I was so excited for this book, but ultimately was slightly disappointed. I didn't feel anything for the characters or their romance, and I felt that the plot was overall lacking. Sadly, this book wasn't as enthralling as it sounded. Still an enjoyable read.

The cover of this is beautiful! I struggled a little with the story itself, though. With so many POV's the story began feeling convoluted. It felt lackluster up until the last quarter of the book. The way the timeline was told was confusing, it was hard to tell what was happening when. Overall, a decent read.

In this world, there are these rare magical keys that can take you anywhere. As long as you have been to a place before, you can use that key to return in an instance. Tucked away in this world is a door to another land. One woman leaves her young daughter behind in search of the key that will open that door and help her break her family's curse. Now a young adult herself, Violet Everly is on a mission to find her mother and finish what she started.

I like this writing style, it reminds me of Erin Morgenstern; descriptive and a bit whimsical. Because of that, I think the pacing felt slow at times. There were highs and lows -- sometimes I was really into it and other times I was losing interest. It felt a lot was going on but also nothing really happened.
The romance was expected and yet I was disappointed when it happened.
With all that being said, it was still a really enjoyable reading experience with some of my favorite themes (magical words and hidden doorways).

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this for an honest review. The prologue intrigued me, but then it turned slow and confusing.

It may be me and not the book, as I don’t read a ton of fantasy. I skimmed some goodreads reviews to see if I should stick with it, but was put off by the trigger content warnings, which may be a spoiler, and were the final point for me to decide I could quit this.

Fantasy. Romance and intrigue. I loved it. I was hooked from the beginning in this enchanting romanticy. I went on all those adventures along with Violet. This book had me absolutely spellbound til the end!! The world building in this book was absolutely phenomenal. This was a 5 star read for me.
I just reviewed The City of Stardust by Georgia Summers. #NetGalley
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A good read but not what I was expecting. It held my attention.
Well written. A fantasy for sure. I think it's for a much younger audience than me. Though I did enjoy it too. Just not as much as I had hoped.

Thank you #NetGalley for this ARC.

Overall a compelling fantasy story that lends something different to the genre.

The characters, while entertaining and easily relatable, lacked depth and character development. They left me wanting more from them.

The story also struggled with pacing throughout. In the beginning in pulled me in and started quick, then it slowed way down for a while, before picking back up, and repeating the cycle.

Overall this is a great fantasy that will pull you in from the start. Interesting premise. Gives you something different.

Thank you Orbit and Redhook for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Receiving an advanced gifted book copy does not impact or influence my review in any way

If you love Night Circus, you're in for a treat with The City of Stardust. This book is all about vibes and aesthetics, immersing you in a world that feels both magical and mysterious. The story starts off strong, introducing intriguing characters, a mysterious family curse, and a really cool magic system. However, around the 30-40% mark, the pace slows down considerably, becoming more about the ambiance than the plot. I found myself wanting a bit more action and resolution as the tension built up without many discoveries.

That said, the author's writing is absolutely stunning. Much like Erin Morgenstern, Georgia Summers writes an atmospheric prose that transports you to another dimension. I found out in an interview that Summers was heavily inspired by The Night Circus, and that she always wanted to create the same feelings she felt in her readers. Well, she mega succeeded!

I actually did enjoy how The City of Stardust had more plot elements and characters that kept me engaged. The interspersed chapters, which felt like an alternate narrator was telling a fairytale from another world, added an extra layer of enchantment to the story. Ugh, I just loved it and got lost in it. But just like The Night Circus, I felt like it took me forever to read The City of Stardust (lol). Probably because both books don’t have fast-paced plots. However, you HAVE to admire the amount of work and intention it takes to craft a story like this where you can feel the atmosphere and magic. It’s so rare! I never thought I’d see it after Morgenstern’s story, but here comes Summers and I’m just so impressed.

Overall, my rating for The City of Stardust matches my rating for The Night Circus. If you're someone who enjoys atmospheric books with magical aesthetics, this is a must-read. Like The Night Circus, it’s not a fast-paced thriller but rather a slow burn that immerses you in its beautiful prose and strong writing. Georgia Summers has a wonderfully creative mind, and I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.

The prologue and first 15% of the book drew me in and had me intrigued. The premise, setting, and even characters had me excited to see where we were going to go, but then the story quickly fell flat for me. I found the characters unlikable for the most part and while Violet had some interesting traits, ultimately she was forgettable. I also found it hard to engage with the writing because I felt forced at times.

I think this book will be enjoyable and a top read for a lot of people, it just fell a bit flat for me based on the description and even the prologue.

Thank you NetGalley and Redhook for the e-arc!
A beautiful and dark dream indeed! The world and writing in this book read so enchantingly; it has a very whimsical and flowing quality that builds up this magical world. I think the writing is absolutely phenomenal, especially for such a fantasy-focused novel. And while Violet wasn't my favorite main character, I think the wonder and determination she brings really add to the enjoyment of the story.

Actual Rating 2.5

There is a curse that haunts the Everly family, one that steals someone from their family once per generation. Violet knows little of it except that her mother has been gone for years, attempting to break the curse. Her uncles dance around the truth, trying to shelter her until one night, they are confronted – they have 10 years to find Violet’s mother, or Violet will be claimed instead. To find answers, she ventures into a world of magic, scholars, and gods, not knowing who to trust or where to unlock the answers she needs.

This work read like a literary New Adult fantasy, which I found interesting. The first half of the book, I was convinced that this was going to be absolutely wonderful. But the pacing is uneven leading to a large part of the middle portion feeling never ending, and then the simplicity of the conclusion leaving me wondering why we took such a long journey just to get there.

One thing that I disliked was no matter how much time we spent with Violet, I never really felt her come to life as a person. She could have been such a strong character, but it seemed like she got lost in the twisted plot, flashbacks, and literary prose that were included. The remaining characters didn’t add much to the story. Aleksander was at least decently written, and he and Penelope helped to keep the story alive.

Despite these negatives, I quite liked the author’s writing. It was strong, and despite some qualms I had with the technicalities of the execution, it was easy to become lost in the prose (in a good way). I’ll certainly be interested in reading more from this author. If you’re looking for a literary New Adult fantasy, then you might like this one. My thanks to NetGalley and Redhook Books for allowing me to read this work. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I liked the bones of this story. Set up, magic to move about the world and different realms. Good stuff. The flirting between Violet and Aleksander is good. Enjoy the idea of a bloodline curse to feed a god who has twisted things. But the ending kinda just happened. Didn't leave me feeling any kinda way about things in the end.

I really enjoyed this book. The whole fantasy element was really well written and had sucked me into the story. I read through this book really quickly but it took me a little while to pick it up.

Would recommend

To be honest, I really disliked this book. The writing and plot felt so disjointed and it was hard to care about the characters. The world building felt lacking and at times the author tried to make her writing sound more mysterious and/or pretentious, which just didn’t work for me.

The craziest part was when Violet basically recreated all of Marianne’s research….in a few months while it took Marianne a decade. For someone who went from knowing nothing, this was just a huge stretch, no matter how much “talent” she had.

The City of Stardust was a solid 4/5 stars for me. In this story, you follow along the story of Violet Everly. Violet's mom abandons her as a young girl and mysteriously leaves. As Violet grows into adulthood she becomes curious about her mom and decides to look for her. In the process, she uncovers a whole bunch of family secrets. A handsome magical scholar is there to help her in her journey or so she thinks.

-magical scholar
-family curses
-poetic/descriptive writing
-astral gods
-subplot of romance

The only reason this isn't 5 stars is due to a few pacing issues.

thanks to netgalley, Georgia summers, and the publishing company for an arc copy!!

This book was a little hard for me to get into at first, but the more i read the more i wasn’t to stay immersed in the story. i do think the beginning was very slow, and i want to know more about the world. it wasn’t as atmospheric as the name suggested and that was a bit of a disappointment for me

I received an ARC from NetGalley-
This book fell so flat for me! I didn’t feel connected with the characters at all and while the plot was interesting it got repetitive and confusing the keep everyone’s names straight.
Overall I don’t think this book was bad, but definitely not for me

Here is my review of The City of Stardust by Georgia Summers. Thank you NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for my eARC in exchange for an honest review.
The best way to get me to read a book is by the cover. The cover for The City or Stardust was stunning and immediately made me click the link for the arc and read the description. It was an instant push of the button to ask for an arc I was so intrigued.

Reading it though was a little bit of a let down. There was so much potential but the execution was poor.

There’s a curse on the Everly family line that one child in every generation pays for it with their life but no one can remember why. It seems like Marianne Everly is going to be our main character but she disappears through a magic door and we don’t see her again.
The main story is about Violet Everly who is being raised by her uncles since her mother disappeared. She’s be raised in the dark of all the secrets around her moms disappearance and is homeschooled and not allowed out to do anything.
One day someone named Penelope shows up with her assistant Alexander and Penelope makes a deal with Ambrose (Violets uncle) that if Marianne isn’t found in 10 years then she will be taking Penelope.
From here is where things get confusing. There’s so many different POVs some we figure out who it is and other times it’s just an ominous character that we don’t know what they’re doing.
There’s also no breaks in the paragraphs or any type of acknowledgement that POVs have changed or we are in a different time or place so I had to reread a lot of the chapters and I was still left confused half the time.
The story skips almost 10 years and Alexander pretends to run into Violet at a coffee shop to gain info for Penelope on where her mom is at but she has no idea.
From this, Violet starts to learn about the magic that runs in her family and about whole new worlds but she can’t ask her uncles any questions because they won’t tell her.
But on accident, she finds out about the deal made with Penelope and she runs away from home to try and find her mom. Throughout the rest of the book, there’s absolutely no personal growth and I feel like there’s too much going on for this girl that’s never left her house before except the coffee shop.
She tries to find all these people that know her mom, she steals, she’s breaks and enters, she pretends to be other people to get all this info and we are still lost on the story at this point.
Alexander betrays her a few times.
We don’t find out until the last 50 or so pages what is actually going on with this book and what the point was and the epilogue was an absolute waste of time.
I was seriously disappointed. I probably won’t read book 2.

I wanted so badly to love this book as the gorgeous cover lured me in. While the author writes lovely prose, the characters lack substance and feel quite cliched. The storyline is hollow and it was a struggle to keep reading. I know what I have is an ARC, but the formatting was very off-putting and it was difficult to understand when the point of view was changing from character to character.

The City of Stardust was a whimsical fantasy story that I could not put down. I highly recommend this to anyone who is a fan of the night circus.