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.
Release Date: Feb 1, 2022
Series: Avalon Bay
Book: 1
Heat Level: Hot
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Imprint: Macmillan
Price: $6.99
Mac always does what is expected of her. She never strays from her good girl image but now she finally wants to do what she wants to do in life. Instead, she decides to put her dreams on hold to go to college back home to please her parents. She runs into the guy from the wrong side of the track, Cooper. He pushes her every step of the way. It is a feeling that is both scary and thrilling to her. She can’t fall for a guy like that, or can she?
I could have liked the couple more but there are several things that makes it a bit hard. Cooper’s treatment of Mac is just a bit hard to digest. He does really mean things and somehow as a reader I’m suppose to move on from it quickly just because he falls in love. Mac good girl routine wears a bit thin. She needs to get a back bone. Eventually she gives in to her inner wild child but I almost didn’t want her to waste it on him.
The story is a bit cliché but it ticks off the boxes for opposites attract romance. The ending is a bit rush. As readers we are waiting for the fall out that’s going to occur to give that bit of angst. Mac gives in way to easily for my taste so the whole build-up fails.
Yet, with all that I disliked of the book, I read the story in one sitting. I love how Ms. Kennedy does new adult stories. I’m always rooting for someone in the book (Mac). She definitely comes into her own by the end of the book. I liked her relationship with Cooper’s brother. He is a good supporting character. I think the whole small-town vibe and secondary characters help balance out the story.
Overall, while it might not be the Off-Campus series, Good Girl Complex is still an enjoyable and light read.
~ Samantha
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