hannuhreads 's review for:

Save Us by Mona Kasten

3.5

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3.5 Stars.    

🏰 The vibes:  

• Fancy private school 
• Good girl / bad boy  
• Book 3 in trilogy 
• Rich kids behaving badly
• New adult 
• Open door 

🏰 My thoughts:

As the final wrap up to Maxton Hall, I wasn’t ready for this to be over. The book jumps right into where we left off in the last book, and the drama continues. 

🏰 I had some issues with the pacing in a few storylines. The middle started dragging for me, while the wrap up with Mortimer felt like it maybe wrapped up too nicely, too quickly. I also wasn’t fully invested in Wren and Ember’s plot. I liked the taste of it, but it didn’t give me all that I wanted it to. I didn’t get to see enough of Wren’s evolution on page to fully believe it or be invested in it. I almost wished that Alistair’s POV was replaced with more depth for Wren/Ember. 

🏰 I love Ruby, and her relationship with her family, especially with her sister, was so special. I loved seeing a FMC have two parents who are alive (😆) who are involved and loving. The parents don’t always make the right call that we, as the reader, know is the right call- but they love and support eachother always. 

🏰 James and Ruby are the standouts of this series! The way that their love for eachother grew and matured was such a good journey. Individually, their paths hurt and healed all at the same time. I felt like a proud little book auntie seeing James grow through each book. As far as the side characters, there’s a lot of room for spin offs and I’m curious if this happens. 

🏰 Re: the teacher/student relationship, it certainly seems like this series tries to justify this by explaining that these individuals met online and had no idea how old they were when they met and fell in love. It tries to make this relationship feel okay, but I had MAJOR issues with the age gap when it involved a child/minor. The book never acknowledges this as a moral problem, simply as a workplace conflict.

🏰 Book is set in the UK, so their age for drinking is different from the US, but lots of highschool parting involving alcohol, drugs, and sexual activities mentioned. This book is labeled New Adult - not YA, which I appreciated. 

Note- language; open door (1 scene); M/M relationship amongst side characters in the series; one of the characters involved has a POV in this book, so we do see more of that relationship on 

Release date: November 4, 2025. 

Thank you so much to Mona Kasten, Berkley Publishing Group, and NetGalley for the gifted copy.