Review by witcheep - Good Girl Complex

witcheep 's review for:

Good Girl Complex by Elle Kennedy

3.0

emotional lighthearted medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This is a hesitant 3 stars (I waa initially thinking 2.5); the book is about cheating as a grounds for a relationship, and even when the characters themselves frown upon the issue heavily, I think the cheating – when found out – should have been worked on more. The main characters are young, though, so you shouldn't expect too much emotional maturity from them. They are both still finding their place in the world and figuring things out, which gives them a little slack.

Both the main characters are flawed and doing things for the wrong reasons. The plot revolves around breaking up a relationship / cheating as a revenge, but that revenge plot turns into unexpected real feelings. The main characters Cooper and Mackenzie are not good people, even though they seem to make each other better by encouragement and emotional support when they are together.

Both the main characters have a tendency to avoid the hardest conversations and facing the truth, though, which creates the basis for the ultimate tension and

third act breakup

. I wish the issue was resolved with more groveling, self-improvement, and a longer heart-to-heart conversation, especially as the morality of cheating and lying has been a constant subject in the story.

I also wish the book continued a little further into the timeline and showed if they really could make their relationship work in the long run – if they can look past the revenge chesting plot. Now it feels like the characters are still looking at each other with rosy shades of lusty infatuation, and the real world might still be too much for them to stay together. Yet maybe that is what they deserve: a good-ish relationship on shitty grounds, or yet another breakup to break their hearts.

Content Warnings