Book: The Good Girl Exception by Maren Moore
Reviewed by Maggie Hayes
Rating: 4/5
ARC REVIEW
The Good Girl Exception by @authormarenmoore
⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5)
I have been so excited for this release. The Bad Boy Rule, the first book in the Hellcats Hockey series, was one of my top ten reads of 2025, and once again, Maren Moore does not miss.
I ate up Maisie and Wilder’s forbidden coach x student romance with all the bad boy x good girl vibes. From the moment they locked eyes across a bar in the prologue, the heat was on!
I am OBSESSED with Wilder. A tattooed bad boy looking to rebuild his reputation as a troublemaker with a traumatic past? SAY LESS. I was left heartbroken for Wilder all over the book — for the scared, lonely boy he was and the guarded, emotionally closed off man he became.
And Maisie? It was easy to relate to her journey into new adulthood (she's 20) and her desire to break free from the restrictive box she felt placed in as the daughter of a pastor. I love that she has the ambition and drive to become a librarian and spread literacy among youth, and that there is never a discussion of her putting those dreams on hold to be with Wilder.
As a couple, Maisie and Wilder are scorching hot and surprisingly tender. While their intense physical attraction is what brought them together, it is their opposites-attract personalities that keep them that way. Maisie is the sunshine to Wilder's grump. She chooses him when no one else ever has, allowing him to be vulnerable with her and begin to heal. In return, he sees her not as the pastor's daughter or a symbol of virtue, but as a woman.
Maisie and Wilder's love story was the perfect blend of angst and heat. Perfect for fans of forbidden coach x student tension, bad boy energy, and sunshine good girls.
Thank you to the author for providing an ARC!
For fans of:
🚫 Forbidden Romance | 🏒 Coach x Student | ⏳ Age Gap | 👨🦱👩 Bad Boy x Good Girl | 🤐 Secret Hookups | 🎀 Virgin Heroine | 🌑 Broody Hero | 🌶️ Spicy
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