If you're an author and you're thinking to yourself, "My debut is going to be the next Addie Larue or The Starless Sea", maybe just ... don't. The only redeeming qualities this book had were the flimsy, sorry I mean whimsical, worldbuilding and if I'm being generous, the descriptions. If you combine the worst aspects of The Invisible Life of Addie Larue with the barest bones of Laini Taylor's worldbuilding and glue it together by adding fanciful prose, you get The City of Stardust. Magical portal fantasy and whimsical prose are fine and all, but you need the characters and plot to back it up. This book had neither.

The plot moved at a glacial pace and I found myself bored and frustrated 20 % in. Throughout the entire book, the worldbuilding remained abstract and somewhat flimsy. We understand magic is used by manipulating reveurite, a magical metal and that there are scholars (which is a blanket term for literally every profession) who are searching for people who can also manipulate reveurite throughout different worlds. But beyond those basic facts, we never really learned how it works. We never learn how the home realm of the scholars works, what their society is like, nothing. Moreover, the reader consistently knew more than the characters so some moments and revelations just fell flat. The author also did this really annoying thing that Schwab did in Addie Larue, where the author tells us that the MC went to city X, Y, Z and did some really important things but we never see it. What does the mention of this accomplish besides maybe showing the character is oh-so-worldly? This might seem minor, but to me it was the cherry on top of an already really shitty cake.

As for the characters, there are only three with anything resembling depth - Violet, our first MC, Aleksander (who's name I kept forgetting), our second MC and Penelope, the villain. However, I would use the word depth carefully since its extent was more like a shallow pond. Or a puddle. The very beginning led me to believe the fraud family relationships were going to be at the center of this and I was sorely disappointed. Even with just one chapter, Violet's uncles had more conflict and personality than Violet had in the entire book.

So instead of juicy family drama, we got a romance that was so stale I kept wishing the bisexual love interest was gay, so my suffering would be over. Like, thank you, that's enough representation for us bisexies! Moreover, the bisexual representation in question was a one-off mention that felt like the author included it for diversity cookies. On top of that, Aleksander was a spineless, whiny coward who used his tragic past to excuse said whining and cowardice and spinelessness. One the other hand, we have Violet, who has the blandest possible Fantasy Heroine traits. She's brave, curious and stubborn ... and so is every fantasy protagonist ever. Beyond that, there was really nothing there.

The villain, Penelope, was perhaps the most interesting character, though that's not saying much. I think when your villain is just that much more fascinating to follow than your protagonist, something went wrong. As for the characters' perspectives, there was a lot of headhopping, which added to the overall sense of abstractness and confusion.

All in all, this book did nothing that Erin Morgenstern and Laini Taylor haven't done better. Originally, I was going to give this two stars, but upon reflection, it's getting one. Consider this me de-influencing you, save your money on this one. I don't really recommend this, but if you love Addie Larue, my other literary nemesis, you might like this.

This book felt underbaked and underdeveloped. None of the characters had personalities and their motivations felt very flat. The main character was described as clever and having learned so much and being good at sneaking into places, but she just tells anyone who will listen her plans. All of the interesting things happen off the page and what we do see is just the same thing over and over. The writing thought it was so deep and clever but it was cheesy and cringey. The romance did not have any spark because the characters had no personalities and the book talked all the time about sacrifices but in the end there is no need and the book has no stakes.

3.5 of 5 stars rounded up to 4
https://lynns-books.com/2024/01/22/the-city-of-stardust-by-georgia-summers/
My Five Word TL:DR Review : This book is a conundrum

This book is so difficult to write a review for. On the one hand this is a really impressive debut with fantastic writing that I practically raced through, it has a fascinating story of otherworlds reached via magic keys that is captivating and then there’s a secret starlit city and a family curse. Seriously, this book could be written just for me. And yet. I did have a few issues. Let’s not jump the gun.

In a nutshell, this is a story of the Everly family – cursed for years for reasons that are unknown, one member from each generation will be taken from the family. A sacrifice – although, again, the nature of this is also cast in shadow. Now, as the story begins we meet Violet and her brothers Ambrose and Gabriel. Violet has led a very sheltered life, her mother disappeared many years ago, her brother Ambrose is her main pillar, staying at the slowly crumbling family home to look after her whilst Gabriel seems to whisk in and out on fleeting visits, the nature of what he’s up to being incredibly vague. Basically, Violet’s brothers have endeavoured to keep her existence a secret but apparently the truth will out and the very person they were hiding her from comes for a not so friendly visit. From this point onwards Violet’s life becomes something of a ticking bomb and in the absence of answers she eventually takes matters into her own hands in her own search for a cure to the curse.

My feelings for this book.

The writing is beautiful. I loved reading this and will definitely be picking up more by this author. Her descriptions are quite magical and reminiscent of adventures through wardrobes and rabbit holes. Really my cup of tea.

The idea of multiple worlds, accessed by magical keys, each one unique. A city of stars, set on a remote mountain topped by a tower with scholars bustling back and forth in search of answers. What’s not to love.

And, we have two characters, you could call them star crossed, and a slow burning romance.

There are so many wonderful things about this book – but, at the same time, and this is why I mentioned this being a conundrum, I have slightly mixed feelings.

I had issues with the pacing. Strangely enough I enjoyed the first half of the story much more than the second half – and this is unusual because the second half has plenty going on – in fact maybe too much going on and a kind of frantic feeling ending. One part of me says, well, Violet was definitely on a timeline here so you would expect the tension to increase, however, she was flitting about all over, from place to place (or party to party) but it all felt a little bit pointless, like she wasn’t achieving anything, or she was always arriving just five minutes too late. I simply didn’t understand what she was actually doing or how she came up with whatever trail she was following. Similarly to what I mentioned about Gabriel above. He’s constantly rushing about, disappearing into secret worlds, reappearing bloody and dishevelled – again, what is he actually doing. I don’t know.

On top of this I’m not totally sure I bought into the relationship with Violet and Aleksander. Other than that Violet has led such a sheltered life so the attention she received from Aleks perhaps overwhelmed her – I mean, I understand his motives, but I won’t mention them here.

The settings are primarily contemporary, with brief visits to other worlds and also the starlit city.

The other main character is Penelope, she’s the baddie of the piece. What I would mention is I didn’t really understand why she skipped a generation, Violet’s mother was the sacrifice – she’s gone missing, so wouldn’t one of the two brothers now be chosen rather than Violet – who is the next generation. Why did she give the family a stay of execution, why the extra ten years – why not just take what she believes she’s entitled to now. It felt a bit like the baddie in a Bond movie, taking the time to tell 007 exactly how he plans world domination whilst at the same time giving him time to escape. She had no reason to negotiate and given how she behaved for the rest of the story I think she would have just taken what she believed was her right. But, then it would have been a much shorter book!

So, in a nutshell, I really enjoyed this book on so many levels. I know it probably seems that I have a few criticisms but this was still very easy to read and entertaining. I thoroughly enjoyed the writing and it’s certainly an impressive debut. On the other hand, it without doubt has some plot holes, it feels like certain issues are whitewashed over so you just need to go with the flow and not question things too much. For me, I do like answers so there is just a nagging feeling with this that something isn’t quite right. I feel like I’ve missed something – which is of course entirely possible.

I certainly wouldn’t discourage anyone from reading this – like I said, it’s a conundrum, I might have a feeling of not really being able to fully explain things but at the same time I liked it – what more can I say.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

My rating 3.5 of 5 stars

What grabbed me from the start of this book was how beautiful the writing was, wonderfully whimsical with a crackle of seductive darkness underpinning it. The author does a solid job of creating great characters each with a unique voice and the blending of locations provided that cross over between fantasy and magical realism that I find works.

The world building is deliciously complicated and does require some concentration, keys, other worlds, scholars, magic, travel between dimensions, and dispersed among this are wonderful chapters retelling the origin stories, how everything was created. In fact these were some of my favourite moments, how these stories can change and be moulded over centuries.

The romance element initially didn’t work for me, but I think I was perhaps comparing it to some of the other big fantasy romance books where the lovers find their “mates” and it’s all very intense, and so on reflection I decided I quite liked the authors take here. It was certainly a very selfish, toxic kind of love but one I think will be familiar to anyone who found themselves in love with the wrong person once upon a time.

So overall, I had a really good time, a great debut that I’d recommend for readers who like their fantasy to be perhaps more lyrical than mainstream.

Thank you NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for this eCopy to review

I enjoyed The City of Stardust, it was a good Sci Fi/Fantasy story. I did feel it was a little slow in places and I would have liked Violet to be able to use her magic.

The magic and worlds were easy to understand, but maybe a map and glossary of the Asterals would have been helpful.

Penelope's character is very sinister, I would have loved to know why she picked Aleksander to be her assistant.

Full secrets, backstabbing, glamour, and a quest for the the truth this was an epic novel that crossed worlds

dnf at page 100

Thank you so much to NetGalley for providing me an arc of this book.

I am not the type to dnf a book. Rather I have never dnf'd a book but this was not working for me.

The book revolves around Violet Everly, who is cursed for being from the Everly family. Every Everly generation there is a tithe selected by Penelope (someone) who takes the Everly to a city named Fidelis where they learn to be a scholar. It is known as a curse because the Everly gains power to an unexpected extent. Marianne Everly, who is Violet Everly's mother, sets out one day leaving her daughter behind to try and break the curse. Since Marianne was the last tithe, this leaves Violet the new one in her place. Now Violet's 2 uncles try to hide Violet from Penelope and try to keep her for as long as they can.

Writing:
I don't read Adult Fantasy. So really as a YA reader, it took me ages to read and understand this. The prose and vocabulary were just too hard for me to comprehend. Which made it extremely boring because I kept searching for definitions of all the words.
The dual chapters were giving me a headache. I couldn't make it through Aleksander's chapters without yawning.

It started well. The prologue was fascinating and I was intrigued. It progressed with Ambrose and Violet and I was enjoying myself. But after Penelope's visit, I don't seem to understand what's happening and why.

The suspense was a little annoying. I mean the info dump was wild. I was rather irritated with the lack of information in the beginning. Like everything was happening but i don't know what?

Violet:
Started good, became bratty, and then I stopped reading. She has potential. as a FMC. But to the point that I've read, it's being wasted. I find her story intriguing and one that can unravel well but I find it better if she just listens to Ambrose and accepts his apology instead of running off with Aleksander. Maybe then her mother might actually achieve something?

I get her frustration but I just hate it when characters go:
"Oh you lied to me my whole life, I hate you."

They lied for a reason? I mean she seems impatient and abrupt.

Aleksander:
Very meh. He was okay when he first appeared in the book. But then the whole scholar thing and the archives and spying on Violet was very boring. The book didn't click to me nor did the characters.
If I'm being honest I liked both the uncles better than Aleksander.

He remains in Penelope's shadow when he has the tendency to be greater and better. I didn't seem to understand that.

Penelope:
She was a no for me. I kept thinking she belonged in a Cassandra Clare book instead of this one.
She was the antagonist but it was very annoying once again. She gave me bad villain vibes. And by bad I mean the target version of a villain. I'd prefer if she was less abusive and nosy and more evil and cruel (in a twisted way). Like the parts with her and Tamlin were perfect. But then she and Violet had zero protagonist and antagonist chemistry.

This book had a lot of potential and may have picked up after from where I've read but this wasn't for me. Mostly, due to my usual reading genres and mostly because none of the characters aligned with my preference.

I’ve seen this compared to The Starless Sea and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue in its marketing and honestly, I see it!

Georgia Summers debut comes in hot with a stunningly beautiful writing style that feels so elegant and matches the whimsical storyline. The main characters family has been cursed for years and in her journey to try and remove the curse we see Violet suffer trials and tribulations including a friends to enemies to lovers partnership that involves the assistant of the person who’s after her family.

Despite its comparisons, this was a uniquely magical fantasy!

The City of Stardust by Georgia Summers follows Violet Everly as she delves into a world of magic and gods while trying to unravel the mysteries of her family. She meets a wide range of friends and foes, never knowing who to trust.

I found this story hard to get into initially, I would put the book down and wouldn't be able to remember what I had been reading when I went back to it. However, when I took the time and sat down to read the whole beginning of the book I enjoyed it and could understand what was going on. The first half of the book felt a little slow but as the story continued on I thoroughly enjoyed the ending. I enjoyed the characters that we met throughout the book and they truly felt more like real people then we sometimes see in books. In their own way each character was slightly selfish and it took event after event to help them see the ways they may be harming others. I found this akin to real life.

I think Georgia Summers did a fantastic job with her debut novel and I look forward to seeing what she writes in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I want to firstly thank Hodder & Stoughton, Hodderscape. Netgalley And Georgia Summers for sending me at eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The description and cover really pulled me in! I thought it sounded really interesting.

In the story we follow Violet Everly on quest to break her families curse. Someone from a generation is taken by a mysterious woman called Penelope, and they are never seen again. Aleksander, who first met Violet when they were children, works for Penelope. He wishes to become a scholar like all those that Penelope has "collected" over the years.

I found Aleksander's character very interesting and I wanted to know more about him and his history.

I found this book quite hard to follow at times and felt I had missed key points where one second it seemed mundane the next it felt like I was missing a few pages where something major had happened.

I liked how it was from both the POV
Aleksander and Violet. I really enjoyed the magic and myth linked to this story and I was extremely intrigued and mysterious and I want to see how the story follows.

**I would like to thank the publisher for providing me with an eARC of this story.**

The City of Stardust was a perfect atmospheric urban fantasy full of celestial beings, cursed bloodline and a quest to solve the family mystery. Honestly, I enjoyed reading it and the story sucked me in immediately. I just needed to know what happens next and how it ends, haha. It's also a perfect read when you are in the mood to read a book for excellently written atmospheric vibes with dark twists. That being said, this is the type of the story you need to be in the mood for, because it's more plot and vibes driven.

The only thing I didn't like was the pacing. I think the story would benefit more from splitting in into a duology, rather than standalone. I felt a lot of plot points, characters' and worldbuilding's development were rushed. I loved when the author provided us with little details about the world, the tales and the characters' feelings. However, I think it needed more of it because characters and the storytelling turned out flat at the end of the day. More nuanced and slower style would fit this story better.

Apart from that, I enjoyed my spent time with this book and I loved the ending, which I think was a cool resolution. The characters were very interesting and likeable, and the world of Fidelis and Elendriel were fascinating. I do recommend it to anyone who likes atmospheric stories with dark undertones that are set in a unique world with its own mysteries to solve.

The City of Stardust is set in a world that is glittering and glamorous on the surface but cut throat and ghastly at its core. This is a wonderful dark academia book which I think fans of The Atlas Six would enjoy. There’s magical realism, secrets, manipulation, betrayal, twists and turns as well as a forbidden romance.

It was nice to have a standalone fantasy as it seems most books are part of a series now and that can sometimes feel unnecessary or for the sake of it and overall, I really enjoyed this book but what would have made me rate this even higher would have been if I felt like all my questions were answered as there were still a couple of things I was unsure of although I think this was intentional and it was just personal preference of liking everything to be tied up in a bow.

I received a free copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review

Beginning with a chilling mysterious abductor, you are soon sucked into the fabled city that is delicately and intricately built. Both this and the darker decisions of some of these characters rather overshadow the protagonist and romance though they avoid being far too vanilla. Everything about this book is cold and beautiful.

Grippingly intense book, that is a beginning for new tables.
I really enjoyed this read and finding out how or even if the main character would be able to break the curse that's followed her family through countless generations.
Pure escapism and steam punk fantasy set in brilliant locations.
I recommend this book as a page turning tale.

The City of Stardust is an atmospheric story with riddles and scheming through the book. The curse element and the way the worlds were linked by doors has been my favorite part of it. The POV switches was not my thing, I always like to see other characters POV’s, but it felt distracting.

However, I felt a bit lost in the story, while it was beautifully written, I found it slow and confusing at some points. I felt like we had a lot of unresolved plots, the importance of scholars, the existence of magic. I couldn’t understand the political system nor the magical one, so it felt like I was navigating from afar.

Overall, the story was a nice read with a lot of mystery surrounding our characters and the concept was quite good, but the execution didn’t follow. The author did a great job with the mysterious atmosphere she created, and the writing was perfect.

Thank you, NetGalley & the publisher, for approving me to read this arc and write this review.

I was pretty torn on whether or not to award this book 3 or 4 stars. I LOVED the second half of the book - once Violet uncovers the truth of her family's curse and the implications it has on her own life.

What did I like:
The concept of the worlds linked by doors
The curse element
Aleksander's tortured soul
The fact romance wasnt the main plot

However I felt the build up to this point was beautifully written but slow and confusing. Besides letting us know that her mother had abandoned her and introducing Aleksander, the sections showing Violet as a child felt uneccessary.

As do many of the sections with Penelope. I know that her sections were intentionally vague so that we slowly learnt about her identity and her involvement with the Everly family but there were points in the earlier chapters where I felt like putting down the book because I wasn't sure what was going on.

I loved the premise of the world - but wasnt really sure what the "scholars" were doing. Yes they were established by Penelope - knowledge in return for a stream of lifesource but um.. what do they do?

I would love to see. Sequel where violet explores more of the worlds out there because there is so much more potential than what we got.

The City of Stardust is a very atmospheric read. We get riddles and scheming to rival The Inheritance Games, a world building reminiscent of Erin Morgenstern‘s fantasies, and a quick-paced plot that took me back to my teenage days when my favourite book was Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone.

I loved the vibes and the atmosphere. The plot kept me hooked as well, but what really stood out was the character development of both Violet and Aleksander. I liked how layered their relationship was and how much they wanted to trust each other but put their individual goals first anyway. The slow-burn romance and betrayals and confusion were all developed very well and their emotions were shown very clearly, at least to the reader.

My major point of criticism for this book is that there are so many plots that remained unresolved.

What was the point of Violet having talent for magic? It never made a difference to the plot. Neither did the existence of magic in general, honestly, because no conflicts were resolved by magic. Yes, Penelope had to be magical, but her immense power was explained by something other than just magic anyway, so what was the need for introducing reveurite? In my opinion, either make the magic an integral part of your story, or do your world building in a way that it can do without. If Aleksander had showed Violet any other trick in the beginning, and I had read over the part where talent for reveurite-manipulation made Violet glow golden, the story would have worked out much the same way.

Why was the Marianne subplot never really resolved? That epilogue was so random. I can’t be the only one who wanted some kind of resolution to the whole leaving-your-child-to-die thing??

And also, the ending went way too fast for my liking. There was a super random changing of mind involved that wasn’t elaborated on at all, just so that Violet wouldn’t have to sacrifice herself. Plot hole much? Picking up my previous point, I would even have preferred if it was Marianne who did the changing-of-mind-stuff and came back to sacrifice herself for her daughter. That would have been dramatic but heroic. And also, it would have made her appear waaaaay less selfish.

I would recommend this to those readers out there that didn‘t enjoy The Starless Sea because „it‘s just vibes, no plot“ - The City of Stardust felt very inspired by Erin Morgenstern‘s worlds while at the same time following a straight-forward plot.

4/5 stars

To all those who grew up wishing for a world that was more than it was; waiting for someone to come and take them on a magical adventure, this book was meant for you.

Violet Everly is raised by her uncle Ambrose in the Everly house after her mother left her when she was 10. Growing up, Violet always felt like there was more to the world, like a magical adventure was constantly calling out to her. One day, when she finds out why her mother left and soon she gets dragged into this magical world of curses, gods and monsters.

This book had the foundations of being so great, a book written for all those that have just wanted more than what the world has to offer and for the first part of the book that is how it made me feel. However it just fell really flat.

My first issue was the world building. We get told details of the world through snippets of conversation and we have to deduce it from there. This just meant that for the entirety of the book, I actually didn’t understand the magical system, the political system, anything.

The book did have a really good start, it was creepy, intriguing and atmospheric. However, once Violet found out the truth about her mum and started her adventure trying to track her down it just got boring. There wasn’t any sense of adventure, thrill or urgency which is crazy given that Violet was on a mega time crunch to find her mother.

I also found the way the book was written to be so confusing. We would jump between POVs constantly (literally between short paragraphs). On top of that the author also chose to insert different versions of the Everly story within those POVs. So one minute you were with Violet, then Aleksander then suddenly a random fairytale story about the first Everly. It made it so hard to follow and get into the book.

Also the ending was anticlimactic and we never get a full answer to the Everly curse or at least I didn’t feel like we did.

Despite all of that, the book was an easy read and I did really enjoy the first 25/50% of it where there was still a lot of mystery surrounding the Everlys. It had a really good concept but overall execution wasn’t too great.

Wow, this is one of the best books I have read in a long time. It is difficult to believe this is a debut novel. Beautifully written and hard to put down once you have started to read. Violet is such a great leading character. I will be watching Georgia Summers career with great interest. I would give it more than five stars if I could.

At the beginning the story seemed to follow through quiet smoothly however at time it felt like the characters were a bit flat. I still enjoyed the story and I'm definitely getting a physical copy of it but I'm looking forward to reading more of this author

Thank you for letting me read an early copy of it

The blurb of this book immediately had me interested but unfortunately I think this novel wasn’t for me. The premise was interesting and probably my favourite thing about this book but I didn’t love how it was executed.

Also, probably the biggest issue I had was the writing style. Although I can appreciate that it was unique, I ultimately found it a bit tiresome and slow. I can however see how others who enjoy elaborate writing styles would really like it.

Overall, I was a bit let down by this book. I think the story had real promise but I personally didn’t love how the author carried the story out.