The Bastards of Bainbridge Hall. Spoiler Alert! ⚠️! 🚨!
The Bastards of Bainbridge Hall (BBH). I want to give a five star to this series, but I am having some difficulties. Duke is the last installment and the finale of the series. I read first the BBH series and then the Howntorne Hall series. I was so intrigued by the author writing and the plot of the BBH when I realized that the storyline was interlinked with the Hawntorne series; I read it while waiting for the release of Duke. I was disappointed by the Howntorne Hall plot, although it was an ok read. It is taking me a long time to write this review for the BBH.
I liked the main characters in BBH, Lennon, Mason, Bear, and Duke. What is my trouble? The male characters are seniors at a college, so they are 21-22 years old. They have lived and grown up with shady parents who handle many illegal businesses. Living with these types of parents, either children become morally corrupted as the parents or weaken and submit to their parents for fear, or strong-minded, curious, and opinionated, looking for a way out of their parent's lifestyle. The author penned them as they are strong-minded and they do not want to be dependent on their parent. They want to find their freedom away from their parents and their shady businesses. Why it took them this long to understand the depravity of their parents? Why they never thought of a contingency plan against their parents? Why did they not plot against their parents for the upper hand and the means to a free life?
I find that the finale has many holes in the script. Lennon, I really like her, with all the challenges and hard times continuously cast her way; she had to endure some hideous and rough times, but she was always true to herself and her character. Lennon is strong and intelligent. However, she had a problem with her memory, a memory loss of many events occurring to her, so how did she know what happened to Juliette and keep the secret between her and Juliette? Now this is a little contradicted by the author's writing. From what I understand so far, Lennon suspected of being raped but does not remember or partially remember? I was a little confused.
Why did she not have a complete memory loss of what happened to Juliette and know to keep the secrete? The author inferred Lennon has total memory loss, so I am confused about how she partially remembers certain events and does nothing about it. The Howntorne Hall boys were more brilliant than the BBH. I felt that the BBH were sometimes more naive, while the Howntorne Hall boys did not trust anyone and had video cameras in the house and outside. Even when the BBH organized the event, the Howntorne boys did not trust them, and they were always on alert. When the BBH no longer saw Hunter, why did they not suspect foul play? Why did they not assign someone to Lennon? Another doubt is Lennon's mother. There are no solved issues between Lennon and her mother. Why the mother did not suspect something terrible happened to her daughter?
Also, Mason suddenly understands and remembers that he was not responsible for his mother’s death. Mason, all his life since he was eight years old, believed he was the cause of his mother's death. There is no building on how many secrete come to light and the revealing of the plot. The unfolding of the events is fast-paced that they seem unbelievable. It took them less than a few days to plan and a few hours to overpower their parents, which is unrealistic; after all, these are ruthless parents. The parents are adults with many years of immoral and corrupted practices, and who knows who is their allegiances. I was hoping for a better ending to the series. I am a little disappointed. Even the extended epilogue was a little disappointing. I wished for a better epilogue and maybe a build-up friendship and collaboration of the two houses between the BBH and The Howntorne Hall. I was expecting the two female main characters would become best friends since they both have comparable quad relationships and are in their first year at the university. Both females have suffered horrific trauma. Regardless, I recommend the series. I think the author did an excellent job with the writing of the plot. I liked that each book is a continued flow into the following books, and each character has a dominant presence. None of the characters are left out or in the background, as happens when reading the story of a multiple-partner relationship.