Vanity in Dust by Cheryl Low

Everyone lives in the city.  There's a section for the high born, a section for the low born, and the middle where both sets can mix.  There's a rumor there used to a blue sky and roads that went places but no one inside the city has seen them.  The queen keeps them drugged and sated so they are easy to rule.

World Weaver Press and the author shared an ARC with me of this book (thank you).  It will be published August 11th.

Vaun is the prince.  He can go anywhere, do anything, and get away with it.  He spends his time smoking, drinking and breathing the dust and sleeping with whomever looks good that night.  He's married because the queen demanded it but he's never slept with her.  He left her locked in the tower at the queen's residence but his sister has sent her to live with him.  He ignores her and goes on with his own life style.

The dust that keeps everyone in line is pixie dust.  Now someone is trying to produce the same thing, but it's killing people.  Vaun is trying to figure out what's going on but no one will tell him.  Not even the woman he's so fond of who used to be his assistant.  She wants to but she's bound.

Vaun finds his magic coming alive after the he stops drugging himself up through everything he eats and drinks.  That's dangerous if anyone finds out.

There's treachery everywhere.  The big families in the high don't like each much and they will mess things up for the others.  When the people in the low section of town start dying from bad drugs and bad trips on the drugs, they could care less.

The story ends with an unexpected death and that lets you know the story is really just beginning.  I'll be watching for the next book in this series.  I'm interesting in seeing what happens to Vaun and his sister as well as his lover.  Ms. Low has me hooked on her tale.