Save Me by Mona Kasten 
Series: Maxton Hall #1
Genres: New Adult
Setting: England
Source: ARC, NetGalley
Also in this series: Save You, Save Us
Also by this author: Save You, Save Us
Goodreads
The first book in the international bestselling Maxton Hall series—now an Amazon Prime streaming series—in English for the first time.
They come from different worlds, and yet they are meant for each other.
Money, glamour, luxury, power—Ruby Bell couldn’t be less interested in these things if she tried. After being awarded a scholarship to one of England’s most prestigious and expensive private schools, Maxton Hall, all she wants is to keep her head down, work hard, and get accepted to Oxford. She keeps her distance from everyone, especially the arrogant, rich, and extremely handsome James Beaufort, ringleader of the school’s party boys.
When Ruby discovers a scandalous secret about the Beauforts, she is suddenly on James’s radar. It only gets worse when James is forced to work with her to plan the school's annual gala. Yet the more time they spend together, the more they realize they share much more than they thought.
Falling for James Beaufort was never part of her plan, yet Ruby can’t help but let her feelings sweep her away. But James must make a decision for himself: will he choose what’s expected of him, or what he feels for her?
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I grabbed Save Me because of the FOMO-I was seeing it everywhere! I haven’t watched the Prime show based on the book either. Regardless of how I got it, I’m so glad I did!
Save Me is your classic coming of age love story. She is the poor scholarship kid attending the fancy prep school. He is the ultra popular, uber rich kid who is used to partying and having fun all the time. What I loved about Ruby is that she doesn’t have the horrible trauma baggage. Her parents are poor, but she and her family are happy. They love each other and are very close. Something tragic happened to her and her dad years ago, but they haven’t let it ruin their lives. James on the other had has cold, uncaring parents who demand he go into the family business. His dad is physically abusive as well. But, James hides it by partying with his friends and hooking up with just about anyone. He was a very typical MMC in these types of books, so it was really Ruby that made me love the story.
I honestly wasn’t expecting to like this as much as I did, but its well written and the characters are well developed. Save Me was an excellent surprise and I immediately grabbed the next 2 books!
Regarding the spice: There was 1 explicit sex scene.
- POV: dual 1st
- Tears: yes
- Trope: opposites attract, poor/rich, high school
- Triggers: View Spoiler »
- Series/Standalone: series
- Cliffhanger: View Spoiler »
- HEA: View Spoiler »
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I’ll Always Be With You by Monica Murphy, Something About That Boy by Lani Lynn Vale, The Insiders by Tijan…then you will probably like Save Me!
Glad to hear you enjoyed this one so much!
Agreed, I didn’t expect to like it as much as I did when I watched the show. Although I should have known better from all of my favorite authors talking about it when it came out. Glad you enjoyed this too. I will be starting the 2nd book in a week or so I think. Hope we both enjoy it. I feel like I’m going in blind since the 2nd season of the show isn’t out yet.
Adding this to my TBR pronto. I’m also going to look into the show too. Fun review!