The City of Stardust
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3.6 • 25 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A #1 International Bestseller • An Amazon Best Book of February 2024 • An IndieNext Pick
"A dark dream of a novel...that feels both timeless and original. Enjoy—and also beware. This fairy tale is deadly." —Laini Taylor
"A story as darkly wondrous as midnight. Enthralling to the last page." —Shelley Parker-Chan
"A dark, gorgeous tale of curses, gods and monsters." —Sangu Mandanna
A curse can be many things. For the Everlys, it begins with stardust.
For centuries, the Everlys have seen their best and brightest disappear, taken as punishment for a crime no one remembers, for a purpose no one understands. Their tormentor, a woman named Penelope, never ages, never grows sick – and never forgives a debt.
Violet Everly was a child when her mother, Marianne, left on a stormy night, determined to break the curse. When Marianne never returns, Penelope issues an ultimatum: Violet has ten years to find her mother, or she will take Marianne's place.
Her hunt leads her into a seductive magical underworld of power-hungry scholars, fickle gods and monsters bent on revenge. And into the path of Penelope's quiet assistant, Aleksander, who Violet knows cannot be trusted – and yet to whom she finds herself undeniably drawn.
With her time running out, Violet will travel the edges of the world to find Marianne and the key to the city of stardust, where the Everly story began.
Slip into a lush world of magic, stardust, and monsters in this spellbinding standalone fantasy from debut author Georgia Summers.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Summers debuts with a rocky romantasy about a young woman determined to break her family curse. Millennia ago, Ever Everly entered into a deal with a magic-wielding scholar named Penelope—but he failed to keep his end of the bargain. The details of this original crime have grown hazy with time, but Penelope's revenge remains as powerful as ever: she cursed the Everly bloodline so that, once a generation, one member of the family must be sacrificed to her. Drinking their blood grants her immortality, and so the cycle repeats through the years. This generation, it's Marianne Everly who volunteers to sacrifice herself to Penelope—leaving behind her daughter, Violet, who is determined to rescue her mother and break the curse once and for all. Penelope, meanwhile, hunts for a door to the ruined city of Elandriel in an alternate magical realm with the help of her quiet, attractive assistant, Aleksander. There's a sense of awe in the search for Elandriel, but the final reveal feels somewhat anticlimactic, and the unlikely and unevenly paced romance subplot between Violet and Aleksander bogs down the more exciting curse-breaking quest. Fantasy readers will be underwhelmed.
