A review by betsyrisen
Ashton Hall by Lauren Belfer

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

*Beware potential spoilers*

One could argue I didn't know what I was getting into with this book, so it's not the books fault that I was so confused at times. But oof.

There was so much to love and hate and be annoyed by and root for in these characters (although I will admit I started to get a bit lost. Not sure so many different characters were needed to move the story along, and it left some characters underdeveloped that I would have liked to have seen more of).

One of my biggest pet peeves about a book is when it spends all its time building up to the conclusion and then just kind of jams everything into the end. There was more of a resolution than I feared I'd come away with, but again, it just seemed rushed.

I don't think this is a spoiler if you've already decided you want to read the book, but I will say I appreciate a book that I picked up because there was body behind a wall, and it somehow became a background story to the novel as a whole. Well played by the author.