturing into their adult selves, but felt like it was missing a deeper emotional backbone.

Thank you to the publisher, Elle Kennedy, and Netgalley for providing an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.