The City of Stardust

by Georgia Summers

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Leaning into the lush possibilities of dark academia, The City of Stardust is full of cutthroat scholars, a dark and dangerous education and a secret society of magicians. It’s perfect for fans of The Atlas Six or R.F. Kuang’s Babel.

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, New York Times bestselling author

Slip into a lush world of magic, stardust, and monsters in this spellbinding contemporary fantasy from debut author Georgia Summers.

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.

Praise for The City of Stardust: 

"A story as darkly wondrous as midnight. Summers brilliantly takes our yearning to open doors to magical new worlds, and twists it into a seductively vicious dream of darkness, blood, and winged horrors. Enthralling to the last page." —Shelley Parker-Chan

"Summers' debut is a dark, gorgeous tale of curses, gods and monsters, with the love and loyalty of family at its heart." —Sangu Mandanna

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316561488
Publisher:	Orbit
Publication date:	01/30/2024
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	5,002
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Georgia Summers is half-British, half-Trinidadian and spent most of her life living across the world, including in Russia, Colombia, and the US. When she’s not doing bookish things, she’s planning her next great adventure. She currently lives in London, but she dreams of one day living in a haunted château with a ghost that cleans.

 

Editorial Reviews

10/16/2023

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. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

10/01/2023

DEBUT Everyone knows the Everly descendants are cursed: in each generation, a family member with special talents and a golden aura is taken and never seen again. Violet Everly is 12 the first time she meets Penelope, a cruel, ageless woman who wishes to steal her away, although Penelope really wants Marianne, Violet's adventurous, determined mother who vanished years ago in hopes of breaking the curse. Given 10 years to find her mother or be sacrificed in her stead, Violet and her family travel the globe to seek her. Violet's desperate journey at 21 years old is particularly gripping as she encounters first love and heartbreak, vicious conniving scholars and bloodthirsty monsters, but also magic and beautiful other worlds. All magic comes at a price, however, and in her bid to break her family's curse, Violet must sacrifice and brave much in order to see just one more midnight. While the worldbuilding could be more fully developed and a few questions are left unanswered, the story is riveting. VERDICT An engrossing, fast-paced read.—Katie Lawrence

Library Journal

Kitty Parker narrates a lush and atmospheric romantasy. In each generation, the most talented Everly is taken as payment for a wrong committed centuries earlier--until Violet Everly decides to break the curse. Parker's impeccable delivery perfectly matches the dense and sensuous tone of the story, emphasizing the moody and mysterious world in which Violet finds herself cast adrift. While Violet herself always remains something of a cipher, Parker imbues her performance with warmth, giving Violet a bright spark she would otherwise lack. Parker portrays Aleksander, the enigmatic young man Violet is drawn to, in a dark and brooding tone, capturing his constant shifts between friend and betrayer. Violet's quest is frustrating in its lack of structure, but Parker's narration is a delight. K.M.P. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2024 - AudioFile

"The City of Stardust opens with a haunting prologue that weaves as enchanting a spell as any of the terrible and wonderful magic in the book, and it just gets better from there. Summers' debut is a dark, gorgeous tale of curses, gods and monsters, with the love and loyalty of family at its heart."—Sangu Mandanna, bestselling author of The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches

"A dark dream of a novel, Georgia Summers’s debut is like a sweet shop—an elegant, mysterious one—full of all my favorite things: a grand old house, strange magic, deep lore, a family curse, a cabal, a globe criss-crossing heroine, otherworldly beings, and a new mythos that feels both timeless and original. Welcome to The City of Stardust. Enjoy—and also beware. This fairy tale is deadly."—Laini Taylor, New York Times bestselling author

"A story as darkly wondrous as midnight. Summers brilliantly takes our yearning to open doors to magical new worlds, and twists it into a seductively vicious dream of darkness, blood, and winged horrors. When monsters must be satiated, there is no escaping the choices between love and betrayal; survival and sacrifice. Enthralling to the last page." —Shelley Parker-Chan, Sunday Times bestselling author of She Who Became the Sun

"In opening The City of Stardust, you enter a Gaiman-esque otherworld of scheming scholars and soul-stealing gods, where a daughter's quest to understand her mother's absence is as compelling as her fight against an ancient curse. The ghost of the city undone by pride and a broken promise haunts every page of this memorable and accomplished debut." —Lucy Holland, author of Sistersong

“Georgia Summers's fascinating debut, The City of Stardust, draws readers into a compelling story full of magic, curses, keys, and stories. It asks what we would do to break a curse, to close a door, or to open one. Readers who loved The Starless Sea or The Ten Thousand Doors of January will also love this darkly magical book.”—Kat Howard, author of the Unseen World duology

"A starry tale of curses, gods and scholars that glitters with magic. Beautifully spellbinding. I never wanted to leave the City of Stardust!"—M. A. Kuzniar, author of Midnight in Everwood

"In this darkly gorgeous tale of yearning and curses, Summers explores the terrible and wonderful power of love in its many forms – enduring, loyal, selfish, toxic, destructive – and what happens when betrayal and survival are but two sides of the same coin. Utterly mesmerizing." —A. Y. Chao, #1 Sunday Times bestselling author of Shanghai Immortal

"With haunting prose and assured world building, Summers' debut shows promise. The City of Stardust has echoes of Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus (2011) or V. E. Schwab's The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (2020), and will intrigue fans of portal fantasies."—Booklist

"The City of Stardust is a transporting fairy tale that transcends the genre with a surprising, contemplative ending that reconsiders the tropes with which it began."

—Shelf Awareness

From the Publisher