Good Girl Complex by Elle Kennedy : A great book and a great start for a new book series

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.

My review: 

Elle Kennedy is back with the kind of romance she is so good at. We embark on a journey to the small town of Avalon Bay and discover a pack of characters who belong to different worlds .Each one of them stands his ground but a simple bet could open our hero's eyes. But can a story based on a lie last forever?

Mackenzie Cabot is our 20-year-old heroine and she doesn't know how to say no to people. She lives the life her parents have laid out for her and we don't see how she can change her ways. At first, we think that she has no temper and that she will never be able to be independent. She has always lived in luxury, has never felt pride or family love, has a seemingly perfect boyfriend and so her life is a long, quiet river. Her first victory is being the head of a site and an app that allows her to make a good living. She doesn't need the money but it underscores the fact that she is like fire under the ice. Her true personality is just waiting to come out. She is kind but we will get a rather sad look at her because she has no real friends and she doesn't live in the "reali world". Her meeting with Cooper is going to be a real element to open her eyes and offer her new perspectives. We will then wish her to fight for her freedom outside the golden cage in which she suffocates. I liked this young woman who will take risks and believe in her dreams. Let's just hope she doesn't crash along the way because when some secrets are revealed, the truth could hurt, very bad.

Cooper Hartley has lived in Avalon all his life and has seen a lot of rich people come and go. He has this cynicism that we can only understand considering his situation. With his twin brother, they try to get by on their own because they have never been able to count on their family. Shelley, their mother, will be quite a handful woman and one hopes they manage to escape this harmful and selfish person. They can rely on their Uncle Levi for support and advice. I liked their relationship because he gives them a needed stability. Evan is not doing well and Cooper can't be said to be fully developed. He has great plans but once again the financial aspect is a hindrance to his talent. When he faces Preston, Mac's fiancé, he can't help but react and thus provoke a series of chain reactions. His group of friends is certainly loyal but they are also blinded by their resentment against the rich people. A bet is set between them but Cooper realizes too late that not everyone can be lumped together. I enjoyed watching him grow and open up to our heroine, but I couldn't help but fear for him because the truth eventually come out. If he was clumsy at the beginning, we can no longer find excuses for him to explain this lie that has lasted too long. The fall is likely to be hard and we hope that he will have the strength to get up and to deserve a saving forgiveness.

In short, I had a great time reading this new novel by Elle Kennedy. All the ingredients are there to give us a great romance with just the right amount of humor, whole characters and questioning. I hope that we will have other volumes on the other characters and I think I saw a post in that sense.

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