The city of 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 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 her place. Violet is the last of the Everly line, the last to suffer. Unless she can break the curse first. 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 she 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."--

Format:

Book

Length:

342 pages ;

Copies:

Available:*

Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
On Display - New Items	F/SUMME/CITY	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

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Summary

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 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 her place. Violet is the last of the Everly line, the last to suffer. Unless she can break the curse first.

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 she 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

Author Notes

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.

Reviews (3)

Publisher's Weekly Review

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.)

Booklist Review

The Everlys are a cursed family. Every generation, one Everly is taken and is never seen again, a punishment for a crime long forgotten by all but the mysterious, ageless, relentless Penelope. As a result, the Everly family has all but died out. Violet is the last of the last generation when she discovers her curse and the mysterious, fantastical magic her family is connected to. Violet has just 10 years to find her mother, who set out to break the curse, before her time is up and she also must go with the vicious woman who holds so much hate for the Everly family and so much power in the world of magic that only the chosen can access. Violet must race against time and betrayal to find her mother and the answers she may hold. 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.

Library Journal Review

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