This was such a beautifully written book, I loved Georgia Summers’ writing style and will definitely be keeping my eye out for future releases. It’s hard to believe this is a debut novel!

I felt fully emersed in the unique fantasy world and really loved Violet’s character and the eventual romance plot line.
I listened to the audiobook which I really recommend. Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an advance copy.

Book Review 📚
Audiobook 🎧

The City of Stardust by Georgia Summers - 3/5 ⭐

Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me. But through no fault of the author. The narrator didn't hook me into the story as well as she could of, there were no dramatics or actions to her voice.

After 6 Chapters I decided to stop ruining the book for myself, as it opened huge intrigue for me. I have already preordered the physical version and cannot wait to finish it! From the first page my thoughts, instantly became "oh where is this going?!"

Ontop of the narrative, I was unable to download the book on NetGalley App which lead to chapters restarting themselves.

I cannot wait to finish the physical version!

3 stars

The Everly’s are cursed, for centuries an Everly is taken as punishment for a crime no one remembers, until Marianne disappears, leaving her daughter, our main character Violet and her uncles to find her, before it is Violet that is taken. Violet will have to uncover the secrets that have been held from her to find her mother, discover the magical underworld of scholars and Gods and deal with the intriguing and untrustworthy Aleksander, whom has his own dreams and demons.

This debut was magical and mysterious including bargains and curses, Gods and monsters. This is a standalone fantasy and contains some really beautiful prose and creates a very whimsical story telling atmosphere. The story was interesting, and I wanted to learn more and delve into all the secrets surrounding the main character and their family and this mysterious magic world they belong to.

For me however the plot was just a bit too slow at times and I found myself becoming disinterested, to the point where I think the story could have been shorter, while things did really pick up towards the end of the book. There was just too much focus on descriptions and not on the character interactions which in turn made me not really care too much about the side characters which is turn off for me in a book.

I would recommend this book to those chasing the same feeling from The Starless Sea or The Night Circus and potentially those who enjoyed The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.

Thank you NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I really enjoyed this beautifully written story! The narrator was fantastic and had such a soothing voice. The story itself was full of wonder and mystery, I just want to keep exploring this world Georgia Summers created! I enjoyed the chemistry between Violet and Alexander, but there was a lot of damage done between them. I thought the ending was satisfying, but I still feel like there are a lot of questions that could be answered!

Marianne Everly is walks away from her cottage in a torrential thunderstorm, some ancient magic is calling to her. She leaves behind her daughter Violet and brothers, Gabriel and Ambrose who raise Violet, but from time to time a strange woman visits bringing a boy in tow and Violet is sure there is something about her family that is being kept from her.

An epic fantasy novel, this is a truly incredible debut from Georgia Summers. Incredible world building and magical systems, I seriously hope there are more books to be set in this universe. Penelope is a fantastic antagonist, truly loathsome, whilst also elegant. Each character is well rounded with a decent backstory and just the right amount of intrigue left to keep you enthralled. I listened to this over 2 days and loved every minute of it.

My only gripe is the pacing, the first 40-50% was quite slow paced and then there was quite a lot of action in the last 30%, so I feel it could have been spread out a little more.

The narrator is also excellent, her great character voicing and expression really elevates the book making it immersive.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for accepting my request to read and review this book

I was super duper intrigued by the premise of this one and was thrilled to see it was a Fairyloot book pick for 2024!

I was intrigued by the intro of the book too, however, after about 10% in I had already started to get bored and by the 60% mark is where I ended up DNF’ing the book for good.

Let’s start with the characters:
I did not feel that any character was actually fleshed out enough or given enough personality to stand out or make me want to follow them and see what happens to them.

The plot….. sorry, where’s the plot?
We get told that Violet is looking for her mum in the first 20 pages I think, and by 60% in that’s basically …. All that’s happened…. There’s really nothing compelling happening she is just flirting about meeting different people and trying to fund information.

The fantasy elements…. I just don’t know what’s going on. Again: 60% through and sometime so forget this book even has a magical aspect and then we are hit with it again and I’m like…. How has this stayed a secret for so long?

Overall, the intrigue just wasn’t there. The pacing was soooo off I was constantly bored and picking this book up felt akin to picking up a university textbook. By 60% I knew I was just going to finish it for the sake of pure stubbornness so I didn’t.

As for the audiobook narrator, their voice was calm and well spoken but mixed with my boredom of the book and the slightly monotone pitch it maybe wasn’t the BEST combo.

I had high expectations for this but it unfortunately did not deliver. I felt that it was really well written and I like Violet's character. However, it just fell flat for me - I felt that there could have been more happening.

Thank you so much for letting listen to this audiobook. It has been like two or three weeks since I finished listening to the story. And now I don't remember what the story was about.

The narrator was excellent, but the story itself was too slow for me personally. Not enough happened to warrant the length of each chapter and I got a bit bored.

THE CITY OF STARDUST is an ethereal fantasy about crossing worlds and a curse that must be unravelled.

There is a whimsical, ethereal, haunting feel to this book. I spent a lot of time trying to decide if it was the writing style (and the third person, present tense narration) or Kitty Parker's way of reading it. Either way, I really liked it. It was a bit like floating on clouds, watching this story that was not quite in our world unfurl.

Violet is the main narrator but Aleksander and Penelope also narrate. I really enjoyed getting to see what Penelope was up to, see the lengths she'd go to and just how chillingly impersonal she was. The third person really came into its own here, allowing for a distant POV in Penelope's chapters so her thoughts didn't come through. Instead, the focus was all on her actions, letting that coldness really come through. Without her motivations (at least in the opening acts before Violet uncovers them), it comes across as very chilling because it's hard to understand the rationale behind these actions.

I enjoyed the exploration of the absent mother-child relationship, Violet's yearning but also frustration. It is a journey of acceptance and letting go, even while not really being able to because of that gap left by abandonment at a young age. I liked the way it ended up, the way Marianne breaks some of the (limiting, patriarchal) expectations of motherhood we have this society.

It is a very strong debut and I look forward to more books by the author.

2.5🌟 rounded up to 3🌟
I think there was so much potential here and I really enjoyed the concept; the worldbuilding was so interesting. I really loved learning about the different worlds, the astrals, the keys and the "curse." I loved the way that there were different versions of the story of Ever Everly and the Star, and that we never knew which version was true and what actually happened, and if they were all or none true.
Unfortunarely, everything else fell flat for me. I didnt like Violet very much. I found her very frustrating, particularly in how she held everything against her uncles, and yet continued to keep trustinf Alexander, even as he betrayed her again and again and never once had her interests at heart. It was always for him about becoming a scholar, and it took her so long to actually realise she shouldn't trust him. I also think the storyline about finding her mother who had run away was just kind of??? annoying. And it came to nothing really as we never found her.
I hated Alexander, I had no sympathy for him and he pissed me off sm. I hated the romance between him and Violet too. It didnt make sense to me, it lacked luster and I could have done without it tbh.
I really liked Caspian, minor character as he was, but I enjoyed every time we saw him.
I thought Penelope was very interesting and a good antagonist, and I liked learning about why she did the things she did.
I really liked the narrator, and I would definitely listen to another audiobook read by her.

Overall 4 star rating!

Overall I really, truly loved this book. From start to finish I was interested and really loved the story. From the whimsical writing to the character development it just kept giving!
Where it fell a little short was the world building, I feel like it could have given us a little more but overall I truly loved this and will be buying a physical copy when released.

A truly intriguing magic system set in a dark yet whimsical world.

I absolutely adored some of the comparisons I’ve seen for this book so I had really high hopes. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite reach my expectations.

It was an enjoyable and intriguing read. I liked the mystery and seeing how it all came together, and the magic system was really interesting and original. However, some of the fantasy elements felt out of place to me - the gods and goddesses and their world seemed to come out of nowhere and felt quite a stark contrast to the more urban fantasy start of the novel.

The two main characters felt real to me, even if they weren’t always likeable, and I did appreciate the nuances of their personalities and histories.

Overall, I enjoyed the world and magic system of The City of Stardust, I just felt that some aspects of it were slightly out of place in the story.

I listened to the audiobook version of this novel and was highly impressed by the story itself and the fairytale style of wording that was used to craft together this story.

The City of Stardust is an intricate world that lies away from our own world, separate and known but only a select few. We watch Violet Emerly grow up and suffer at the hands of fate and with a deep despair that follows her. Something unrelated to any of her own actions, an ancient curse which she seeks to free herself from.

It is a wonderful tale of a dreamer who has a strange relationship with her family, has been hidden away from the world for reasons that had been kept from her and as she starts to dip her toes into the wider world, discovers more about herself and her familial line, dating back so many generations, she is left with nothing but terrible choices before her.

I won’t spoil anything so I’ll try to be as vague as possible but the story starts slowly, almost a bit too slowly for me but it does pick up speed in a graceful way, building tension and despair well as the story unfolds. There is one character who I am still annoyed at even after the book has ended. There is a romance that blossoms with Violet and a male character which could almost be enemies to lovers except, I don’t think she ever really had any negative feelings towards him despite *things that happen*. That character was beginning to make me angry by their choices and actions, although, from their POV I can understand why they did what they did but there is a scene towards the end that had me in tears, grateful for what they decide and say.

That ending also had me in tears! Partly from relief, and in a strange way, from the romance of it. You should probably check out the trigger warnings because as much as it starts off free of violence, despite the psychological terror inflicted, there are some violent scenes further into the story that are gory and will cause some distress. Overall, I felt like this was a wonderful story and I really enjoyed it.

The City of Stardust is out on 25/01/2024
#TheCityOfStardust #NetGalley

I absolutely loved listening to this book.

Both the writing and narration were gripping and set an incredible overall tone and pace.

Part of this novel gave me the same feeling as the part of the Harry Potter novels where they are looking for horcruxes but instead of a trio, imagine it's just Hermione as the chosen one and she's gone looking on her own. An intelligent heroine with a steadfast determination to complete her goal, whom still possesses a somewhat childlike (said with affection) desire to trust despite history telling a different story.

It's ultimately a story about family, self-discovery, and trust.

What I loved most about this book is that it's complex without being complicated. The magic system is not overly complicated meaning the reader does not get bogged down in the details and pulled out of the story to try make sense of what they are reading. It's blended quite seamlessly into the writing and truly helps set the dark academia tone of secrecy and impending danger.

This is 4.5 read for me, rate up to 5

I think the narrator really lets this one down. Something about her voice and tone was, as harsh as this sounds, dull, and I found myself not even hearing what was being said as it just tuned out. I got to the point where I didn't even bother rewinding what I missed as I was bored and just wanted to be done with it.

Thoughts and Feelings
3.5 stars but you don't let me rate it a half sorry :(
What I loved... the prose in this story is almost like a poem at various points. The magic of the book is in the detail of the world building, the descriptions of people and the world allow the reader to be transported into the book.
The concept of the book was brilliant with the characters slightly cliche'd. Violet is our naieve, never travelled main character who longs to see the world (honestly can it be a cliche if many people feel this way?). She is mostly likeable if not a little boring at times.
Curses are made to be broken. I love this, I love the idea that a curse has haunted a millenium and this main character is going to break it. The overall story was good.

What I didn't love...the story was good however I felt the ending was lacking - I won't spoil it for anyone but the last 10% of the book felt very flat - even if there was some "Trigger warning" content flung in to increase the stakes.
The romance element of the book was very shallow, this isn't a terrible thing as fantasies don't always need it but the romance felt forced. An initial scene at the start of the book involving two male characters left me questioning what "shame" the author was trying to convey given the character later falls in love with a female character.
Diversity was needed in this book - it felt lacking at parts - given this was a story across worlds - there was so much opportunity for this. The side characters in the story could have been given more depth as the scenes they were in were good.
I've finished this book with many questions that the author didn't answer and I think some of them were necessary for me to give this book a better rating.

Audiobook: This was my first audiobook - I'm not convinced it was the right pick for an audibook as I felt I would of liked to go back and reread some of the prose to capture some of the "big" moments again.

I received an audioarc and e-arc through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

I found the narration boring.
I wasn't a fan of the writing style, and I almost fell asleep listening to the book.
The narrator Kitty Parker has a nice voice, but there was just something about her narration that didn't capture me. There was no emotion to her voice, it felt like listening to AI generated voice.
I often use internet Explorer when I need to read PDF files or read other things like articles and other webpages. And listening to this book, was exactly like listening to that narrator voice I use for school. So this was absolutely boring to me. There was no life, no atmosphere or mood as to say. Maybe it's just the writing? But this was just so absolutely boring to listen to.

As for the story, I just couldn't get into it at all. I didn't care for any of the characters either.
I really think it was just the writing style that wasn't for me.
I think I need to re-read this again for another time just to really be sure how I feel. Because I'm ambivalent at the moment.

Sadly this wasn’t for me.
I really liked the synopsis, but the book didn’t seem to grab my attention. I didn’t feel any connection to the characters and everything felt very dragged out.

I received an audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book took my breath away. The writing is stunning, the characters complex, the plot interesting. There is angst, betrayal, magic and a smattering of romance. What's not to like?!

I understand other reviews saying it was too descriptive, but for me it was so immersive I just couldn't stop listening. If you don't like the more dark, descriptive, beautiful type of fantasy (you will know what I mean if this is you!) this might not be the book for you, but I LOVED it!

The audiobook experience was so good - the narration was 10/10 for me, it suited the vibes of the book and the characters perfectly. I will honestly be thinking about this book for weeks to come and I will be picking up a physical copy so I can also have the experience of reading it in book format.

I think this book would suit fans of strange the dreamer, uprooted, the night circus and the bear and the nightingale.