Good Girl Complex

I've read one other Elle Kennedy book – The Deal, because I'm a sucker for fake dating – and I doubt I'll read another after Good Girl Complex.

I liked The Deal well enough, but now I think I mostly liked it because it featured tropes I enjoy. Good Girl Complex has tropes I absolutely, positively, do not want to read.

These include:
-Rich/Poor relationship with chips on both characters' shoulders
-Bad Boy/Good Girl
-Not Like Other (Rich) Girls
-Worst of all: they got together because of a bet

I didn't connect to either Mackenzie or Cooper and honestly disliked them both. Mac is a twenty-year-old who doesn't want to be in college because she wants to focus on her million-dollar business, but her wealthy and influential parents want her to get a degree. (Geez, I wonder why I didn't connect to her).
Cooper got screwed over by Mac's ex, and Coop and his friends decide the best revenge is to get his girlfriend (Mac) to dump him for Cooper. One of the friends says it's a horrible thing to do to their credit. But still.

It got to the point in the story where I just didn't want to keep going. You know the bet will blow up in Cooper's face, and they'll break up for a time, then get back together. There wasn't tension? (And then they don't even work through things on screen? It's just “Yup, let's get back together and walk into the sunset without fully discussing the issues that made us break up in the first place.”)
I would have preferred if it dropped the bet plot way earlier in the story and then explored some of the other plot points more: Evan and Cooper's relationship with their mom. More of Mackenzie fixing up the hotel. More of them navigating their relationship instead of the annoying drama that's been done by a plethora of early 2000s teen movies.
So, unlikeable characters (that I think I'm supposed to be rooting for?) and an annoying plot – I'd definitely recommend skipping Good Girl Complex.

Audiobook Review: The narrators were fine. The performances were a little too dramatic for my tastes, however (Like, I was getting embarrassed for the characters and how over the top their thoughts were).