The Summer War

Written by Naomi Novik

Narrated by Ella Lynch

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In this poignant, heartfelt novella from the New York Times bestselling author of Spinning Silver and the Scholomance trilogy, a young witch who has inadvertently cursed her brother to live a life without love must find a way to undo her spell.

A CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

Celia discovered her talent for magic on the day her beloved oldest brother, Argent, left home. Furious at him for abandoning her in a war-torn land, she lashed out, not realizing her childish, angry words would become imbued with the power of prophecy, dooming him to a life without love.

While Argent wanders the world, forced to seek only fame and glory instead of the love and belonging he truly desires, Celia attempts to undo the curse she placed on him. Yet even as she grows from a girl to a woman, she cannot find the solution—until she learns the truth about the centuries-old war between her own people and the summerlings, immortal beings who hold a relentless grudge against their mortal neighbors.

Now, with the aid of her unwanted middle brother, Celia may be able to both undo her eldest brother’s curse and heal the lands so long torn apart by the Summer War.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Sep 16, 2025
• ISBN: 9798217159246

Naomi Novik

Naomi Novik was born in New York in 1973, a first-generation American, and raised on Polish fairy tales, Baba Yaga, and Tolkien. She studied English Literature at Brown University and Computer Science at Columbia University before leaving to work in the games industry. She soon realized she preferred the writing to the programming, and decided to try her hand at novels. Temeraire was her first.Naomi lives in New York City with her husband and six computers.

Reviews for The Summer War

[bibliovermis · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was utterly charmed by this novella. It was both a beautifully new story and a really expertly done fairy tale, with elements that were predictable not because they weren't original but because they so closely followed fairy tale story rhythms and expectations. I wish it were longer!

[rivkat_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Novella about a girl—daughter of an ambitious lord—who accidentally curses her brother when he leaves her behind after renouncing his family because of his father’s homophobia. In her attempt to fix the curse, she allies with her remaining brother and tries to navigate a political marriage, but otherworld politics complicate matters. It’s a pleasant variation on Novik’s core themes: Epic people can be very hard to live with; power must be used to serve others or it is bad; loving other people is the only thing that can save us.

[fiverivers_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It is no secret I have been a fan of Naomi Novik's novels for a very long time. And The Summer War doesn't diminish that regard in any manner.

The story examines the repercussions of seemingly innocent actions, and in this case Novik intensifies that with the hapless release of a magical curse delivered by a sister upon her older brother. And that curse resonates through a generational war between the fey and ordinary folk.

This is a story heavy with real relationships between real people in real situations. Novik's ability to draw our own lives into the fantastic is remarkable and adroit, identifiable and sometimes devastating. She follows that most simple of story-crafting paradigms: to work from the known to the unknown. And in doing so she creates timeless stories which are more than good reading for a quiet afternoon. She creates parables and paeans.

And I do love me a story that can squeeze my heart and deliver tears.

Highly recommended.

[bookappeal · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Underdeveloped characters, world building and plot. Novellas need to make efficient use of every word and, instead, Novik wastes many describing the appearance of a fairy tale land, and the words of ridiculous songs, and the blows of endless duels instead of the details that really matter.

[beserene · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Full disclosure: Naomi Novik is my favorite living author and I love everything she writes, so this was always going to be a winner for me. The fact that it's a classic fairy-tale-esque fantasy novella with modern sensibilities makes it even more of a win. The voice, the elegant shape of the story, and the lovely details that bloom like flowers as you read just put it right over the top. It's not as magnificent as her Spinning Silver but it's absolutely great and a good taste of her writing if you haven't tried anything by her before. Read it!

[quondame · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Naomi Novik can absolutely upend a fairy tale, and in this work, she challenges the last two decades of novels featuring gritty young women who navigate kingdoms of men and fae while maintaining high romantic ideals, engaging in underhanded politics, and affirming close bonds of care.

[oldandnewbooksmell · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Twelve-year-old Celia accidentally curses her oldest brother, Argent, to a life without love when he leaves in the middle of the night. As Argent wanders both our world and the realm of the Summerlings (a place that’s been fighting Celia’s realm every summer for over 100 years), becoming a well known and famous knight, Celia tries to figure out how to break the curse. As she gets older, Celia is the perfect marriage match for the prince because she is a sorceress.

This novella had quite a lot in it for just the 144 pages it had. I also don’t want to get into much more of the summary because it kind of ruins the later half of the book to be honest.

I really loved the Scholomance series and those were my first books of Naomi Novik’s I’ve read, so I was curious to read outside of that universe. I didn’t fall in love with this universe as much as I did with Scholomance, but I didn’t absolutely hate it or anything either as it was still a delight to read.

Overall, I can see those who like shorter fantasies enjoying this book, as of course there’s just a touch of magic mixed with a bit of a modern fairytale.

[pferdina · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I received an advance copy of the book through a giveaway. It is a short book. I enjoyed the story very much and read the whole thing in one day. Celia is a young girl when her idolized older brother wins the Summer Games. But then he leaves home, and Celia is so upset that she curses him and discovers that she has inherited the power of her sorceress ancestor. She spends the rest of the book trying to figure out how to reverse the curse and also becoming close to her other brother, who has been ignored by everyone until then.

[jennybeast · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I stand in awe of this short book that captures so much in emotion and war and family and love and magic. It's beautiful. I'm enraptured. I'm relieved that it weaves true. Feels like an Arthurian story. Feels like a fairy tale. Feels like a door into magical summer. Feels like a fable that teaches us all that love is the best and most extraordinary power. Respect.

Advanced Readers Copy provided by Edelweiss.

[krau0098 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I got a copy of this on ebook from NetGalley for review.

Thoughts: I really loved this. The story sucked me right in, was easy to read, had excellent world-building, and engaging characters.

The story follows Celia. When Celia finds out her brother is leaving home for good, she lashes out in anger cursing him to the life of a hero who will never know love. Little does she know her magic blooms at that same moment doing her brother irreparable harm. With her father broken by the leaving of his eldest son, it is left to Celia and the youngest brother (who has long been neglected in the household) to run the estate. However, when Celia is cornered into marriage with the king's sons, all of the siblings will have to come together to keep the kingdom together.

This has lush world building for such a small novella. The kingdom here is ruled by a centuries-old war between the Summerlings and Celia's home country. They are in a truce right now, but once Celia finds out the truth behind the truce, everything starts to unravel.

The characters are incredible engaging and easy to relate to. They are complex and come across as completely human; they make mistakes but not on purpose, and they are trying to fix things. This is the story of both a kingdom and a family in turmoil. Celia's family may be able to make everything right if they can pull together and beat the curse. I was really drawn in to the story and pulling for them the whole time.

This was so incredibly easy to read. Novik is an amazing writer and I always enjoy her books.

My Summary (5/5): Overall I loved this. I always enjoy Novik's books, and this was no exception. It is tough to put a whole fantasy world, amazing characters, and an engaging story into such a small page space and have it work, but Novik did just that. I loved the world in an uneasy truce, the characters trying their best to be good but messing things up, and the way everyone pulls together to make things better. I read this in one sitting and couldn't put it down. I am excited to see what Novik writes next.

[acargile-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this novella. It was so nice to have the entire story in a little over 100 digital pages. I received a digital ARC from Edelweiss; the novella publishes September 16, 2025.

The story center on our main character Celia (Celie) and how the relationships with her father and brothers change life for everyone in the kingdom. The story begins with Celie cursing her favorite brother, Argent, when he chooses to leave them. He was Celie and their father's favorite; in her anger and despair, Celie curses him to be a great warrior but someone unable to find love, which he truly desires. Celie's father is well-respected. He's essentially ended the war with the summerlings. The summerlings were former friends of the kingdom, but an act of betrayal begins a 100-year war that comes and goes as the summerlings remember or forget they're at war. Celie's father loses his desires to care for much of anything, as he faces his son's choice to leave, which leaves Celie and the other brother to run the household and holdings. Celie has never noticed her other brother, Roric. No one notices Roric. He's the new heir and must pretend it doesn't matter to him that no has notices him, talks to him, or believes him to be capable of anything. After all, Argent was supposed to handle everything.

Roric and Celie work to keep the holdings in order. They end up being a pretty good team because they make an effort. Celie works to mend/form the relationship with Roric. She listens to him and strives to help him and he, in return, tries to help her.

I'm stopping there because it's a short work, and I don't want to spoil anything. Needless to say, there are problems. The king thinks Celie's dad wants the kingdom, the prince offers to marry Celie, and the summerlings still want revenge for the betrayal that occurred so long ago. Let's not forget the cursed brother. I found the story delightful, but I like fantasy and I liked the ending. I like that everyone strives to do better, to care about another person and make an effort to change from ideas and choices one thought were best.

[oceancat-3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Summer War is a fun, whimsical fairy tale. It is also *very* short, which I wish I had realized going into it—the danger of ebooks I suppose.

Celia is the daughter of the kingdom’s most successful general, who ended the endless Summer War with the faerie realm which had been raging each summer for generations. She has two older brothers, Argent the beloved eldest, up-and-coming young knight and her favorite person in the world, and Roric, who is also there.

When something happens with Ardent that makes Celia furiously angry, she unwittingly puts a terrible curse on him. She must then work together with Roric, if she can convince him to help, to save Ardent from his fate.

This short little tale reads delightfully like a fairytale of old, with a light and airy writing style and larger-than-life characters. It also has faeries who are actually fey, and not just the pointy eared humans with magic they have so often become

There is a lot about love fit into this tiny book, about how it can hurt us and heal us, and how we can choose it even when it didn’t happen as expected. Naomi Novik knows how to explore emotions and I appreciate her writing so much.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for access to the eARC in exchange for an honest review