I received a copy of The City of Stardust by Georgia Summers from NetGalley. This fantasy novel focuses on the story of Violet Everly. For centuries, the Everlys have been cursed, with one child from each generation led to a dark path by Penelope.
The story begins when Violet is a child and overhears her uncles discussing about someone. She is given ten years till Penelope will come to collect her. As the end of the given decade is looming, Violet discovers the secrets of her family. This leads her to a magical underworld filled with magic, mysteries, power, and greed. Violet needs to find a way to break this curse and sets out on a mission to do it.
Violet meets Aleksander when Penelope comes to visit her for the first time; he is Penelope’s assistant. It's through him that she gets her first taste of magic. When years later, he reappears in the café she works, she can't help but be drawn to him. Violet is a curious character from the beginning. She is academic and smart. Her uncles have kept her in the dark about magic as they search for her mother. Her curiosity about a new adventure is elevated further when she becomes friends with Aleksander. However, there is a lot she does not know about him.
When her uncles decide to take Violet to a safe house to protect her from the curse, she leaves on her own. She studies, researches, and travels all over the world to find her mother, who seems to hold the key to breaking the curse. The book takes an adventurous sort of turn at this point. She meets Aleksander again. He didn’t show up like he had promised her the last time they saw each other. She is hesitant, but they do end up spending time together again.
The City of Stardust by Georgia Summers is a standalone fantasy romance book. Overall, I enjoyed reading it.

It took me a while to get into this book, but once I was into it, I flew through it! It was whimsical and magical and just all round amazing. I will definitely be eagerly awaiting more books from Summers.

Welcome to "The City of Stardust," a mesmerizing standalone fantasy that intertwines magic, mystery, and a dash of darkness. In a world where Everlys vanish as punishment for a long-forgotten crime, Violet Everly embarks on a perilous quest to find her missing mother before she becomes the next victim.
As Violet delves into a seductive magical underworld filled with power-hungry scholars and vengeful monsters, she encounters Aleksander, an enigmatic figure whose loyalties are uncertain. With time running out and the stakes higher than ever, Violet journeys to the edges of the world in search of her mother and the key to unlocking the secrets of the city of stardust.
With its poetic prose and atmospheric world-building, "The City of Stardust" is sure to enchant fans of magical realism and dark fantasy alike. Summers' debut novel is a stunning achievement that promises an unforgettable journey into a world where dreams and nightmares collide.

Thank you NetGalley, Hodder & Stoughton, and Hodderscape for providing access to both the digital and audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Oh Georgia Summers, why did you do this to me...

(SPOILERS INCOMING)

When I first started the audiobook, I had to stop and immediately ask for access for the ebook as well. Not because the narration was lacking in any shape or form - in fact, it fit the dreamy and yet dark atmosphere of the book perfectly - but the descriptions and overall writing style hit me in the face with their beauty, and I wanted to make sure I treasured every word.

I adored everything about the beginning of the book. I went to visit a friend and during my stay there I kept bringing it up, shouting high praises, recommending it from the bottom of my heart, and comparing it to other books I considered masterpieces. It reminded me so much of Sorcery of Thorns, in the best way possible, while still having it's own incredibly distinct identity. The mysteries of the book kept me hooked, and the pages kept going, leaving me in complete and utter awe at the depth of the writing style. I liked Violet, I got incredibly attached to Aleksander, and really really enjoyed Penelope - that's a scary but well-crafted villain, that you never took for granted. Her dark moment always hit hard, which is something I am incredibly grateful for.

The problems came in the second half of the book. Suddenly my enthusiasm started to fade, and despite reaching the climax of the story, every page felt longer than the last. At first, I wasn't sure - until I realised that the weakest point of the story for me ended up being the two main leads. I'll start with Violet. She's a decent protagonist, yes, but she rarely feels like she played a 'key' (pun unintended) role in her own story. Her mother, absent throughout 99% of the book, always stole the show and proved to be a much more active participant during her time. Violet isn't even the reason why the curse ended. Nor has she accomplished much in her life outside of the curse, despite her so-called talent. Aleksander, however, was the biggest disappointment. He had such great potential to become the newest sweetheart of our beloved book community. He had it all - attractive beyong words, with a tragic past, a love for reading and learning, great ambition and desire to explore as much as possible. And yet... he ended up switching sides more often than I switch my socks. Not because of how cunning he was, but because of his clouded feelings and lacking willpower. He is a victim of Penelope's abuse and manipulation, yes, objectively it makes sense. But I really wish he fumbled the bag less and played the game at least a little, rather than looked like a kicked puppy in every single one of his scenes in the 2nd half of the book. His relationship with Violet also had the potential to become a heartbreaking epic, but instead it left me bored and disappointed.

Overall, there was a lot to love about the book, and a lot to mourn. It started with all the right ingredients, but sadly faded into a shadow of what it was shaping up to be. However, I am too intrigued by Georgia Summer's gorgeous writing, and will probably pick up her next release as well. She's definitely someone to look out for.

Oh I adored this book! It's been a little while since I've read a new book that has totally swept me away!

The writing is beautiful and it makes you want to not put the book down.

Violet Everly is our main protagonist in this story. Living with her two uncles Ambrose and Gabriel after her mother left her with them and disappeared. Violet is kept hidden away, although she doesn't know why until a strange woman arrives at their home and she overhears a conversation between this woman and her uncle about a deadline and how the debt must always be paid. Every generation, an Everly must be sacrificed due to a curse. This generation was supposed to be Violet's mum, Marianne, but she's vanished, which means it now falls on Violet.

Violet, always aware and knows that things aren't quite what they seem, discovers that her instincts are right and that her uncles have shielded the truth from her for far too long. Violet meets a strange boy Aleksander in her cafe and this boy brings the promise of magic and answers that Violet so desperately seeks. Aleksander meanwhile, has his own agenda. Violet wants to know why her mother abandoned her, why people are seeking her so badly and why truth of this other world has been kept from her. The truth, however, is much harder to learn than she is prepared for. Should she accept the curse and her fate? or should she fight for her uncles and her own life? We shall see.

This is an amazing story, full of twists and turns. It's a great take on a different kind of magic-led story that is a bit more gory/gritty and darker than others. There's a lot of sacrifice and betrayal throughout the story but it's also full of magic, curses, stardust, gods, scholars, adventure and a smidge of romance! The world-building is beautiful and the characters are well-rounded.

Stunning, absolutely stunning.

It's a shame that it's a standalone, i'd love to see where it could go if there were to be a second book given how it ended.

This book was absolutely spectacular - and one of my favourite recent reads. It had enough intrigue to keep you guessing as to what exactly was going to happen throughout, and the writing of the book was fantastic too. I think this will be one I will be snapping up special editions of, as I know I'll want to re-read this again, it was just such a beautiful read.

Beautifully rendered and atmospheric prose, although the pacing felt a tad slow at times. An impressive debut, will be looking out for more of this author's works in the future.

I found this very slow to get in to and then drawn out as it went on, I now can barely remember much of the plot since reading it a few months ago.
Written in third person and I just felt detached from the characters, I didn’t care about them enough.
Penelope was probably the most interesting character, I actually felt things when she was on the page.
Beautiful descriptions but not enough world building.
Overall an okay read.

3.5 stars This book was beautifully written with rich evocative prose, but unfortunately the characters and plot didn't quite hit the mark for me. I didn't feel particularly invested in anything that was happening, which seemed like not a whole lot for a large portion of the book.

What a brilliant read. Addictive from start to finish. A debut that will stay with me for a long time and I cannot wait to read more from Georgia. You have magic, lore, a family curse and just a story full of mystery that will keep the reader hooked from beginning to end.

City of Stardust by Georgia Summers

My rating: ****

Genre: Fantasy

Tags (I’m just starting to do this, and doing it from memory when I read the books, so this might not cover them all!) Dysfunctional family, Magic, Romance.

Violet Everly is raised by one of her uncles after her mother leaves her when she’s young, to go and break the family curse. When Violet grows up, she also wants to find her mother, and also break the curse.

Aleksander is the assistant to Penelope, a powerful person in the world of Scholars, which Violet is on the very fringes of.

I was cheering Violet on as she uncovered secrets and works at trying to break the curse.

I found the story to be interesting and unexpected, with a wide cast of characters, some of whom are just background, but others are more solid.

I found this jumps around a bit, so it makes it hard to know what characters were up to some times. So overall, I found it to be good but not marvellous!

I was given this book in exchange for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to Hodder & Stoughton.

This was a super anticipated book for me and it didn’t disappoint. It was beautifully written and the world building was absolutely incredible. I felt drawn into the story and reality just disappeared around me! I’m excited to read more from the author in the future.

I went back and forth over my opinion of this book. I liked the core parts such as the plot and world building but in some places the execution just fell flat and that's not saying that I didn't like the book - I did but just not in the way I wanted to. I wasn't excited to continue, I was interested in continuing the book but I was thinking about it all the time in the way that I normally do when a book excites me. There's a disconnect if that makes sense. I want to finish the story but I'm not invested in the characters - Violet in particular was just very stupid at times and there was no redemption for me.

Thank you Net Galley, Hodder & Stoughton and Hodderscape for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

DNF
I wasn't able to get into the story or get attached to the characters.
I foud that everything moved quickly, so fast, and that a lot of elements were skimmed over.
Too bad for me but at least I would have tried.

I have to thank the publisher for the chance to read this book in advance, because it was one of the most beautiful surprise of January!

The City of Stardust gave me immediately The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, For the Wolf or One Dark Window's vibes, and I totally LOVED it. Summer's lyrical, captivating style enraptured me into a world where the setting is delineated without being too in-depth, but it's still enough to be consistent and have the strenght to sustain the entire story, made by said and unsaid, magistrally woven together.
Not to mention how Aleksander and Violet broke my heart multiple times in the interchange of their (but not only) point of views. It was impossible not to love them, and hope for a happy ending. Furthermore, there's the interesting addition of the antagonist's POV, as well as the idea of telling the same tale repeatedly, narrated each time in a different way, in a kaleidoscope of possibilities where the truth has been lost in time and it is difficult to discern between those many versions.
Plus, given the very open ending, I would hope for a sequel but I am afraid it's not in agenda. So, finger crossed the author would give us some bonus scenes/novellas to know what will happen in the future.
In the meantime, thanks again to Hodderscape for the arc <3

Ethereal, mysterious, and beautifully bittersweet, The City of Stardust takes both the darkness and the whimsy of old fairytales to create an utterly unique feverdream of a story.

Now, I knew virtually nothing about this story except that it had been compared to The Night Circus and The Starless Sea. And with that being two of my favourite stories, I simply could not resist trying this out for myself.

On the one hand, I get the comparisons. The prose is beautifully lyrical, the storytelling is unapologetically dreamy, and there's an entrancing air of mystery and intrigue that keeps you on your toes from start to finish. Yet on the other hand, it didn't manage to capture the same magic as Morgenstern's books did for me, because I think everything remained just too elusive for too long that I simply could not get invested.

The omniscient narration made it hard for me to latch onto any of the characters, even though I was highly intrigued by all of their personal stories. Especially with this being such a character-driven narrative, it really hurt my enjoyment that every single character felt like such an enigma to me.

That said, there's no denying that Summers crafted something quite special, and by the end I was very impressed with how all the elements of the story came together. This really is one of those stories that requires a lot of patience and trust in the author, because the pay-off might not come until late into the story, but it is oh so satisfying when it does.

I really liked how all the mysteries surrounding the curse unravelled, and ultimately I did get quite invested in Violet and Aleksander's unconventional but tragically beautiful love story. Moreover, I deeply appreciated that the antagonists in this story are deliciously vicious, yet also surprisingly complex. Love in all its devastating beauty lies at the heart of this story, and I think Summers captured that raw human emotion with exceptional skill.

While this was a bit of a mixed bag for me overall, I think The City of Stardust delivered exactly what it promised. And if nothing else, it is so unapologetically weird and unique, that it is not a tale that you will soon forget.

Thank you to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This was an okay read. I am not much into fantasy these days so the fault is probably on me, it seems all the fantasy books are very similar to each other. I didn't love this but I didn't hate it. Like I said, okay read.

It’s with a heavy heart I have to say I DNFd this at chapter 10. This was such a shame for me as it was one of my most anticipated reads for the year. The plot fell very flat for me and reading it felt like it was written for a play script rather than a novel.

The characters seemed like they were going to be amazing and if I had persevered through it would’ve been for Violet and Aleksander.

Georgia does have a very interesting and poetry like writing style and I will definitely try her further works but unfortunately this one just wasn’t for me

I loved the cover design, it adeptly encapsulates the story's essence and genre. The illustrations vividly portray key elements of the world-building and the mythical ambiance. The writing style, struggles to fully immerse in the third-person narrative, keeping events at a distance. Despite pacing issues, the intriguing prologue sets the stage for a captivating storyline filled with mystery. Though some characters lack depth, standout figures like Penelope and Aleksander drive tension and narrative momentum.

This story gave me strong Addie LaRue vibes which was also a 3 star read for me, which may explain my enjoyment of this book. Unfortunately I had trouble connecting to the characters and the story felt a little disjointed at times. The writing style was very majestic and perfectly articulated a unique world and was a quick easy read.