The City Of Stardust
Georgia Summers
Hodderscape
2024, 343p
Read via my local library
Blurb {from the publisher/Goodreads.com}: Curses are made to be broken.
For centuries, generations of Everlys have seen their brightest and best disappear, taken as punishment for a crime no one remembers, for a purpose no one understands. Their tormentor is a woman named Penelope, who never ages, never grows sick – and never forgives a debt.
Ten years ago, Violet Everly’s mother left, determined to break their curse, and never returned. Now Violet must find her mother, or she will be taken in her place.
To do so, she must descend into a seductive magical underworld of power-hungry scholars, fickle gods and monsters bent on revenge. She must also contend with Penelope’s quiet assistant, Aleksander, who she knows cannot be trusted – and yet to whom she finds herself undeniably drawn.
Tied to a very literal deadline, Violet will travel the edges of the world to find Marianne and the key to the city of stardust, where the Everly story began . . .
I think I first saw this on a special edition unboxing. I thought it sounded interesting and so I requested it through my local library. It was immediately available and sometimes, the way I decide what book to read next is to look at what is due back first at the library. It was this book on the day I checked so I decided to pick it up.
I had high hopes for it, so it’s with a bit of disappointment that I finished this, because I didn’t really live up to the expectations I had. It sounded so good, the cover is great….but the reviews are definitely mixed and I can see why. For me, this had so much telling, very little showing and it didn’t take the time or care to develop the world or characters. Especially Violet, the main character. It probably doesn’t help that she’s a child when the book starts, but it jumps forward in time to when she’s a teenager and is running out of time before a family curse will take her. Violet’s mother disappeared when she was a child to try and break the curse and hasn’t been seen since. Now because she’s gone, it’s Violet that must bear the curse’s bleak future for her family.
The biggest letdown in this for me was probably the romance. It’s supposed to be an enemies to lovers kind of thing – Violet is the one being sought by a powerful being and Aleksander is the apprentice/assistant to this person. And look, there are some times where you can be like, Aleksander is abused, he’s clearly been groomed and is beholden to this person. But he betrays Violet over and over and over again and it honestly? It was tedious after the first or second time. Especially because Violet is mad for all of like, five minutes and is then like “so answer this question?” and continuously brushes these betrayals aside. Even after Aleksander finally has the truth about his ‘Mistress’ shoved boldly into his face, he’d still go with her if she asked him. I didn’t buy anything about the romance, it felt very forced and like they did not have any real chemistry. How could they when Aleksander was so enmeshed with someone else? And I don’t mean romantically. I wish Violet had taken a fraction of the anger she felt for her uncles when they kept the family curse a secret from her and applied it to just one of the times that Aleksander stabbed her in the back.
There’s just so much that felt underdeveloped in this book. Especially Marianne. Like she’s the person that the whole plot hinges on for most of the book. She left Violet behind as a child with one of her brothers, so she could go and break the curse. She’s being hunted every which way, not to mention the fact that there’s Violet, a girl who hasn’t seen her mother in forever. Violet keeps being told that her mother is doing this for her, that she loves her and wanted to break this curse to see her safe. Except that there’s absolutely zero evidence of this. In fact, for someone who is apparently so crucial, she’s barely spared a page and you’re still left with so many questions. Because in the end it must be Violet who tries to break the curse, to do what her mother could not and free the future generations from this. There are two versions of the story that began the curse, one told by Violet’s family and one told by the other side of the curse. That was kind of interesting, but like so many things in this book, I don’t feel like it was stretched to its full potential and the ending/resolution felt…obvious and also lacklustre.
This is billed as an adult fantasy (Violet is a bunch of ages but is probably like 20ish? during the bulk of it) but it honestly read more like a YA fantasy to me. The abrupt way she treated her uncles felt very reminiscent of YA fantasy and misunderstood heroines who are ‘special’ and go it alone. It was very easy as an adult, to see why they had chosen to protect Violet and keep the truth from her. She was a child and the more you understand the implications of the curse, the more it becomes obvious. Plus they expected her mother to return. The uncle that provided the majority of her care was only in his mid-20s when Violet was left with him with little to no warning and I’m not sure Violet ever realises the sacrifices he made, in order to keep her taken care of, safe and protected.
I felt like this had such a good premise and there were times when I think I caught a glimpse of something well done. But honestly, the best thing this had going for me for me, was that it was a really quick read. I read it in just a couple of hours but overall, I didn’t find much in here that is going to stick with me.
5/10
Book #86 of 2024
All The Books I Can Read 
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