Save Me by Mona Kasten is a fast-paced, drama-filled start to the Maxton Hall series that blends elite school intrigue with a classic opposites-attract romance. Ruby Bell is a smart, focused scholarship student with dreams of Oxford, determined to avoid the privileged chaos of her classmates. That is, until she stumbles upon a secret that ties her fate to James Beaufort, the school's golden boy with a dark side.

The chemistry between Ruby and James is undeniable, and Kasten does a great job building tension and emotional stakes. While the story leans into familiar tropes, the characters, especially Ruby, feel grounded and relatable. The plot moves quickly, with enough twists and emotional beats to keep things engaging, though some developments felt predictable and the ending a bit abrupt.

Despite some clichés, Save Me is addictive and enjoyable, perfect for fans of dramatic, character-driven romance. A solid series starter that left me curious enough to continue with book two.

Covers get me every time and this book was no different! The newly redesigned covers have such a picturesque feel to them that I couldn't ignore it. I saw a little bit of myself in Ruby Bell and her drive to do well in her academics. When she comes across a secret about the Beauforts, her life becomes entwined with Jamie. Watching them learn to work together and having a growing relationship, kept me turning the pages. They seemed to balance each other out and help each other with the areas they both needed growth in. With also having a child in her teen years, it allowed me that opportunity to get a glimpse of what current life is like in high school versus when I was in school. I was completely swept away by the story, I cannot wait to continue their story in the next book because I need answers! I am also eager to check out the show to see how true to the book it is! Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group for an advanced copy! All thoughts and opinions are my own!

CAN I JUST SAY THE ENDING OF THIS BOOK OMG 😍

The cliffhanger the author leaves you on!!!! 🫠😱🤬
! I was so sleepy the night I finished the first book that I went back and read the last few chapters to make sure that the ending ended the way I dreamt it did! 🤯🤭🫩

DAMN!
Anyways this book is about Ruby Bell who is part of the lower class but goes to Maxton Hall an elite private school in England. There she meets James Beaufort the spoiled yet sexy mysterious son of the Beaufort empire! The chemistry is to die for between both of them but will the differences in their seperate worlds ever let them be together?

YA isn't my usual thing, but with all the hype around the TV series I was interested in reading this ARC!

If you like the following, you'll enjoy this book:
-YA Academy Romance
-Scholarship Studios FMC x Rich Bad Boy MMC
-Female Friendships
-Enemies to Lovers
-Forced Proximity
-Slow Burn
-Prep School Setting
-Family dynamics

loved this!! the pacing is perfect and I love Ruby!!
clearly a very Y.A novel with some spice but still loved it the writing is okay, without having watched the show i don't think this is something i would have picked up

Thanks, Berkley Romance, for the book!

A few ways to describe SAVE ME, the first book in the MAXON HALL series:
-Rich kid drama at an expensive school
-Rich boy vs. poor girl - you’ll never understand my life; woe is me
-Enemies to allies to enemies to friends to ohmigoodness, please just kiss already to enemies to friends to flirting to kiss! kiss! kiss, please, for my sanity! to wtf, how can you end the book like that?

The last time I became so invested and had so much fun reading about rich and poor kids and all their drama at an expensive school, I was reading the GOSSIP GIRL books. It's the first book in the MAXON HALL series and the first time it's been published in English! - is not the next great literary novel, but it’s excellent entertainment that easily charms you. It was the perfect book for what I needed right now, coming home from a hospital stay a little bit ago and needing to stay relaxed. I was fully invested in Ruby, James’s, and their friends' lives. It was mainly Ruby and James that I was a big fan of, and by the end of the book, I needed them to kiss from all the built-up sexual tension!

SAVE ME does not require much thought to read; it’s purely relaxing entertainment. I’m super excited to read the next books in the series, and I can’t wait to watch the TV series based on the books when I’m done reading!

Save Me is the first book in the Maxton Hall series, and it's recently been translated from German. I watched the first season of the TV show based on the series and enjoyed it. It's very soapy and reminded me of some of my favorite 2000s teen shows like Gossip Girl and The OC. Kasten's series has now been translated in English. I was given the first two books in the series for review.

I'll be honest, for me personally, I don't think you're missing much if you skip reading the book on this one. The show does a great job of adapting the book and there's no hidden depths to the story or characters that you'll glean from reading the first book (I haven't started the 2nd book yet). I have a lot of issues with the translation of the English edition. I think the translator went too literally with some of the idioms and verbs used. There are times where the sentence just doesn't sound right or make sense in English.

The writing starts off very rocky in the first 50% of the book, and I was worried that this would be a quick DNF. The prose reminded me of YA books aimed at 13-year-olds. (However, a big warning is that even though the high school setting and vibes are YA there is graphic smut towards the end.)

The writing got better as the book continued and the story is soapy. I did finish the book and was interested in what was happening. I'm a sucker for melodramatic teen dramas. However the story feels very derivative of Hana Yori Dango (translated title Boys Over Flowers). Nothing new is brought to the table with this book. And the MMC is so toxic you'll need hazmat suit. However I will say that the romance is one of those that's supposed to stretch across multiple books. He kind of reminds me of Cardan in the first book of The Cruel Prince books. So he has time to grow and learn from his toxicity.

I'd give Save Me 3 stars. I've already started the 2nd book and since it's also an ARC a review with be forthcoming.

I enjoyed the book as a whole, but the English translation is very obvious in the sense that I found myself wondering if teenagers actually talk like that or if it was just a direct translation to English.
Overall, the romance was a classic, James is a very tortured soul, while ruby is headstrong and polar opposite of james. I loved the enemies to lovers portion! and that ending!!! I will definitely be reading the second book to see where it goes from here!

I enjoyed the Amazon Prime series and enjoyed the book. The series was an accurate creation of this story. Typical rich boy falls for lower class girl but this seemed very realistic. The book provides pov in each chapter by the two main characters. The setting was great. Looking forward to continued reading of the other two books in this series.

I was surprised at how much it felt like the TV show! (Pleasantly surprised - I loved the TV show). I felt this was a great translation because I could still appreciate the voice of the author and get immersed in the story.

When I started this I thought I made a mistake. I wasn’t vibing with the characters or the writing & it didn’t feel like anything special. But I pushed through and I am so happy I did! I loved James & Ruby’s opposites attract relationship and how they made James more than just a poor little rich boy.

This is translated from German and I am curious how the tra
I will say that this is YA book in the same way Cruel Intentions was a teen movie. They both focus on teen characters but the situations they are in is definitely not for those under 17.

Ruby and James are endgame!! I watched the first season of Maxton Hall on Prime and I fell IN LOVE with the whole aspect of James and Ruby’s story! The love they have is out of this world, the story line was so captivating, and the yearning!! AHH the yearning between these two have me so SAT! I loved reading the first book (especially now that it’s in English!!! 🤭) it was done so incredibly well and despite me watching the show first before reading, it gave me some leverage to see the characters play out in my head as I was reading, from the actual setting of the school, to the other side characters, and every pivotal moment they shared!! I loved the read and I can’t wait to explore the rest of the series as they release throughout the year as well as the new season release coming in the fall!!!

The Maxton Hall trilogy is one of those series that would easily be mislabeled as YA, but it is tonally very dark.
Ruby and her father got involved in a tragic accident when she was younger, leaving Ruby terrified of water/unable to swim and her father physically disabled.
James uses sex, drugs, acting out and partying as a coping mechanism to deal with the expectations placed on him by a heavily dysfunctional family — namely by his father, who is very much so domestically violent.

Their love story is very much that of Romeo and Juliet, star-crossed, marked by a class divide that Mona Kasten does a great job at portraying every chance she gets, and it makes the whole deal so incredibly bittersweet.
They are both being given the opportunity to grow so much as individuals while managing to bring out the best in each other.
The side characters are also incredibly well developed, and even now, seven years after its initial release, they still feel like modern-day teenagers.

I think foreign fans who cannot speak German and are a fan of the TV show are going to be disappointed by this book.
I don't want to speak ill of it, but I think there was a reason for why this book didn't get picked up for translation in 2018, when it was first published in Germany, and is only being published in English now, after the Maxton Hall TV show has blown up.
Tonally, the two kinds of media are VERY different, Save Me's translation feels rushed (as in a few poor translation choices have been made), has lost much of its original quirky voice (or sass) and makes its characters feel juvenile; as if they were 12 instead of 18.
It feels like the translation doesn't quite know what it wants the book to be, and I am reminded of the ['how do you do fellow kids] meme.
Maxton Hall, on the other hand, is a TV show following the success of adaptations like the Red, White & Royal Blue movie, and is very clearly aimed at a New adult audience, which gives it the opportunity to not shy away from the graphic themes like sex, drugs and domestic violence.
As a native german speaker, I am disappointed by the work that was put into the translation and publishing process for this book.

First book in the Maxton Hall series, now in English, so all of us can swoon over James. Maxton Hall is a very exclusive British school. Our FMC is Ruby, who has received a scholarship to Maxton with plans to follow up with a place at Oxford. Ruby's plans are the book she lives by; there will be nothing outside her schoolwork for her. Her character is well defined. Mona Kasten has given readers a clear picture of Ruby. And then there is James, the very definition of a rich playboy, or so it would seem. The two characters are brought together through a chance interaction and the story takes off from there.
I know the series has already spawned a TV series, but I haven't seen it. The books are so well written that it's easy to picture the characters and the school. This first book has set a high standard for the series. Book #2 is due for release later this year.

When I saw that the buzzy Maxton Hall books were translated into English, I had to get my hands on them before diving into the TV show. This book was the perfect way to wind down summer reading. It was full of messy teen drama, angst and hormones. I loved the romance between Ruby and James and how it explored class differences. I was grateful to also be offered a copy of the second book because this one ended on such a cliffhanger and I need to know what happens!

Thank you to Mona Kasten, Berkley Publishing and NetGalley for a digital copy of the book for an honest review.

Almost scene for scene to the show, which I watched before reading.
I enjoyed myself though and would love to keep going with the series. I am so happy that it is finally out in English!
And I loved being able to picture Ruby and James.

Review: SAVE ME, SAVE YOU & SAVE US by Mona Kasten http://bit.ly/47sGfe0
Genre New Adult Romance
Reviewed by Reading in Pajamas/ Cori
Rated 4.5 Stars

I watched the TV series of Maxton Hall on Amazon Prime before seeing these books become available in English. I really enjoyed the books. It’ll be fun to see the next two seasons on Amazon Prime when they’re available as well. This series is a combo of young adult and new adult romance. It starts in high school and goes to college. I really enjoyed the characters, the plot and romance. It’s a trilogy you’ll want to read back to back. The last book releases in November. They cured my reading slump.

*Review copy provided by Penguin Random House in exchange for an honest review.

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Kindle https://amzn.to/3VtKyOL

After watching Maxton Hall on Prime, I knew I had to read the book it was based on, and I’m glad it’s finally available in English. Ruby Bell is a scholarship student at Maxton Hall Academy. James Beaufort is the heir to one of England’s most famous menswear designers, and the most popular boy in school. When Ruby accidentally walks in on James’ twin sister Lydia making out with a teacher, James tries to buy her silence, setting off an enemy to lovers story that engrossed me to the end. I liked that we get more of James’s thoughts and emotions that we did in the series. I will definitely be reading book 2!

This is exactly what you think it is. If you’re obsessed with the show and already have a Maxton Hall edits folder on TikTok, you’re going to eat this up.

It’s messy, melodramatic, and toxic teenage drama. That said, the student–teacher storyline felt way ickier in the book than on screen—on the show everyone looked older, so it was easier to forget they were supposed to be so young. Rating for audience is 3, personal enjoyment rating would probably be lower :/

I really enjoyed this overall--a little bit of a slow start in my opinion but quickly picked up and I really enjoyed it! A little bit of gossip girl vibes, a little bit of Billions vibes, and a whole lot of chaos in the best way! Excited to read book 2 and 3.