Book Review: Dust Blog Tour

Author: Devon Ashley

Publication Date: September 18, 2012
Series: Of Dust and Darkness # 1

4. The number of times my delicate wings have been broken and clamped behind my back.
68. The number inked upon my skin, marking me the sixty-eighth pixie to be stolen.
87. The number of days I’ve been wrongfully imprisoned.
88. The first day the faeries will regret stealing me.

Healthy. Cheery. Vivacious. All traits Rosalie has before becoming enslaved by the faeries to make an endless supply of pixie dust. Now that Rosalie has been traumatized by slave labor, extreme desolate conditions and multiple deaths, this hardened pixie is anything but. When this rebellious teenager attempts an escape, she’s isolated in cramped quarters until she learns her place. Just as she begins to let go of all that hope, she finds an unlikely friend in Jack, the faerie assigned to guard her. Interspecies dating is forbidden in the fae world, so their growing attraction is unacceptable. And even if Jack can find a way to free her, they know the prison is the only place they can truly be together.

I haven’t read a book about fairies in what feels like such a long time. I have my fair share of other mythical creatures so this book was a nice change. Also, I am like the biggest fan of Tinkerbell that you will find, she is my favorite Disney character, so I was already in tune with the pixie world and I was anxious to compare the work of Tink to the world of Rosalie.

 

The introduction of this book was a pleasant surprise. I was so caught up in the Pixies and their own little world. I loved how Rosalie described her home and her friends Poppy, Mustard, and Tin. Everything just felt so real. Devon writes in a different style and it is one that I can appreciate. She makes sure to leave out no detail at all, no matter if it is big or small. When you introduce a new world like this, as a writer, you almost have to pretend that you are writing to an audience of people who have no knowledge of fantastical worlds so that you don’t leave anything out.

Rosalie’s character is courageous and I knew from the start that she has a slight desire to leave the fae world and see what else was out there. I almost wanted her to stay and explore the world of the fae more just so I could meet other Pixies and Fairies for myself; I know totally selfish of me. The imagery is beautiful and the descriptions from Rosalie led me to believe that I was going to be reading a book that was light and fun and would explore this fairy world more and more. I didn’t get very far into the book before I realized that I had made the wrong assumption.

This book takes a drastic turn near the very start. Rosalie is captured and is taken into what seems to me like a slave labor ring. Her wings are broken and her life has been changed in a way that she never saw coming. It almost made me feel bad for Rosalie because only a few pages prior to this she made a few comments about wanting more. She got out of the confined like fairy realm that she was living in, but this one is vial and cruel and I did not like it at all. I was taken aback by what happened and I just couldn’t help but picture these tiny little fairies laboring away all day without decent sleep or food.

I loved the writing of the book and I think Devon does a great job of taking you, as the reader, on an incredible journey where you will meet some inspiring and rough around the edges characters. I just did not like all the torture and suffering that these captured fairies faced. I was so sad for most of the book and I wanted to be happy about something. I felt like I did grow closer to Rosalie and I loved her character more at the end of the book than at the beginning.

***An e-copy of this book was provided to me by the author in participation with her blog tour***