Bad Girl Reputation
Grade : C-

Elle Kennedy is a prolific author with a wide variety of genres under her belt. I was an avid reader of her romantic suspenses from back in the day, hooked from the get-go with the Out of Uniform series about a group of sexy Navy SEALs. From there I moved on to another great batch of her romantic suspenses, including Hunted, Outlaws, and Killer Instincts. She was a must-read for me because romantic suspense is my jam. But when she shifted gears and produced the Off-Campus and Briar U series, I skipped them. I’ve been out of college for a long time and meh … New Adult stories just don’t do it for me. But this new Avalon Bay series snuck into my periphery with its fun illustrated covers. I hoped Kennedy might be back to stories about characters beyond their prep school years, where conflict exists beyond partying and jealous temper tantrums.

Nope.

Bad Girl Reputation is the second book in Kennedy’s Avalon Bay series, and it’s about a couple who started out as friends, burned fast and bright as lovers, and fizzled out because they were unable to withstand the emotional bullshit of immaturity. I wanted to root for them, but they’re both sort of unlikable. Genevieve West is billed as a reformed bad girl, though she reads a little more like the mean girl who’s come back to town after a year away to help her father with the family business in the wake of her mother’s death. Dreams deferred are always disappointing and difficult to overcome, and Gen is determined to make the most of her new temporary normal. But then her high school sweetheart, Evan Hartley (twin brother to Cooper Hartley from Good Girl Complex), shows up at the funeral with his handsomeness and moody eyes and blue Blow Pop. (That’s a kind oflollipop for our international readers :) ). Nobody has the power to hurt you like the people you love, and in this case, Gen and Evan are a mutually self-destructive duo. Like I said, they burned fast and fizzled with a TKO.

Gen and Evan bring out the worst in each other. This is not a new concept – it’s a trait that probably dates back to the first liaison and is still prevalent in so many relationships. In this story, however, there’s not much conflict beyond miscommunication. What’s missing, I think, is exposure to life outside the small community of Avalon Bay. Because Gen and Evan focus so much on each other, they miss the nuances of what they could be. And they’re just stuck in a rut of their own making.

You know, you can nail whoever you want without hitching your wagon to theirs for the rest of your life. Sometimes you need to figure out when to call it a day – and when you decide to give it a go, quit whining. Adulting is hard. Relationships take work. And as a reader there’s only so much back and forth I’m willing to read before skimming to the finish.

Kennedy is a great writer. Her sentence structures are terrific and her metaphors pop like rock candy in a bottle of Coke.

Great-aunt Milly is doing circles around the house like a goldfish in a bowl. Every pass, she stops at the sofa to pat my arm and weakly squeeze my wrist and tell me I look just like my mother.

I mean, come on! I could absolutely feel the tension simmering in the house during her mother’s funeral. I just wish that easy storytelling had occurred with Gen and Evan. The secondary characters far outshine the leads, and I wanted to slap them both and scream at them to snap out of it!

I don’t need to relive my glory days, so I think I may skip the final book in the series. Never would I admit to being too old for anything, but I think I’m too old to enjoy this series. I’m waiting on Kennedy to come out with a new romantic suspense, wherein I’m willing to arm wrestle you to the front of the line.

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Reviewed by Dolly Sickles
Grade : C-

Sensuality: Hot

Review Date : October 6, 2022

Publication Date: 10/2022

Review Tags: Avalon Bay series

Recent Comments …

  1. Except for the obvious adult situations, Astrid sounds like she has the maturity of a child with the “no hockey…

Dolly Sickles

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