The City of Stardust is for fans of The Starless Sea and The Ten Thousand Doors of January, and maybe also The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.

It’s magical and ethereal and romantic and adventurous. It’s the kind of book where you feel like you’re on an adventure with the character rather than just reading about their adventure from afar. I loved it. An absolute standout of the year.

Things you will find in this book:
—Mysterious doors to other worlds.
—A god-metal that has magical properties.
—An ancient bloodline with a centuries-old curse.
—Betrayal and questionable loyalties.
—Familial relationships worth dying for.
—An unsuspecting romance.
—Cozy coffee shop meetings.
—An adventure to find a missing person before time runs out.
Hope and forgiveness and love.

Beautiful writing and dreamy pacing that, at least to me, never grew to become more than the sum of its parts. I could see people who like Erin Morgenstern absolutely loving this. It hinted at so many things I love but I never felt the plot or characters or even the more horrific elements grab hold. That dreamy feeling seemed to drift over the characters as well as the world they lived in. I was craving at least a few more grounded moments.

The City of Stardust stands out for the unique take on a family curse and inter dimensional travel. Violet, the last daughter of a cursed family, has a deadline hanging over her life - either she finds her mother or she becomes the next to suffer the fate of her family.
The writing is lovely; everything about this book is smooth and immersive, giving it a perfect dreamlike feeling. I’m not sure if it’s the author’s first book, but she’s definitely someone I’ll be keeping an eye on for more books. I enjoyed the premise, the main characters Violet, Aleksander and even Penelope. The settings and descriptions were also excellent. Overall, The City of Stardust stands out from other fantasy books I’ve read recently.
I took a star off for a few reasons. One, I think some of the supporting characters fell a little flat and parts of their stories were confusing. Caspian, for example, seems interesting and yet he’s not really given much of a story. Why exactly wasn’t he a scholar? How was being an apprentice to Penelope his only in when his family was apparently so important?
Two, I felt a few things were unsatisfying. One of the side characters goes through a transformation (trying to avoid spoilers) and then…there’s not really any follow up. A couple of plot points just didn’t feel resolved to me.
Third, despite the missing resolution or deeper explanation of several parts of the story, the end dragged a little bit. Things felt a tad slow and anticlimactic at the end.
However, it’s still a book I’d recommend. Georgia Summers is a stand out storyteller and The City of Stardust felt like something new compared to many fantasy books I’ve read recently.

I really wanted to love this book but I found it to be all over the place. I can feel the essence of Addie LaRue but I just could not love it the way I wanted to. Throughout the book I felt like there was a lot of filler and it was hard to find the important parts to remember.

4 stars

Beautifully Written.
Well developed characters that you’ll both love and hate.
Simply magical.
Just the type of fantasy I needed to lose myself in for a while.

"Do you not hear the star sing, little dreamer?"
The Everly family is cursed. Once a generation an Everly must walk away into the dark, compelled by the shadow beside them. Violet Everly is determined to break this curse after being doomed to be the curse's victim after her mother seemingly flees reality itself. While trying to break the curse Violet discovers a whole new world, Fidelis, seemingly filled with magic. But Fidelis has its own dark secrets, that the very Stars attempt to hide.

Overall I really enjoyed The City of Stardust. It was filled with a good cast of characters, though I do wish some of their backstories were a little more fleshed out. The story starts a bit slow and can be a tad convoluted at times. The story does seem to jump around a bit and sometimes it can be hard to tell how much time has passed, if any. I did really enjoy the writing style of Georgia Summers. It has an almost ethereal and whimsical feeling to it, that would make any fantasy/book lover feel right at home. Thank you to Netgalley and Redhook for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review

beautifully written, with amazing descriptions, but a bit slow at first. If you can get past the slow bits, the story will be super enjoyable.