Avalon Bay Series #1
E-book, Kindle
Author: Elle Kennedy
Welcome to Avalon Bay, quintessential college town, as it harbors the prestigious Garnet College. It’s also a paradoxical little town with the townies and the billionaires.
Meet Mackenzie ‘Mac’ Cabot, “the princess” and Cooper Hartley, “the bad boy townie”. But Mac is not your typical “princess”. She took a gap year to develop an app and now at the age of 20 she’s a millionaire on her own merits. She’s only there to appease her parents. Cooper is one half of the Hartley twins, who have been known to break a lot of hearts. The princess and the townie are going to give the town something to talk about.
See the fishies here? Below them there are spoilers. You have been warned.
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Oh, darn it! How do I even start? Well, by saying that I have thoroughly enjoyed Elle Kennedy’s books in the past and I was sure I was going to love this one. Well, I did not.
To begin with, the way the MMC is introduced makes me immediately think he is a monumental asshole. The way he and his friends talk about “the clones” is horrible. And to boot, his immediate reaction after being fired because of Mac’s boyfriend (who is a major douche, we agree) is to pursue her, sight unseen, and make her dump her boyfriend for him, without giving a second thought of what it would do to HER.
As for Mac, I never really warmed up to her, because to me she was basically cheating on her boyfriend after she met Cooper. It’s also really farfetched that she’d be willing to subject herself to her parents’ wishes when she has been “adulting” in the real world quite well. And she when she buys a hotel because she’s basically “bored” I rolled my eyes right into my skull.
Also this is book 1, but there are mentions of so many backstories that I was “wait a minute, was there a prequel or something?” Add that we all knew Mac was going to find out about the bet and I’d have eaten my shoe if it hadn’t been through Heidi. Another eye roll there. And I needed more groveling from Cooper.
Well, it’s romance, an HEA (rushed, but yeah) but I was hoping for much more. I know a lot of people loved it so maybe I’m too old for this kind of set up. I will read book 2, though, to give her another chance.
Possible Triggers: toxic relationship with parents, normalized cheating, child abandonment
