Marguerite Ashton

This review is also featured on Behind the Pages: Shadowed Seats

Thank you to R&R Book Tours for providing me with a copy of this book! I voluntarily leave this review!

Oliana dreams of going to school for Drama and pursuing her passion for acting alongside her best friend Devin. But when tragedy strikes, Oliana finds herself investigating Devin’s death. People are claiming it was suicide, yet the clues say otherwise. And the closer Oliana comes to finding out the truth, the deadlier it will become for her.

Despite being under a hundred pages, there is a lot going on in Shadowed Seats. Marguerite Ashton immediately sets the stage for Oliana’s somewhat disjointed home life and dives into dark family secrets. While I wish readers could have seen more about Oliana’s brother who is the center of some issues, I understood the focus was to remain on Oliana. I do hope in future novellas we see more of her brother Daniel.

Marguerite Ashton knew exactly what to present to the reader to make an impactful emotional scene. There was so much care taken to show Oliana and Devin’s friendship. I do wish Devin’s final moments had been written in a way to slow down time and allow the reader to process what they were feeling a bit more. Oliana is certainly determined to prove what happened to her best friend, and I believe she channels her grief into actions. Sometimes it is easier to keep busy than dwell on grief, but seeing her grieve in a bit more detail would have elevated the scene even more.

Oliana doesn’t hesitate to dig into whatever she can to uncover the truth of Devin’s death. Even if it means dumpster diving and being covered in day old spaghetti. But with each new clue, the threat to her also increases. The tension ramps up as Oliana comes closer to the truth and whoever is behind Devin’s murder begins to target Oliana as well. Readers will be absorbed in the murder mystery and demand answers.

Shadowed Seats is a quick mystery read that contains an underlying message about bullying and how damaging it can be both online and in person. I would recommend this to older young adult readers who enjoy murder mysteries. I certainly can’t wait to see what happens in book two!… (lisätietoja)

3.5 rounded to 4

First, let me say I loved Oliana as a character. She's interesting, and I'd love to get to know her better. The plot was interesting but moved almost too quickly for me, there was a lot of potential to build up more tension, but I don't think there was enough time with how short the story is. I wouldn't call this a thriller, but more of a light mystery. I would love to know more about Oliana's past, as that ended up being the biggest mystery, and the way this ends implies that book two will give us more insight into that. I'd bump this to a four if more time had been spent building tension instead of speed-running the main storyline (who killed Oliana's BFF and then targeted Oliana herself). Overall, a fast, interesting read.… (lisätietoja)

Let me just say, I cannot wait to see what book two has in store. This was dark, suspense-filled, and an absolute page-turner. I was really interested to see how mental illness would play into this. Personally, I thought Ashton handled it really well, and didn't demonize or glamorize it, but gave the reader some insight into what it's like to live with it. The abuse mentioned adds to the story, and isn't thrown in there just to make the story darker. (But please be warned, this may be difficult for some readers). The characters have a lot more depth than I was expecting from a novella, and I was on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next. A great, pretty dark, thriller.… (lisätietoja)

This is a very quick read. It features physical and emotional abuse but there is a happy ending as well. However, I did just want to point out the abuse for anyone who this is a trigger for.

The beginning of this story does grab my attention. Then it flashes back in time to expose everything that lead up to Lexi's current situation. I did not see the ending coming. What Lexi had to deal with did make me sad for her. I am glad that she did have some people on her side that believed her and supported her. While like I said I did feel for Lexi, I never through fully embraced the story. I felt like it was a bit rushed and therefore the suspense never really built up and I did not really get to form any strong emotional connection to the characters. However, this is still a nice, quick read.… (lisätietoja)