If you could open a door to anywhere, where would you go?
This book follows Cassie who works at a bookstore and lives a fairly quiet life with her roommate, Izzy. Until she is gifted that Book of Doors. After that her whole life changes.

This was such a great book! It felt like it was in the longer side, but I managed to always be interested in what was happening. There were great twists and turns and it even had me in tears at times. This book will likely live on in my mind forever. I highly recommend everyone read it.

The Book of Doors is a wonderful blend of mystery, suspense, and urban fantasy. Carrie finds herself in posession of a unique book one evening while working at a bookstore. While learning about the book and the secrets it holds, she soon learns that there are other people who are not just interested in the book, but will do anything to posess it.
The Book of Doors intrigued me from the first few pages and did not stop until the final page. The characters are welll written and relatable and Gareth Brown did a wonderful job with the pacing.

My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Despite having very high hopes going into this one, I couldn’t even force myself to continue and had to DNF.

Exceptionally juvenile writing. Marketed as adult but reads at a middle grade level at best. The main character was one of the most, if not the singular most, boring and disinterested characters I’ve ever read. Half the time she speaks it’s to say “mmm” or one word responses. It’s as if even SHE doesn’t want to be a part of the story. The word “murmured” appears at least once per page.

The whole thing felt flat, rushed, fake, clunky, and lacked any substance. There was no depth or character to any part of the story.

I hate that it’s so bad, as the premise is so good.

If I’m being honest, I think the characters should be aged down and this be rebranded as a middle grade novel as that is how the writing style reads.

This book deserves all the stars. I was hoping it would be good, but it blew my meager expectations completely out of the water. I felt connected to the characters from the very beginning, as if I were sitting in a comfy chair nearby while Cassie and Izzy had their conversation that very first night. I wept with Cassie as she was able to do something extremely cathartic that I’ve dreamed of doing since 2001, 2009 and 2014. You’ll know what I mean.

There are a few scenes in here that are horrific in their brutality…but we must have villains to offset our heroes. Every scene has its place, however, and serves both as character development and as justification for what must ultimately happen. Brown’s ability to explain and tie up every loose end is so satisfying.

“The Book of Doors” is a masterpiece. It goes up there with Haig’s “The Midnight Library”, Klune’s “The House in the Cerulean Sea” and Novik’s “The Golden Enclaves”, and I plan on buying a physical copy for my library when it comes out in February (even though I was gifted an advance ebook copy).

Extreme thanks to Gareth Brown for writing such a fabulous story. I very much look forward to more books!

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC. All opinions expressed are my own.

Fantastic story. Magical, mesmerising, packed with adventure. I read this as though a movie was running in my mind. The MC's are now my friends! Ah, the love of books.

Love the ",idea" and concept of this book but the execution of that idea...ugh! Slow-moving plot, weak style, cardboard shallow characters. And the female characters are drawn as if they are giggling tweens fussing over weight and snarking at each other. With that depiction of women, perhaps the author entered one of the magic books in the novel and went back to 1924 instead of 2024???
I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Lovable characters! Interesting magic system! Time travel! Say less! I loved the was the author connected the dots through time travel and world travel. It was a beautiful illustration of found family, magic, amazing locales and friendship.

Wow! This book was amazing and I couldn’t put it down until the last page. I was so intrigued by the premise of this book and then once I started reading it I was hooked! I would definitely recommend this book to other people. Way to go on writing a fantastic book!!!

This was the most existential book I have ever read! It’s full of everything fantastical, magical, and also scientific. It provides a clear depiction of good versus evil, and also takes a deep dive into cause and effect. I loved the take on time travel and how it portrayed the ways in which we can and cannot influence past events.

Although the pacing was slow at times, and my mind occasionally struggled to keep up with the various timelines, this was overall a brilliant debut. Perfect for fans of magical realism and for all the physicists out there!

Thank you to Netgalley and William Morrow for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

If I could give this book more than five stars, I would. This story was absolutely amazing, and I didn’t want to put it down, even when I needed to digest the horrors or wipe the happy tears from my eyes.

I loved the characters, and how the plot wove through the lives of these people, surprising me at every turn. I don’t know how you could make another book to follow this one, but I would be there to read it in a heartbeat.

The Book of Doors is going on my Best Ever list, and it’s going to be very, very hard to knock it off.


I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I was drawn in by the premise of this book and while I enjoyed the overall story, I was less than pleased with the final story arc. The characters were delightfully flawed but still came across as one dimensional.

This was such a quick but fun and exciting read! The plot was engaging and had plenty of surprises kept me on the edge of my seat. I loved the magical and fantastical elements of the story. Thank you to NetGalley for this lovely story.

The Book of Doors is a fun YA fantasy novel about books with powers that are being hunted and sold. Cassie receives the Book of Doors from a loyal customer at the bookstore where she works. She learns the power of the book is not just to travel to other places but to other times. She soon discovers there even more out there - some people are hunting them to protect them, others are hunting them to use them for evil. I know many are comparing this to Midnight Library but I caught more Marvel vibes from this story, specifically Infinity War and Endgame, That is how I will be selling it to my teen readers! .

Imagine a world where people fought over books, books that gave you special abilities and powers over others? Such as, the ability to travel to anywhere you wanted by using your imagination and a special door; the ability to give joy and despair at will, and the ability to disappear at the right time into the shadows.

We first meet Cassie and Izzie in NYC when Cassie is finishing up her shift at Kendall bookstore. She is gifted a book, by an older patron of hers, before he unexpectedly dies. Upon looking at the book, she soon realizes it has special powers. When thinking about a particular place while holding this book, she can instantly be transported there. She and her roomate, Izzy, spend the next several days transporting themselves throughout the world. Because, who doesn't want to have a croissant for breakfast in Paris, and be back in NY for lunch? Soon they realize such power and freedom comes at a price, as someone will do anything to get their hands on this book. They meet Drummond Fox, known as the Librarian, who tells them there are many books like this, some used for good, some for evil. But is he to be trusted?

Thus begins their journey trying to escape various villains intent on obtaining their book at any cost. There are some pretty evil people here. 'The Woman', who owns the book of despair and destruction, and another gentleman who owns the book of pain. Izzy and Cassie both experience the effects of these books as they try to escape their way through time and space to restore these books to a place where no one can find them. There is some nice backstory on Cassie, as she travels back in time to visit her grandfather, which is touching. There's also some potential romance brewing between her and Drummond Fox, which I could see being parlayed into a sequel of sorts. The drama culminates in an auction event where the books are sold to the highest bidder, with disastrous results.

This book is very similar to 'The Ten Thousand Doors of January', and 'The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue', both of which were more well written and did this genre better justice. This was still a fun ride though and creative in the types of books portrayed and the effects they have on everyone. It's a statement to greed, redemption, and the misuse of power.

There are some loose ends here as the topic of how the books get created is alluded to, but not fully explored. All in all a fun way to spend an afternoon or two.

The Book of Doors has an interesting, circular time-travel plot mixed with a magical flare that would be great for television, because it is has a cool foundation of ideas and a lot going on. I think I would have enjoyed this on-screen, but I really disliked it as a book.

Things I Liked:
+ The circularity of the plot with time travel is beautiful in an artful way, how even in the past, your actions are only recreating your present.
+ The idea that history was influenced by these magical Books is a fun nod to the magic of the world.
+ There’s a bit of an Inception-y vibe where you don’t know where one thing starts and the other ends. This is both thrilling and sometimes a tiny bit of a cop-out (in my opinion)

Things I Disliked:
- None of the characters have any true depth; they are all dull, flat and superficial. The characters are here only to service the plot, and there is no real motivation or development for any of them.
- The story is so repetitive; we keep seeing the same things, hearing the same explanations and the same conversations. Some of this is expected in time travel books, but it was odious to read.
- The ‘villains’ (and there are a lot) are unimaginative, to a point where it just has this Scooby Doo evil villain vibe. Again, what is their motivation? It seems they exist only to advance the plot. The violence and action sequences were similar in this criticism.
- Perhaps the thing I hated most: every single woman in this story is written having body image issues and is ashamed to eat. WHAT. THE. F. It’s like this is some stereotype the author laid hard into, and it was completely unnecessary because there is zero character development or backstory that would justify it.

Thanks to William Morrow, Custom House and NetGalley for the ARC and the opportunity to read and review this title.

A big thanks to NetGalley for this fun read! The Book of Doors begins in a NYC bookstore where bookseller, Cassie, is gifted a little book with special powers from Mr Webber, one of the bookstore regulars. This special book, called The Book of Doors, is how Cassie begins her adventure in this fantastical story. Cassie, along with her roommate Izzy, and a cast of unforgettable characters, set out in search of other magical books to keep them out of the hands of people who only want to abuse their power and bring misery to the world. The ending is satisfying and although there is no cliffhanger, the possibility for future books is definitely there. If you love the power of books, and light fantasy, you will love this heart warming story full of time travel, found family, good vs evil, and lots of magic.

I've seen tons of positive reviews for this one and totally see how the Book of Doors will resonate with readers, but I didn't find it particularly compelling, specifically in regards to the character work and narrative style. The magic was intriguing and the premise was excellent, however, so I do see this one appealing to travelers or fans of the ever popular "books about books" genre.

Wow! I loved this book and could not put it down - I read it in under a day! The plot was captivating and while complex, was written in a way that was easy to follow. There were many twists and turns along the way that I didn’t expect, and I love that it wasn’t predictable. All the questions I was asking as I read the book were answered by the end… it flowed well and didn’t feel forced at all. I will definitely recommend this book to other fantasy lovers! Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow for the eARC.

I don't usually read "magical fantasy" books, but I really enjoyed this one. Besides magic, it had action, suspense, relationships, time travel, heroes and villains. The time lines crossed and overlapped several times, but somehow it was easy to keep track of them. I would recommend this unique book.

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I was initially drawn to this title based on its marketing comparison for similarities to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. It didn't take me long to realize that this book didn't have the similarities that I expected to that book, mostly with the writing style, which just wasn't my cup of tea. I think this book would be well loved in the right hands!

I think this was a case of me hyping the book up in my head to be what it wasn't just to then be disappointed by what it is.