The Book of Doors is magical, whimsical, and just plain fun. A longtime bookstore patron dies (in the store, no less!) and leaves bookseller Cassie a Book of Doors, which takes her anywhere she wants to go. Cue: Reading Rainbow theme song.

Her first destination of choice: NYC’s Library Hotel rooftop (a real-life magical space in and of itself). She then bounces to The Strand and the New York Public Library, all part of every literary person’s dream.

Soon though, she encounters Drummond Fox, whose nickname is “The Librarian” with a vast collection of his own magic books, which many will do anything to get a hold of. What ensues is a story about the book hunters trying to capture these valuable books to wield as weapons.

While I liked the fantastical elements of the book, especially time travel (one of my favorite subjects), there were a LOT of different books to keep track of, as well as characters, timelines, and outcomes.

It’s an adult debut novel but reads a little YA and gets somewhat convoluted near the end. But it was entertaining and felt unique, with the good outweighing any bumpy parts.

Thank you to the publisher for giving me the chance to read a digital ARC of The Book of Doors. I saw this one getting some buzz on social media, so I really wanted to have the chance to read it. The Book of Doors is one of those unique books about books that makes you remember why you love reading and why you love to get lost in a book. literally. It's an ode to book lovers and readers everywhere; readers will be enchanted and captivated by the story!

Thank you net gallery for the advanced copy of this book. So, if every door could be any door where would you go? To France for pastries because that's where you go when you work at a bookstore/coffeehouse. There are books in the world that are magic and do different things. The good guys want to talk about them the bad guys want to use them for bad things. There is some running, some fighting and then some wibbly wobbly timey-wimey stuff. In the end our girl goes from working at the bookstore to working at the library. The library is full of magic books so that's cool.

WOW I loved this book so much 😭😭 This is truly a book for the bookish peeps IYKYK

It took a little bit for me to get into this one, but once I was in, I was completely hooked on the story. There is a time travel element to this, which usually throws me off - I often find myself poking holes in the theory and it takes me out of the story. The way it works in this book is so simple and digestable, but also so realistic (not in the physics-sense, but in the continuity sense, lol). I'm getting bogged down here, but all that to say, don't let a little TT scare you, it is totally worth it!

The storyline is so intricate, but the way that everything comes together at the end is so SATISFYING and also, incredibly impressive. I just loved loved loved everything about this book and I just know it will be a lasting favorite of mine. Cannot wait to read more from Gareth Brown.

Thank you to NetGalley + William Morrow for the eARC in exchange for my honest review!

I was very excited to read The Book of Doors as I have been loving books that feature magical realism and time travel. Sadly, this debut novel fell a bit flat for me.

What I liked:
-the premise of the novel
-the mc’s relationships with those she cared about
-the mc determination

What didn’t work for me:
-unnecessary romance
-boring at times, pacing was off
-problematic language throughout the book

While I thought this novel was just ok, overall it wasn’t for me.

I have a special place for this book because it had everything I could ask for. I love books about books so this was just perfect for me. Loved the worldbuilding and the storyline. Good job!

Any door is every door. 🚪

Wow. 🤯

This left my mind spinning. It was fantastical, and thought provoking. It surprised me. It was so different than what I was expecting, and really blew me away with how charming, but complex it was. This book held nothing back, and made no apologies. It was at times BRUTAL, but every brutal moment had purpose.

⭐️𝐌𝐮𝐭𝐥𝐢 𝐏𝐎𝐕
⭐️𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲
⭐️𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐥
⭐️𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐱 𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦
⭐️𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬
⭐️𝐓𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐬

The writing was exceptional. I could envision everything so easily. There was no info dumping, just very fluid descriptions. The way the author described things was unique, and truly beautiful. It really resonated with me.

“𝑨 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒅𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒑𝒐𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒈𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒓𝒚 𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒉 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒓𝒆𝒇𝒖𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒕.”

This was a book of possibilities. The way the dots were connected blew my mind. I didn’t guess a single thing. It had me flabbergasted. It was like a magician saying look here, while they did something out of your line of sight. I was blindly along for the ride, in the best way. It was absolutely magical.

“𝑰𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒅 𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒊𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒇𝒇𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔, 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒂 𝒔𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒍𝒚 𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒇𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝒓𝒖𝒅𝒆 𝒋𝒐𝒌𝒆.”

The ending was incredibly satisfying, but left open for a sequel?! 👀🤞🏼 I’m truly sad to say goodbye to Cassie, Drummond, Izzy, Lund and Azaki. What a ride! 🙌🏼

Thank you to Netgalley, and the publisher, for sending me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

As an avid reader, who doesn't love reading books about books!? And Magical books at that! It was such a fun journey and from a debut author at that!

This one is a mixed bag for me. There was a lot I liked and some that I didn't.

The concept and magic system were so incredibly interesting. I love the idea of magical books. It's greatest strength was this and world building. I could imagine this making a great TV series.

Cassie wasn't always my favorite as an MC, but then again a lot of the characters rubbed me the wrong way. The dialogue was clunky as well. The characters especially the women needed more work. Like why are they always thinking about food and in a negative way? That's just not needed.

There were insightful lines about life, old age, grief, family. It's a very quotable book.

My favorite part was Cassie's and Mr. ¿Webber? Relationship! I have a soft spot for old people and every time I read any part with them I was in tears.

In a Nutshell: A contemporary fantasy-thriller combining low fantasy and time travel with the evergreen good vs. evil trope. Mindboggling plotting! Enjoyed this debut novel from start to end, despite a few minor niggles.

Plot Preview:
New York City. Cassie, who works at a bookstore, is surprised when her favourite customer leaves her a book on his passing. The book seems to be full of strange writing and drawings, and has an inscription at the start revealing its name: the ‘Book of Doors’.
Soon, Cassie realises the significance of the title. Using the book, she can go through any door and enter any other place. Along with her best friend Izzy, Cassie begins exploring places using the magical book. Little does she know that this is not the only magical book in the world, and through their fun adventures, they have stirred the interest of some violent people who will do anything to get their hands on this powerful book. The only person who is equipped to help them is the mysterious Drummond Fox, but he seems to be escaping his own past.
The story comes to us through the third person perspectives of various characters.

The official blurb recommends this to readers of ‘The Midnight Library’, ‘The Invisible Life of Addie Larue’, and ‘The Night Circus’. Of these, I have read only the first one, and this book is nothing like it except for the presence of doors. So I’m going to advocate this to readers who enjoyed Peng Shepherd’s ‘The Cartographers’ and Alix E. Harrow’s ‘The Ten Thousand Doors of January’, both of which I loved for their creativity.

Bookish Yays:
🚪 First things first. A debut novel, with a clear focus, and an ambitious storyline, and no overload of needless themes, and a plot that fits together almost like a jigsaw puzzle, a piece at a time. Well done!
🚪 This is a classic good vs evil fantasy. With most characters slotting neatly into either section, this is almost like watching a superhero movie where ordinary characters save the world.
🚪 On that note, the main characters are not heroes but realistic, flawed humans. Cassie is concerned only about her own wishes for a long while. Izzy is obsessed with staying thin. Drummond is a coward who chooses flight over fight. It’s amazing to see them grow in maturity and spirit over the course of the novel.
🚪 The secondary characters, though in somewhat limited roles, are also interesting. Book hunter Azaki, and Lottie aka The Bookseller are amazing grey characters. Azaki’s “bodyguard” Lund is the strong-silent type; I wish he had had a greater active role. The characters that sent a chill through my bones were the antagonists. The book has two of the most heinous villains I have read. (Admittedly, I don’t read a lot of villainous thrillers, so take this line with a pinch of salt.) The main antagonist – ‘The Woman’ – is 100% evil and creepy as heck!
🚪 There are multiple characters at the start, but introduced in a way that is easy to remember who's who. The identity of the characters doesn’t get confusing.
🚪 As a bibliophile, I loved not just that books played such an important role in the plot but also the reveal about how the books came into being. There was something almost spiritual in that scene. And who doesn’t want magical books!?
🚪 You will NEVER see me listing gore and/or brutality in the Yays column, and yes, this book has a quite a lot of brutality. (Remember? Heinous villains!) I actually have a poor tolerance for gory scenes. But the writing in this book is such that I was more fascinated+horrified than grossed out by the carnage.
🚪 The writing is descriptive without going over the top. I could visualise every scene vividly. (which wasn’t a good thing during the bloodshed scenes; oh well!)
🚪 The pacing is somewhat uneven, but I didn’t mind it, as the story doesn’t regress or falter even during the slow moments. The tempo goes in sync with the characters’ actions and emotions at that time. It was almost as if the pace altered in accordance with the state of the character’s freedom. And hey, I still completed this 400+ pager within two days, so no complaints.
🚪 My favourite part of this book is the intricacy of the plotting and how it all comes together. Unlike the more grounded genres such as crime thrillers or historical fiction, genres such as fantasy and time travel cannot be overanalysed for logical accuracy as they are essentially imaginative. Keeping this in mind, the book astounded me with how neatly *almost* all its threads came together at the end. Moreover, the book offers plenty of twists and surprises along the way, while avoiding unwarranted infodumps and needless backstories for the characters. Most importantly, the book takes a couple of plotting calls that are hardly common in time travel stories – such a brave writing choice!
🚪 There is a hint of a romantic development, but thankfully, the story never deviates from its main track and the romance is kept exactly where it belonged – on the backburner.
🚪 I am not a fan of chapter titles in adult novels, but they are used wonderfully in this book.
🚪 Don't you just love authors who thank their pets in their final acknowledgement? I do!

Bookish Mixed Bags:
🔐 Some of the language is a bit awkward. One of the villains, Dr. Hugo Barbary, is exactly as his last name suggests – barbaric not just in his savagery but also in his uncivilised opinions, especially about women and those of non-white ethnic origins. While his lines are cringeworthy to read, they highlight what kind of a prejudiced jerk he is. If we remember that the language reflects the character, it is easier to ignore.
🔐 The plotting gets a bit too convenient at times. Some character decisions are annoying. There are also some question marks in a couple of the scenes. Actually, all this is a hallmark of most contemporary thrillers anyway, which is why I avoid thrillers. I guess I should be grateful this novel doesn’t go as much over the top and gets most things right.

All in all, I had plenty of fun reading this wonderful and entertaining debut novel. While the conveniences could have been toned down, the complicated storyline and the vivid writing ensured my utter satisfaction.
Definitely recommended to readers who enjoy low fantasy/magical realism and innovative storylines and imperfect characters. Just throw your overanalytical caps aside and enjoy the journey!
The author recently revealed on Instagram that he has finally started penning his next book, the title of which also begins with ‘The Book of [xxxxxxxxxxx]’. Sign me up for it!

4.5 stars. (For a long while, I debated about whether to round this down or up. I choose ‘up’ for two main reasons; 1. it is a mind-blowing debut work; and 2. I simply couldn’t keep it aside!)

My thanks to William Morrow and NetGalley for the DRC of “The Book of Doors”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

The Book of Doors seems like it would be a perfect read for me, magic, fantasy and books! I had a tough time getting into the story, the main character was one dimensional and the pacing was slow. If you think you might enjoy this book then by all means check it out. Happy reading!

**Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an electronic ARC. And the opportunity to read and review this book.

Unfortunately, DNF @ 22%. I was really into this in the beginning, but it started dragging. I ended up not finishing.

I enjoyed this fantasy - a love letter to readers. It wasn't a perfect read for me, but I would recommend for readers who love Alix E. Harrow.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the Advanced Readers Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I want to start by saying that I did genuinely enjoy the majority of my experience of reading this book and my criticisms of it are mainly based on my own reading style and interest. This book upends the narrative expectations of a "chosen one" + "magical object" storyline. I felt as if I could have been in Cassie's shoes and have made the same irrational, impulsive decisions she did at the beginning! Cassie learns quickly what many fantasy heroes have learned before her, that all magic comes at a cost. I loved that her family of friends (especially Izzy) carries her through this book. Now, for what I struggled with...

Cassie's inner thought life makes her seem shallow and judgmental. She seems to develop very little over the course of the extremely slowly paced story. What I want out of the pace of a story may not have been what the author had in mind, and that's okay! The book also purports to be asking interesting questions about the nature of humanity, society, and good and evil - but, I think it fails to deliver on even gesturing towards an answer or an argument to those questions. The book was marketed by comparing it to other texts that play with the same concepts in a more engaging and thoughtful way (i.e. The Midnight Library, Babel, etc.). The early chapters from the villain's perspective are haunting, but over time I started to feel like her characterization was very flat and she was being set up like a serial killer of the week on an episode of Criminal Minds - aka dehumanized to the point where the reader expects (and expects to celebrate) her death. The same goes for the latter half's villain, a cartoonishly evil figure.

Something else I wanted more of in the story (and, again, this is my own readerly bias, not necessarily a failure on the book's part) was in-depth lore and history behind the creation and use of the many magical Books and a more intricate / consistent explanation for how the magic system works. I am a huge fan of high fantasy and so maybe I'm looking for more depth in a book that wasn't designed to meet that need. That's okay with me, but I doubt I'll be returning to this read.

When a favorite book store customer dies suddenly in the store, Cassie, a devoted employee discovers that the customer left an unusual book with her name on it. When she returns to her apartment, Cassie and her roommate, Izzy soon discover that the book is very special as it contains magic that allows them to go through doors at any place and any time in history. But just as they are enjoying the perks of The Book of Doors, others who know of this book in addition to numerous other magical books, some well intentioned and some evil, pursue the women and their lives are quickly endangered.
I do like good fantasy and magical realism and this book offers some very unusual good versus evil magical components. I love the concept of using books as tools of magic but for the most part, I found this book to be choppy with too many story lines and POVs. I didn't think any of the characters were well developed with the exception of Cassie. I checked 2 or 3 times to see if the book is listed as YA because the characters seemed immature and it just read as a YA book to me. So, I liked the creativity but this book was just not enjoyable to me.

When I first read the excerpt for this book I was really intrigued. It's always fun to find books with a unique magic system. The book started off slower than I was expecting so it took me a bit to really get into it, but when I did I was hooked! Once this book dug its claws in I stayed up until 2 am because I HAD to know what happened. As I stated before, one of the things that drew me in was the unique magic system. In The Book of Doors, the magic comes from special books that give those who can read it abilities. There were 2 different antagonists and both were formidable in their own right. The male antagonist does make some comments that are both racially derogatory and misogynistic. However, they were a small part of the dialog so I was able to look past them, if you don't believe you can maybe consider skipping this book. Aside from that Gareth Brown did an impeccable job of interweaving the past and present timelines seamlessly and really explaining why and how everything happened. I can't wait to read more by this author.
Thank you, NetGalley and William Morrow for sharing a digital review copy of this imaginative and bingeable book with me in exchange for my honest review.

The concept of this book really interested me however, it couldn’t keep me interested. I do plan on trying again in the future because again the concept of being able to travel through the pages of a book and bringing whoever was with along was intriguing.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this as an arc.

Full transparency: I have struggled with the idea of writing this review and leaving a rating because I did DNF this book at around 35%. Please take my feedback with a grain of salt. Just because I didn’t enjoy it doesn’t mean you won’t.

I was so excited to read this and I am so sad to say that I knew from about 10% of the way through that I was not going to enjoy it.

To begin with the positives, the premise and magic system described in the synopsis really intrigued me. I really enjoyed the magic books, even the more simple ones were made to feel exciting.

But, the pacing was inconsistent and the prose was odd to me. Everything felt very clunky and forced. In my opinion there were several instances where details that added nothing to the world/character building or plot. I also did not appreciate the author’s stereotypes he applied to the female characters. Some of the first introductions we get to Cassie and her roommate Izzy are them complaining about their bodies which to me is just lazy writing.

The main characters and villains also felt very flat to me. I couldn’t connect with any of them and I struggled to focus while reading.

All this to say, I was disappointed but that doesn’t mean someone else out there won’t enjoy this book.

I really enjoyed this book. The adventures and quest by various characters to collect the books kept me interested and kept the story moving. I have to admit the nefarious characters scared me a little. That added to the classic good vs. evil plot line. I also enjoyed the hint of romance between some of the characters. Finding out where the books came from, Cassie herself when she goes into the Nowhere, was very clever. All in all, a great read!

Thank you to NetGalley & William Morrow for an ARC copy of this book.

Oh my gosh - I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It sounded interesting from the synopsis, but it ended up being so much more than I expected. Although Cassie is our "main" character, all of the other characters get their time to shine and all of their backstories really adds to the depth of the entire novel. Although there were a few twists I figured out, the story had other surprises & action that kept my attention. And by the end all of those pieces came together nicely - I'm always so fascinated when narrators are able to do that. (I envision a wall of sticky notes moving around.) In the end I finished the book with a smile and wanting to be apart of a world with magic books... maybe.