This was a beautiful fantasy. I generally enjoy novels with alternate worlds, and this was no exception. I loved how the narrative was as expansive as the universes contained within it, and how Violet’s aspirations for adventure and determination to save herself and her family were in keeping with this. This novel is a sweeping tale of family, ambition, adventure, legendary gods and monsters, finding meaning in your life, and discovering just how far you’ll go to get what you think you deserve.

Side note: I would have liked to learn more about all of the gods/astrals, as the legends and asteros cards were interesting devices in the novel. So if Georgia Summers ever returns to this universe, I honestly would love that.

Thanks to Netgalley and Orbit for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!

I’m really bummed about this one! I had a really hard time getting through it even though it had a lot of elements I love in fantasy books. I knew going into it that it may be a bit slower, but this was such a slog. The writing was beautiful, but not enough to keep my attention throughout. I kept putting it down and picking up something else.

*I received this book (Via eArc by Netgalley) for free from the Publisher ( Redhook Books) in exchange for an honest review*

I thoroughly enjoyed read this book and I was so excited to jump into it as soon as I got it. It is very reminiscent of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. This book left me gasping at points and it was interesting at times as well as stressful at times. trusting characters in this books was such a forefront in the genre and the race against the clock to find her mother was so intense and the results were satisfactory. I read this so quick that I didn't realize it was 5 am in the morning. It's also a book that I would have personally purchased even if I didn't read it in advanced.

Thank you so much to Redhook Books and NetGalley for the ARC and I am instantly gonna purchase this when it releases.

Final rating 2.75


Like many who made netgalley requests for this title I was immediately drawn in by the gorgeous cover and intriguing premise. As much as I wanted to enjoy this more, for me the overall story fell flat.

It feels like Summers is still really trying to find their voice when it comes to storytelling. You are given a fairly intensive complication to overcome but the journey leading up to and main event lose most of its steam from a variety of factors. Underdeveloped characters, disjointed themes being two major ones. This reads younger then its intended. (Felt more YA as opposed to NA/A Fantasy)

It makes me sad as you can easily see the promise here. The characters, the world building, the motivations are all there. If Summers can play around and develop that execution, I feel were gonna be in for a heck of a ride in future books. I can think of plenty of people that will enjoy this title. It was not one for me but I would love to see what Summers comes up with in future books.

“𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚕𝚍𝚜 𝚜𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚞𝚙 𝚋𝚎𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚍 𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚎𝚢𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚍𝚜: 𝚌𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚎𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚐𝚘𝚕𝚍 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚜𝚒𝚕𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚏𝚒𝚕𝚒𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚎 𝚋𝚞𝚒𝚕𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜; 𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚝𝚠𝚒𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚠𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚠𝚊𝚢𝚜 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚋𝚛𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚋𝚘𝚊𝚝𝚜 𝚜𝚌𝚞𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚛; 𝚊 𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚜, 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚒𝚛 𝚜𝚔𝚒𝚗 𝚜𝚑𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚎𝚐𝚐𝚜𝚑𝚎𝚕𝚕 𝚋𝚕𝚞𝚎 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚊𝚢 𝚝𝚘 𝚍𝚎𝚎𝚙𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚝𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝, 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝚝𝚠𝚒𝚗𝚔𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊𝚌𝚛𝚘𝚜𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚒𝚛 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚜. 𝙰𝚕𝚕 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚊 𝚜𝚒𝚛𝚎𝚗 𝚜𝚘𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚜𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚊𝚗’𝚝 𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚝𝚎 𝚜𝚑𝚊𝚔𝚎.”

THE CITY OF STARDUST is filled with mouth-watering lyrical writings, lush atmosphere, mystery and magic.

It’s about a family curse and the girl who must find the answer to its origins before time literally runs out for her.

Debut author Georgia Summers is definitely a new author to follow. The story builds around young Violet Everly who has ten years to find her mother, or break the curse that befalls the Everly family.

There are so many aspects to love in this story. The villain reminded me of the Snow Queen, ruthless and cunning one moment and sweet and compelling the next. She even smells like sweet vanilla! Violet is a great heroine filled with dreams and wonder. Stubborn and inquisitive, you can’t help but love her. This is a contemporary fantasy but it feels like an old fairytale at times.

There are overlapping worlds and magical doorways. Gods and monsters who vie for power while dark scholars hold the keys to secrets of alternate worlds. At its center, is the curse.

I will say that the pacing in the beginning was very leisurely and the structure felt a bit disjointed at times, but the story kept drawing me back.

If you enjoy Laini Taylor, Alix E. Harrow and Erin Morgenstern then you should definitely take a look at this exciting new author.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This book was simply not for me. I was pretty confused most of the book. I am rating this neutral just because I think some people would really really like this. I just am not that person this time.

The City of Stardust is one of the most beautifully written stories I've read in a long time. The prose and style were very reminiscent of The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by VE Schwab, which allowed for an atmospheric and dreamy quality. The prose really carried this story, and Georgia Summers is without a doubt a wonderful writer. However, I would have liked to see more done with the overall plot. The atmospheric distance of the prose also kept me distanced from the characters. I wasn't especially compelled by any of them, and almost all of the secondary characters felt like plot devices. The climax was anticlimactic, and too many threads were left in the wind for my liking.

Overall, if you enjoy contemporary speculative fiction/fantasy, beautiful stories about belonging and place, or are looking for a debut author to read, this could be a good book for you. I would best describe this story as written like Addie Larue with worlds and gods like Daughter of Smoke and Bone, but lacking the worldbuilding or character depth of either.

This was a letdown for me. There was so much talking and little action. If this was rewritten, it would be perfect.

Thank you to NetGalley and Redhook Books for providing the ARC.

This book starts off with a very intriguing premise - a cursed family, a missing mother, a strange visitor and a child who is trying to break free from this fate.

Violet is the main character in this tale. She is highly inquisitive and very motivated to not only learn more about her family, but also about this curse that has afflicted her. She also presents as very naive, which makes for a hard read because there are moments where it feels like she should know more about what is happening than she does. She feels much to small a character for the heavy weight of this plot, and as as result, the story is very strained. Additionally the side characters are easily forgettable - there is nothing really noteworthy about them in my opinion and I did not form any strong attachments to them.

I will say that I absolutely love Summers' style of writing. Her prose takes on the almost ethereal quality. It feels like a perfect voice for the fantasy genre, and I think that with a bit more planning and parsing of this particular story and set of characters, she could have made this book into a very lush and memorable fantasy read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Redhook for the ARC!

I loved the beautiful prose of this book! It's quite an immersive, enthralling story. While I really enjoy fantasy standalones, I generally feel they are difficult to master as it's not an easy task to build a world in so few pages. Unfortunately I think that rang true with this one, and I wanted just a bit more from it. Considering the length, I think the character development and world building was sufficient and well-balanced, but I had a hard time connecting with the characters when the POV switched mid-chapter. Overall, I really enjoyed this contemporary fantasy!

The City of Stardust creates a unique magical world that used to be a crossroads being worlds - until it wasn't. The book follows Violet Everly as she tries to break the curse on her family and save her own life in the process.
There were a lot of interesting, unique creations in this book. The magic system and the alternate world it belongs to was fascinating to learn about. The keys that certain people have the ability to use to walk between worlds allowed for some blending of the 2 worlds, but only for select people.
The pacing of time in this book was one of the things that I didn't really jive with. We start with Violet as a small child and her mother leaving, then about 8 years (ish) pass, we get to spend some time with Violet, and then we skip ahead by almost another year and then time slows wayyy down for about a month where we get to dive more deeply into what Violet is doing to try and break her family's curse. I found myself having to stop and try to remember how much time had passed since the previous time jump because I kept getting confused.
There were also some unanswered questions in the end that I felt needed answering, like WHERE THE HECK IS MARIANNE? Ambiguously, she is just "gone" and never coming back, but that feel like such a waste when part of the plot was dedicated to Violet's uncles and the 10 year search to find Marianne. Also, as a mother, how could she just disappear and not come back to her child even if she didn't find a way to break the curse.
There were a couple twists I wasn't expecting, especially around the big bad Penelope, and they definitely added to the unfolding of the plot.
Overall, this was a 3.5/4 star read.

Thank you netgalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I had high hopes for this book. The cover is stunning; the premise is so intriguing, but this one fell a bit flat for me. While it still had enjoyable moments, I just didn't get into it like I wanted to. There's fantasy where you forget you're reading and feel like there's a movie happening in your brain. Then there is fantasy like this where I feel like I trudge along and never feel fully immersed. I'm not sure if it was the writing style or just the plot itself, but this was a miss for me.

This is a standalone Adult fantasy with Horror aspects.

The writing is a beautiful fairytale-like style telling the story of Violet’s family’s curse, and a city filled with magic. The writing is reminiscent of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. If you liked Addie, you might like this one as well. Addie was also a 3 star read for me, however I know a lot of people loved it.

The synopsis had everything I thought I would enjoy, but it fell a little flat. There were too many questions left unanswered. Plus it is a little more horrific than I prefer. This is definitely not Young Adult due to the violence.

There are also a lot of plot holes (why characters do or don’t do things); things that just didn’t make sense.

In the end, it was entertaining enough to keep me reading.

This might be my biggest case of "it's not you, it's me" to date. I requested this ARC because I genuinely loved the premise of the blurb. When I started reading, I was intrigued by the inciting conflict and was interested in our main characters. I also appreciated the prose I was reading; the novel seemed well-crafted and the writing was nice and intricate without being purple.

As I read, the worldbuilding felt lacking and the pacing seemed to drag. I didn't love Violet and the decisions she was making; she seemed too naive and hesitant that I was reluctant to root for her. She seemed to lack any urgency for a climax with a definitive timeline, and because of that I found myself only able to read a couple pages at a time.

Perhaps at some point I'll pick this book back up again and give it another go. But for now, I'm going to move on.

I received this advance reader copy from NetGalley and exchange for a fair review. This novel really surprised me! Although there might have been some clunky moments in the story, overall, I was fascinated and enraptured in the plot, characters and the world that we are seeking to discover alongside Violet, the protagonist. I strongly recommend this novel for fans of fairy tale, retellings, as well as fantasy readers, and honestly anyone who enjoys a great read.

Violet Everly has largely been kept in the dark about her mother's disappearance and her family curse, until one night when a deal is made that affects her future and her family's survival.

There were so many elements of this book that I really liked. I liked that it was set in a modern world, but had magic and ideas from mythology - especially that the stories changed depending on who told it. I just thought that the pacing was off. Sometimes I wished the book was split into a duology and we got more of Violet's adventure while she was searching for her mom and then a big part of me wondered why her mom even played as big of a role as she did. Overall I liked it, I think some of my students would enjoy it as well!

In this captivating tale, Georgia Summers weaves a mesmerizing narrative around the Everly family, cursed for generations by a mysterious woman named Penelope. The story follows Violet Everly, the last hope to break the family's curse after her mother's disappearance. With a gripping blend of magic and suspense, Violet embarks on a perilous journey into a seductive underworld filled with power-hungry scholars, vengeful monsters, and enigmatic gods. Alongside the intriguing character of Aleksander, Violet navigates a world beyond her wildest imagination, driven by a ticking clock and the fate of her lineage. As she travels to unearth the truth about her family's past and the elusive Marianne, Violet confronts her deepest fears and discovers the key to the city of stardust, where her, and her family's, destiny awaits.

This book was a little slow for me at first, but it just kept getting better and better the more I kept reading. It is so mysterious that I couldn't help but keep reading to see what would happen next with Violet. You truly are going on the spellbinding adventure with her. It feels like every character has their own story to tell and secrets to keep. It was all very entertaining. If there was anything I wish there were more of is an extended epilogue. I wanted to know more about all the characters new lives in the end. The full circle moment at the end was very sweet and I just wanted to read more into it. All around, this was an excellent fantasy story.

Wow, what a book. The first thing that instantly stands out to me is the writing: the third-person narrator style gave me major flashbacks to movies like Amélie or reading V. E. Schwab‘s Addie LaRue. It is quite different from current trends in fantasy-writing, which was refreshing albeit required constant attention (POV shifts within chapters). Alexander, my poor child, is a beautifully complex and wounded character; his relationship with Penelope is an impactful depiction of the wounds abused children carry into adulthood. My dislike for Penelope is intense!!! Violet growing into her agency was a beautiful journey and aided by the narrator. Extra points for the interesting cast of supporting characters. I was very excited to receive an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review and it did not disappoint!

Writing was very pretty, however, the world building and character building was rough, I was enjoying the read, because it was a unique premise and I could see the potential in the writing. However, the parts that were underdeveloped left me confused and needing clarification.

City of Stardust by Georgia Summers is a wonder. This book was not on my radar at all, but I’m glad it fell into my waiting arms. It’s brilliant and tragic and had me in absolute despair. But Violet Everly, our leading lady, would not let me wallow, and she forced me to follow along on her journey through the real and unknowable places between stars.

A mother says goodbye to her daughter and purposefully strides into the night away from her ancestral family home. A pristine woman with a sharp smile steals a lonely boy and brings him into her care. These decisions will shape and shatter two young lives and rattle the stars. The girl, Violet, will grow up isolated and blissfully ignorant of the curse suffocating her family, while the boy, Aleksander, will become immersed in a magical world where he knows much but never enough. Violet and Aleksander are part of a magical scholar society, one that lives adjacent to a lost world. Celestial gods once lived among scholars and artisans who melded the stardust that fell from the sky into magical keys, but a tragic love story doomed the once grand city. And as the door to that world remains closed, sacrifices must be made. Violet’s curse and Aleksander’s obedience will collide as both seek to unlock the secrets of their mysterious and malicious magical society.

I would describe City of Stardust as plot-driven, but Summers did a great job characterizing Violet and Aleksander through their subdued thoughts and actions within the story. The relationships and feelings between characters did not have much of an impact, but I appreciate how much I was able to learn about them without much dialogue or time devoted to exploring their emotions on a deeper level. Violet is brave and self-assured as evidenced by her actively trying to take fate back into her own hands. Aleksander is the inverse of Violet and has a more soft, sensitive nature. When Violet pushes forward, Aleksander is more prone to shy away. Neither character concedes to the other, and it’s nice to see them stay so true to themselves and their goals while orbiting around each other.

The world-building was not in-depth but it suitably supported the plot. The lore surrounding the celestial gods and the magical scholars felt vague and shallow, but we don’t truly need to know these elements intimately to understand Violet’s plight. It’s a fast-paced book, often relying on vignettes to give the reader doses of information but only enough to give us the shape of the story before carrying on. This is not a complaint but merely an observation, and despite leaning more toward character-focused stories I was delighted by City of Stardust. It reminded me that books can be light on dialogue and emotion but still create devastation in how the events unfold and utterly fail the characters.

The book has an ever-present foreboding theme of powerlessness. The Everlys are cursed due to no fault of their own, and though they fight against their fate, there is nothing and no one who can help them. I loved that the story leaned into a darker fairy tale vibe and made your hope sputter out like a candle in the wind each chapter. Violet is a tenacious protagonist with a sad and lonely story because she has to find a way to save herself. No matter how strong her family is or how helpful the people are on her journey, at the end of the day Violet only has herself to either cure or face the curse on her family. This realization was both upsetting and freeing in a way, and I love that Summers doesn’t give Violet any easy way-outs.

Much like a star shooting across the night sky, City of Stardust by Georgia Summers was completely unexpected, mysterious, and a wonder to behold. It’s an enticing dark tale that effortlessly creates devastation and awe. I highly recommend you grab a copy and become inspired by Violet’s strength and tenacity like I was.

Rating: City of Stardust - 8.0/10