Magic, monsters, excitement, survival! Who could ask for more? A truly exciting adventure perfectly executed!

Highly recommend this one for those who looking for a truly amazing rollercoaster ride.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this amazing book.

Recommend.

The City of Stardust is a beautifully written stand alone fantasy.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Stars!

The Everly family is cursed; every generation one member of the family is stolen away to another world for repayment of something they don’t remember anymore. Violet’s mother is missing and if she doesn’t find her in time, she will have to take her place which will certainly led to her untimely death.

This book follows Violet as she tries to track down her mother and break her family’s devastating curse. It is full of magic, keys that transport you to other worlds, gods, a pinch of romance, mystery, and betrayal. The world building and prose are the best I have read in a while. The ending was unpredictable and wrapped everything up nicely.

I have seen comparisons to Stephanie Garber and Laini Taylor and I would have to agree.

Thank you NetGalley and Redhook Books for this arc in exchange for an honest review

3.5/5 ⭐️
I’m having a hard time rating this book because it was entertaining, however, to me it felt like an early draft where there are so many great ideas, but some needed to be weeded down and other enhanced. I definitely think Part One could’ve been cut, adding more mystery that is slowly fed to us. And more time could’ve been spent with her travels and spending time with the scholars. I felt like we were moving too fast during those parts and then be thrown a random detail, like, she has spent much time with the scholars, but we were never truly shown that. That aspect made me feel like I was constantly missing something, feeling like I had missed a step.
I will say the author did an amazing job switching POVs. And I loved the world they had created. It reminded me a lot of the Mirror Visitor series with the scholars and gods and secrets and deceits. Like my favorite parts had to do with anything about the gods and the Everly curse.
However, I think I liked all the other characters besides the main FMC. She fell flat. At times, like a completely different character, like between Part One and Part Two. Her goals and motivations were kind of weak, never getting me emotionally invested. In comparison, Aleksander was interesting. A boy stolen & brought to this world. Shaped to bend to his masters will but never is truly angered or rebellious against it. Someone who is constantly on the cusp of earning his place in this other world but left wanting. Yet it does not truly make him bitter or vengeful. But that being said, their relationship fell flattest of all. Not only was it surface level, never truly showing us a deeper connection between them, it felt jolty. Disconnected. Like maybe the author had numerous versions she imagined of them and used them all. A different one for each part instead of picking one & watching it develop over the course of the story. Like we’re starting anew in each part. Like it’s the first time she’s introducing the reader to them.
Overall, it was enjoyable and intriguing, but kind of sad because this story had so many good ideas and potential, but it felt like an early draft that needed some more shaping.
Thank you to NetGalley and Redhook Books/Orbit Publishing for providing an advance reader copy of this book for my honest review.

Wow. This was so good!!! If you loved The Starless Sea or The Ten Thousand Doors of January, you should absolutely read this book. The story kept me hooked wondering what was going to happen to Violet Everly and her family. Between the secret doors, gods, stars, and sacrifices made you do not want to miss out on this world. I loved this book and I would recommend it to anyone who loves reading fantasy that takes place in the real world, but there are hundreds of worlds waiting to be explored. I hope to see more books come out of this author and the world they have built.

Thank you NetGalley, Georgia Summers and Redhook books for the ARC.

I'm so conflicted as I sit to write this review. This would be perfect for fans of Alix Harrow based on writing style but that would be the only similarities I could attribute.

Violet Everly’s mother left when she was young and she was raised by one of her two uncles in a decrepit manor. When a mysterious woman shows up and claims Violet’s life, as she has many an Everly before her, she is determined to find her mother and break the curse.

Georgia Summers is a debut author which is astounding based on how aesthetically pleasing the writing style is. The setting is realistic yet the magical in the same sense as Summers easily transitioned from real-world places to its alternate universe, so-to-speak, of Fidelis.

The plot premise was intriguing enough to draw me to this book however it became almost disjointed rather quickly. As a reader, we were more aware of information happening than Violet was even though it was following her journey to end the familial curse. While the overarching plot was interesting, the story presented oddly. As the reader, I knew more information than Violet did. This happens because there are flashbacks explaining everything from her mother's story, backstories of the gods in play, and the origin of the curse. It would have been more engaging and kept the reader enthralled had the reveals been made available to us as Violet was discovering them. As a result, I somewhat lost interest halfway through the book especially as I was aware what would happen to Violet.

Violet also wasn't as thoroughly fleshed out as she could have been. She is described as curious, intelligent, dying for adventure however she came across as either wooden. Aleksander, the MMC, was far more interesting and had an actual character arc even though, as a reader, you don't care for him based on his choices and storyline.

This is a really good effort on behalf of a debut author and for that, I give it a high 3.5 stars.

4.5 Stars!!
Thank you so much to Redhook and Orbit for the ARC! When I tell you I devoured this book...I MEAN I DEVOURED IT.

""Stubborn like an Everly, brave like an Everly, doomed like an Everly."

This book was whimsical, magical, and beautifully written. Immediately the prose sucks you in and Summers did a great job of painting the scenes with words. The characters are very complex and are described well, although I wish there was a little more dialogue/interactions between the characters. This book is in 3rd person POV and I do think that most of the book would have been even better if it was in 1st person (especially Violet). However, it was an amazing adventure and being able to join Violet as she travels to the "seductive magical underworld" was such a blast. Will she find the key to the city of stardust and be able to undo the curse? Guess you'll have to read to find out....
Great for fans of Alix E. Harrow and Laini Taylor. Also has vibes of Addie LaRue.

Ageless Penelope never forgives a debt, and the Everly family, well they owe a debt. The problem, though, is the generations are so far removed from the original contract that none of the Everlys remember the original agreement. Violet is the last of the Everly line after her mother disappeared. However, Violet has no plans to be another victim of the cursed contract her family had been plagued by. Can she navigate the mysterious world and the obstacles standing between her and breaking the curse?

The City of Stardust is Summers’s fantasy debut, and let me say, what a debut it is. I thoroughly enjoyed the world building and premise of the novel. Who wouldn’t love a key that opens up to a magical new world. Also, the stories within a story is a favorite writing element of mine, and it was used in such a great way throughout The City of Stardust. I love the ambiguity behind which version of Ever Everly’s story is the real version. The writing composition was incredibly well done, although it took a little bit to get used to with the changing third person point of views. I adored Violet’s tenacity throughout the story. She was determined not to fall victim to the curse/contract. I was also really intrigued by Penelope’s character despite some of the horrific things she’s done. It’s a mark of a good writer when you can get readers to see the shades of grey in the villain’s story. While I knew from the description there would be some darker moments, I was still surprised by some of the plot elements featured in the story and would recommend checking trigger warnings before reading. I definitely think this is a story worth reading. It’s reminiscent in feel to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue from a writing style meets His Dark Materials in plot, and I would highly recommend reading if you enjoyed either of those stories.

The Night Circus and The Starless Sea are my favorite books. Since I've read them, I have not been able to find another book to compare. Until I read this one. Until this point, I've struggled to find the lush and lyrical writing, the descriptiveness, just the general feeling of magic. I found all of these in this book.I loved the imagery in this book the best, that's usually what I look for in a favorite book, but I also loved the plot and the main character. I am immediately pre-ordering a hard copy of this book and it will go on my favorites shelf next to my two favorite books.

What a gorgeously lyrical, magical debut! The atmosphere was so strong and lovely throughout; my dreams will remain full of singing mountains, rambling houses, and shadow-dripped city streets for a long time. Comparisons to ADDIE LARUE and NIGHT CIRCUS are definitely not unfounded, and I know THE CITY OF STARLIGHT will inevitably become a favourite of anyone who likes the decadent, cozy darkness of those stories. It's a love letter to those who dream of other worlds, and I basked in it.

My only gripe is that the central curse didn't always feel consistent, and I wished we'd had a clearer resolution with that. It left something feeling ... missing, I suppose. There's so much hype around Violet's scheduled sacrifice, [spoiler alert] that when it doesn't come ... I don't know, it made so much of her journey feel hollow and unnecessary. She felt like a shadow protagonist flitting around the real main characters, many of whom I found more interesting!

Nevertheless, THE CITY OF STARDUST is a sumptuous feast of a novel, and I cannot wait to see what Georgia Summers writes next.

This was an enchanting dark fantasy that blended family dynamics, rich mythology, and a sophisticated atmosphere. The magic system is seamless, the plot unfolds at a satisfying pace, offering a mix of intense action and reflective moments. With echoes of V.E. Schwab, the writing is both lush and smooth, making the read thoroughly enjoyable. The creative world-building introduces gods, magical doors, and an ancient curse, incorporating darker elements for added complexity. It's a captivating narrative for those who appreciate a well-crafted blend of fantasy and reality.

NETGALLEY ARC REVIEW: Oooooh did I ever love this book. I’d liken it to if Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor and Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson had a magical, entertaining baby. If you’re going into this book looking for romantasy it probably won’t fit your vibe but if you’re looking for family, lore, atmosphere, mythology and beautiful writing please pick it up. I’m hoping the author writes more in this world because the approx 350 pages I got was NOT ENOUGH

What a truly magnificent book. From start to finish I loved this; it was such a wild, exhilarating ride that I couldn’t stop reading.

First of all, the magic and world-building was seamless. The familiar, earthly aspects blended well with this sort of bookish, scholarly atmosphere that wasn’t quite academia but gave the same sorts of vibes. The magic system also felt truly unique, especially in the links to the astrals which felt like terrible myths brought to life.

In terms of the plot, I loved how it unfolded slowly with bits of foreshadowing bringing things together as the book progressed, but still felt well-paced. There were times I was eagerly turning the pages because the action was so intense, and also some reflective sections that allowed me to slow down and take in all the implications. I felt like it was a rich story with so many fairytales and folklore-feeling aspects that beautifully meshed with real-world settings. The result was this stunningly intricate story set in a truly gorgeous world that I just didn’t want to leave.

I loved Violet too, and how much we see her grow and change throughout the book. She’s understandably naive after a lifetime of sheltered existence and seeing her experience the extent of the world and all the heartache it can bring is poignant, even with one foot firmly in a world of fantasy.

Without giving away too many spoilers, I also felt like it was such a suitable end for so many reasons. I loved that no one compromised in what they wanted, that they all had the strength to do what they had to do to recover and figure out who they were without the weight of their burdens bringing them down. There’s this pervasive notion throughout the story that most of the core characters don’t fit into the moulds that they’re supposed to in one way or another, but in the end, that’s the very thing that saves them and their humanity. The cost of fitting in and of towing the line is so great that it’s perfect that most of them continue to reject what they perhaps should do in favour of what is important to them.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it was the perfect winter fantasy read. If you’re looking for a great new fantasy come January, definitely keep your eyes open for this one.

Thank you to both Net Galley and Redhook Books for the complimentary ARC!

I wanted so badly to love this book. A magical, hidden city, star-born characters, what could become enemies to lovers, betrayal and secrets….unfortunately, it ended up feeling like a murky slog.

I’m okay with finding out information as the book goes on; I actually love lots of little reveals. With this one though, we don’t get any information to establish a baseline. The world building is completely absent. It felt more like a long series of drawn out adjectives than a cohesive story.

And on cohesiveness, the POV switch between paragraphs without any breakers or context was jarring. It pulled me from the story and seemed to not serve any greater purpose.

The characters also fell flat for me; I can’t tell what their motivations are. And I will never be a fan of the naive, helpless FMC bit.

I would definitely read this author’s next book, because the descriptions and general concept of the world are both compelling. However, I think this one could’ve used some more editing from someone not familiar with the storyline to hopefully establish some more concrete world-building and increase the depth of the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and Redhook for the free ARC! I’m glad I got the chance to check this out, even if it wasn’t for me.

I really enjoyed reading this book! The plot was so interesting and pulled me in right from the start. The writing was beautiful and full of lush imagery.

I will definitely be checking out more by this author!

Thank you to NetGalley, Redhook, and Georgia Summers for an e-arc of City of Stardust in exchange for an honest review.

This book is absolutely entrancing. It's been a long time since I read a fantasy standalone, and this one just hits different! From the beginning, I was pulled in with the curse, secrets about a magical world, and Aleksander's morally gray POV. And not to mention the writing is spellbinding.

For a standalone, this book does a great job of creating a complete, complex world. I never felt bogged down with details, and everything is revealed in an organic way. There is so much detail, so much lore, that I would have loved more books set in these worlds, yet it holds its own as a standalone.

I wouldn't say this is a fast-paced book, but there's always tension with the curse and time running out. I think all the different POVs helped move the story along, and the constant reveals also kept my interest. I love books that have a villain POV that shows their villain origin story and all the different sides of them, and this book did a fantastic job showing that.

My only complaint is that the eloquent writing kept me a little removed from Violet and Aleksander. I wanted to feel their emotions as they felt them. Perhaps I needed more character growth from Violet. But still an captivating story with a beautiful ending. I think fans of Laini Taylor and V.E. Schwab will enjoy this!

Writing Aesthetic/Style: 5
Plot/Movement: 4
Character Development: 4
Overall: 4

Thank you, Hatchette Book Group, for the arc!
Releases Jan 30, 2024

Trigger/Content Warnings: parent abandonment, fighting violence, death and gore, child kidnapping and sacrificial death, torture recounted, one brief open door scene

This one was disappointing. I JUMPED at the chance to read this when I heard it was like the Starless Sea (which is one of my all-time favourite books).

Unlike the Starless Sea, The City of Stardust DOES have a plot. It has lore. And the writing was absolutely beautiful. I think the prose was what kept me reading even when the characters didn’t really intrigue me. It was really quite pretty, and I felt transported to another world when reading.

However! The characters fell flat for me. Violet had the potential to be such a cool main character but she just didn’t get the chance! I felt like we as readers knew a lot about the world but we didn’t get to go on that journey of exploring it with Violet. Aleksander was ok but the romance felt really forced. I knew going in that there was supposed to be a romance element but it was just… it was fine. I didn’t like it, but that’s because I don’t like insta-romance stuff that doesn’t feel necessary. Ambrose and Gabe had potential to be such great supporting characters. We don’t get much clarity about Penelope but I wanted her to be some White-Witch level of manipulative trickery.

Oh and the grand finale/climax moment made me really frustrated. I felt cheated!! For a book that supposedly was no plot just vibes there was just enough plot for me to expect it to go somewhere!

Great read for the vibes, doors to other worlds, sense of grand adventure out there somewhere. Not great read for strong character development.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

A gorgeous, dark fantasy! Loved this debut author’s writing style, and couldn’t believe it was a debut. Bravo!

City of Stardust is a great dark fantasy which gives off all the best Night Circus and V.E. Schwab feels. The writing is so lush and flowed so smoothly, making it a pleasure to read. The world building was done so creatively, and the magical world that was richly built brought in all the dark elements of the book. Gods, magical doors to other worlds, a centuries old curse are a few of the fantastical elements of the book, along with quite a few darker elements. Some of the darker elements are definitely not for the faint of heart.

I really enjoyed reading this book. The characters are all written so well, from the lovable uncle Ambrose, the determined main character Violet, to the vicious and cruel Penelope. The pleasure in reading their stories unfold and intertwine was what really made me enjoy this book.

If you love a good dark fantasy with multiple magical elements, a hint of dark academia, other worlds, gods and monsters, this book is definitely for you.

Thank you to the publisher, Redhook Books, and NetGalley for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Everly family is cursed. Once a generation, an Everly is chosen and dies an early death to appease a goddess from another world.
Violet Everly is the chosen one this generation. Her mother has been gone for years trying to find a way out of the curse and her uncles have been tasked with her care and with buying her a little time.
But Violet wants to find a way out and be able to live life on her terms. She sets out around the world looking for a way to end the curse once and for all. She is helped (or is she) by Aleksander who is the apprentice to the very goddess that Violet is trying to escape.
This book is beautifully written with such amazing prose and Violet is the perfect heroine. There is a lot of details to unpack in this book and I'm thinking a reread might be in my future just to make sure that I have understood it all.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I really wanted to love this book. The concepts are insanely cool and the author's writing style is very interesting, but beyond that, it felt like a lot of potential that was left to the wayside. The entire story feels like just a bunch of things that happen to someone, instead of a series of challenges that directly affect the FMC and push her past some kind of boundary. The logic of this story is so broken in most places that, if it weren't for the author basically going "she's necessary to this event because I said so" then the FMC's presence wouldn't have made a difference for half this story in the first place.

The story revolves around Violet Everly and the curse that haunts her family. They're given ten years to find her missing mother, who left to apparently find a way to break this curse. Eventually, the task falls to Violet, who is suddenly savvy enough to travel the world on her own despite having been homeschooled and has never left the small town she's spent her entire life in. Not a big deal, but just the beginning of my issues here.

The logic in this book is my biggest complaint. Most of the major plot points, and even several smaller ones, feel like they got thrown in despite or without any prior context or consideration for what it would mean for characters, further plot, external or internal consequences, just .. anything, really. Everything felt very surface level plot without any deeper meaning or explanation, like the book was written and then someone went through and cut out almost all of the deeper context that would explain why things happened the way they did or why people made certain choices. There were a few major plot points that, had they felt like they had been genuine to the story and not just included to add drama, would have had serious emotional impact. But instead, it felt forced, and left me asking, "wait why did that just happen? if xyz just happened then how does abc even work???" multiple times.

One of the things that disappointed me the most was the magic system. it could've been so cool.
**SPOILERS** but beyond "this is a special material and only special people can manipulate it" there was almost no other explanation, or other use of it, period. violet is described as having this insane talent that should make her crazy powerful, but at the end of the day, she uses it once for something very small, and that's it. that's literally it. the whole build up of all of her talent and she does not even touch it. why??? **END SPOILERS**

This book is described as romance, but there was almost no romance other than a very sudden dedication between Violet and Aleksander that felt like it came out of nowhere. In the same way Violet's travels are skipped over, so too was the romance. The scenes where they were supposed to be falling in love were just "they spent hours together talking" with almost no real dialogue or even really what they talked about besides "he told her some stuff about where he came from" and that was pretty much it. The romance felt like it was just there so that Violet and Aleksander were willing to die for each other by the end of the book, instead of them genuinely caring about each other and being in love. It was all the dedication with none of the romance. You'd die for your dog the same way those two would die for each other.

the ending was a let down, in all honesty it made violet's entire journey feel completely pointless and like she didn't even need to be involved in the first place. There were also multiple POVs, which i usually love, but they would switch in the middle of chapters without any prior warning whatsoever, you'd just be reading from violet's pov and the next paragraph is somewhere else entirely, and from aleksander's pov.

One last note, there's a very dark event that happens towards the end of the book that, to me, just felt like it was thrown in to try to escalate the situation, and not because it made sense for the story. Fuel for the fire instead of what actually fit, so it felt gratuitous. iykyk.

Overall, there's a ton of potential in this book, but I wish someone had gone over the logic with a fine toothed comb before calling it a day. A lot of things happened without any further context and it felt like they were added for momentary drama before moving on and glazing over it entirely. Characters were brought in, only to be disappeared and suddenly no longer in the story at all as soon as the convenience of their threat ended. It's like they never existed. I ended up questioning more than half the events of the story and felt very passive about the rest of it. I know several others really liked it so maybe this just wasn't for me, but I couldn't get past all of the glaring flaws in the logic.