The City of Stardust

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.)