Like any other Kennedy’s book this one didn’t disappoint.
The characters were on spot, the plot was intriguing and I just could put the book down until I reached its very end.
Would recommend!

Thank you to NetGalley for this advanced readers copy



I have mixed feelings about this book because on one hand I did genuinely enjoy reading it but in the other it is literally the plot of after.

I haven’t read after so I can’t discern whether the writing and characterisation is any better but it nevertheless is still the same plot.

I despise the cheating trope so that also didn’t help this books case.

I did love the setting and the concept of a small beach side town and would love to explore more of the characters like Evan.

Overall whilst I had a decent enough time reading this the bad boy seduces the good girl on a bet plot is seriously overdone.

3 stars

After the smoking-hot-hottie Cooper Hartley is fired from his job after standing up to an entitled rich boy harassing his colleagues, his twin brother encourages Cooper to get revenge on the snob by stealing his girlfriend. Cooper and his friends strike a bet on whether this can be done and Cooper quickly sets his plan in motion. However, he wasn’t banking on how much he actually likes MacKenzie ‘Mac’ Cabot, who isn’t like any of the stuck up rich folks who’ve looked down on him before. They quickly become friends and Mac resists the want to make it something more, on account of her having a boyfriend.
Good Girl Complex tells the tale of a charming small town friends-to-lovers romance, demonstrating first impressions and assumptions aren’t always correct and in order to get what you want, life might need to take you down paths you didn’t expect.

I started this book at midnight and finished it before Dawn! It wouldn’t let go of me; I was fully absorbed into the setting of Avalon Bay and following the characters be funny, messy, mushy and everything else. Good Girl Complex’s premise is similar to Cruel Intentions and Anna Todd’s After, where the guy initiates a relationship with the girl as a result of a bet, and when I realised this was the premise, admittedly I was immediately put off and had regrets. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I actually enjoyed this, especially because I essentially binged it.

Even though Cooper was described as a “bad boy”, he is hardly a bad boy. Honestly it was the easiest thing to fall in love with his character. He’s hilarious, charming and on the whole massively supportive of Mac. And I really enjoyed seeing him workout what he wanted to do with his life. I equally loved Mac. She was a down to earth girl who came from a privileged background, but not all is as it seems. It really annoyed me when the local townies were mean to Mac, making her feel guilty for her independent wealth, when the townies moaned about how crap the wealthy treated them, yet they did the same thing to Mac. So, basically, Elle Kennedy successfully hit me right in the feels with these two… Together?? These opposite-side-of-the-tracks love interests were couple goals; there is no other way to describe it.

Mac and Cooper had really great chemistry, their banter was highly readable and gleeful, and seeing their relationship develop and deepen was sooo satisfying. The smut scenes were somewhere between not being explicit enough / felt rather tame, but they were great when they went the extra mile. I also loved seeing them so domesticated!

My biggest gripe was the ending. This really should have had an epilogue or a few more pages of content than where it ended. I’m mindful of the fact there’s going to be a spin-off sequel focusing on Cooper’s brother, Ethan, which will undoubtedly give more Cooper and Mac content too (the characters are all very close knit!). So this isn’t a massive problem per say, but it definitely would be if there wasn’t another book coming. On its own, the ending of Good Girl Complex is rather limp.

I actually really enjoyed how much detail this story had. It explores previous relationships, family drama on both sides and both characters navigating life paths and working out where they wanted to go next as individuals, all the while they meet and juggle their budding relationship too. The dual narration was perfect. On the whole, Good Girl Complex really fun and would be the perfect summertime beach read, especially if any bookworms want to get caught up in a small town romance!

Thank you kindly to the publishers for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for this honest review.

A fun and sexy coming of age story of a young woman falling for the quintessential bad boy and throwing caution to the wind. Loved it!

Just like all of Elle Kennedy's books, I absolutely adored this book. The storyline had me hooked from the beginning, the characters were so likeable and I loved being in their heads, and I absolutely loved the romance between Mac and Cooper.
Although I absolutely adored both Mac and Cooper, I wish we had more scenes of Mac with her friends as there were so many scenes of Cooper with his friends, and it felt like Mac's world revolved around Cooper as soon as they got together as she stopped talking to her friends.
However, I still absolutely adored this book and was obsessed with it. All I wanted to do was read this book and I could not put it down when I was reading it. I ended up reading the whole book in one day because of that.
I cannot wait until the sequel for this book comes out because I love this world and these characters.

This is a messy story with messy characters and a messy plot. But I still sort of enjoyed my time with it?

Wealthy sweet college freshman Mackenzie, running her own successful company, meets Cooper, a troubled poor bad boy with anger issues. What she doesn't know is that her wealthy asshole boyfriend got Cooper fired. What she also doesn't know is that Cooper got dared by his friends to seduce Mackenzie to get revenge on aforementioned asshole boyfriend. Cooper is fully determined to not fall for Mackenzie, but she burrows her way into his heart anyway. Will they make it, or will all the secrets stand in their way?

First of, Cooper's secrets took way too long to get out. He lied to Mackenzie for a good 90% of the book while still proclaiming how much he loved her. Mackenzie for her part was a very inconsistent character. On the one hand she was a self-made millionaire at age 20, on the other hand she was incredibly naive about people. One doesn't really go with the other. To top it off, both main characters have almost comically indifferent parental figures to deal with. Their issues with their parents dragged down the pacing quite a bit, and wasn't really needed to make the story work.

And yet, despite the many things wrong with this book, I did enjoy it. In the same way that I enjoy eating a pint of ice cream in one go or binge-watching 10-year-old episodes of some telenovella. It's perfect for emptying your brain for a little while when real life is stressful.

Far from being Elle Kennedy's strongest book to date, I am nonetheless eager to read a second instalment in this new series. I just hope it's less messy than the first one.

I thought this was a good book, but the plot lacked originality because of how strongly it mirrored 'After.' But this was also so so different from that, and so much better than that - which is what salvaged this. I loved seeing Mackenzie's character development, and she grew into an independent strong woman, while also semi-resolving the conflict between her family. I did find some of the characters to be incredibly frustrating and annoying - but I guess that's what added to the tension and made the book good. I liked the dual perspective, else it would've made it incredibly different to like the book, because we get to see Cooper actually fall for her and his feelings changed, and I know I would have really disliked the book if it wasn't this way, it made me hate Cooper less. I can't say this was an amazingly, eye-opening and life-changing book, because it just wasn't and it did get a bit cringe at some points. I thought it was an interesting read, and I don't think it really deserves the bad ratings it has been getting. Not as mind blowing as 'The Deal' but nevertheless a good read.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for early access to this title! I have enjoyed all of Elle Kennedy’s books and this one is no exception!! Brilliant and I read it in a few hours! Definitely a must read for contemporary romance fans!

Unfortunately, this book just didn't take my breath away. I love Elle Kennedy, I always get excited whenever literally anything from her comes out, including this book. I would say, Elle, just stick with sports romances, please.
I just hate when heroine puts herself down and wears blinder to what's happening around her. In this case pretty much everyone was hiding something.
Well and let's talk about hero for minute. About his bet he should fess up about in first possible moment. But that would I guess bruised his ego.

There is going to be more to this series, which I will give another chance, but this was quite boring. Predictable.
Please, make it go away next time.

Elle is one of my go to authors when i need a bit of romance. I love her writing style. I binged The Deal and the whole series so when i heard about this book i knew i needed to read it.

I loved the main characters in this book. they were written so well and i enjoyed learning about them.

This book has me excited for what will come next.

Quick Stats:
• Overall: 3.5/5 stars
• Characters: 4/5 stars
• Setting: 3.5/5 stars
• Writing: 3/5 stars
• Plot and themes: 3.5/5 stars
• Review in a nutshell: A cliché? Yes. But I still enjoyed it!

My thoughts and feelings:

First, I would like to thank Little, Brown Book Group UK for approving me to receive an ARC of this!

This books strong suit is definitely its characters and if a book is character driven, it’s likely that I will enjoy it. Even if the plot is on a lower level. Which is what this book was for me.
The humour and banter between the characters was very fun to read and I will admit, it made me genuinely laugh at some points. I also loved the character growth we are able to see in multiple characters, although some characters fell flat in comparison.

Although I wasn’t a huge fan of the writing style, every time I saw down to read this book, I was always entertained and found it easy to read.

One thing that I found difficult when reading this book was I found it hard to keep track/up-to-date with the time-line in which events were happening. But, in all honesty, that’s just me and its not to say its actually difficult to keep track of.

As I kept reading and reading, I just kept wondering when the big reveal was going to be. It ended up happening within the last 10% of the book. Due to this, the ending felt very rushed to me and I felt as though the real conflict didn’t really get resolved and talked through enough for everything to go back to the way it was.

Overall, despite this not being an amazing book in my opinion, it was definitely an enjoyable one! I would like to see more from this set of characters I the future though. Maybe a spin off with Evan and what happened to him and the girl he seems to be in love with as that’s referenced a lot.

I really enjoyed this book , if anyone has ever read the book After by Anna Todd. It reminds me very much of that . The characters was fantastic and loved how elle gave us every side to the sultry and what they was thinking .instead of guessing how the other feeling ,really loved that . Plot fantastic very easy to follow .I loved the Setting to the story you can really see what Elle was seeing when writing the story . Its very steamy which I totally love I think you need that in a romance sometime. Definitely a reread for me . And please say we are going to get more I can't wait .

Not really my cup of tea, I was excited going into this I had heard great things about this, but I just can’t seem to connect with the story at all, didn’t like the premise or the cheating factors, I also think it makes it predictable for the drama, yes I know it happens, but I don’t read these books for reality. So unfortunately a no from me

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

3.5 stars
After enjoying Elle Kennedy's The Deal and having the rest of her University/campus series on my TBR list, I was really excited to see what a stand alone book from her would be like.
But unfortunately this didn't live anywhere near up to my expectations.
It is an easy to read story but you're just waiting for the bet to be revealed. And even though I thought maybe it wouldn't make an appearance and would subvert those ideas, inevitably it ended the exact way that I expected it to.
I liked that Mac had a purpose with her own business, even if her parents and boyfriend thought otherwise. And Cooper is the stereotypical bad boy. But I wasn't 100% rooting for them, like I should have been.
There were a few saucy sex scenes but once Mac and Cooper are together we don't see another one for the remainder of the book.
The female 'friends' really annoyed me. Heidi in particular is awful and the other two aren't much better. Them hating someone they've never even met all felt a bit juvenile for people who are meant to be in their twenties.
I also would have loved more on the hotel renovation.
Ultimately, I almost felt like I had to force myself to finish this.
And it didn't add anything new or memorable to the romance/rom com genre, sadly.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC! I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

The book follows Mackenzie, a successful and wealthy 'clone' currently in college despite her wishes and her relationship with Evan, your typical bad boy lead. Cooper has a altercation with Preston, and decides to seek revenge by going after his girlfriend, who happens to be Mackenzie. The book shows how the revenge plots unfolds, and how this is complicated when feelings take over.

I loved the focus on Mackenzie as a successful and independent character. I particularly loved the way in which she initially defies Evan's charms, and defends herself against her pushy parents. I loved her relationship with Cooper's twin brother, Evan! Cooper on the other hand was a typical bad boy, who unfortunately has been repeatedly left disappointed by his absent mother (who makes a very brief appearance in the book), it was hard not to fall for them.

Whilst the characters were likeable, there were a few plot points I just couldn't get past. I'm not a fan of the cheating trope, and whilst it is addressed and revealed in a swift manner, I did not enjoy this element (even if both counterparts were cheating on each other). The other element I did not enjoy was the revenge storyline, despite it being the initial reason behind their encounter, I did not enjoy Cooper outright denying his connection to Preston despite being asked by Mackenzie repeatedly. I also felt the ending was super rushed as they reconcile in the final pages.

All in all, I probably would not read this book again, whilst the characters were likeable, I don't think i could get past the elements that made this book a slow read for me! I did however enjoy the writing style and as a big fan of Elle Kennedy, I would highly recommend her other novels.

Elle never fails to impress me with her writing style. The first book of hers I read was The Deal and I binged that entire series and the spin off in under a week, so when I saw she had a new book coming out I was on it faster than a dog in heat.

I enjoyed the main characters in this one, although I didn’t agree with some of their choices (*cough* Heidi *cough*) overall they were pretty solid individuals and I enjoyed learning more about them.

So on to why it’s only a three star… for me, I liked the characters as individuals, but together they didn’t exactly work the best, the chemistry just wasn’t as fire as I’d hoped it would be, and I know Elle can write some kickass relationships which is why I’m just a bit disappointed I suppose.

I did enjoy this read, but it didn’t quite live up to the expectations I had for it.

Firstly, thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review. I am a bit late on posting this as it had been accidentally deleted from my drafts folder (whoops), for full transparency I read this book at the end of January.

This was one of my most anticipated books of 2022 and although it wasn’t 100% what I expected it was still an engaging read. Definitely more of a young adult @ellekennedy33 read except for the sex scenes! I feel like this is Outer Banks and After smooshed into one book! (I go into a bit more detail in the spoilers section below!) It was enjoyable and would certainly, pick up the others in the series without a doubt!

I do however feel that one thing this book needed was an epilogue!

Good Girl Complex is out now, with book #2 Bad Girl Reputation following Evan, set for release in October this year.

*SPOILER ALERT* The whole ‘townies’ vs ‘clones’ gave me such Outer Banks vibes with the ‘Pogues’ and ‘Kooks’ which honestly kind of like as who doesn’t enjoy a bit of opposite attract trope however the bit that got me was the similarities to After with the whole bet situation, them falling for each other and her finding out about the bet. Also, did anyone root for Evan and Mac… just me?

I expected nothing less than greatness from another Elle Kennedy book and wow what an emotional and beautiful rollercoaster this was! Mac and Coopers relationship felt very Romeo & Juliet meets Outerbanks, it was gritty and forbidden in a coastal town where a divide was clear to the eye. However that didn't at all stop the two from creating an exciting and steamy romance. Mac was a beautiful and strong character who saw the world very differently to everybody else, where Cooper saw through tunnel vision - she showed him how powerful he could be if he let himself look past the lifestyle he thought was his only future and he showed her how free she could feel if she allowed herself to let go of the stress and pressures of living in a high society family. Whilst their friendship didn't start on innocent terms and I wasn't too keen on the revenge aspect, the personal development within Cooper was beautiful to watch unfold and I really loved seeing him grow in to the man he was meant to be. There were so many wonderful side characters too, along with the odd one you wanted rid of, but they made the complexities of Mac and Cooper's romance even more worth fighting for in multiple ways. Plus, who doesn't love a good girl/bad boy trope!?

This book is your typical bad boy-good girl new adult romance. It's predictable, it has that -cue in eye roll- bad boy who stops being bad just for this one girl, but it also manages to somehow be completely addictive. The Deal is my favorite Elle Kennedy book (by far), but there's just something about her writing that makes me want to keep on reading, even if I know exactly what's gonna happen.

The story is told in dual POV. There's Mac, a rich 20 year-old who doesn't fit in the mold her parents have laid out for her, and there's Cooper, a local bad boy who wants to seduce Mac into dumping her boyfriend to get back at him.

Yes, you read that right, there's an ex who isn't an ex when things start to get complicated. I hate the cheating trope. Even if it's only a kiss, if you know you're attracted to someone else you dump your boyfriend before the inevitable happens. Even if said boyfriend is a douche. And it didn't fit with Mac's personality either. I just didn't like it. But I still liked the book, I guess that goes to show how much I like Elle Kennedy's writing.

I did like Mac's ambition, though. How she goes for what she wants, no matter what others think, trusting she will figure it out. And I definitely see the potential here for a few companion novels, for one, I want to know who manages to get Bonnie to stop sleeping around. Maybe one about Tate and Alana too, see what's up with Evan and that girl he can't get over, Steph would be a great main character too (not so sure about Heidi though).

3.5*
I have been a fan of Elle Kennedy since her 'Off-Campus' series. 'Briar-U' didn't quite hit the spot for me, so I was incredibly excited to read something outside of that world. Elle Kennedy did not disappoint, it wasn't her best work (Off-Campus is simply too hard to beat), but it was a nice change of pace to her other series. Though not as gritty as 'Off-Campus', I think the character's journey of self-discovery was much better in this book.

'Good Girl Complex' had enjoyable characters with really great development and an angsty romance. The authors who blurbed (Vi Keeland, LJ Shen, and Tijan) were the perfect people, and their quotes only added to my excitement to read. If you love New Adult romances, this perfectly fits that genre.