Tuesday, January 23, 2024

Review: City of Stardust

 

 

                 Title: City of Stardust 
                       Series: N/A
                Author: Georgia Summers
           Publication Date: January 30, 2024
               Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy  
              Reading Source: NetGalley
                    Length: 335 pages
                      Format: e-book 
                      Cover Art: 5/5
                         Overall: 3/5


A young woman descends into a seductive magical underworld of power-hungry scholars, fickle gods and monsters bent on revenge to break her family's curse in this spellbinding contemporary fantasy debut.

For centuries, generations of Everlys have seen their brightest and best 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 just a child when her mother Marianne vanished on a stormy night, determined to break the curse. And when Penelope cannot find her, she issues an Violet has ten years to find Marianne, or she will take her place. Violet is the last of the Everly line, the last to suffer from the curse. Unless she can break it first.

To do so, she must descend into a seductive magical underworld of power-hungry scholars, fickle gods and monsters bent on revenge. She must also contend with Penelope’s quiet assistant, Aleksander, who she knows cannot be trusted – and yet whose knowledge of a world beyond her own is too valuable to avoid.

Tied to a very literal deadline, Violet will travel the edges of the world to find Marianne and the key to the city of stardust, where the Everly story began.

 

Review:  
I wanted to love this book, everything from the cover (because let's be real I pick books mainly because of the cover) and of course the synonyms. I was really excited about City of Stardust but I was a little bit let down. 

I had kind of a hard time connecting to the characters. And also the story didn’t keep me wanting to come back. It was rushed and kind of unfinished. 

 







Friday, January 5, 2024

Review: Dungeons and Drama

                                                      Title: Dungeons and Drama  
                                                     Series: N/A
                                                       Author: Kristy Boyce
Publisher: Random House Children's

Publication Date: 
Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary 
Reading Source: NetGalley
Length: 300 pages
Format: e-book 
Cover Art: 5/5
Overall: 5/5


 When it comes to romance, sometimes it doesn't hurt to play games. A fun YA romcom full of fake dating hijinks!


Musical lover Riley has big aspirations to become a director on Broadway. Crucial to this plan is to bring back her high school’s spring musical, but when Riley takes her mom’s car without permission, she's grounded and stuck with the worst punishment: spending her after-school hours working at her dad’s game shop.


Riley can't waste her time working when she has a musical to save, so she convinces Nathan—a nerdy teen employee—to cover her shifts and, in exchange, she’ll flirt with him to make his gamer-girl crush jealous.


But Riley didn’t realize that meant joining Nathan's Dungeons & Dragons game…or that role playing would be so fun. Soon, Riley starts to think that flirting with Nathan doesn't require as much acting as she would've thought...


Review:  
This review is short and sweet. Such a fun read, very cute. I loved this book. I am looking forward to reading more from Kristy Boyce.  Thank you to Random House Children's and NetGalley for this e-arc.