The story flowed well and the characters were well developed. I recommend this book and look forward to more from this author.


****Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest review****

In Meet Me At the Crossoads by Megan Giddings, my latest review book from Net Galley, the main character is a twin who ends up losing her sister to a magical door. These doors have appeared and opened around the world. After the doors disappear, she tries to continue on with her life but can never forget the doors or what happened to her sister. Also she sees spirits everywhere. Will she ever find out what happened to her sister?

I just finished this book tonight and I’m not sure what to think about it. I liked it but I’m also a bit mystified by it. The characters were very interesting, especially the main character, and I did like how the book was written. It had at times, a dreamlike quality to it. It was a good but I’m not sure what it all meant.

While reading Meet Me At the Crossroads, I always felt like there was a hidden meaning behind everything. The doors weren’t just doors. The spirits weren’t just spirts. It felt like the book was trying to say something that I wasn’t getting. Though perhaps I’m just trying to read more into the book then there is. I don’t think so. I’m a very literal person sometimes and so I went into the book thinking it was about magical doors.

Maybe the book has a message about grief or moving on or something else I’m missing. I’ve lost my father, so I do understand grief. I’m not sure I understand what the book was trying to say though.

It also felt like the characters (and the books possible message) were much more important in this book than the actual plot. The story wanders a bit and at times seems lost and then goes back to its narrative. It is a story that is much more character based than plot based. I did like how it was written, as I said earlier, and I did like the characters. I just wish the story had moved forward more often and wandered less.

And I’m not totally happy with how the book ended. I don’t want to spoil it but it felt like a bit of cop-out in the end. Perhaps an ending that I should’ve seen coming too. I don’t know what I was expecting as the ending. I think maybe I wanted the doors to be more important to the story.

Readers always bring their own bag to whatever book their reading and sometimes they try to shape a book into something and want it to be something its not. I’m not sure what Meet Me At the Crossroad is. I do think its a good book though. I think others may enjoy this book even more than me. Perhaps they’ll find the hidden meaning that I’m missing or maybe there’s no hidden meaning at all. Meet Me At the Crossroads was another interesting experience at least.

Meet Me At the Crossroads will be available on June 3rd, 2025. Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for providing a digital copy for this review.

3.5 stars. I really wish I could leave the rating at exactly this.

One day seven doors appear in various locations around the world (I love the fact that only three are found, at least immediately, because four are in remote locations. That sounds about right. It’s a wide world out there. In fact, maybe there are twenty doors because a bunch of them are underwater and are never seen. That’s my idea and I’m trademarking it immediately and right here!). Where did the doors come from and what are they? Naturally, if there’s a mysterious door that pops up out of the ether, someone (really multiple someones) is just gonna have to go through it, right? So soon it becomes clear there is potential danger behind the doors.

Teenage twins Ayanna and Olivia are raised separately, one by their dad, whose family worships the Michigan door (in a real religion, no less. They live by the door.) The other is reared by her mother. The sisters have very different relationships with the door.

This was an interesting book. I loved the premise, and I liked the story. I really had no idea what was going to happen. If there’s description appeals in any way you’ll probably like it, as long as you aren’t expecting hard sf…you don’t get that at all. This is more about relationships between people.