First off, if you've been affected by Hurricane Milton or the recent earthquakes in Japan or any other natural-slash-climate-change calamity, I hope you and your loved ones have survived it and are safe and well. I'm far away from these places but I do have family in Florida so I, too, was worried (they're safe, btw, thank goodness).

Second, if you're wondering what I've been up to recently, apart from writing and work in general, I'm currently obsessed with a German-language YA romance that came out in May this year.

As an adult romance author girlie, I've sometimes wondered when a super-tropey, angsty teen romance where the love interest (LI) is not a raging, toxic, abusive P.O.S. will ever get mainstream attention these days. There have always been sweet, low-drama teen romances, but sometimes I want angst. Thankfully, the answer is yes.

If you haven't seen Maxton Hall (streamed on Amazon Prime — this is not an advertisement, btw), it's a 6-episode series based on a German novel by Mona Kasten, Save Me, which is the first of a trilogy. The series is beautifully shot, the lead actors are ridiculously talented, the pacing is perfect, and the story is the most fun I've had watching TV that wasn't a crime drama in a while (yes, I'm still on a murder mystery binge right now). Maxton Hall is the name of the college the main character (MC) and LI go to — which is senior high school, for Americans — and its stand-in on the show is Marienburg Castle, which is a real castle in Hanover, Germany, so the fairy tale vibes are immaculate.

James, the LI, is a rich and arrogant, and Ruby, the MC, is a scholarship girlie with a backpack that's been mended so often it's falling apart. They hate each other at first, then they fall in love. And because of a capitalist, materialistic society, their relationship makes each of them vulnerable. So it's a struggle. There is angst. It's (almost) everything I wanted in a teen romance. Anyway, the trailer is below, and if you want a sneak peek at the first part of episode one, you can watch it on YouTube here (content warning: you'll get a shot of Damian Hardung's naked bum in the first scene).

One thing you need to know before getting into this — and which I didn't know, and this confused me tbh — is that this may be a German show based on a German novel, but it's actually set in the UK, with British characters. People recommend that we non-German speakers watch it with the original audio and use the Engish subtitles.

The funny thing is that because of the tropes, lots of people assume Maxton Hall is based on a Wattpad story. It's not! But you know what is a story published on Wattpad? A Dangerous Engagement, written by me!

Yes, I've finally posted the first couple of chapters of ADE on my Wattpad page. It's not an angsty teen romance, but an adult romance that's kind of a thriller-mystery. It features two characters from my previous serialized novel Fake-Married to My Billionaire Boss— Marcus Ryan and Cara Berano— and it's set on a private island with a secret that's been buried for decades.

You can read it now. Please don't forget to add the story to your library and/or reading lists, so you'll get notified when a new chapter is available. You should also follow me! Maybe drop a comment in the chapters and let me know what you think?

Have fun!

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