The City of Stardust

A standalone fantasy for fans of The Ten Thousand Doors of January and The Starless Sea. When Violet Everly discovers that her family owes a blood debt to an immortal, she must venture into a hidden world of magic, gods and monsters to break the curse - no matter the cost.Time to start living.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 is a woman named Penelope, who 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 ultimatum: 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 our 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 . . .