tl;dr
An irreverent adventure that mixes Croatian folklore with extra-terrestrial mythology. Story takes a bit to get going on the front end.

About
Old tales in the city of Zagreb tell of a queen dark and powerful who used to rule with an iron fist. But those days are long gone. A girl playing schoolyard games. A college dropout looking for direction. A literal fallen star tasked with atoning for his sins. Three strangers suddenly faced with stopping the rise of the Black Queen. But the queen is dead. Isn't she?

Thoughts
I rarely dedicate more than a sentence to an author's writing style, but I think I have to start with the style here, because it defines so much of the book itself. The writing is irreverent and cynical, with a very conversational style, as if the story is being recounted by one of the disaffected philosophy students that the book's hero Dario hangs out with. Detailed descriptions of people and places are punctuated with sly remarks about shortcomings or lack of relevance. All in all, it gives the events of this book a sense of being an inconsequential thing, which is strange, because I would argue that the rise of an ancient evil is very consequential. Even set against the backdrop of an interstellar war, the Black Queen and her followers present a genuinely terrifying threat, and scenes with her were especially chilling. Plot moves like the final drop on a rollercoaster, slowly easing readers up to the top before a sharp, adrenaline-pumping finale. The three heroes of this book are Stella, Dario, and Leo. Stella is probably my favorite - a spunky young heroine doing her best in the world. Dario and Leo are a fun odd couple, both trapped in situations they're trying to escape, and I'd be delighted to read further adventures with them. I know absolutely nothing about Croatian mythology (or Zagreb, for that matter), but reading this book has made me very interested in learning more. An appendix of some sort with names or other details would be much appreciated by this reader.

The City Beneath The Hidden Stars was a pretty decent first book for the author Sonya Kudei. While I do believe there is room for a book two, there is no cliff hanger.

The first part was a little difficult for me to follow because it was too descriptive and lost my attention easily .. It was at fifty percent in when the story finally got more interesting and picked up for me.. I was convinced there was going to be a cliff hanger but the story ends a bit abruptly.

In this story you get Croatian lore, witches, legends, a bit of the underworld , multi dimensions, celestial democracy, and a variety of magical animals. I would say this is a good urban fantasy for high schoolers and middle schoolers.

My favorite characters were Leo and Dario even though Leo sometimes drove me batty. One of the funny parts
that stuck out to me was when Dario brought Leo The Hobbit book assuming it was a banishing book. lol

There is no romance in this story, it stays pretty clean minus a few cuss words.

Overall this was a pretty good start and I'd love to see Leo work with Stella more.

Croatian mythology and science fiction collide in this strange and unique tale by Sonya Kudei. The capital city of Croatia, Zagreb, is the setting of this story about its famous urban legend The Black Queen. She is an evil black robed witch who terrorizes the inhabitants of Zagreb. In this story, star beings, unassuming residents, and creepy monsters battle it out when The Black Queen decides to make a comeback in modern day Zagreb.

I was excited to read this book as Croatia is a country that is rarely featured in fantasy fiction, despite having a rich mythology. The writing is quite cynical, with the author taking jabs at Zagreb and poking fun at its misgivings. I would have preferred if the author did not do this because Zagreb is a beautiful city and it deserved a more flattering representation in this book. The story didn't take itself seriously and it had a dry sense of humour throughout, which worked well for this quirky story. The writing is not the most sophisticated but beyond that, there are some really interesting ideas, that with a little more editing and refinement could present better in this book.

There was a lot going on and I would like to know what inspired the author to use star beings in this story? Is there a connection to Zagreb? I think that she could have stuck with the locals and the Black Queen as characters instead of the celestial bits, as it felt a little out of place without an obvious connection to Zagreb.

Overall I thought this was an interesting story about Zagreb's medieval mythic legends in a contemporary setting. If the author writes a more mature fantastical story set in Croatia in the future, I would definitely be interested in reading it.