Review: Dust by Devon Ashley

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.

Clean YA Fantasy.

Official Book Page: http://devonashleywrites.blogspot.com

(grabbed from GoodReads)

Disclaimer: I’m rather hungry, so I’m going to use a lot of food analogies and metaphors.   Dust was delicious.  I was taken in at first bite and it left me licking my plate clean, ravenous for more.  I need more fae on my plate…okay that came out weird, no more food talk.

From the first page, we are vividly introduced to Devon Ashley’s world of pint sized fae.  We get a sense of the true freedom Rosalie has as she flies through the forest canopy that is painted in such detail that the reader can just feel the wind rushing through her hair as Rosalie dives through the sky.  But! these feelings of weightlessness are ripped away from Rosalie and the reader; she is stolen from her home, has her wings bound and broken, and is forced to make pixie dust for faeries (who in this book are their own race along with pixies and spriggans).

Rosalie’s account of survival in the faerie’s work camp is heart-wrenching -- working long days with very little food and in miserable heat.  I found myself very emotionally involved in Rosalie’s journey; I would despair with her at her situation and cheer for her as she tried to overcome it.  I may have even audibly ‘wooted’ when she repeatedly insists on being called her name by her captors, and not the number they assign her.  Within the camp, Rosalie and the reader learn bits about her world together, and along with that, find Rosalie’s inner strength.  Watching her grow into the survivor she didn’t know she was at first was beautifully and expertly done. 

Dust is the first fae book I’ve read in a long time that was told by a fae.  Not one that didn’t know what it was yet, not a half faerie, not a human who half-wittingly stumbled into the faerie world -- no, Rosalie is a normal pixie.  Standing tall at six inches, it was pleasure to read how her small stature changed the normal forests we know into a brand new world.  For example, a berry was almost a whole meal and a raccoon, instead of just being a menace, was an actual threat.

As I awkwardly noted above, I am desperate for the sequel.  I need it.

Final Thought: 9 out of 10 toadstools

This review is also posted on GoodReads

This was my first ARC tour ever!  Yay!  This tour was with The Book Babe’s Blog Tours.  Also, if you’re interested in the book, the Amazon link is right… here.