Blog Tour | Character Interview & Giveaway: Dust by Devon Ashley

Hello again! Welcome to the next stop of the DUST Blog Tour! Today, I am very much honored and humbled, not to mention being so excited and overwhelmed by my special guest. This fae has a lot of repercussions to deal with, and a whole lot of things to worry about, but he accepted my request to join us here and answer my interview. Honestly, I want to thank Ms. Devon Ashley for this opportunity to talk with her awesome character--Jack.

By the way, if you haven't join the Rafflecopter Giveaway of DUST, you can still enter at the end of this post. The prize is supa-awesome, don't miss it! If you've missed my previous post for this tour, you can still read it here. The rafflecopter is also available there. Don't forget to enter in the awesome giveaway because there are two awesome prize pack that you surely don't want to miss. Thank you for stopping by! Enjoy the rest of the tour!

Summary | Add to TBR

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.

So without further a-do... here's Jack from Dust (Of Dust and Darkness Trilogy).

* * * THE INTERVIEW * * *

Me: How will you describe yourself in three words? 

Jack: Well, I'm not really one to talk about myself, but I'll try. Protective. Non-conformist. Simplistic.

(Hmm, interesting...)

Me: Can you tell me a little about the day you first met Rosalie? 

Jack: Ugh...that's not a day I come off looking too good. To say the least, I was a bit of a jerk. Turns out that punishment of babysitting a pixie worked out for me in the end.

(A jerk. Yeah. Lol)

Me: How do you feel about her that time? Is it love at first sight? 

Jack: LOLOLOL. Absolutely not. She was a thin, scraggly thing with hollowed-out eyes. Not pretty, as she was literally knocking on Father Time's door. I can proudly admit this was the first attraction that was slow and had nothing to do with looks...although she's looking pretty good now that she's gaining weight again.

(Haha! Well said.)

Me: Have you been in loved before? (I'm curious *wink) 

Jack: Nope. Not. Even. Close. Most of the faeries I know are a little too privileged and used to getting what they want. FYI...not an attractive feature in a female. Rosalie's aggressive, but not in the ways I'm used to. And she's more into the forest than society life, just like me.

(Uhm... I'm not into the forest kind of life, but if you were there, I'll survive *wink.)

Me: If you and Rosalie could be together for one day free of risks and consequences, how will you spend your day with her?

Jack: I'm pretty sure it would involve a canopy tree house in the deepest part of the rain forest, rain pattering on the roof, isolating us from the rest of the world, the wind squeezing through the walls of dried, twisted vine, enveloping us with the musty smell of wet earth, lying together on a bed of fresh moss, feeding each other succulent berries, and just holding each other more and more tightly as the hours pass by. That would be my perfect day.

(And I bet, that would be Rosalie's perfect day, too.)

Me: What is your favorite past time aside from playing harmonica and uhm, well, playing tricks on other faeries? :P 

Jack: You can usually find me hanging out with my buddies, trying to do the complete opposite of what my parents expect of me. So that pretty much means anything I shouldn't be doing, in places I shouldn't be going.

(I thought so! lol)

Me: If we could rewind and change the past, would you prefer Rosalie to be captured again by the spriggans then meet her eventually or you'd rather choose her freedom even if it means that you'd lose the chance of knowing her?

Jack: Ugh...I think you just managed to rip a piece of my heart off with that question. I don't like to see her hurt. And I especially don't like to see her tortured by Finley and those stupid spriggans, but I don't think I could ever wish upon myself not meeting her. That's totally selfish, huh? I'm completed disgusted with myself at the moment for even thinking that, seeing how she'd have to suffer through starvation, intense labor and torture all over again.

(Aww, I think that's understandable. What she suffered was a taste of death. But then she have you now.)

Me: Rosalie loved it when you played harmonica during the times when she was imprisoned. Did you intentionally play for her?

Jack: In the beginning, I didn't really care if she liked it or if it annoyed her, so I played for myself. Later, when we were friends, I did it because I could tell it soothed her, and I wanted to give her what peace I could down in that black hole.

(That is so sweet!)

Me: You were a bit mysterious in DUST and we didn't see you until the second half of the story. Will we ever see more of you in the next books? Because we would *really* love that! 

Jack: I might make an appearance (wink) but I've got some repercussions to deal with before I'll ever have a chance to see Rosalie again. If I even get to...

(I feel heartbroken already.)

Me: Do you have a message for me, err.. I mean to your readers and fans? *winks. 

Jack: Uh, yeah. Don't judge me too harshly the first time you come across me in the story. It's not pretty and I cringe every time I think back on it.

(I didn't judge you, promise. I was so excited to finally see you descending from the top of the pit! It was a memorable moment for me! And I don't care if you've been a jerk, I think that many of us here loves a jerk, at least in books! lol)

* * * THE GIVEAWAY * * *

That's a whole lot awesomeness, don't you think? Here's the Rafflecopter for the Giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

About the Author

Devon Ashley has always had an active imagination, and found herself daydreaming her childhood away. She became interested in creative writing as a teenager and used writing as a stress-reliever - and a way to escape the real world for a few hours. It wasn't until a judge in a screenwriting competition suggested she turn her world into a fiction series that she actually began writing novels.

Find her at The Crazy Dream Blog | Dark Horse Books | Facebook | Goodreads

Blog Tour | Review and Giveaway: DUST by Devon Ashley

I welcome you to the Official Book Blog Tour of DUST by Author Devon Ashley. This tour will last until September 21 with exciting giveaways along different tour stops. Be sure to visit the rest of the participating blogs. I also want to take this opportunity to thank the lovely author of DUST for making me a part of this wonderful tour. THANK YOU SO MUCH Miss Devon!

As part of the tour, I did a book review of Dust, and somewhere in this post is a giveaway, too! Be sure to enter! Good luck and enjoy the tour!

DUST (Of Dust and Darkness #1)
Author: Devon Ashley
Publication Date: September 18th 2012
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Summary | Add to TBR

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.

My Thoughts:

My name is Rosalie. I may be smaller, I may be weaker, but I was born free, should die free. You will not take this from me.

I don't normally judge a book by its cover, but the gorgeous look of DUST made me want to read it. I'm not a fan of faeries or pixies whatsoever, but the summary of this book was so enticing that at the moment I wanted to grab a copy and devour it.

DUST reminds me Tinkerbell and the Pixie Hallow. It reminds me of those cute and adorable Disney fairies which I loved and enjoyed watching. Though this book isn't entirely about fairy tales and happy endings, I think it's beautiful and inspiring.

Before the Spriggans captured Rosalie, she was living with her roommate Poppy in their Hollow. She was an adventurous, free-spirited little pixie who finds happiness and comfort in her humble little tree-house. Now, she's living in a pit away from home with fellow slaves who have broken wings and deteriorating bodies. They are forced to work long hours making magic dusts--deprived of food and most of all, freedom. This isn't that Rosalie wish for and she will do her best to get her freedom back and save the other pixies from forced labor and near death. But in her attempt to escape, she was caught and put back into prison for torture and breaking of her wings. She prepared herself for the worst, but what she didn't expect was to become friends with the suddenly nice, gorgeous faerie who is assigned to guard her. 

The story is interesting and might as well unique since I haven't read any stories like this one before. I'd say though, that the first half of the book was a little slow for me and I was fighting the urge to skip a few lines just to get to the part where the action and romance will happen. During the first part of the story, I felt mixture of emotions, most of them sadness and pity for those poor pixies that were deprived of their freedom and soon die without hope. It was a bit emotional for me too, especially when it comes to the characters I began to care for. I just think that it could have been more exciting if we could see more than just glimpses of the other characters in the story. I can see big potentials for some of those minor characters  and I'm looking forward to seeing them again in the next installments. 

Even though the first half was a little slow for me, I'd say that my favorite part happened in the second half of the book. When I pictured Jack descending from the top of the prison down to the hole where Rosalie was, I finally see myself smiling and dreaming for that love story that I was waiting for since the beginning of the book. It wasn't love at first sight but their chemistry has been obvious to me ever since. I know that some may find their romantic relationship a bit rushed but I still enjoy it and the fact that these two characters finally found each other made me giddy and excited. I know there are more to anticipate in their relationship and I want to see how everything will work out for the two of them. 

Some books know how to make their readers hanging by the end of the story, and this book did it BIG time! I wasn't expecting something like that. And I wasn't prepared for such a cliffhanger ending. This book surprised me! After the ending I was left open-mouthed. I didn't know how to react at first. It wasn't something I expected but I believe it's good that the readers have something more to anticipate in the coming sequel.

If you're looking for a fast and enjoyable read that will touch your imagination as well as your heart, read this book. It has a promising plot, interesting storyline, and likable characters. I enjoyed it and I'm looking forward for the next book.

My Rating:

About the Author

Devon Ashley has always had an active imagination, and found herself daydreaming her childhood away. She became interested in creative writing as a teenager and used writing as a stress-reliever - and a way to escape the real world for a few hours. It wasn't until a judge in a screenwriting competition suggested she turn her world into a fiction series that she actually began writing novels.

Find her at The Crazy Dream Blog | Dark Horse Books | Facebook | Goodreads

And now for the giveaway, below is the picture of what you can WIN. Isn't it awesome? Just enter in the Rafflecopter to join!

a Rafflecopter giveaway