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eri_ni's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
I was really excited about this book after reading a few pages in a bookstore. Unfortunately, those few pages were the only good pages this book had to offer.
The concept, in theory, is really good but the execution just wasn't good enough.
The book starts with 12 years old Violet and then for the next 96 pages we jump between scenes that mean absolutely nothing, and that add very little to the story itself, except that Violet is confined to the house, her uncles are useless at communication and that they have 10 years to find their sister and Violet's mother. Which, is the whole premises of the book mind you.
I would love to say that everything after those 96 pages was better, but it wasn't. Some review says that the second half of this book goes off the rails... are the rails the enemies we make along the way?
The story progressed very slowly and most of the time it didn't go anywhere. Violet learned about something, she went there, it didn't work out, she learned a new thing, she went there, it didn't work out, she learned new thing she went there, it didn't work out, she learned...
The biggest problem I had with this book, is that it is written in a page and a half long POV within chapters. We would read a page or so from Violet's perspective, and it would jump to someone's else pov, AND THEN JUMP AGAIN. Do we really need 5 different POVs within the same chapter? I don't think so.
Because of the constant POV jumps, there was no suspense, no surprise, no plot twists. As soon as we learned something new, or encountered a situation that could be a point of interest for quite some time, the POV would change to whoever it was regarding, and it would be immediately explained. There was nothing in this book that wasn't immediately explained and it made it almost unreadably boring.
The romance aspect of this book... My god, I've never witnessed a worse romance storyline. They have met 10 times (TEN!), since you need 10 visits to get a full stamp card, he betrayed her and then disappeared. And when she sees him like a year later she's in love??? The love reveal from his POV is also the most lazy writing you could imagine. Their faces in lovers' type of tarot cards? Please...
But the most infuriating thing about the romance storyline, it could have been an amazing found family storyline instead! The characters could be developed so much more than they were. She was jealous of his world, traveling, and magic. He wanted to belong, have a family, be something. They could feed their insecurities to the moment of the betrayal, and then turn it around, talk, and begin this tentative trust of found family, of understanding. Instead, they share one kiss so the book has a point it can go further and it's later on almost completely dropped. It made me so angry.
The whole book's premise is to find the mother, every single scene and new point of "adventure" is to find her. Violet was looking for her until almost part 5, 283/342 pages in.And they never do find her. THIS WHOLE STORYLINE WAS POINTLESS! The author could just choose Violet to go and try to save her fate instead of doing this pointless chaise to nothing.
The ending is, in all honesty, emotionless. I wasn't disappointed, I wasn't excited. I didn't care.
I was just glad it was over.
I was the lucky one (I guess) and picked up the special edition with a bonus story. It was about the uncles, and it didn't make any sense. Perhaps, it's an opening for a part 2, but I hope it's not. There is not much that can be added to this.
I didn't really like any of the main characters. I liked the uncles and Caspian who had maybe 2 scenes and half a page of dialogue total. And it also seemed that the author tried to humanize the main villain (who was very villainous and did not deserve redemption), and it was another annoying thing. It's hard to feel sympathy reading a sob story about endless suffering when the villain killed random people a scene earlier.
Safe to say, I will not be picking up another book from this author.
(And it's just such a shame this book is what it is, because the idea was so cool)
The concept, in theory, is really good but the execution just wasn't good enough.
The book starts with 12 years old Violet and then for the next 96 pages we jump between scenes that mean absolutely nothing, and that add very little to the story itself, except that Violet is confined to the house, her uncles are useless at communication and that they have 10 years to find their sister and Violet's mother. Which, is the whole premises of the book mind you.
I would love to say that everything after those 96 pages was better, but it wasn't. Some review says that the second half of this book goes off the rails... are the rails the enemies we make along the way?
The story progressed very slowly and most of the time it didn't go anywhere. Violet learned about something, she went there, it didn't work out, she learned a new thing, she went there, it didn't work out, she learned new thing she went there, it didn't work out, she learned...
The biggest problem I had with this book, is that it is written in a page and a half long POV within chapters. We would read a page or so from Violet's perspective, and it would jump to someone's else pov, AND THEN JUMP AGAIN. Do we really need 5 different POVs within the same chapter? I don't think so.
Because of the constant POV jumps, there was no suspense, no surprise, no plot twists. As soon as we learned something new, or encountered a situation that could be a point of interest for quite some time, the POV would change to whoever it was regarding, and it would be immediately explained. There was nothing in this book that wasn't immediately explained and it made it almost unreadably boring.
The romance aspect of this book... My god, I've never witnessed a worse romance storyline. They have met 10 times (TEN!), since you need 10 visits to get a full stamp card, he betrayed her and then disappeared. And when she sees him like a year later she's in love??? The love reveal from his POV is also the most lazy writing you could imagine. Their faces in lovers' type of tarot cards? Please...
But the most infuriating thing about the romance storyline, it could have been an amazing found family storyline instead! The characters could be developed so much more than they were. She was jealous of his world, traveling, and magic. He wanted to belong, have a family, be something. They could feed their insecurities to the moment of the betrayal, and then turn it around, talk, and begin this tentative trust of found family, of understanding. Instead, they share one kiss so the book has a point it can go further and it's later on almost completely dropped. It made me so angry.
The whole book's premise is to find the mother, every single scene and new point of "adventure" is to find her. Violet was looking for her until almost part 5, 283/342 pages in.
The ending is, in all honesty, emotionless. I wasn't disappointed, I wasn't excited. I didn't care.
I was just glad it was over.
I was the lucky one (I guess) and picked up the special edition with a bonus story. It was about the uncles, and it didn't make any sense. Perhaps, it's an opening for a part 2, but I hope it's not. There is not much that can be added to this.
I didn't really like any of the main characters. I liked the uncles and Caspian who had maybe 2 scenes and half a page of dialogue total. And it also seemed that the author tried to humanize the main villain (who was very villainous and did not deserve redemption), and it was another annoying thing. It's hard to feel sympathy reading a sob story about endless suffering when the villain killed random people a scene earlier.
Safe to say, I will not be picking up another book from this author.
(And it's just such a shame this book is what it is, because the idea was so cool)
ezzie's review against another edition
5.0
you know what hell yeah!! georgia my dear, i need more! 🙂‍↕️
jenniemcd's review against another edition
3.0
The intrigue of the plot kept me engaged, but it was sometimes hard to imagine the full world (or worlds) the characters lived in.
leah_west's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
lizziewaslike's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
cassie03carlson's review against another edition
3.0
Here is my review of The City of Stardust by Georgia Summers. Thank you NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for my eARC in exchange for an honest review.
The best way to get me to read a book is by the cover. The cover for The City or Stardust was stunning and immediately made me click the link for the arc and read the description. It was an instant push of the button to ask for an arc I was so intrigued.
Reading it though was a little bit of a let down. There was so much potential but the execution was poor.
There’s a curse on the Everly family line that one child in every generation pays for it with their life but no one can remember why. It seems like Marianne Everly is going to be our main character but she disappears through a magic door and we don’t see her again.
The main story is about Violet Everly who is being raised by her uncles since her mother disappeared. She’s be raised in the dark of all the secrets around her moms disappearance and is homeschooled and not allowed out to do anything.
One day someone named Penelope shows up with her assistant Alexander and Penelope makes a deal with Ambrose (Violets uncle) that if Marianne isn’t found in 10 years then she will be taking Penelope.
From here is where things get confusing. There’s so many different POVs some we figure out who it is and other times it’s just an ominous character that we don’t know what they’re doing.
There’s also no breaks in the paragraphs or any type of acknowledgement that POVs have changed or we are in a different time or place so I had to reread a lot of the chapters and I was still left confused half the time.
The story skips almost 10 years and Alexander pretends to run into Violet at a coffee shop to gain info for Penelope on where her mom is at but she has no idea.
From this, Violet starts to learn about the magic that runs in her family and about whole new worlds but she can’t ask her uncles any questions because they won’t tell her.
But on accident, she finds out about the deal made with Penelope and she runs away from home to try and find her mom. Throughout the rest of the book, there’s absolutely no personal growth and I feel like there’s too much going on for this girl that’s never left her house before except the coffee shop.
She tries to find all these people that know her mom, she steals, she’s breaks and enters, she pretends to be other people to get all this info and we are still lost on the story at this point.
Alexander betrays her a few times.
We don’t find out until the last 50 or so pages what is actually going on with this book and what the point was and the epilogue was an absolute waste of time.
I was seriously disappointed. I probably won’t read book 2.