DNF 20%

I’ll only be going a one star review here and not posting my rating elsewhere. I will feature the title on my IG.

While the premise of this book is promising, the execution is very shallow and clumsy. Character development is in fits and starts, especially as more and more players are put on the board-more POVs was not a solution to shallow characters. The writing was very histrionic, attempting to tug at your heartstrings rather than engage your interest. As soon as the caricature villain made her over the top entrance, I lost any interest in following the story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my free copy. These opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for sharing this ARC!

The Book of Doors has a solid premise that I immediately gravitated toward. Unfortunately, something got lost in the execution. While the magical realism was done very well, everything else, from the flat plot to the poor character development did not keep my interest. A story like this could be better told through television or film.

ARC Review: Publish Date 2/13/2024
Thank you Net Galley for letting me read more books!

I kept wanted to love it and feel all the feels for The Book of Doors, but every time I was on that path, a derogatory sentence or description would come out of nowhere and take me right out of the story. There is fat shaming, fat phobia, racist remarks, anti-women remarks, and others woven into the story, dropped like a little blip on the radar, for no apparent reason, and are totally unnecessary, and it didn't track for me. It made my uncomfortable every time one came. I am not sure why Brown included those since only hurt his story. That being said, the concept about magical books that give their owners incredible powers and allow folks to travel across the world and time, was spectacular. I loved how the time travel and magic worked in the story and how everything was connected in the end via our main protagonist, Cassie. It felt like a fun adventure. But, be prepared, there are parts with the main "women" bad guy, that are quite gruesome.

Overall, it was a fun book with issues. The characters fell flat and lacked any depth, the language was repetitive and clunky, but the plot and magic was fun. As a book loving gal that would give anything for a Book of Doors, still worth the read, even if it wasn't perfect.

3 Stars

The premise of this one sounded promising- Cassie, a bookstore clerk, discovers a magical book that opens doors to anywhere and anytime. The beginning had me hooked and there were some very clever plot lines pertaining to time travel. However, as the book went on, I really started to find most of the side characters tiresome to the point that I could no longer care about out the story or outcome. Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to read and review this book!

I genuinely wanted to love this book, but I just couldn’t get full into it. It started fairly slow in my opinion, and took a while to get to the meat of the story. I felt the ending was more exciting and satisfying, but due to how slow it felt to me originally, I can only rate this three stars.
I hope others still give this one a try because it had a great premise and world building. My issues with it are just that, mine.

I truly don’t have words for this book… It absolutely stole my heart with the beauty of the found family aspects and the characters working together for a better future for everyone despite the risks to themselves in the process.

Read if you like:
📚 Special Edition Books
✨ Fantasy
🚪Magical Realism
🔎 Mysteries
🏠 Found Family
👯‍♀️ Stories about Friendship

I just finished the book, and I’m sitting trying to write my review, but all I can think about is the physical ache in my chest from all the emotions that this story gave along with the pulse pounding fast paced story telling where I couldn’t stop reading because I needed to know what was happening next.

This story truly is so magical and I don’t want to say much other than be ready to feel all the feels throughout the book, because it truly did get me to feel ALL of the feelings.

Additionally, I wholly recommend going in blind and just letting the book of doors take you on the adventure of a lifetime as you uncover the story one page at a time.

Thank you a million times over to the publisher for my ARC in exchange for my review!

I loved this book!

Action/Adventure ✅
Thriller/Horror ✅
Fantasy ✅

It was so addictive and completely bingeable. I saw @scaredstraightreads rave about this book, so I immediately requested it on NetGalley, and he was not wrong in his review. I didn’t put this book down all day because I had to know what happened - I also got emotional a few times but let’s not talk about it lol

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Anyways, this is a must read! Thank you @netgalley and @williammorrowbooks for the arc in exchange for my honest review. Pub date February 13.

Let me begin my saying that this book is not my usual genre of reading, but oh my!!!! It sucked me in from the first page.
If you like magic, time travel, good vs evil, romance, books and bookstores, then this book is for you.
Cassie is working in a bookstore in NYC, after the death of her grandfather, who raised her. She becomes friends with an older man who is a daily patron of the bookstore. He suddenly dies, at the store, and leaves Cassie with a beautiful, but strange book, The Book of Doors. This magical book allows Cassie to visit and enter any door. “Hold it in your hand, and any door is every door”.
Cassie travels in time to visit places of her past, that fill her with happiness. But there are many others, those who own other magical books, that want hers and will go to any means to get it. The development of the cast of characters is perfect- you knew who they were and what they want.
As I got closer to the end, I didn’t want it to end, but I needed to find out how it would end. And I loved it!
This is Gareth Brown’s debut novel and I’m hoping there will be a sequel to the wonderful Book of Doors!
Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for this advanced copy.

THE BOOK OF DOORS by Gareth Brown is a clever story with a very different take on time travel. All books are magic, but Mr. Brown presents a world in which certain books have a specific type of magic. One makes you feel nothing but joy. One helps you to create illusions. One causes pain. And one opens any door anywhere.

One of the best things about THE BOOK OF DOORS is that it is a standalone story that explains all its mysteries. By the end of the story, you know what happens to each of the characters, know the pertinent elements of their backstory, see how the books come to exist, and get closure on the characters' futures. Mr. Brown tidily wraps everything up for his readers, something that doesn't often happen in fantasy novels.

While book lovers often talk about books as a way to discover new worlds and experience different cultures without ever leaving home, THE BOOK OF DOORS takes that idea and makes it real - except for the leaving home part. It is less about a love of books and more about the living embodiment of what books can do for its readers. While Cassie's book is a literal door to anywhere, the other books are equally powerful. Everyone who calls themselves a reader has an experience of strong emotional reactions or imagining something that doesn't exist simply through the words on a page.

As for Cassie's Book of Doors, Mr. Brown changes the idea of time travel we've seen in previous novels. If I had to guess, Mr. Brown was not a fan of any of the Back to the Future series, given that his book makes that series impossible. Gone is the idea that the past is malleable, and any change you make to the past would have consequences for your future - the very premise of all three Back to the Future movies. Instead, in THE BOOK OF DOORS, the past is fixed and cannot be changed.

Not only does Mr. Brown's time travel idea turn the idea of time travel on its head, but it removes all of the danger of time travel. (Yes, time travel is theoretical, but let's pretend we could do it and it was physically safe.) No more time paradoxes. No more threat of nonexistence should your past self meet with your time-traveling self. The options Mr. Brown's idea gives time travel are limitless, and Cassie only touches the surface of it.

While other stories out there revolve around a love of reading, THE BOOK OF DOORS takes the idea of the power of books and makes it literal. The story is a simple one, and the characters are equally one-noted. But any lover of books will appreciate the world Mr. Brown builds.

Cassie Andrews works in a New York City bookshop and lives a pretty mundane life, until she receives a book from a mysterious patron of hers upon his death. This is no ordinary book, it's the Book of Doors and can make any door into EVERY door. Reminiscent of The Midnight Library and for fans of The Night Circus and the Secret Life of Addie LaRue, The Book of Doors is a wonderfully written fantasy novel that just keeps getting better and better.

Thank you, NetGalley and William Morrow, for my complimentary digital copy for review.

The Book of Doors is nothing short of a mesmerizing journey. As someone who finds myself perpetually enchanted by the concept of books within books, this novel by Gareth Brown struck a deeply resonant chord. The idea that books are not just stories, but potent artifacts with the power to alter the fabric of reality, captivated me from the outset.

Every character in this universe, carefully crafted, felt alive, pulling me into their emotional journeys. I rooted for the flawed yet admirable protagonists and found the villains particularly captivating. Their complexity and crucial role in driving the narrative made them more than mere antagonists.

The inclusion of time travel as a seamless element of the plot further enriched the story for me, adding layers of intrigue without ever feeling overwhelming or confusing. Such a complex theme felt so naturally integrated into the fabric of the narrative.

My experience with "The Book of Doors" was profoundly engaging, offering a fresh and compelling take on the magic of books. For anyone with a deep love for books about books and stories that weave magic with the intricacies of time travel, "The Book of Doors" is, in my eyes, an essential read.

I'd first like to thank NetGalley for providing me this arc for a honest review. I will start by saying I did not finish this book and had to stop about 25% in because I found myself just not caring about the characters at all.

The idea of this book sounded so so good, which was why I was interested. I love books with magical realism, but this just fell flat for me. The very beginning was interesting, but as I kept reading I felt bored and disinterested. The mystery that was set wasn't a mystery I wanted to know what would happen. I typically do not DNF books because I hate not knowing what happens, or giving it a full opinion, but I just couldn't continue. I will not be reviewing this anywhere else besides here because I don't feel it's right to give a 1 star and review to the public when I didn't complete the read.

This book is pure MAGIC!!! PURE PURE MAGIC. I did not want it to end, I was taking my sweet time, especially when the action started in this book, and we have Cassie and other characters, literally trying to save humanity, because the book that was handed down to her might be way more dangerous than she thought.

This is how it starts out, we have Cassie who works at a bookstore, she has this adorable old man who comes in and sits and sips his coffee before closing. Anyway one day he passes away and next to him he has a book that he gave to her with a saying “Any door is every door.” Well, the way Cassie found out that this book is special AF was when she starts thinking of her fave places, she opens any door and it leads her there, that’s so damn AWESOME. I kept thinking to myself, I need this book in my life.

So we end up finding out that this book and others out there are magic and special, and if they land on the wrong hands they can do very bad things. We get introduced to so many cool people, Drummond is one of them, also known as the Librarian, and his family library housed the majority of these books, and some people had died for them and because of them. I am telling you this book was awesome.

This book had everything, fantasy, magic, time travel, some horror (because there some characters here who are so damn scary and do very scary things), and a little romance, it was overall exciting. I feel like this isn’t the end, not yet.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the eBook ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really really really wanted to like this book. The description immediately grabbed me and had me excited to read it but, unfortunately I don't think this one was for me. I feel awful giving a negative review of an ARC but I encourage anyone who comes across my review to find out for themselves if this book is for them! I'm not one to discourage anyone from reading a book even if I didn't like it. So regardless of my dislike, definitely give it a shot for yourself. However, I did have to DNF this pretty early into it and here's why. To start off, the way the FMC was described as being too tall, too thin, chest too flat, just very self degrading things and i didn't like that. Also there were weird comments about eating food and calling herself nasty for eating pancakes, that all felt very unnecessary and just rubbed me the wrong way? Which, at the end of the day, sure it might not be a big deal but it just made me feel icky and you have to think to yourself "why is the author telling us this? what's the point?" and any conclusion y0u can come to is likely not a good enough reason, for me at least. Also, the pacing of how things were unfolding felt a bit off to me. The writing style wasn't the worst ever (a bit clunky though) and I can normally look past that and enjoy a book with that, but with everything combined, I couldn't bring myself to finish it. I found myself dreading continuing the book and even this review. I'm very disappointed because I really wanted to love this, especially with being a book lover and dreaming of traveling my whole life, but it just fell completely flat for me.

I had a hard time getting into this book but I realized by the last 3rd that the author had been laying groundwork for a lot of plot twists and realizations. There could have been several loose ends with this plot but they were all wrapped up very nicely and in unique ways throughout the last 3rd. I loved the way the book was organized into parts with chapter titles and interwoven stories that happened multiple times in different ways. Like I said, this could have gone badly, but the author left no stone unturned and I appreciated that. I think the character development for Izzy could have been better because I was not nearly as connected with her as I was with the other characters, so that led me to real apathetic at times. On another note, there were way too many semicolons, BUT that didn’t change the story for me. Thank you for sharing this story with me and the world.

5 stars
What a mind blowing, amazing work of art this book is! Part magical, part illusion, part time travel, this book took me on an ever changing journey through space and time!

Cassie, a clerk at a NYC bookstore, receives a gift from an elderly customer upon his death. It’s a book, but not just any book. It’s The Book of Doors, which enables Cassie, and her bestie Izzy, to go through doors and emerge anywhere on earth! Rome, Paris, Prague, anywhere!
The magical book can also provide time travel, to the past and back again!
As expected though, the book is sought by many dangerous people, who will go to any length to have this book.

The different characters and settings we meet each have their own connection to this book, and many others like the book of Illusion, the book of pain, The book of health, and many more.
It’s a wild journey for Cassie, Izzy and the readers, and I highly recommend this amazing book!
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for the opportunity to read this book pre- publication, and give my honest review.

When I first heard about this book, I was so excited and I put in my NetGalley request immediately. It sounded perfectly suited to my taste because it was a mix of a love of books, magical realism, and a mysterious man with dark hair. Unfortunately, it fell very short of those expectations.

The overarching feeling I have right now is disappointment. The premise of this is so unique but that and the minimal world-building weren’t enough to keep me satiated. There were definitely things that I enjoyed and I think the character of Drummond Fox was interesting enough that I would enjoy another story from his perspective. However, every other character fell flat. They were all one dimensional, stereotypical, and a little boring. I don’t think I actually cared about any of them and therefore didn’t care about their relationships with each other.

The writing itself was so clunky and disjointed. Lots of telling and not a lot of showing. The dialogue felt like it had been written for teenage girls - like Gareth Brown doesn’t fully understand how people speak to each other and especially how women speak to each other. I have said time and time again that I don’t think men should write from the perspective of women because most of the time, they don’t know what they’re doing. The amount of times that the female characters in this book referred to weight gain or food going directly to their hips was alarming.

I’m not sure where to start with the pacing except to say that it was all over the place… I’m mostly referring to a specific section of the book where time passes so quickly that it made almost no impact on me as a reader - and it should have made an impact given the “importance” of it for the story itself.

I also think it’s important to note that one of the villains, if you can call him that, was unnecessarily racist and misogynistic. Listed below are some of my favorite quotes of his:
“Some fucking ape slapped me like I was his wife.”
“That fucking Black, bald bitch.”
“That Jap and his ape must have been working for her.”
“Sometimes I wish I lived back in the 1970s when the natural order was still in place. Life was so much simpler then. I could just give you a slap and send you away to make my dinner and nobody would even blink.”

I wish I had loved this. It is full of so much wasted potential and although I see what Brown was trying to do, and appreciate the attempt, it would have been better in someone else’s hands.

Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Magical realism, contemporary fantasy, books with powers, and people hunting these books for evil purposes. I absolutely loved getting lost in this book. Cassie is a 20-something working at a New York City bookstore when a regular customer dies of old age while she’s working. She grabs the book he had with him and sees a note that he has given it to her. With the Book of Doors, any door is every door - she can go to different places and even different times as long as she has a door to open and the book in her hand. But soon the hunters are after her and this highly sought after book. Can you imagine?!

This one comes out next week Tuesday, on 2/13, so this is your official notice to pre-order or add it to your library holds. Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow for the digital ARC!

Thanks so much for the ARC, NetGalley and William Morrow! This book was such an interesting ride. It took me a while to get into the book, but once I did, I could not turn the pages fast enough! I loved the magical aspects of this book and the message that it shared. I can't wait to recommend this to my friends!

If you like Time travel and magic realism, with a slow burn story, this one is for you!

I loved the premise of this book, if you could open a door and go anywhere, where would it take you? However, the pacing of the book was a little off to me. It would start to get fast and I couldn’t out it down, then it would slow down and I would not pick it up for a few days. I’m not usually a slow burn book kind of reader, so I think that if you love a lot of detail you may not have the same pacing problem that I did.

Overall, unique premise with all of the magic and time travel. Solid 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.