With an incredible world building, The City Beneath the Hidden Stars by Sonya Kudei takes the reader on an unforgettable journey through mythology and magic.

Thank you to Net Galley and BHC Press for the ARC. The concept intrigued me but the actual book bored me, I didn't really feel immersed in the story.

I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

"The City Beneath the Hidden Stars" by Sonya Kudei is an enchanting and immersive blend of general fiction and fantasy that transports readers to a world of hidden wonders and extraordinary secrets. Kudei's storytelling prowess shines as she crafts a tale of mystery, discovery, and the magic that lies just beneath the surface. The book's intricate world-building and well-defined characters create an immersive reading experience that resonates with adult readers. Kudei skillfully weaves together elements of both reality and fantasy, leading readers through a journey filled with intrigue and imagination. "The City Beneath the Hidden Stars" is a captivating read that offers a mesmerizing escape into a realm where secrets are unveiled and dreams become reality, leaving readers eagerly exploring every twist and turn. As the story unfolds, readers are left with a sense of wonder and a deep appreciation for the hidden magic that exists in the world around us.

The City Beneath the Hidden Stars is a fantasy novel from an indie publisher by author Sonya Kudei. I requested the novel out of pure curiosity on NetGalley, as its publisher blurb noted that it was "based on the myths and history of Zagreb, Croatia", a country I know very little about whatsoever. So I was intrigued to see how the novel would turn out, given my love of trying books based upon different cultures from around the world, even if the book's description had some of the stulted language that I often see and dislike in Indie/Self-Published Books.

And The City Beneath the Stars was kind of a pleasant surprise. The book features a narrative style that sometimes feels as if it came from a Douglas Adams-y book, with quips and asides that are clearly aiming (and are often successful) to amuse, although it goes long sections without much of those quips and I usually find such half-hearted commitment to that style to be a little annoying and pointless. The book's main characters are enjoyable, but really aren't particularly built up or developed that well, and there really aren't any major relationships between characters here for the story to grow, as all characters wind up having to confront (willingly, unwillingly, or even knowingly) the rising of a dark evil queen from the distant past. And yet, despite all of the above, the narration and the characters remain incredibly charming and amusing, even when things are played straight, and it all winds up culminating in a kind of bonkers story that made me smile even despite all the things it seemingly did wrong that I usually dislike. I'll try to explain better after the jump, but yeah, I enjoyed this book a lot.



------------------------------Plot Summary--------------------------------
On a seemingly random night in Zagreb, a brilliant flash is seen in the sky, hitting the ground near a local tram. The light resolves itself into a starman, or more properly a Star Daimon, named Leo Solar, who has been sent to fulfill a mission that he really wishes he didn't have to undertake. For Leo's mission requires him to remain on this boring world called Earth and this even more boring city as he searches for signs that the legendary Black Queen of Bear Town Fortress is returning for a new reign of magical darkness.

To the people of Zagreb however, the Black Queen is just a long forgotten story - a historical figure who died in the 15th century and whose name only registers at this point as part of a silly children's game. But to a few individuals in Zagreb, they begin to see things that make them change their mind. For college dropout/local newspaper writer Dario Taubek, crazy reports of the Starman and the Black Queen arouse his interest, especially when a monstrous giant raven attacks a heavy metal concern. For grade school student Stella, a child's game gives her a vision of the Black Queen and its giant spider being let loose, and she becomes determined to do something to stop it.

The efforts of Leo, Stella, Dario, and others - Star Daimons, humans, and other creatures - will set the tone for a confrontation in Zagreb like no one could imagine.....
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The City Beneath the Stars is written in a third person narrative that is generally irreverent in tone, and is often cracking jokes in its descriptions and narration, ala Douglas Adams. It does these jokes a lot in early chapters before they become a little less common as things go on....although what happens in the narration does sometimes itself lead itself to humor in ridiculousness, even without things getting just TOO ridiculous so as to be distracting. It's the type of narration that often annoys me in books because it tends to feel half-assed, like the author gave up on a joking style partway through, but here it kind of works because the joking asides are actually amusing and the story never takes itself too seriously, even as things get too dire.

And it's helped by the matter of fact way the story is told, with characters who in some sense fit certain archetypes but in other ways don't. Leo for example gets probably the most page time, and his desperation to finish his mission so he can get off this boring planet and get his powers back (rather than actually help people), plus his exasperation at how difficult everyone who could possibly help him seems to be, is incredibly fun and amusing to follow. Dario is more boring as the guy who wants to find something exciting other than being browbeaten into helping his landlady with her really annoying chores or just writing up minor things for the newspaper rag he works for, but even he gets amusing as he gets swept into things by being in the wrong/right place at the wrong/right time (although one plot where he's seduced by an obvious bad guy is a little annoying). Stella and her kid friends, who deal with normal kid things like bullies and cruel teachers, are also enjoyable as she is desperate to hunt down the spider she is sure she unleashed and is sure must be in the cellar of the school.

Very few of these characters get like actual character development, and they don't relate to each other in ways you'd expect: Stella doesn't wind up being trained by Leo as you'd expect, nor does Dario wind up becoming his sidekick as he meets up with Leo and learns Leo's story as would normally happen in this type of book. There's a bunch of other minor characters as well who get some time as well, all of whom have their own minor stories that don't really matter in the grand scheme of things...and yet they feel right even when not amusing and make this world feel more real, even as ridiculous as it is. The way the plot unveils itself at the end, with a bunch of random characters from the Stars joining up for maximum chaos only adds to it all, and while some of that feels abrupt and weird (I had to search back for one character's name to see where he came from because his appearance in the narrative was really random) it somehow manages to work.

This is a really weird and tough review to make, because so much of this book is things I've noted that I disliked about other books. And yet it somehow does work and is really charming and I kinda want to recommend this to more people. Give it a try.

I did end up DNF this book, unfortunately this book just was not for me. I loved the character building and the cover is very pretty. I just didn't feel the chapters flowed and I felt something was missing from the story

DNF at 30%
Sadly it was not for me. The cover was so pretty and I was catch for this for sure lol ^^
The summary looked very intriguing and promised a guaranteed change of scenery.
But I didn't get hooked on the characters or the universe.

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. While the premise was interesting I didn’t connect with the characters or the story in a meaningful manner. Some books just aren’t for us, and that’s alright.

Stars: 1 out of 5

DNF at 40%.

Well, this was a disappointment. I love discovering new authors. I also love exploring settings set up in cities other than the usual London/New York/another well-known English-speaking city. So I was very excited about this story set in Zagreb. I hoped to learn some new lore and get familiar with a city with so much history. Unfortunately, the result is less than stellar.

I get what the author tried to do. The writing is supposed to be edgy and witty, and the sarcastic commentary that breaks the third wall is supposed to illicit a chuckle from the reader now and then. And it absolutely would... if it's well done, which is not the case here. The overwrote language, never-ending descriptions and constant "winks" from the omniscient narrator to the readers get pretty boring very quickly. 

I don't a detailed description of every single item crammed into the stairwell of a hoarder's house. I don't need a three page walkthrough of the market square. What I need is an engaging story and interesting characters I can follow. The rest is just setting. If I wanted to visit Zagreb remotely, I'd buy a tourist guide with pictures.

As it stands, I am not even sure, 40% in, what the story is supposed to be about. The Black Queen is returning? Cool cool... only she didn't DO anything particularly horrendous so far, or even driven the narrative much. As far as the main villain of the story, she simply doesn't pull the weight. As for the protagonists, they are simply blah.

There is also an overabundance of secondary characters that appear for a few pages, never to be heard of again, but are described in painstaking detail nevertheless. This overdescription of everything makes for a boring and tedious read, and since there isn't really a good story to back it up, I don't feel like investing more of my time into this 400 page book.

PS: I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I just couldn't follow it. The story was so stretched and convoluted and the chapters didn't make sense, I feel like I was just missing something so none of it made sense. I enjoyed the actual writing. The small, witty interjections were very entertaining and appreciated. It's not a bad book or boring story, it just wasn't my jam because I just didn't get it.

'The City Beneath the Hidden Stars' follows several different people within the White City, Leo, a star Daimon, 12 year old Stella and a Philosophy college dropout Dario, as they all collectively try to stop the Black Queen from breaking back trough and destroying their beloved city.

Leo is perpetually bored, indignant and frustrated with his summons to Zagreb and the White city to atone for his behaviour towards his mortal enemy. However, with little to no leads on how to prevent The Black Queen's intentions to destroy the city, of which he despises, he's exasperated and just wants to return to his life of exploding and lighting suns. He's sarcastic and somewhat arrogant, but his views and opinions are witty and humorous, so he keeps you entertained and intrigued.

Dario is a inherently curious young man, who quickly becomes invested in the idea of the Black Queen's imminent reappearance, and determined to figure out how to protect his city and the people from her destruction.

Stella is confident, inquisitive and resolute in proving that her current interaction with the world the Black Queen is currently trapped in, and her intentions to return back to Zagreb are real. Her unwavering bravery and tenacity to find ways to fight the Black queen and keep her at bay whilst saving her city at the risk of her own life, is truly admirable. She was refreshing and her strength is palpable.

This is a difficult one for me to review and rate because for the first 50% it really dragged, it was overly descriptive and the plot wasn't really moving. It was a little disappointing because the plot itself has so much potential and promise and is full of intrigue and twists, but it felt a little too drawn out for the first half of the novel. I would've liked to have seen more from the Black Queen's perspective. The majority of the book feels like it revolves more around the three characters trying to defeat the four animals she's sent through the veil, but not much about her overall, so she lacked depth in my opinion. I also thought that the fighting scenes at the end were a little rushed, considering the whole book was leading up to this high stakes battle, it felt really underwhelming. It just felt like the Black Queen's role in the story wasn't as vital as it was made out to be in the blurb, so it lost it's captivation value.

On the other hand, there were some really great aspects to the story. There are various points of view but I found that it flowed quite easily, and it was definitely a very picturesque story. It's full of some really imaginative and quirky animals and places, that made it a really fun and whimsical read. It was also really cool to learn more about Croatian mythology, which is something that's definitely new to me, but was so interesting and compelling.

Overall, it was an okay story, there are definitely a few things that could've been changed to make the plot move more smoothly, but it's packed full of some really imaginative concepts and the Croatian mythology aspects really swayed this for me. It's got a sort of gothic and dark undertone, so a really great Halloween read.

This was a struggle. Once again, I was pulled in by a pretty cover and let down.

The City Beneath the Hidden Stars had SO much potential. From being inspired by Coratin history/folklore to literal star people. As in the stars in the sky are actually magical human beings. This city in Croatia is the "bridge" between our world and the interstellar one. The concept is incredible. The follow-through was not.

Do you know how in English classes they push you to show not tell? This takes showing and telling to a whole other level. The excessive descriptions of the setting and rambling of the characters' thoughts made the book a slog to get through. I promise that the reader does not care about each of the pots in the stairwell.

The plot was genuinely interesting but didn't get going until 50% through the book. The first half seemed so pointless. So many side characters that had no relevance to the story and gaping plot holes. The book was messy and really could've used a nice comb-through by editors. Editing would've cut down on the rambling, making the story smoother.

The novel centers around 3 characters but honestly only one point of view was necessary, Leo's. Leo is one of the star people I mentioned beforehand and he is great. I didn't have any qualms with Stella's point of view even though it was hard to imagine her as eleven years old. However. Dario. I don't know what his point was. In the beginning, his chapters were the most entertaining but towards the end, he held no relevance at all. Other than just being naive.

All in all, after a good few rounds of editing this book could've been phenomenal. I loved the concept I just wish things were concise.

Wow. I was blown away with this book. I was not expecting the depth and world building of this story. I also thought the character development was fantastic and I couldn’t put it down. Definitely worth the read and am on my way to buy the physical copy!

Drawing on an eclectic mix of influences and based on the myths and history of Zagreb, Croatia, The City Beneath the Hidden Stars is a fantastical story that unveils the wondrous concealed in the mundane and is an adventure not to missed.

Long ago, the Black Queen once ruled Zagreb in a looming fortress over the city. Her legend lives on in children’s games and bedtime stories. Is it truly only folklore? And what harm is death to a queen who supposedly stole secrets from the stars?

When rumors surface that the Black Queen might still be alive and living in a haunted chasm beneath Zagreb’s Bear Mountain, it prompts the Star Council to dispatch star daimon Leo Solar to Earth to investigate.

After witnessing a bizarre event at a local music gig, former philosophy student Dario Taubek begins to notice a strange-looking man in a star suit. Curious, he follows him and what he discovers catapults him into a world he never knew existed. A world of magical trams, myths and monsters, celestial beings, and the legendary Black Queen.


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First book by Sonya Kudei that I've read. Firstly, look at that stunning cover. I love it that's the number one reason why I requested this book. It's really really pleasing to my eyes. The blurbs look interesting too. The plot and storyline are very very fairy tale-like. I enjoy it just fine.
Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!

This one was hard to get into. About a third of the way in, nothing was happening, it was a lot of info dump. None of the characters really stood out. There were also a lot of questions. Why was Leo from space? Why did they care about what happened on earth? At 50%, there were no answers and no real sense of plot. I wanted to like this one, but I couldn't do it and DNFed it at 54%.

One Sentence Summary: When monsters begin to emerge into Zagreb, Croatia, the Star Council is alerted to a possible return of the Black Queen, so they send Leo to deal with it, and an ordinary man and an ordinary student are pulled in.

My thoughts:

As much as I wanted to like this story (a Black Queen trying to emerge from her prison in Zagreb, Croatia and a star daimon and ordinary man needing to do something about it), The City Beneath the Hidden Stars lacked focus for such a simplistic story. Elements were thrown together and seemed to be told to make something of it all, so it felt more like a mish mash than intriguing story full of magic, as I had hoped it would be. However, there was a generous amount of humor that helped, but even that became a little tiresome and even seemed to make fun of everything from the setting to the story (definitely not something I appreciated).

Right off the bat, The City Beneath the Hidden Stars has fantasy elements. There’s the Black Queen who received powers she shouldn’t have, a star daimon coming from the cosmos to save Zagreb from her, and dark creatures emerging from nowhere. There are also scenes set out in space as the Star Council works to protect the universe from weird alien creatures. There’s also a bit of fiction woven in as we also follow Dario, a completely ordinary man in a humdrum job and with a nutty landlady, though he’s quickly sucked into Leo’s world when he follows the star daimon to his hidden temporary home. And then we meet a group of elementary school friends, including Stella, and their horrible school and teachers. Those parts read very much like MG. With both child and adult characters, it felt like the author was confused about whether to go in a younger or older route, so it all came off as more YA than I would have liked. And I can’t forget the horror elements that popped up at the end. I mean, I can understand the whole Black Queen with scary creatures, but it really didn’t need the horror.

That said, I did like the main characters most of the time. I liked Leo as he tended to be two faced, belittling and almost mean at times and then considerate at others. It was impossible to really pin him down, but he was such a fascinating character. He was also insanely, amusingly, chatty. I also adored Stella. She’s such a precocious child and felt so much more grown up, though that didn’t stop her from having problems with her teachers, who were, of course, absolutely atrocious excuses for human beings. Finally, Dario kind of fell in the middle. He was interesting because of the circumstances of his life, but, really, he was a little too nosy and a little too gullible. His story line fell flat for me most of the time as I really couldn’t figure out what use he was.

The setting was probably my favorite part. I’ve never been to Croatia, but Zagreb felt interesting and lively, albeit very old. There were some landmarks that were continually noted and visited and I felt like I gleaned a little more about them each time. It was great how fantastical elements were woven into them, as well as how some of them were just so ordinary. I liked the trams the best, though. There’s a lot about them woven in, from lore to what felt like actual tram schedules. Surprisingly, they played a big role in the story, and I had quite a bit of fun reading about them.

The story, now, was just too simplistic and sometimes felt like it was wandering off. There were, especially in the beginning, truly pedestrian scenes that either didn’t add anything or took far too long to get to the part the reader was supposed to care about. Even then, it wasn’t subtle, like a little clue to be picked up and put into a bigger picture. It made the story feel a little too long, and I really didn’t need all that detail, especially since much of the story was actually light on the details and focused more on the characters doing things. But what really annoyed me was that there was no real sense of danger. Everyone was always saved in the nick of time, so the tension just bled out of this book. I was also disappointed we didn’t get to see the Black Queen much, because she really seemed quite interesting and I would have loved to see her sow more chaos.

All in all, I think this could have been an interesting novel, but it felt like it lacked focus and threw in far too much. There were, of course, things I liked and appreciated. Leo was particularly amusing and it was fantastic to get a glimpse into a place I’ve never been. But the things I didn’t like far outweighed all that, because the story lacked a cohesive cast since they mostly operated independently and too many elements spoiled the story, making it feel like it lacked focus.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

Ratings 2.5 stars

*I received an ARC from NetGalley for my voluntary and honest review

Long ago in the city of Zagreb the Black Queen ruled mercilessly. What happened to her is lost to history but to this day there are numerous legends of her. Including one she may still be alive. This prompts the star council to send a star daimon, Leo Solar to Earth to investigate. Leo's actions attract the attention of a philosophy student Dario, who is unwittingly pulled into a world of magic, demons, and other realms.

Like some of the other reviews have said, the first half of this book is kinda a slog. It seems overly descriptive of things that don't really seem to matter. But once we get into the meat of the story it does flow much better, even with the multiple shifting narrators. That being said I feel like there was alot of potential missed with this book. It seemed like characters were introduced to cause chaos for no reason, especially when it came to one of the kids. And some plot points seemed unresolved like it was leaving open for a sequel, although I can't find anything suggesting another book. All in all I did like the story, but the beginning was hard for me to get through.

The City Beneath the Hidden Stars was an unique debut fantasy adventure. The story is take set in Zagreb Croatia.
I think this book was brimming with potency. The narration is funny but sometimes make me confused with over description or random paragraphs. It is provide alot characters and details but I still found my self confuse and struggled to grasp my self into the story.
With extra development and reducing some details, this will become truly amazing read.

Thank you Netgalley and BHC Press for provided me with this copy. I am enjoyed my reading time and my thoughts are my own.

Wow, this has been such a ride. Even though I thorougly enjoyed this story, I had to take several reading breaks.
This is due to the often not so subtile attempt of humoutr.
Please do not get me wrong, most of the time I enjoyed the writing style and the jokes but from time to time they felt to forced and I had to step back from the book to come back and be able to enjoy it.
What I really enjoyed was the Starman Leo (who in my head looks like David Bowie, I cannot help it).
The sheer amount of children plying a role in this book on the other hand was just overwhelming.
But what is this book about? Well, there is a dark legend about the Black Queen, there are star daimons, demonic animals, cursed trams, a lot of humour and all in all a gloomy vibe.
This is a fresh breath infantasy literature and a definite recommendation for everyone who enjoys whimsicle characters and dark stories.
3,5/5 Stars, great debut.
Also thank you to Netgalley for the fre ARC

Not the book for me but I would recommend it and by it in for the library. And I truly hope it dose well.