Blood To Dust

"The dust has settled over the blood we've shed."

Hey Readers. I don't know if you can tell my no-exclamation point greeting but I am feeling a bit down. Today was suppose to be a great day, I was going to reread a book from my favorites of favorites bookshelf (i'll explain my bookshelf in another review) and give it a fantastic review like I did when I first read it as a young bookworm. Well. . . that didn't happen. I reread Blood and Dust and realized most of the hype was from the lenses of new reader who couldn't distinguish if Twilight was a childhood fantasy or an epic read (for those of you that are curious, when I'm not reading it, it's a childhood love, but when I am Twilight somehow turns into Harry potter level dopeness. I truly think I have alzheimers when it comes to Stephanie Meyer).

Reading Blood and Dust was a letdown to my early bookworm memories and it was removed from my favorites of favorites shelf. I still enjoyed the book because L.J wrote, duh, but there were some times when I thought about skimming. You can't see but I shivered at the thought, skimming through a book is just scandalous.

"LOL, god I wish I had acess to emojis, I sound so pretentious saying LOL."

Now I'm laughing :) LOL!

The Goodreads review provides enough details from the book for you to get my drift, so I'll skip over the summary today, plunder on reader.

Goodreads' Blurb

His name is Beat, and I should hate him. Bound, blindfolded and bruised, I'm tied in his basement, waiting for the men who stripped me from clothes and humanity to collect his debt to them. Me. His name is Nate and I should hate him, but I don't.

I'm not supposed to know his real name, even worse, I'm not supposed to care. He is nothing to me but means to an end. The plan is simple: break free, collect the pieces of my broken soul, kill the bastards and run away. His name is Nathaniel Thomas Vela, and I've never seen his face, though I hear that it's beautiful.

Behind the rugged and handsome exterior, there's a quiet murderer, a killer who thinks guns are for pussies and ends people with his bare hands. His name doesn't matter, neither does his face, but what does matter is my heart. And right now, sadly, it's his . . .

As you can probably tell from the blurb, the chick in the basment that’s salvaiting over her guard is our main character, prescott. Pea is a silvered spooned kid that happens to have a lost soul. She was dealt a shitty hand when it comes to family and love. Her character is diverse and your moods towards her will come and go, be prepared.

Due to some lost love between Pea and an ex, Nate is told to hold her in his basement until her ex arrives to punish her. I don’t know about you but if a guy you now owe asks you to hold his ex-girlfriend in your basement for the duration of his time in another country, just so she can be punished for the crimes she committed against him that he sooo deserved, your boss needs to seek a psychiatric help. How obsessed is he?! If you fuck up in a relationship, and trust me when I said the ex went further than fucked up, he maimed the love straight out of her! But after you maim a relationship it is only fair that the counterpart get their revenge or at least get even. Camden (the ex) deserved what he got but being a powerful man with an ego, he just couldn't fathom how he deserved such treatment, so here he is ordering the family lackey's to kidnap his Pea. What a dipshit!

A feature I enjoyed about Blood to Dust is the backwardness of stereotypes. Usually in books you see the male is the first to pop off in a situation but L.J. made it so Prescott was first. It reminded me of home, my father is a burly tall dude so everyone assumes he would be the one to engage first. They all assume wrong. My mother will be the first person to bring you to your knees and instill you with a deep regret for your transgressions. My dad is there to protect you! And my mother from jail. This reversing of dynamics brought a smile to my face :).

Book Review

Pea and Nate's relationship was all and well. I enjoyed the coolness of Nate personality as it met the fire in Prescott's. Their love was alluring. No one cam escape an opposite-attracts love story! What irked me about Blood to Dust was the writing. I couldn't tell if there were any grammatical errors, I'm not a proofreader. I don't know if L.J. was still gaining experience when writing this book, leadings up to her greatness. All I know is that for me, it felt anticlimactic. As if the writing didn't meet the ambition plot and characters. I have read tons of L.J. Shen's work, I know she's brilliant but for Blood to Dust, I felt maybe she wasn't in it. They say an author leaves a bit of their self in every masterpiece they create. I didn't feel, see, hear, nor read a flake of L.J. in Blood to Dust. To clarify the writing wasn't hopeless it just wasn't able to help me escape from reality, to completely bridge me into the world of Pea and Beat. I hope that this doesn't completely dissuade you from reading it. The plot and characters are great and the love story addicting.

Peace was a subject that I initally thought Pea and Nate were incapable of. One filled with vengeance and the other a junkie to a good storm. What would these two know about peace? Apparently, a lot. After her battle with Camden and the destruction of her last family pillar, Nate and Pea escape to a happier life. And as we know traveling to a new place doesn't necessarily mean that you will escape your demons. L.J. was able to show readers an example of letting go. Releasing your hate and anger and prioritizing what is actually important. Nate and Pea were broken people that no one cared for. A duo fighting for freedom and revenge against the monsters of the world who had done them wrong. The building of hate has festered within them for years but at he final moment when each of the had to choose between revenge and each other, they chose each other. It is powerful to see people choose happiness over retribution. To see they take that first step to a better life, a life away from the toxicity of their last. Peace is something is worked for, earned. You can't say you want to be happy, you have to choose it, work for it.

Can’t forget my relationship-ending hint!

“She’s aiming straight for my fucking heart, this chick. Shot after shot in the dark. And sooner or later, I know even in the pitch black, she’s going to hit her target.”

-- Nate‘s inner thought

Ride their storm of fire and ice, it's an exciting ride!