The City of Stardust takes readers into a fantastical world of whimsy and darkness where a young girl must break the family curse while also figuring out the history of these worlds. Violet Everly is cursed to die in 10 years like generations of Everly's have been before her. While searching for her mother who escaped this same fate, she faces enemies and monsters that have powers she can't even fathom. The author stays disciplined throughout and leaves the reader with a very satisfying ending. There is endless potential for this world to grow, but if not, this book makes Fidelis shine like a star in the night.

This was an overall enjoyable read, but I don't see myself remembering the story and characters long-term. The descriptions are beautiful, but to the point where they take away from the plot and character development. Perhaps this just isn't the type of book for me at the moment.

'The City of Stardust' echoes the vibes of 'The night Circus'. With the twist of a key you can step into a world of magic. From the very beginning I was hooked on the mystery surrounding Marianne Everly, the main character Violet's mother.

What really stood out for me was the vibrant side characters. They may not have had a lot of page time, but they were all well developed and added depth to the world surrounding Violet in her quest to find her mother.

Thank you to NetGalley, Georgia Summers, and Redhook Books for the opportunity to read this book early.

This book is a DNF for me at 49%. This book needs trigger warnings. Do not read if you can’t handle graphic violence towards children.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

DNF 20%-The description of this story sounded like it had so much potential, but unfortunately it wasn't for me. Nothing was really grabbing my attention including the writing, the characters, or the story to keep me invested in continuing to read it. I keep seeing comparisons to The Starless Sea which I wasn't a fan of, so I'll just stick with that as the reason I wasn't feeling this one.

Violet Everly is just a child when her mother, Marianne, leaves her with her uncles. For generations, one Everly family member has disappeared. The woman responsible is Penelope. So when Marianne fails to return home and Penelope appears at the Everly family’s door, Violet’s uncles know their niece is in danger. They’re given ten years to find Marianne to be turned over to Penelope or else Violet will be taken in her place.

Violet has been sheltered from the family curse her whole life, but once she learns out about it she’ll stop at nothing to find a solution. What she doesn’t expect is the depth of what lies behind the curse – magic, gods, and worlds beyond her imagination. Violet will have to figure out who to trust, how to navigate a strange social order, and how to find the key to the city of stardust.

This book was creative, exciting, and brought to life a beautiful and terrifying new world. There were times throughout the book when I’d have to double check that I hadn’t skipped a page as the story seemed to jump around a bit, sometimes within the same chapter. While the underground world of the scholars on Earth was very intriguing, I would have loved to explore more of the relationships between the scholar families and learn more about the city of stardust. The antagonist of the story was very well written, beautiful and scary at the same time. Despite any criticism I have with this book, the good definitely outweighs any negative. Well worth the time for any fan of the fantasy genre.

I started this book and got to about 20%. There isn’t anything wrong with it per se, it just didn’t hold my attention. It was too slow for me. Eventually I may go back to it but it just doesn’t have enough grab for me to pick it back up at the moment.

<i>The City of Stardust</i> by Georgia Summers is a captivating contemporary fantasy that follows Violet Everly on her quest to find her missing mother and break a generational curse. With its mysterious doors and Neil Gaiman-esque tone, the book instantly grabs the reader's attention. The world-building is magnificent, blending steampunk and modern settings to create a captivating "elsewhere" world. The plot is filled with twists and turns, keeping readers hooked until the truth is revealed. Georgia Summers' writing style is immersive and difficult to put down. Overall, <i>The City of Stardust</i> is an exceptional release, delivering a mesmerizing blend of magic, mystery, and romance that will leave readers enthralled. Fans of Adrienne Young's <i>The Unmaking of June Farrow</i> and Neil Gaiman's <i>Stardust</i> will find elements to appreciate. Highly recommended for anyone seeking a unique and captivating fantasy read.

This book left me with many mixed feelings. There were so many things I enjoyed about it and quite a few things I didn’t. The prose made it difficult to understand what was happening at times. That coupled with the somewhat off kilter pacing just left me confused at certain points in the book where I felt like I should very much have known what was going on and why. None of the characters ever felt fully fleshed out or as if we really knew them at all. Which given that we’re supposed to care about the character’s fates made it hard to do so. The world building I think could have been more refined and felt a little contradictory at times, especially when they were discussing the magical elements of it all. The romance was severely lacking for me and felt really forced also. I would have much preferred if Caspian was Violet’s counterpart than Aleksander. Lastly, I very much disliked that Marianne, who’s spoken about throughout the entirety of the book and made to seem so important, turns out not to be, and was only glimpsed in a few sentences in the final chapter. I think this book might be better suited to fans of The Mortal Instruments, Night Circus, and Addie LaRue as it’s very similar, but of which I personally am not a fan. Overall, I think this book could have used a bit more polishing and a little less prose. Thank you to NetGalley and Redhook Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

It's hard for me to rate this book because I know there will be lovers of this - I'm just not one of them. The writing is absolutely beautiful but I need plot and character development. More than just beautiful descriptions. If you love the Night Circus or Addie LaRue, you're going to like this one, as it has the same prose style. Unfortunately, I didn't like either of those! This just left me confused and felt much too long even though it's a relatively shorter book. I could never get into it because I didn't care about the characters or story. Just not my kind of writing.

Thank you to NetGalley and Redhook Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. The Everly family is cursed to have one of their members taken every generation by Penelope, an ageless woman who always takes payment for a debt owed her. Violet’s mother leaves Violet in the care of her two uncles in search of a way out of the curse. With her mother missing, Violet is the last Everly who will pay the price unless she can find a way to break the curse herself.
I was quickly drawn in by the beautiful writing and vivid imagery. Summers does a great job with worldbuilding and creating a world in which scholars use keys to open familiar doors to unfamiliar worlds. I feel as though some readers will struggle with the writing style - there are multiple perspectives written in the third person. Personally, I didn’t feel connected to any of the characters other than Violet. Aleksander was not my favorite - I get frustrated with characters who are blindly loyal to someone who doesn’t deserve their devotion. I would have liked to see Caspian have a more developed role and more interactions with Violet. The ending almost felt unfinished - there felt like there was so much more to be explored.
Despite the aspects I didn’t love, I would recommend reading.

I want to thank NetGalley and Redhook Books for this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book is like a trying to complete a puzzle that is covered in words from a foreign language that you do not speak. I was consistently confused until the end and even by the end I was pondering what I just read. This book's writing style is similar to The Night Circus, and it is not a writing style I much prefer as I do not like to be confused the entire book.
I very much enjoyed the main character, Violet, who is trapped in a generational curse to a Goddess from the stars. Descended from the Gods herself she is set on an adventure to try to break her curse and save her family and friends. Tasked with an impending timeline of 22nd birthday, she goes to look for her mother who has been missing most of her life and comes upon mysteries and lost lands.
This book has so much potential, and I think would have been better as a duology. I wish Summers would have gone deeper into characters and the world building potential could have been amazing, but it was just a missed opportunity. I loved Violet and loved Caspian even more. I felt that the choice of Aleksander being her choice for lover over Caspian who so obviously challenges her and compliments her far more than Aleksander. Overall, I was enthralled with where the mystery was going but I felt that there were a lot of holes, and nothing went deeper than surface level. I could not point out any overarching themes within the novel as well. I do not think I am the target audience for this book, but I see its potential.

5 stars

Thank you Netgalley for the arc!

This book is so fucking cool. I almost don't want to review it because I went into it blind and had such a wild ride and feel like that should be everyone's experience with this. That being said, I will review it and I am going to very vague because I don't want to give anything away.

Violet's mother disappears one stormy night, never to be seen again. Unbeknownst to the child, her mother is leaving to try and break their family curse. Violet is left in the care of her uncles who do their best to hide her from the world, because if Penelope ever finds her, she'll take her. When Violet can no longer be hidden from the world she must set out on adventure to break the curse herself and discover where her mother has vanished to.

BUT THIS BOOK IS SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT!

The way the author weaves together words is stunning. You can see the picturesque snowy city, feel the rain pouring down on you in a thunderstorm and smell the coffee in the Cafe. It all felt very V.E Schwab with dashes of Addie LaRue.

Oh and did I mention it's a standalone? We love not having to commit to a series.

Weirdly specific book rec: Addie larue meets Dark, the show on Netflix

This was such a dreamy, beautiful and brutal story- written in a similar vein of the Starless Sea, with stories in stories and doors between worlds. I found myself captivated from the start, I enjoyed the fact that I couldn’t always predict where the story was going, and it goes to some DARK places (like my jaw dropped and I had to pause to process). The ending left some things to be desired but overall, this was a lovely fantasy standalone. I love this style of whimsical descriptive writing, and I will always love doors between worlds, and if there were to one day be more books within these worlds I’d be happy to pick them up.

<i>Curses, after all, are made to be broken</i>

This was truly a magical novel. From scholars with otherworldly knowledge, to world hopping through magical doors, to vengeful gods, to an impossible curse — it held some wonderful tropes with a unique and wonderful story.

The most notable aspect of the book is undoubtedly its prose. This will definitely be going into my mental list of “books that were written with prose so beautiful I could cry” (it’s a small list, sadly). I think fans of Laini Taylor and V.E. Schwab, in particular, would appreciate the prose as well!

<i>For a curse is just another kind of story, dark and toothy and razor-edged</i>

Besides the prose, I really enjoyed the world-building, mythology, lore, and magical system that was presented! I would 100% travel to Fidelis in a heartbeat! The keys were a unique touch on the magic that I really fell in love with (and now I want a magical key tattoo, because that sounds awesome). The origin story of the Everly deal was very intriguing, as was the lore of Astriade and her brethren. I
would read a whole book on all of their stories, if I could.

There are only two reasons why this book didn’t make it to five stars for me: pacing and character development. I think that this book could’ve been condensed and still have made the same impact, if not more so. Due to my aforementioned opinion on the prose, the book never actually dragged for me, but not everyone is going to have that same opinion so it may drag a little for other readers. Aaaand the characters. To me, it felt like almost all of the characters were almost-finished illustrations: a lot of them felt like shades instead of a whole picture. I got a <i>sense</i> of who they were, but not the essence of them. I’m a huge character driven reader — I like to connect with them — and I really tried — but it feels like I didn’t really know enough about any of them to do so, even though I knew a decent bit about them.
Except, for Astriade. Astriade is actually my favorite character from the series. She felt more fleshed out than the others, and she made me feel very conflicted: she was capable of compassion, of love (in… her own way), but also capable of horrible atrocities. I would feel sympathy and disgust for her in loop throughout the book. Out of every character in the series, she felt the most alive.

<i>The end of the world looks a lot like the beginning of another </i>

All in all, definitely worth the read and looking forward to having a finished copy in my hands! Thanks to Netgalley for early ARC access!

A beautifully written story about a girl’s search for her missing mother and her quest to break the family curse. I loved the magical elements and the idea of keys that open doorways to other worlds. I loved Violet’s bravery and determination, and even if I didn’t always like Aleksander, I still felt for him.

This book was actually a lot darker than I expected, in a good way. There were a lot of great surprises and adventures and I loved the fairytales woven in. I personally would have preferred more of a conclusion to some parts of the story and more answers especially to one of the big questions throughout the book. But overall a very enjoyable & whimsical tale.

Thank you to Redhook Books for the ARC!

Lush imagery throughout this starry novel. I loved the unique worlds, the idea of the stars being God's, and the dark academic atmosphere. There were a few murky points in the book, and it may have been a tad repetitive in areas in the plot, but in all a solid first book!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

3.5/5 stars rounded to 4.

Penelope made a deal with Ever Everly but Ever was able to outsmart the deal. Since the deal is unfulfilled, Penelope takes one Everly per generation.

Marianne leaves her daughter, Violet, in the care of her brothers. She wants to keep Violet a secret from Penelope while she looks for a way to end the deal so no more Everlys are taken. Obviously Penelope learns Violet exists and makes a new deal with the uncles to buy Violet time. During that time Violet travels trying to find her mother while also learning about other worlds.

This is the super basic plot. There is so much more to The City of Stardust. Overall I liked that Violet was willing to completely submerge herself into her mother’s world she knew nothing about to both find her mother and end the Everly curse. There are two issues that bothered me. First being if Penelope needed Everly blood then why is Violet’s enough but not the Everlys before her? That bit left me a little confused. The other is how Ever lived as long as he did. The first issue is why this wasn’t a sold 4 star read. The second is minor and since Ever was in a different world I can let that slide a little more.

Overall really enjoyed following Violet while she traveled and learned more about her family and Aleksander was a complex character throughout that even though there were times I wanted to throttle him he is still a well written character.

I received a copy of The City of Stardust via NetGalley to read and review.

Really lovely and atmospheric and reading it gave me Golden Compass vibes. I really liked Violet as a character but I was mentally yelling at her to stop trusting Aleksander and she may have forgiven him but I won't!!

3.75 / 5 stars

The City of Stardust is a magical whirlwind of a story which follows Violet Everly across the globe in her search for her mother. She works her way into a society of magical scholars and ravenous gods in hopes to break the curse cast on her bloodline.

I want to begin by saying how much I adored Summers’ prose. She is a masterful magician with her words and created such a lovely atmosphere in enchanted worlds. I loved Aleksander; I thought he was a very deep character with questionable motives. I never knew whether or not I should trust him and that made me love him all the more.

The things that I did not like, however, was A) present tense (and in third person, ew) and B) it was not limited POV, and often jumped around between character with no break between chapters, sometimes in the POV of a character who’s only around for a few scenes. I think this style would have made sense more for a film, but it did not work for me as a book. It ended up leaving me confused for most of the book and took me out of the magical realm Summers created.

Overall, I’d say this book is great for those who love hidden worlds and curses from spiteful gods. At times, I even found myself rooting for the villain. Summers has a promising career ahead of her and I am eager to see what else she creates.