Good Girl Complex: An Avalon Bay Novel

Elle Kennedy

Feb 2022 · Avalon Bay Book 1 · Sold by St. Martin's Griffin

About this ebook

*USA Today and Toronto Star bestseller*

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.

Ratings and reviews

I will not review the book per se.I mean it’s a washed up plot but a good one.It’s just beyond me the levity with which sleeping and whoring around is levelled as normal lately.Needless to say the implications of such an act health wise, moral wise, restriction wise.. etc It’s also the lack of sense and morality,the friends with benefits,the nonchalance of switching partners and knowing that your bf/gf slept with their friends and having to live with it &witness the awkward scenario repetitively

Struggling business owner Cooper initially pursues a romantic relationship with college student Mackenzie as part of a revenge plot. But it's not long before he becomes interested in her in earnest. She's not the spoiled rich girl he imagined. Already a successful entrepreneur at the age of twenty, she's stifled by how her emotionally distant parents try to shape her into their ideal vision of a Congressman's daughter. The boy from the wrong side of the tracks is the only one who encourages and understands her. But will Cooper's secret destroy her trust? Elle Kennedy is a phenomenal storyteller. This book has all the heart, longing, and romantic tension I expect from an author of her caliber. The illustrated cover disguises how gritty this book is—I wasn't expecting Cooper to be this much of a bad boy. This is not a fun, beachy read. It's intense, a little dark, and ultimately an uplifting tale of two people growing into their best selves. The audiobook has dual narrators, both of whom produced quality performances. The emotion tone was appropriate, and I never lost track of which character was speaking. Thanks, NetGalley. for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

Revenge dating is always a hard trope for me to get into, because you know that they are going to fall for each other, and at some point, the betrayal will become know. I’m anxious the whole story usually, but, I know this authour delivers a top notch story, so I dove in. It was a great story, as these two seemingly opposite people make a real connection with each other. They also bring out the best in each other, and are supportive and encouraging. They have amazing chemistry, right from the start, and are really likeable characters. They work through problems and handle things maturely. I just liked them, I liked their friends, I liked how their lives turned around, making them both really happy. The bad things happened, obviously, it has to, but there was such a connection, you knew it would be handled the way they handled everything else. This was a great start to this series, and I can’t wait for more characters to get their HEAs!

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 is the author of more than forty romantic suspense and contemporary romance novels, including the international bestselling Off-Campus and Briar U series.