I didn't finish this book so I can't give a valid review. It didn't catch my attention. I would usually like this type of book but I had a hard time getting into it and I had so many other books to read that this one kept getting a lower priority until I just gave up on it.

I love puzzles and enjoyed this collection of characters. A mystery without violence was welcome and I loved how the pieces fell into place. Slow at the start, but what puzzle isn't?

I know this was a very popular book, it just wasn't for me. Maybe the wrong time and frame of mind for it. I will keep it on my TBR list and try again another time. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

I know this was a well-recieved book, but it wasn't really for me. I had an extremely hard time getting into this book and staying engaged, I hope others enjoy this one, though! Thanks so much for the copy from DoubleDay and NetGalley!

A satisfying, easy read filled with puzzles and the latest brain twister. In some ways it felt like the mind games my grandsons plunk down and wait for solutions - I grew quite close to Pippa and understood her choices. As for Clayton Stumper, I got his as well. The story is neatly wrapped up at the end and it filled the gaps in my day when it was read.

What more can one require of a book? Looking forward to more adventures from Mr. Burr.

*A sincere thank you to Samuel Burr, Vintage Anchor | Doubleday, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.* #TheFellowshipofPuzzlemakers #NetGalley

Thank you to Net Galley and the Publishing Company for this Advanced Readers Copy of The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers!

This was such a surprise, fun read. Sometimes you just need to read a book like this and I am so glad I did. Clayton Stumper, grew up at the Fellowship of Puzzle Makers, actually he was abandoned there but it turns out it was a blessing in disguise. He was raised by a group of enigmatologists, puzzle makers of every kind. Word puzzles, math problems, crossword puzzles, you name it. Pippa Allsbrook, started the club years ago and took care of Clayton with all her heart. When she dies, she leaves the house and the club to Clayton. He is devastated over her loss but she leaves him one more puzzle. He must leave the comfort of his home and find the clues to the puzzle. His journey to solve the puzzle, was so heart warming. There were twists and turns and sweet surprises. I really found this book so enjoyable. This was a four star read for me. I loved the characters and the story. I want to thank Netgalley, Samuel Burr & Vintage Anchor for my copy for an honest review. It was my pleasure to read and review this book. It was an absolute treat.

I really loved this 🥹

There are so many loveable characters from all walks of life, but Clayton was so wholesome. I really enjoyed how we were given clues about his birth story through puzzles and quizzes (which I genuinely sat and tried to work out!)

Overall, this is such a lovely, unique, heartwarming book about friendship and found family, and it will warm your heart and make you smile - and at times, sob.

I couldn't recommend this one enough!

The quirky characters and unusual premise made this a page turner that I was sorry to see end! We switch from past to present throughout the book and learn more about the character who has devised this puzzle for her son to be solved after her death. All of the puzzle makers were interesting and well written. I really enjoyed this book and hope to read more by this author.

Clayton Stumper’s arrival at the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers was unorthodox: tucked inside a hatbox left on the front porch as an infant, with no hints as to who left him there or why they chose the Fellowship. A group of enigmatologists (yes, I looked it up and no, it’s not a word made up solely for the purpose of this book, as much as it may seem to be), the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers is a collection of the best puzzle creators in the UK. Pippa Allsbrook, the head of the Fellowship and a renowned crossword compiler, raises Clayton with assistance from the other members. As one of her final acts, she created a puzzle-based scavenger hunt to help Clayton learn the truth behind his history and parentage.

The novel flips back and forth between Clayton’s journey and the formation of the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers. The changes can feel abrupt, but the pacing of the stories works well. While it’s not a book that I would say go out and find a copy immediately, if you’re looking for something while waiting to get off the holds list for the next big thing at your library, this might be your answer.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher for an honest review.

This one went just a little too deep into the puzzle niche for this reader. Anyone picking up this book who’s ready to put their thinking cap on and scratch their puzzling itch will enjoy this one. I also just couldn’t manage to suspend my disbelief that a community like the one in this story would actually exist and that the events could happen in any way close to what is described.

The premise of The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers drew me right in. I love doing crossword puzzles, acrostics, jigsaw puzzles and more. (I also do Wordle and Connections every day.) Here we have a group of expert puzzle makers who band together into a commune of sorts, starting around 1980. The group was the brainchild of Pippa, a woman who never married and is an expert at constructing fiendish crossword puzzles for a London newspaper (hiding behind a male alias, alas). In 1991, a baby is abandoned at their group home and in her mid-60s, Pippa becomes the mother she always wanted to be. Twenty-five years later, Pippa dies and gives Clayton a series of clues so he can discover the mystery of his parentage.

This all sounded terrific to me, but it fell a bit short in the delivery. First of all, I’m not a huge fan of dual timeline books, especially those that bounce back and forth, chapter by chapter. I find that I’m settling into one story and then I’m yanked out of it for the other story, and then back again. If you don’t mind this, you will probably enjoy this book more than I did.

I found that the various members of the puzzle maker fellowship blurred together. One of them, Earl, is a maze maker (on paper and in landscapes!) and Hector paints and then creates jigsaw puzzles from his art. Along with Pippa and her crosswords, those are the only ones I could really keep straight. Also Nancy/Nance, a much younger woman who was amazing at trivia, but she left the fellowship around when Clayton was abandoned there. I loved her character: a female London cabbie, which was very unusual at the time (no idea if it’s still unusual). Another oddball character was Angel, the housekeeper. But the bulk of puzzle makers were forgettable.

I was more interested in Clayton’s hunt for clues to his parentage, but it was kind of boring. (Honestly, Clayton was boring!) Instead of the adventures, Pippa hints he will have, we follow him to London, where he visits Nance, gets another clue, and so on and so forth, visiting the British Museum, finding a safety deposit box at Harrods (I had no idea they did that there!), befriending an old woman he meets on a park bench. He finds a companion due to his visit to Nance, and they get mugged while walking together, but somehow only Clayton is injured. That confused me.

I was hoping for more puzzles to solve along with Clayton, but the one crossword puzzle that Pippa left for Clayton was pretty easy to solve and even had a weird errors of sorts - when a clue is phrased in a way that the answer should be a noun, it’s odd to have the answer be a verb! (A hungry desire = Crave! Nope, make the clue agree with the answer!)

I normally love stories with found family but this one didn’t quite hit the right notes for me.

Thank you to Doubleday and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a review copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! No spoilers. Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to. Truly Amazing and appreciated the whole story. This is going to be a must read for many many readers. Maybe even a book club pick.

A boy abandoned at birth and raised by a group of puzzlers, after the death of his adoptive mother searches for the truth about his origins by following the clues she left him and, in doing so, discovers himself. Cozy mystery, easy summer reading and, all in all, feel good story, but nothing really unforgettable.

1991- A baby is left on the front stoop of Pippa's house where she lives with other members of the Fellowship of Puzzle Makers. She takes the boy in and raises him as her own. Now- the boy is in his twenties, Pippa is gone, and he wants to find out where he came from. Who left him all alone in that hat box? In order to figure out his past, he'll have to look toward the future and solve the puzzles that Pippa left along the way. Good thing he has a group of puzzle masters to help him.

Loved the dual perspectives and the mystery of it all. I found the puzzles challenging but not unsolvable and thought it was really well done. I recommend getting the print version, I had both the audio and print and it was much easier to have a physical representation of the puzzles. I will be recommending this as a book for my adult book club here at my library!

This book is so much! I enjoyed the plot and characters. I loved the found family aspect of this book. The puzzles were a great bonus! Recommending this to all of our patrons!

It took me a bit to get completely into this book, but once I did, I fell in love with this group of complicated characters. Pippa has formed a group with fellow puzzlemakers and purchased her old family home where they live. They are quite a bunch of unusual characters. Clayton was left there in a basket as a baby and the group raised him as their own. No one has any idea where he came from. As the group aged, Pippa has told Clayton she will give him the answers about his parentage and prepare him for living as an adult. When she dies, she leaves Clayton a puzzlebox with clues for the answers he seeks. Naturally, all the clues are in the form of a puzzle. His quest reveals the history of the group and reveals many things about his past, present and eventually his future.

Also reviewed on B&N (1IrishEyes430) and Kobo (IrishEyes430)

For fans of heartfelt novels filled with found family The Fellowship of the Puzzlemakers is a great choice. This story centers the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers, which is a group of eccentric individuals who adore puzzles, from crossword pros to maze makers, from word sleuths to jigsaw creators. This unlikely group of people are drawn together by Pippa, the crossword queen, who decides they should create a fellowship, even deciding to live together at a large estate. Then one day the puzzlemakers open their door to find a baby in a hat box abandoned on their front steps. So begins the story of how baby Clayton was raised by the fellowship.

The story really gets going as Clayton a now 26-year-old going on 80 at heart, is grieving the loss of Pippa who served as a maternal figure for him and who has now left him one last puzzle in her passing. And its the puzzle Clayton has always pondered... that of his origins. Clayton’s final riddle will not only shed light on his own history, but send shockwaves through the fellowship. Now its up to Clayton to not only find the answers he’s always been looking for, but also see what future exists for him outside of the puzzlemakers.This book reads like a mixture of The Reading List and A Man Called Ove with its sweet cast of characters, including some curmudgeons, and it’s lessons of letting both the good and bard parts of life help propel us forward. This sweet book is filled with enough friendships, family, and puzzles to make it a great summer read.

“The magic was always in the solving, never in the solution.”

There's a puzzle that ends this book (at least in the ARC edition) and I find it interesting that no one has asked a question about it here on Goodreads or commented about it on their review. Again, maybe it was the ARC typesetting but I didn't understand the order Clayton was hunting the clues or when they were happening. Once in a while there would be a word in boldface but I had no idea what it meant. Perhaps in a paper book you could refer back to the original puzzle to see?

I'm sad to say that this was a predictable book for the main mystery. The main character, Clayton, is supposed to be "old beyond his years" but did that have to include not knowing how to google anything, or photo recognition? Sure, <spoiler>when you need to interpret a Greek word the first reaction is, "Let's go to the British Museum!" :/ I understand him being mugged, but it sounded as if his friend, standing right next to him, wasn't?

As someone who just turned 65 I had misgivings about the foster parenting plotline. I don't know who the person was who objected, but I bet it was the housekeeper. You know she would have been the one to do all the heavy lifting--grocery shopping, cooking, driving, etc--not Pippa. Obviously they dealt with a baby without the housekeeper and that worked out, but I sure wouldn't have been enthusiastic about the idea.</spoiler>

I wonder if the book had taken place now if corn mazes would have filled in for the landscape mazes.

<img src="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRKOX0T0iaftwb8v-Mr0SbfedAc3gbelanM6A&s" width="400" height="300" alt="corn maze for seniors"/>

Yeah, yeah laugh it up. (photo of senior citizen corn maze)

My thanks to Netgalley and Doubleday for an advance copy of this book.

An enchanting book. Told in alternating chapters of the birth of the Fellowship and the months leading up to a baby left on their doorstep, and the grown man who was that baby trying to find out who his birth parents are.
The book is riddled with puzzles of all sorts. You can choose to try to solve it or keep reading for the answer.
Life is about finding that missing piece for you. Whether it's a hobby, a hubby, a baby, a degree, whatever.
I really like the motto "To go further, go together"
This was a fun book to read and I would recommend it.