This story is definitely a very mild mystery in which lonely characters try to find out where they belong — and Clayton, one of the main characters, tries to find out who he is. The synopsis of this book really made me want to read it, and although I enjoyed it, I did not think it was a great read. It definitely was a very quirky and eccentric, which made me have somewhat of a difficult time really getting into it, and it seemed to drag at points. I know that this book has generally gotten really great reviews, but for whatever reason I must be an outlier because it just was not my cup of tea.

The Fellowship started a few years before the special delivery arrived on the doorstep in the prologue. The author starts with the mysterious hatbox containing a baby, and the Fellowship deciding to keep him and raise him in their home. From there, the book alternates between present day and about 25 -30 years earlier.

Pippa loved puzzles and was a crossword creator. But she had always stood outside the crowd. Toward the end of middle age, she finds her people - other puzzle people who don’t really belong. The Fellowship was born.

Clayton was the baby in the hatbox. In present day, he is a man in his 20s who has been raised by a group of older people with no relation to one another. And he doesn’t know who his biological parents are…no one at the Fellowship does. Or do they?

This a book about discovering yourself and the people who make life good. Love shows itself in many ways and family looks different to different people.

There are a number of puzzles in the book, but most are in the early chapters, with the only other ones being a crossword clue as the title of the chapter. I would have liked to see more consistency - include puzzles or don’t. I suppose they were trying to appeal to everyone, puzzlers and non-puzzlers, but more even distribution would have been nice. Maybe only in the past chapters?

Overall I enjoyed this book a lot. It was warm and full of heart. It was fun and a little predictable. I enjoyed the different generations in the story, and the way age was never a hindrance, whether young or old.

My thanks to NetGalley and Vintage Anchor, Doubleday for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers by Samuel Burr is a sweet novel about what makes up a family. Pippa writes crosswords and has never found anyone with whom she has connected and started a family. Instead she reaches out to other puzzlers and forms the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers, a family of her own. However, she is sad she never had the chance to raise her own child until by chance, a person leaves a child on the doorstep of the Fellowship, giving Pippa a chance to achieve this dream. In present day, Pippa has just passed away, and Clayton, the child raised by the Fellowship decides to set out to follow the clues Pippa left him to discover who his parents really are. Along the way, Clayton discovers the meaning of love, family, and how to follow your dreams.

I really enjoyed this story. The puzzles were a fun addition, and there were red herrings thrown into the plot so you wouldn’t know the answer to Clayton’s parentage right away although the reader could solve it before Clayton did. I really liked the side storylines as well. However, the chapters switching off between Pippa in the past and Clayton in the future was jarring at first. I preferred reading Pippa’a story at first until Clayton’s developed a bit more and was frustrated to switch around so often. However, once the mystery got going, it didn’t bother me anymore. Would definitely recommend!

Thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for access to an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

A baby boy is left in a hatbox on the steps of The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers. 67 year old Pippa Allsbrook, crossword puzzle creator and the founder of the society, finds baby Clayton and raises him as her own son. When Pippa passes away at age 89,, Clayton feels untethered, and longs to find out the mystery of why he was left on the door step. Pippa creates a special puzzle for Clayton to find out the secrets of life, and the mystery of his origins. A fun, quirky tale that I absolutely loved!

Infant Clayton Stumper was left, in a hat box, on the front porch of the house inhabited by the Fellowship of the Puzzlemakers commune. He was raised and loved by this eccentric group of mathematicians and puzzle makers. When he became an adult, circumstances propelled him to begin a search for the identity of his birth mother.

I thoroughly enjoyed this sweet story about love and friendship. Thank you, Anchor Vintage and Net Galley for the advanced copy of this book.

Clayton Stumper is stumped. The person he has always seen as a mother figure has passed away and feels adrift. As an infant he was left on the step of an aging, eccentric institution of puzzlemakers. He never felt a need to know his biological family as he had so many adults in his life who loved him more than enough, but now with Pippa's death, he's feeling a desire to find his parents. Anticipating this, Pippa creates and leaves one last puzzle for Clayton to help him build his life outside the walls of the fellowship. This was a delightful story of puzzles and solutions to one man's journey to his future.

3.5 *’s Sweet and earnest, full of interesting puzzles, a lovely story. I have nothing else to add at this time, thoroughly enjoyable.

A delightfully wonderful book filled with the story of friends and of the quest of a young man. I am so glad I took a chance on this book. Following the creation of the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers is a wonderful tale of distinct personalities blended to form a commune of different puzzle makers. They become the family to a baby boy left on their doorstep. As an adult, he is led by puzzles to try to learn of his parentage. His journey is a joy unto itself.
A very enjoyable read.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was just OK for me. It was a bit slow and I felt like some of the storylines could have used a little more substance and resolution. Because of this, I really wasn't invested in any of the characters or the choices they made.

What a surprising story! This is far from my usual cup of tea but I thought it was worth a try. So glad I did! Love all the misfit genius characters here - Clayton and Pippa, etc… So many sweet, unexpected moments with friendships - I absolutely love this!

The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers
by Samuel Burr
Pub Date: April 9, 2024
Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Clayton Stumper might be in his twenties, but he dresses like your grandpa and fusses like your aunt. Abandoned at birth on the steps of the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers, he was raised by a group of eccentric enigmatologists and now finds himself among the last survivors of a fading institution.

When the esteemed crossword compiler and main maternal presence in Clayton’s life, Pippa Allsbrook, passes away, she bestows her final puzzle on him: a promise to reveal the mystery of his parentage and prepare him for life beyond the walls of the commune. So begins Clay’s quest to uncover the secrets surrounding his birth, secrets that will change Clay—and the Fellowship—forever.
I highly recommend this for folks that love a story about finding yourself and making your own family. It’s a book that encompasses all the different varieties of love.

This was a fun little book. I enjoyed the puzzles and the dual storylines. The formatting was a bit weird on the kindle. I'm interested in seeing it in it's final format.

Clayton Stumper was left in a hatbox on the steps of the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers, a rather unusual collection of enigmatologists. The members of the household consist of skilled makers of word, mathematical, wooden, jigsaw, and other puzzles. They become his family, with Pippa Allsbrook – the creator and leader of the Fellowship – providing a maternal figure for Clayton.

When Pippa passes away, she leaves a final puzzle for Clayton that will reveal his parentage and also prepare him for a life beyond this Puzzlemaker’s commune where he has lived for 26 years.

This is a quirky and charming novel that deals with loneliness, leadership, friendship, and discovering one’s true self. And if you enjoy puzzles, you will particularly enjoy this novel.

If ever a book was written for a specific audience, this is it. Puzzle lovers will immediately feel at home with a complete sense of understanding what drives these characters. At the beginning, Pippa asks why the fellowship members do puzzles - Destiny, Ritual, Inspire, Respite, Stimulation, Rapture, Erudition, Tradition, Healing, Mischief. What will be interesting is how many readers are delayed because of taking the time to actually try to complete some of the puzzles.
For a book that covers the intelligence of puzzle makers, the author lacked a grasp of simple math. Pippa is 67 when she finds a baby she named Clayton on the steps of the fellowship hall. She’s 89 when she dies, yet the book states that Clayton is 25 at the time of her death. I’m hoping as this is an ARC, it gets corrected before publication. Luckily, Burr is much better at writing than math. This is a gloriously written book with phrases and descriptions I fell in love with. With a few well chosen words, he can describe a scene or a character.
The story is told along two timelines. There is Clayton’s present day quest to know his background and the past timeline of Pippa’s life pre-Clayton. I immediately connected with Pippa. Not her brains, heaven knows, but that she’s the rare woman in a group, her desire to always have to be the one to fix a problem, her shouldering the weight of the world. But she’s also someone willing to create her own family, to find a group of “allies”. Clayton, is an old man in a young man’s body. And after being sheltered for his first 25 years, he’s now stepping out into the world. Like Pippa, he is also a caring person, one who consistently seeks to be there for others. But all the characters are equally enjoyable.
I highly recommend this for folks that love a story about finding yourself and making your own family. It’s a book that encompasses all the different varieties of love.
My thanks to Netgalley and Doubleday for an advance copy of this book.

I really liked the summary of this book and thought it would be a great book for me. Unfortunately, it is a dual timeline, which is not my favorite type. Since the story kept switching from one period to another, it frustrated me and cause me to not really become attached to the characters. When reading and not caring about the characters as I should, I read just to finish the book.

I want to say that I did enjoy the story, especially the last fourth and think the plot was developed well, I just was not invested in the outcome. I love stories with characters of the older population, so that was a huge plus in my opinion.

I want to thank Vintage Anchor, Doubleday and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read the advance reader copy, with no obligation to write a review. My review is written freely as a hobby, and is totally my own opinion, not influenced by receiving the ARC.

In some ways this reminded me of Rachel Joyce’s The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry Novel by Rachel Joyce. Not as much in terms of the story, itself, although this does include a journey, but in the underlying charm of this story.

This story revolves around Clayton Stumper, a young man as this story begins, found on the doorstep of ‘The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers’ by the founder, Pippa, through her he finds puzzles she left him, puzzles for him meant to lead him to finding his birth parents.

The story is revealed slowly, sharing moments from the past that share how the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers began, and their bond. When Pippa decides they should buy this home and all live there together, a home for all of the Puzzlemakers, it takes a while before the problems begin to surface. There are people-relationship problems, and then there are structural problems, as well, but overall, it works for the most part.

I loved the characters and how this story evolved, how Clayton’s story leads him to something and someone he never expected.



Pub Date: 09 Apr 2024

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Vintage Anchor, Doubleday

This was a very clever and fun book to read.
It starts out with a group home. Living inside the group home are very intelligent puzzle makers and solvers. The biggest puzzle to solve is why is there an abandoned baby in the hatbox? Not to worry that’s only one of the many things to figure out.

What a delight! Thanks to NetGalley, for giving me this ARC. I really enjoyed the puzzle and loved the back and forth nature from the present to the past, and, additionally, how it wrapped it in a nice bow at the end. I wonder if this will be like "The Thursday Murder Club", in fact, I hope so, and there will be sequels! Such wonderful devotion, friendships, storytelling and a mystery solved. I will be recommending this to patrons for months to come.

If you like puzzles and games, this is the book for you. The story alternates between two different characters and two different time periods until it all comes together. It's a sweet, feel good story that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Thank you to NetGalley and Vintage Anchor, Doubleday for the Advanced Reader Copy, in exchange for my honest review.

This is a quirky story about family and finding your way no matter what age. The story jumps between Pippa and Clayton. Pippa is one of the founding members of The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers. An eccentric group of puzzle fans. and she finds Clayton, left as an infant on the doorstep. Pippa raises him as her own.

In the other POV, we had Clayton, who finds himself dealing with Pippa's passing and her final puzzle. Clayton sees Pippa continuing to guide him in the world of puzzles and life with her legacy and final puzzle.

The writing is odd but fun. The story was very wholesome and cozy. And overall enjoyable.
I did find the ending a bit anti-climactic and wanted a little more.

Overall, 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.