{"id":34499,"date":"2018-06-30T08:25:42","date_gmt":"2018-06-30T12:25:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=34499"},"modified":"2018-06-30T08:36:13","modified_gmt":"2018-06-30T12:36:13","slug":"review-blood-to-dust-by-l-j-shen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=34499","title":{"rendered":"Review: Blood to Dust by L.J. Shen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buy:\u00a0 Kindle Ebook<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0 Paperback<\/a>
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Review<\/b><\/h4>\n

\u201cThis is the story of a boy and a girl fighting storms and trying to find peace in the most unexpected place. They try and find it in each other.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

4.5 dark, dirty and intense stars<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whoa, what a fantastic read! A deliciously dark romance that is violent, intense and exciting, but also a lot of fun. With tormented but unapologetically badass heroes and a surprising amount of emotion, this is a fast-paced, action-packed ride with a sensational love story, and I loved it!<\/p>\n

Prescott Burlington-Smyth is in a world of trouble. She\u2019s on a mission of vengeance against men that brutalised and broke her, and she is desperate to reclaim her life, but she has been taken by one of the very men she is hunting. Their plan is to hold her until she can be handed over to her ruthless ex-boyfriend where he will take out his own revenge. She is watched over by two men, but the only interaction she has is with a masked henchman called \u2018Beat\u2019, and when she recognises that he is just as trapped as she is, she makes a plan to win him over and get him to help her not only escape, but also with her plan to kill the men responsible for her destroying her life.<\/p>\n

\u2018Beat\u2019 is Nate Vela. He is a man that got caught up in the criminal underworld after an accident saw him spending three years in prison. He is now at the mercy of a ruthless killer, and he knows he needs to keep his distance from the beautiful girl he is guarding, but there is something about her that calls to him and soothes him like no other. And then, of course, there\u2019s the fact that they want each other badly!<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me do filthy things to you, Prescott.\u201d His husky tone breathes fire into my body. \u201cLet me dirty you up with who I am.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The chemistry between Prescott and Nate absolutely sizzles. It\u2019s dirty and brutal, but it\u2019s exactly how they want and need it. But there\u2019s a deeper connection between them, and they soon find themselves on the run together, hunting down their mutual enemies to take them out in order to take back their lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re crazy, uncalculated and lethal for me.\u201d I take a step in her direction. \u201cSo yeah. Being by your side is exactly where I should be.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And this is where things get really<\/i> freaking good. It\u2019s a road trip with a dose of violence, killing, smartassery, badassery and a whole lot of sexy time. Taking on fake identifies, laughing and joking together, slaking their lust on each other and plotting their end game, this is one wildly intense ride and I couldn\u2019t put it down. And along the way everything changes for both of them as they find themselves falling deeply for each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love her like a slave. I kneel in front of her like a subject. I crawl back to her at night like a drunk and I worship her like a believer.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re polar opposites. He\u2019s peace looking for color, and I\u2019m a storm looking for serenity. And somewhere between my chaos and his peace, we found each other.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s a fantastically developing love story, and I loved watching these two shift from enemies to brutal fuck-buddies to so much more. But the bad guys are still out there, and with the journey becoming more dangerous at every turn, they are in a race against time to get their vengeance and get out. It\u2019s all kinds of exciting, and I loved watching it all unfold, and the growing relationship between them just made it all the more awesome.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn case you\u2019ve forgotten\u201d\u2014I yank her by my hoodie, our noses crushing together\u2014\u201cyou\u2019re carrying around the heart of the girl I\u2019m fucking in love with. Be more careful with her life.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There\u2019s a whole lot of dark in this story. It\u2019s brutal with lots of graphic violence, dirty sex, heartbreaking emotion, and some disturbing scenes. But it all works together to create fantastically sinister mood, and works really well with the story. And despite the heavy subject matter and the dirty sex and violence, there are moments in this book that had me laughing out loud. The teasing and banter between Nate and Prescott is absolutely fantastic and lots of fun, and I freaking loved it!<\/p>\n

And the love story is gorgeous! I relished in every moment of it, and I fell in love with these strong yet vulnerable characters and their incredible romance.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe gives me storm, and I give her peace.\u201d <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I loved this book. It\u2019s not one that will suit everybody, but if are a fan of darker reads and you\u2019re a fan of books like Callie Hart\u2019s Blood & Roses<\/i> series, this one will be right up your alley!<\/p>\n

4.5 wild stars.<\/p>\n

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Buy:\u00a0 Kindle Ebook\u00a0 |\u00a0 Paperback Review \u201cThis is the story of a boy and a girl fighting storms and trying to find peace in the most unexpected place. They try and find it in each […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","yasr_overall_rating":4.5,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"Product","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,454,88,9,29],"tags":[540,48,76],"class_list":["post-34499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action","category-audio-recommendation","category-badasses","category-romance","category-steamy","tag-l-j-shen","tag-review","tag-standalone"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Blood-to-Dust.jpg?fit=150%2C225&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gaNL-8Yr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}