🎧 ARC Review: Good Girl Complex by Elle Kennedy

My review: 4 ⭐

I am a huge fan of Elle’s Off Campus series, mostly for the hot college hockey players, so I decided to choose this one without even reading the blurb. I soon realized there is not a puck or a hockey rink in sight, but that’s okay because apparently I am just an Elle fan period!

Life of the rich meets life of the townies in this slow burn, good rich girl/bad poor boy, opposites attract, with a side of secrets, lies and revenge NA romance. Steam is alright once we get to it.

Cooper is known as a “townie” in the beachside town of Avalon Bay. A tattooed bad boy who has to work for what he has. When he gets canned from his bartending gig due to punching rich douche, Preston, for groping his coworker and good friend, Stephanie, he’s out for revenge. Coop makes a bet to steal Preston’s girl ~ how do you think that will work out? Yup, exactly as you think it will.

Mackenzie begins her semester at Garnet College, where her long time boyfriend, Preston, is. Mackenzie and Preston come from a life of privilege and are expected to marry. She meets Cooper, they hang out a few times, even rescue a dog together, and now she’s questioning everything she thought she knew about the future she was supposed to have.

Even though the old revenge plot is predictable I enjoyed it nonetheless. I always love when written from a dual point of view and Joe and Ava were the perfect narrators. It was nice that Mac was not the typical snobby rich girl, but was a down to earth character that made a name for herself by creating a popular app. I probably would’ve wanted to hang out with Cooper when I was in my 20’s for a fun time 😜

TW: cheating

*Thanks to Netgalley, Macmillan Audio and Elle Kennedy for providing me with an advance audio-copy in exchange for my honest review*

Book blurb: Release date ~ February 1, 2022

She does everything right. So what could go wrong?

Mackenzie “Mac” Cabot is a people pleaser. Her demanding parents. Her prep school friends. Her longtime boyfriend. It’s exhausting, really, always following the rules. Unlike most 20-year-olds, all she really 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.

Mac’s 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.