At 50%; I love this book. *updated* finished ... I LOVE THIS BOOK!

If you love puzzles and books, this one is for you! (I love puzzles and learned a few tips.) I loved that puzzles were provided in the book, but not immediately solved. Claytons chapters begin with a crossword clue.

Clayton was dropped off as an infant on the doorstep of The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers commune. Pippa raised Clayton as her own and he loved her dearly, but Clayton wasn't a gifted puzzlemaker like everyone else in the house. Pippa passes away early in the book (not a spoiler) and Clayton is finally ready to investigate his origins. Pippa has prepared clues for him and his adventure begins.

The point of view alternates between Clayton in the present and Pippa and the origins of creating The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers. Author Samuel Burr created such wonderful characters; I especially loved Clayton.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher (Doubleday) for the opportunity to review the advance read copy in exchange for an honest review. 368 pages; Publication date is April 9, 2024.

This book is going on my best of 2024 list bookshelf and I'll be recommending it.

*updated* I finished The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers the next day, Dec 21 ... so good ... and honestly the last thing i needed was to be so wrapped up in a book a couple days before Christmas that i couldn't stop reading. And even worse yet, I slowed down my reading because i didn't want the book to end! But thankfully I finished at 11:30pm and not 3am. So Merry Christmas to me. (moving to end of review, even though this gushing was originally at the beginning.)

- This is book follows two main stories: a woman forming a fellowship of puzzle makers who each find a family in their fellowship, and a man who was left as a baby on the doorstep of the fellowship as he tries to uncover details of his parentage.
- If you love puzzles, this book has them scattered throughout so that you can "play along" with the characters.
- 1loved the love in the book — so many new and different types of love uncovered and explored.
- Thank you to NetGalley and Vintage Anchor for the Advanced Copy!

This is a neat story that revolves around crossword puzzles and the group that belonging to this interesting club,

Pippa Allsbrook found Clayton Stumper as an infant in a hat box on her steps and raised him among her elite club of puzzle-makers.
Now at twenty six, Pippa has died and while cleaning her room he finds a letter she has written and left in that old hat box.
Now he can begin to work to solve the puzzle she has left in her note and find the answer he needs; "Who were his parents?"
Can he complete the puzzle as Pippa has asked? Will he find the truth?

There is friendship, love and of course many puzzles within the pages of this story and it is fascinating!

I truly enjoyed reading this novel. It is very different and it will make a hit, I am sure!
Thank you to @NetGalley and @Vintage Anchor, Doubleday for this Arc and allowing me to read and provide my own review.

What a nice, heartwarming story!
Our story centers around a group of creators of different types of puzzles; running the gamut from crossword puzzles to jigsaw puzzles to anagrams to mazes. There is a wonderful group of characters, all with their stories to tell. The main characters are Pippa, the person who started the fellowship of the puzzle makers, and her son, Clayton. As the story goes back and forth between the past and current time, we learn more about the puzzle makers and their lives.
I really enjoyed the story and would highly recommend it! Happy reading!

What a powerful story. I enjoyed this book and hope to read it again with friends. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. Five stars. I have a feeling this will do very well with bookclubs.

Unfortunately I couldn't really get into this one like I thought I would from reading the description. It wasn't bad but not that good at holding my attention.

Thanks to Vintage Anchor, Samuel Burr, and NetGalley for access to the Advanced Reader Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I found the concept of a group of puzzlemakers having a fellowship intriguing. The book contains numerous puzzles available to solve if you wish but it is not necessary to enjoy the story of relationships, love, and redemption.

The story bounces between two protagonists, which works well to provide background and context as Clayton solves the puzzle of his past. Samuel Burr has created characters we care about, develops them throughout the story and leads them to a satisfying conclusion.

Review posted on Goodreads manually due to broken link:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6035595993

There are two things I love in books, number one, maps and number two, puzzles the reader can play along with. This book is filled with the latter. It is a heartwarming story about friendship, family, love and a bit of self-discovery thrown in. The characters are a mixed bunch whose quirks make them special and even now as I think about them I smile.

A fun read with bonuses for any puzzle lovers.

Thanks @netgalley and @vintageanchorbooks for the early access. Due for publication April 2024.

Such a sweet story of Clayton's discovering who is really is and finding out what it means to be true to himself! Pippa is a British puzzlemaker and heads up a weekly meeting of puzzlemakers in a local bar. Soon the group organizes and becomes a very loving commune in an estate house that Pippa inherits. A baby boy is left at her door one day, and the child grows up with a family of puzzlemakers. But, at age 25, he is compelled to find out who his parents are and how he ended up at the commune.

This story alternates between Pippa's point of view, 25 years earlier, and Clayton's point of view, currently. The writing is very British, which I don't always love, but I read it in lightning speed because I wanted to find out how the puzzle of Clayton's life was constructed, and how it was solved. The story has a lovely, satisfying ending.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to read and review The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers.

This was a unique book that I absolutely loved. I was adopted and love puzzles so it was kinda the best of both worlds. The characters were an absolute blast and this was such a feel-good novel that I found myself smiling as I was learning more and more about each character. It's definitely a book that I will remember long after I finished the book.

There were also some puzzles sprinkled throughout the book which was a unique touch!

Thank you to the author, Vintage Anchor, Doubleday and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Thank you to NetGalley and Vintage Anchor for the ARC! This was a delightfully unique book about a society of puzzle makers who had a baby dropped at their doorstep. We follow the story of Pippa, the crossword specialist of the group, and her creation of the Puzzle Makers as well as the story of Clayton, the baby who is all grown up and and is on a journey to find his birth parents. This is a feel-good novel filled with good people who want the best for each other. The puzzles sprinkled throughout were a welcome bonus! Keep your eyes out for this one when it comes out in April 2024.

This was a really interesting book for me and I very much enjoyed it. The plot and characters were all 10/10 and I can’t wait to read more by this author. Definitely recommend!

Can a man trying to find his birth mother while living with a group of eclectic actual puzzle (all different types) makers actually succeed? For Clayton, who was left on the doorstep (in a hatbox!) of the puzzle makers' abode, this becomes an all encompassing endeavor after the women who was his surrogate mother (along with help from the rest of the puzzelmakers) died. She left him a series of clues designed to thrust him into new experiences all the while meeting new people and forging new relationships that help him solve his very own puzzle.
An engaging storyline along with a variety of eccentric characters, all caring for Clayton in their own ways, does make for a read that warms the heart.

This was a fun book to read. It's too bad the Fellowship is fictional. I'd love to be a part of it or at least attend their fayres. The characters all seem like people I'd spending time with.

I enjoyed this story but have mixed feelings about it. Based off the synopsis, I was expecting to follow Clayton's journey in solving the puzzle to find his birth parents, but the main focus of the book seemed to be told in the POV of Pippa's past. I think I would have enjoyed this story more if it was told in the present POV. There were times were the story dragged and felt overly descriptive with scenery that distracted me and led to moments of boredom. The ending was endearing but very anticlimactic and emotionless. It was a good book just not what I expected.

Thank you to the author, Vintage Anchor, Doubleday and NetGalley for granting me digital access in exchange for my honest review!

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read snd review an advanced copy of this book.

This is a delightful story about Pippa, a crossword puzzle maker, who has a dream of putting together a group of people who create all kinds of different puzzles, and Clayton, left on a doorstep as a baby, who is basically adopted by Pippa and the fellowship, and needs to find out how he ended up there.

When Pippa forms the fellowship, who live together in an old hotel, she faces new challenges and struggles. When she dies, however, Clayton is left with Pippa’s final puzzle, a search for his birth story. Alternating between past and present, we read about struggles and triumphs, as a cast of quirky characters live out their dreams.

I liked the story, especially because I like jigsaw puzzles, a lot, and enjoy other types of puzzles, as well.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the chance to read this early for an honest review. The cast of characters in this book are so quirky and cozy! I want to join their fellowship of puzzle makers. I like Scrabble and word games, so maybe they’d have a place for me.

I guessed who Clayton’s birth parent was rather early on, but that didn’t detract from the story. Clayton was so sweet. I can relate to being an introvert and not wanting to get out there and experience things.

The structure of this story, with alternating chapters in the past with Pippa starting the fellowship and the now with Clayton solving his puzzle was an interesting way of presenting the story. It was good to see Pippa as a character and her perspective since she was so sick at the beginning.

I’d recommend this story for people who like puzzles (as quite a few and their history were described) and those that enjoy a cozy, quirky cast of characters (like Murder in the Building without there being any murder).

In a perfect world, this book would be out now, I would be able to talk openly about it, and we would share our love for it. But unfortunately, “The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers” by Samuel Burr, doesn´t come out until next year. Let me share my thoughts on it, so you can see why this is awful for all of us.

Clayton Stumper was left at the fellowship´s doorstep. Pippa, founder and president of The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers, after realizing this, decides to raise him as his own. Years later and after Pippa´s death, Clayton decides to find out who left him behind, and even from the grave, Pippa still helps him out with puzzles that made me stare at the ceiling in thought and had Clayton running around the entirety of London.

The book tells the story of both, Clayton´s journey finding out where he comes from, and hoe Pippa founded the fellowship and the story of it, through a dual point of view.

This book has a promising everything: cover, title, and premise. And the delivery is nothing short of amazing.

I had a fantastic time reading this. The main characters were not only interesting to read about, but they were likeable without being the same kind of person, and they both had me itching to know more about where their stories would lead. And more than anything, they both shared one characteristic; they were caretakers. They took care of everyone they met, and it made me care about each character that was mentioned, too.

I think it goes without saying that this book was a fun read, but I would like to say that it did make me sit in my bed and think about it for a while. Because more than puzzles, this book is about loneliness and love. Love of all kinds. It comes with a beautiful message: What you do and what you say matters. You will always have an impact on other people and is never too late to remember that.

The one thing that I think could’ve been done better, was that I really don´t think we got to see Clayton process the news at all. I would´ve liked to see more character development, specially from him.

Aside from that, I think the book ticks every box that could be mentioned.

Thanks to NetGalley for the Arc!

While I appreciated the central themes of this book (i.e. it's never to late to find your people/a place you belong and the importance of community) and the interactivity of the puzzles throughout, I feel as though the writing felt slightly distanced from both the plot and the characters. Clayton is the primary character giving us the present day-POV, while his adoptive mother, Pippa, is the past-POV. I truly think that more time should have been spent in the present day. While it was interesting seeing the creation of the Fellowship, at times it felt like it dragged. I would've appreciated more time in the present, letting Clayton gain a bit more agency as a character, or, if there had to be a POV set in the past, that it followed Clayton from his early years, so that both Clayton and the other members of the Fellowship would get more fleshed out as characters. As it is, I never really connected to any of the characters and the more emotional beats never quite hit in the way that I wanted them to. The ending as well felt rather anti-climactic and, given how much it was built up, something that didn't feel entirely earned.

I guess I just wanted something that showed more than told, while also inviting the reader into the Fellowship. I appreciate what it tried to do, but ultimately the book wasn't for me.

Puzzlers, this is your book! Clayton has grown up in the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers, where he was left as a baby. His mother, Pippa, was the president of the Fellowship, although Clayton has always felt as though he was truly raised by the group. After Pippa’s death, Clayton is ready to find out the truth of his parentage, and of course, Pippa left him an elaborate puzzle to help him uncover it all.

This book is at once heartwarming and logical, with puzzle embedded into the story. As Clayton is working to solve each puzzle, the reader has the chance to do so, as well. Clayton is said to be kind and bright, but perhaps doesn’t feel like the brightest or most interesting, and has not spent much time with peers his age. The writing is so delicate in creating a Clayton that is bashful, yet brazen when he needs to be that we cannot help but root for him. Told in alternative timelines, the story unravels bit by bit until at the last moment, we see the puzzle’s full picture come together, and of course, all of a sudden it makes sense.

Thank you to Vintage Anchor and NetGalley for this ARC!