What an interesting read! Just a lovely wonderful story for book lovers. Books with magical powers, and battles between good and evil, you easily get swept up into Cassie's adventure. I did feel it lagged in parts, but overall I enjoyed it.

I received a free electronic ARC from NetGalley.
Cassie works at a bookstore in NYC. One night, a regular customer has a heart attack and dies at the store, leaving Cassie a strange book. Inside the cover it reads:

This is the Book of Doors.
Hold it in your hand, and any door is every door.

The book gives the holder the power to move through space and time, using any door. And what starts out as a fun way to travel eventually attracts the attention of others, some of whom want the book for their own and are willing to do anything to get it.

The premise of The Book of Doors was really interesting, but I didn't love the execution. The pacing was awkward and the wrap up of some of the "bad guys" was unsatisfactory.

An interesting concept for sure, and definitely better than Midnight Library, though it felt reminiscent of that. Not my typical genre, but I did enjoy it. It is not a book I could have read in one sitting, but I did find myself picking it up when I was unable to sleep or when waiting in line at the grocery store. It took me a bit to get through it, but not because it was boring or poorly written; simply because it wasn't quick and suspenseful like my typical favorite reads are.

Thank you NetGalley for gifting me an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review and opinion.

Imagine receiving a book that allows you to open any door and be anywhere in the world on the other side. It sounds great. But then imagine that there are people who will do anything to take this book from you (and others like it), and you are in grave danger as long as you hold on to the book. That is the premise and the premise isn't bad, but ultimately, the book didn't work for me. I struggled with the characters. I struggled with the cruelty and the extreme level of gore that was included. The cause and effect of time travel made my head spin (but that holds true of every book that includes time travel). I finished the book, but in the beginning, it was dragging, in the middle it was upsetting, and at the end it was just a bit too much for me. I can see how this book will appeal to a lot of people, especially those who liked "The invisible life of Addie LaRue."

My thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for an advance copy. My opinion is my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for providing this book, with my honest review below.

I had heard so much about The Book of Doors that I was eager to read it and grateful to get the opportunity to do so early. Do you know when you have such high expectations and the build up doesn’t allow for the book to ever reach them, no matter how well written? Well, this isn’t that book. This book delivers on the build up and the expectations so well, and I completely understand why it’s been so complimented already.

Following Cassie as she gets a magical book, I felt transported in this story that was part mystery and part fantasy. This book is the best adventure, and the struggle between good and evil felt real and visceral. I adored every page and believe any book lover would feel the same. There are books that completely transport and perfectly balance creating an environment that feels like an escape but so real, with well illustrated characters and settings. I felt every bit of that here. There were a few places where we wallowed in the author’s writing, but the plot is so engaging you don’t really feel frustration with it. Highly recommended for all readers.

The Book of Doors is trippy, a thrilling realistic fantasy that is unputdownable.

There is some cozy world building at first, as we get introduced to Cassie, who works at a bookshop and Mr. Webber, an old man who visits the bookshop she works at. But once Cassie gets her hands on the Book of Doors, the story takes off and we’re treated to twists and turns that finally lead us to some shocking revelations.

I don’t want to give anything away, as it’s best experienced with little expectations, but let’s just say wow!

The one criticism I had was that the book could be gory at times, which is something I don’t like to read. I skimmed those parts quickly to get to the next. It didn’t really stop my enjoyment of the book overall.

Thanks to Netgalley, William Morrow and Gareth Brown for the ARC.

I was delighted to see this title on the Modern Mrs. Darcy Spring 2024 Book Club recommendation list. That was just the impetus I needed to read this book immediately. Debut author Gareth Brown creates a setting that coexists in the real world, primarily New York City, and the world of magic and illusion. This magical mystery carries the reader all around the world, back and forth through time, and alternating between fantasy and reality.

Bookshop employer Cassie Andrews receives an unusual gift from her elderly bookshop patron on the day of his death--The Book of Doors. Curiosity leads her (and her roommate Izzy) through doors to places that exist in their memories, but these doors soon lead them to be part of a dangerous chase. The fast-paced plot and rapidly changing settings kept me guessing to the end. Heroes and villains, as well as those ambiguous characters in between, are clearly drawn in the way one might expect in a superhero or supervillain story. The ending, while open-ended, still felt satisfying.

Fantasy lovers and magical realism enthusiasts will enjoy this book about the magical power of books. Fans of Peng Shepherd and Alix E. Harrow will enjoy this!

I will be honest, the first 30% of the book was horribly boring. The concept was fascinating and I wanted to finish the book (which sadly took me three weeks) but I pushed on because I really thought it had potential.

If you are a fan of Addi La Rue or the Lost Apothecary, you will love this book. I was not a huge fan of either of those books, but I will say once the plot picked up, I could not put this book down.

The idea that they are magical books with different powers, hidden all over the world and the secret society of people that want them is so fascinating. The story takes you over several timelines, and several continents.


I think Brown did have a tendency to be very wordy and I felt like there were several side stories that could’ve been excluded, but, again, the entire scope of this book was a fantastic concept. I would absolutely recommend it to my friends with the caveat that it can be a bit hard to get into. about halfway through at every intention of rating this book 3 stars, but Brown really surprise me. It was absolutely worth the slow start.

I found the lead character, Cassie, very likable. I tend to be a harsher critic of female leads because I find a lot of them to be very annoying and stupid but I think Brown excelled here.

Thank you to NetGalley for the complementary copy.

This book. The Book of Doors is a book that will be on my mind for a long time, and I know will come up when I’m thinking about my top reads at the end of the year. While I’m not a typical fantasy reader, this was so much more than just fantasy. It is a book about good and evil, love and loss, newfound friendship and the most complex and developed characters. I really enjoyed reading about the characters as they developed and went through the book, and was sad when it came to an end. There were many memorable moments and lines in this book that i have highlighted to return to. I also preordered a copy for my shelf, as I could see myself coming back to reread this one in the future. This book had me questioning so many things and asking myself numerous times, “what would you I do?” I love that in a book! There were some super intense, disturbing scenes, that helped you to better understand a character, and there were some great moments with friends and old family that left my heart happy. I highly recommend this book to all readers of books.

This was such a unique story!

It is so rare to find an original book these days - and this definitely surpassed my expectations.

It had a perfect mix of magic and plot.

Cassie, our FMC, works at a bookstore. When one of her customers died, he left her “the book of doors”. This magical book has the ability to send her to different places and times.

As you can imagine, people would do ANYTHING to get ahold of this so she had to face a ton of trials! She went through such an adventure and it was so fun to get to know her. I loved all of the characters in this book!

I would definitely recommend this book to others who enjoy books about magic!

Thank you William Morrow and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

When I'm done reading a book, I struggle to remember specifics about it weeks, months, or even years after finishing it. But I can always remember how a book makes me feel. The feelings this book produced will live in the core of me for a long, long time. Something about this book - the writing, the magic, the powers of the books - they just took my breath away. Cassie and Izzy are women I want to be friends with. Their friendship is true and beautiful; the way they support each other and continuously gravitate towards each other. The Fox Library sounds like an actual dream.

I don't want to give too much away since anyone who reads this book should go in with little to no information. It's going to knock your socks off and you're going to need to restrain yourself from devouring it, which I had to do a number of times. I literally cried at certain points, as Drummond shares information about how the Book of Doors truly works, and what Cassie can do with it. If you want to read a fantasy book with phenomenal twists and turns, this is it. Prepare to want to do nothing else but curl up with this one.

Thank you so very much to NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read an ARC of this book, and to Gareth Brown for bringing it into the world.

A book about magical books sounded right up my alley. While I loved the premise, the writing fell short for me. Some
sections had overly descriptive passages about the places she was visiting with her magic Book of Doors and the descriptions themselves were shallow and cliche. I wasn’t that invested in either of the two main female characters since they were not fleshed out well. There were also several derogatory descriptions of women and minorities.

I had high hopes for this book as it was described as appealing to fans of Addie LaRue and Midnight Library (both of which I loved) but unfortunately I could not get past the writing.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced reader copy.

This read has unique magical books providing owners a swath of magical abilities; including the Book of Doors that allows for teleportation and time travel. I enjoyed the 'good vs. evil' conflict between those who want to preserve and protect the books compared to those who want to abuse/profit from the books. The plot was well-conceived and includes exploration of how time travel can potentially (?) alter the future and found the main character's journey through time to be full of unique settings and new found family relationships.

The negatives for this book related to the seemingly 'mismatched' or overly violent action from the villain. It clashed with the other more 'cozy' vibes of the plot. While I can appreciate true danger in a magical or fantasy read, it felt over the top and was jarring for me as a reader. Additionally, some of the secondary characters and the villain just didn't get fleshed out enough for me to be fully invested.

However, overall, I definitely was engaged in the main plot, the unique books' power, and wanted to reach the conclusion. I also enjoyed the plot twists and conclusion! Thank you to NetGalley for my e-arc in exchange for my feedback.

The premise snagged me: a book that can bring you to any doorway, from any doorway, with the promise of many other books with special powers. Unfortunately, the shallow and predictable story, wooden characters, and unengaging dialogue made this one a miss for me. There was so much that could have been done with this idea, but it fell far short of its potential. It was a struggle to get through the end, which should have been the most exciting part. Instead, it felt paint-by-numbers with more than a couple of eye-rolls.

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

Where do I start? Initially when reading the synopsis I found this book to be to intriguing and right up my alley—mysterious books with different magical powers, a secret library, several different characters who come together because of said books—and I came into this expecting a whimsical fantasy adventure.

While I thought the premise of this story was so interesting and the way the story unfolds and comes full circle at some points in the end was somewhat satisfying, I was overall quite disappointed by this. I found the characters to be very surface level, and the interactions between them to be almost robotic—there were some points where I felt like I wanted to care for them, like instances with Cassie and Mr. Webber, but for the most part I felt nothing for these characters and their story.

The conflict in this book also felt like a fever dream. The violence? I literally found myself thinking "wtf" every time the woman appeared in the book because of how blatantly graphic and violent the scenes were, in contrast to the rest of the story. I understand trying to portray an evil antagonist with absolutely no humanity but the amount of violence was off-putting in the context of everything else happening with the other characters and pulled me out of story multiple times.

A huge plot point in the story has to do with time travel, which is something I love to read, and I love the concept of how everything is set in stone and traveling through time doesn't change the past, but reaffirms the present—which is prevalent in this book but it just wasn't working for me. I found the pacing to be messy. At times the chapters occur within hours and all of a sudden YEARS pass by (not through time travel) in the span of a couple of pages? Not only that, but the ending felt so rushed and the biggest conflict being resolved so suddenly felt like a slap on the wrist.

There were some minor aspects that I liked about the story that kept me from completely DNFing it, but I was incredibly disappointed by the end. I love time travel, magical realism, and books about books, but this one just didn't click for me the way I was expecting it to.

The use of magic and time travel is always a crowd-pleaser in my book (no pun intended here). In The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown, female main character Cassie Andrews inherits a mysterious and magical book from a late friend, Mr. Webber. This book is The Book of Doors. Little does Cassie know that the whimsy and fun that can be had with the book only just scratches the surface of what magic, mayhem, and mystery it causes to unfold.

The wonderful thing about this book is the depth in which it goes to weave timelines of multiple characters, with satisfying resolution, all in under 400 pages. Never did I find myself lost or unsure of the plot or timeframe due to Brown's perfect layout of back and forths. Another incredible aspect of this novel is the amount of magic that essentially can be left up to the imagination of the reader. While we mainly focus on The Book of Doors in this novel, there are many other magical books both mentioned and left up to speculation as the story moves along. I enjoyed how this creates a door (again, no pun intended) for the reader's mind to fantasize about the endless possibilities of magical books. This is the type of writing that leaves a book lingering in my mind for days and weeks afterward.

I will mention the one quip I have that makes this a 4.25/5 star read for me. In some areas of the novel, mostly in the high-action parts, I felt the story gets a tad clunky. The way characters are described moving around in some situations seemed off-paced to the action happening around them. But, this is a minor observation and hardly deterred from the magic of the story.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC! I really enjoyed this experience and can't wait to see this book hit shelves!

Interesting story, I wanted to know how it was all going to work out. I would recommend it. I've never done one of these reviews before so I'm not sure what to say.

Imagine being gifted a book....a small, tattered leatherbound book filled with illustrations of doors. But not just any doors, one looks familiar from a favorite vacation tour - ornate heavy with a carved design. Wait....there are green and purple lights pulsating as your hand is drawn to the closet door. You open it to find......

The story drew me in and I fell in love with all the characters, their challenges, sense of adventure and fierce dedication to keeping the magical books safe from those who will do harm. Is it a love story? Sure. Is it good versus evil? Yes. Adventure? For sure. But most of all it is an entertaining novel of possibilities!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC copy! I loved this book and will have to pick up a hard copy because both versions of the cover are lovely.
I don’t want to give too many details away, but this is a fantasy adventure that follows Cassie, a bookstore employee, after she is given a mysterious book with magical powers. The Book of Doors that makes any door into every door. I thought all the threads and stories woven throughout this book tied in together seamlessly at the end of the story. This is also one of those books that’s going to be just as much fun to reread as it was the first time around. The story is pretty fast paced but picks up about 30% of the way through and is hard to put down from that point forward. Definitely add to your TBR if you enjoy V. E. Schwab, Erin Morgenstern, or the Time Traveler’s Wife.

This type of story is not in my wheelhouse, but I'm so glad I requested it! Gareth Brown has so many genres going on in this book - mystery, time travel, love, hate, murder, sadness, despair, friendship and so much more - it will satisfy every reader. This is the Book of Life! Kudos for a debut novel!