THE worst and best aspects of the imagination are often those which seem unreachable. From the concepts of perfect peaceful futures to the weight of unfulfilled fear hanging over one’s head, which has characterised so much of horror, such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Georgia Summers uses immersive fantasy world-building and a cast of shadowy, complex and, above all, stubborn characters to combine these two opposite yet inextricably tied concepts.

The City Of Stardust is about a curse waiting patiently and cruelly to strike the heart of a family, and the lost paradise and beloved people who may be able to stop it in its tracks. Along this fantasy adventure with a hint of romance, each element is brought to life by these two possibilities – the premise of which fate will come to fruition first will keep the reader on the edge of their seat.

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Violet Everly has never been allowed a normal life and never told why. She was never sent to school or given the space to explore any of the world beyond the boundaries of her family home. Her only escapes were in novels, whichever fairytales she could get her hands on to briefly satisfy the pull of the novel in her chest, making her feel as though there was something out in the world waiting for her.

So, when she was 10 and her mother disappeared on an unspecified “adventure” with no return date, and her care was taken over by two uncles – one ordinary and loving in Ambrose, and one mysterious and distant in Gabriel – something about it made sense.

Somewhat early into this new life, an intimidating woman arrived with a boy who seemed to wield magic, and willingly showed her a galaxy inside a marble before disappearing again.

Unbeknownst to her, this boy was the charge of a woman from a different realm – a place touched by the gods of stars, where masters known as scholars manipulate metal in a land of mountains and lights and snow. In the history of the Land of Fidelis lies the truth of the Everly family’s connection to it, and the curse that one powerfully talented child in each generation, made to be a scholar, will be stolen instead.

Due to her mother’s disappearance, Violet Everly, now 20 and befriending again the magical boy Aleksander as he comes to visit her in her temporarily mundane life, it becomes clear it is her fate to be the next taken. As she slowly runs out of time, she must take the secretive notes from her family home and investigate the curse.

Even though she has not seen her in more than 10 years, she must hope that either she or her mother find the way out of the curse, and to a safer land, mythical even to the scholars of Fidelis, before something powerful claims her.

Each twist and discovery is a turn of the enchanted dagger in the gut. Aleksander must question everything he knows about the power structures of Fidelis, and whether he truly wants to become part of them, as Violet begins her journey knowing its great dangers, fearing it as much as she is enticed.

The City Of Stardust is a love letter to every reader who has ever seen the monsters and betrayals of a fantastical land, but still felt the pull of desire in their heart to go there. It is a story which indulges this urge on every page, rewarding curiosity, and exploring what happens when we follow the best – and worst – of our imaginations.