Book Review: Maxton-Hall Series by Mona Kasten

easy-read new adult romance

published on Jan 6, 2022

approx. 8min to read

How the story is set up

The general trope of the trilogy is a rich, popular bad boy (called James) falling for a smart good girl (named Ruby). Both protagonists get a point of view from the beginning. They are (or turn) eighteen, thus it is set at a high school, which in this case is a prestigious elite school. Knowing all of this going into it, I expected it to be corny and not that realistic, which turned out to be true. Since I expected it though, it didn’t bother me much.

I loved the description of Oxford and that it was set in England. The environment felt palpable and I could imagine the setting very well. I loved the details. Many little things that were specific to the characters and enriched my perception of them were described which made it easy for the story to take shape in my head.

Writing style, predictability and pacing

I read each book in a few hours. I flew through them. It took me three days to read the whole trilogy as I couldn’t stop reading but still had to handle my day-to-day life as well. The language is simple and has a great flow. This trilogy is an easy read and put me in a good mood. The overall plot is coherent and everything mentioned was followed up on (like James’ pictures from the first book resurfacing at the end of the second and beginning of the third book). In general, all three books are predictable, not overly predictable but it was certainly quite satisfying to have my expectations fulfilled.

The endings of both the first and the second book were cliffhangers. My frustration would have probably been really big if I had not been able to just read the next one right away.

I cried sometime towards the end of the first book and I giggled inwardly through large parts of all three of them. The series is fast-paced, each scene consequentially follows upon the last.

Criticism (Spoiler Alert)

Some things threw me off. For instance, Ruby is extremely judgmental in the beginning, or her not taking his money gaining James’ interest because all other girls he knows are apparently shallow because they can’t help but throw themselves at him and she’s ‘not like them’. Additionally, in the first book, all romantic gestures seem to revolve around James’ wealth and/or Ruby being a damsel in distress (he gives her lifts in his family’s limousine, takes her to a party in an impressive mansion, gifts her an expensive bag made by his family’s business and rescues her from drowning in a pool). And there were strippers at a high school? That would never be possible in real life since most of the students are minors. Additionally, there is a subplot involving a teacher sleeping with one of Ruby’s classmates (called Lydia, and I quite like her as an individual character) in an affair that began when she was a minor and it is subliminally romanticized.

The second book in the trilogy is fairly repetitious. There are no major shifts in the story and Ruby and James’ relationship problems repeat themselves over and over. They are together, something comes to light (usually James did something douchebagy), they fight and break up, they can’t stop thinking about each other (which I get, but also if humans really noticed the others smell when passing by or whatever, how would we even function), they want to talk but don’t because Ruby can’t forgive him and he doesn’t deserve her, they get back together nonetheless and the cycle repeats.

Characters

What made the trilogy so enjoyable were the characters. Already in the first book, which only contains Rubys and James’ POVs, the side characters caught my interest, and thus I loved that they got developed more and more. It was great to see the new perspectives added in the second and third books with some of them getting their own POVs. There were many ships between characters to get giddy over and invested in that were touched on from the beginning and slowly developed into more. The relationships, whether they were very romantic or not, were very authentic to the characters in the way they treated one another and talked to each other.

I identified with both Ruby and Ember. Ruby was relatable because of the way she handles her life. For example, side comments made in her POV were often things I would have noticed or thought too and the specific way she organized and structured things are something we have in common. Ruby is smart, organized, strong-minded, won’t let anyone drag her down, and is a great friend one can count on, which makes her a likable character to read. I loved Ruby’s family as well, especially Ember, Ruby’s sister. Although there were things that annoyed me about her (Spoilers: She’s been wanting to go to a party at Ruby’s school for ages and when she finally gets her wish she can’t even play by the rules and reaction of ‘attractive boy gives me attention, that can’t be’, just because she’s not a size 2 was clichéd. I did like her relationship with Wren though, they were adorable around each other.), I nonetheless loved her spirit and her blog and her directness. The woman power with the two of them, Lydia and Lin (Ruby’s best friend who would have deserved some more pages dedicated to her) was another strong point when looking at the characters.

The third book was my favorite since James and Ruby finally broke the cycle and finally fully trusted and supported each other, acting as a team. James has truly grown on me. Seeing the closed up person he was in the first book finally blossom in the last one, where they encourage each other to finally make their individual dreams come true against all odds (Spoiler: Which in Ruby’s case means she wants to go to Oxford to study and in James’ case, that he is at least no longer chained to his family’s business, to finally find out, what he really wants to do with his life.). 

The one viewpoint I was slightly disappointed in was Graham’s, who is the teacher Lydia has a relationship with. He didn’t have an important enough role to get a viewpoint and the parts that were written from his perspective didn’t suffice for readers to get to know him.

On that note, I’ve been a fan of Alistair since the very beginning and was so happy when he got a viewpoint, and he and Kesh finally got their love story in the third book. Still, I think both of them individually as well as their love story had a potential that has not been fully exhausted. The same is true for the entirety of James’ Clique. Each of them was interesting in their own way and I would have liked more scenes with the boys because I enjoyed reading the friendship dynamic. Most of them went through quite the character arc and changed throughout the series, which I appreciated greatly, but same as Lin and Graham, they came up short in the overall story. Other characters worth mentioning are Ophelia, Lydia and James’ aunt who was a great addition to the third book, and Percy, their chauffeur, who was a darling from beginning to end. As I said, I genuinely liked the side characters.

(This paragraph contains spoilers.) One last character worth mentioning is James’ and Lydia’s father whose portrayal was a bit overdone. It seemed very black and white, especially at the very end, which is a missed opportunity of making him more multifaceted and therefore interesting. 

General Reception

The reviews on this book are taking a crazy split; most people either adored it or thought it was thrash, but the general rating is quite high. On Goodreads, they are 4.1, 3.99 and 3.98 out of five. This makes sense since it is a book where you either have to like easy-read romances to breeze through and expect it to be exactly that or you won’t like it very much. And since this was marketed right and it is obvious from the cover and the synopsis what genre it is, most readers know whether this will suit their preferences.

Main Points of this Review

To sum it up, the story of Ruby, James, and their loved ones and all their drama and heart ache drew me in, it was almost addicting. It might be a guilty pleasure book because it is corny and there were many obvious plot lines, but the truth is I simply didn’t care much. I love me a corny teen romance from time to time and this one I adore. As a reader one gets a good look into multiple characters’ heads which I appreciate, the dialogue was authentic, there were no loose ends or plot strings that were not followed up on, I loved the side character development and that many different aspects of family and friendship were shown, the writing style was captivating and it gives exactly what it promises.

My rating

Further recommendations

If you liked this trilogy, check out ‘New Beginnings’, the first book in the Green-Valley-Series, by Lilly Lucas!