I really fell for this cover, and the story between it as well. The prose was beautiful and the story lingered with me long after.

I enjoyed reading and do recommend this book. This is a talented writer who has written a truly imaginative novel and that is saying something in this time and age when stories all seem so similar. Though a little slow at times I will definitely go out and get her next book.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January is an ode to storytelling, reveling in the magic of discovering a new world, whether through a new book or a magical door. Harrow has a beautiful way with words, instantly pulling you into this well-drawn narrative featuring a girl who wants nothing more than to escape into tales of adventure, love, and intrigue. This is masterful writing paired with a brilliant concept that produces a book you won’t be able to put down.

Wow, so I don’t even know what to say after reading this book. It was utterly fantastic. A wonderful tale about finding your voice and the power of words. So, a few people probably know I’m a sucker for portal fantasy, and this one is so well done. The worlds through the doors are so well done, and even with only slight peeks at some of them, there’s an incredible sense of place.

January is so easy to root for, not only is she wonderfully written, but she’s also a greatly flawed character, and there’s definitely some growing to do. Honestly, I think all the characters are so well done, especially January’s father, Julian, who is one of those characters who is doing his absolute best, and yet still makes such big mistakes along the way.

And my final praise for this book, is how utterly gorgeous the prose is. January’s voice is unmistakable, lyrical and was such a pleasure to read.

Honestly, I recommend this book to anyone loved portal fantasy growing up, and wants to return to a place familiar, but with secret magic. Seriously, if this book had been around when I was a kid, I would’ve spent my childhood looking for doors!

This is a great novel. It is different and beautiful, heartbreaking and life affirming. It really does have a little bit of everything. It felt original and different, which seems to be rarer every day. The twists and turns and surprises kept me engaged throughout and I honestly just really liked January. She is a different and interesting character and by the end I was completely rooting for her and especially her dog. The author was really able to paint such a vivid picture that I could practically see the entire story in my mind like a movie. This was fantastic and certainly a book I will be thinking of for months to come.

I will be completely honest and say that if I had not been in a buddy read for this book, I would have DNF'ed this story about 80 pages in. I found it be incredibly disjointed in the beginning and I just could not get in to it. I powered through because of the buddy read and things did start to pick up and then I was frantically messaging my friend and was like YES I GET THE HYPE, but then it lost me again and by the time I finished it I was back to "WHAT???” and felt like I should have dnf’ed.
I realize January was young but if you’re going to discover that you’re a witch who has incredible powers, stop whining and flip flopping over Mr. Locke and OWN IT. Do super cool witchy things, take your awesome, bad ass dog and go out and ruthlessly destroy your enemies. Her character irked me to no end and while I did love some of the quotes found throughout, overall this one was a miss for me.

I liked this book because of its plot and great ideas of it.
The title speaks for itself. The book was a good read. It was interesting from beginning till end.
Sometimes, I would get side track but soon enough, I would love the next paragraph and continue my journey though it.
I like this book enough to recommended it for our library as a purchase.
Now, a lot of patrons can experience delight of Mrs. Harrow's writing.
Recommended!

This book was incredible! I am actually going to re-read it. I thoroughly enjoyed its creativity in that within the book, the main character is reading another book. Once I started reading the book, I could not put it down. I am really thankful for the opportunity to be given this advance copy to read. I have no doubt it will be very much appreciated by others who love stories with a bit of magic, other worlds and the power of words. I wonder if this will spark a sequel? Again, I very much recommend this book - and am interested to read other's reviews of the story. Thank you! :o)

I think the writing of this book was great. It was very descriptive and paints a clear picture in the reader’s head. Unfortunately, I just wasn’t very interested in the book as a whole. I went into the book thinking it would be about a light, fantasy read. Instead, it turned out to be more complex and at times kind of confusing.

Awesome! This book had everything: magic, a good story, great characters, intricate plotting. Would highly recommend to anyone.

This is a magical adventure story that invites readers to slip through doorways into other worlds alongside the characters. I instantly liked January and appreciated her love of books. Parts of it felt like a love letter to reading and books, but also to reading as a form of escape. There were passages when I felt the author had beautifully and perfectly captured how magical a book can be.

I look forward to recommending this to a many customers, and I would love the author to continue telling January's story, but this does sit perfectly as a stand alone. Magical. Adventurous. Beautiful.

This book took a bit to get into the story. The pacing was slow. The uniqueness of the story is what kept me going. The chapter setup was a little off putting at first. I enjoyed the book overall and give it 3 stars

I give this book ten thousand hearts for all time.
Ten thousand stars for plot.
Ten thousand feels.
Ten thousand surprises.
Ten thousand reasons I love the characters.
Ten thousand ways I couldn't get enough of the world.
Ten thousand shouts from the rooftop.
Ten thousand moments that were the best.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January is undeniably amazing. And I would wholeheartedly recommend it.

I'll admit that it took me some time to get through this book - I was doing a lot of traveling for work, I was emotionally drained from trade shows, being away from all my pets for more than two weeks, etc. etc . . . but god. Did this book grab me by the heart and say, "Love is all around you if you know where to look, and the love you put out will return a thousandfold."

Am I saying that this book messed me up a little? Because it actually messed me up a lot.

Janurary Scaller is a lost girl, despite the big house and the warm bed. She's on the hunt for news of her father, the reality of what her patron Mr. Locke is up to, but she's secretly on the hunt for something we all want: relationships with the people around us. And on her journey, she finds this support system of people who love and care about her - from her father, her [redacted], her distant relatives she never knew she had, all down to her dog.

Not gonna lie, I was gonna riot if that dog didn't make it. And it hurt, more than a little, that right as I finished this book my own beloved dog got sick and passed. So there's this added layer of loss that covers this entire book and punches me where I'm already soft.

But that's okay! Why read a book if you don't want to be punched in the feelings, yeah?

I was unable to finish this book. Although the beginning drew me in, several other books grabbed my attention and I haven’t been able to pick up Ten Thousand Doors since then.

Fantasy is not my usual genre, but I found this book to be a very enjoyable read. I guess I would say the first requirement of an author would be to be able to construct a believable alternate world and to catch the reader up in the characters and adventures that take place there and Alix Harrow definitely did that.

This is a dual story: the story of a man, Yule Ian Scaller, and his true love and adventuress Adelaide Larson. Their separate stories begin, then join, then rupture when they are separated along with their infant daughter while transiting a Door into another world. Mysterious forces are working to close the Doors and so Yule and Ade spend years trying to find each other.

Meanwhile, the infant daughter did survive with her father, but he is alone and without resources and still trying to find his wife. He leaves his daughter, January, with a seemingly kind and wealthy man who offers him employment and the opportunity to travel and search for Ade.

January grows up in a privileged world materially, but is lonely and misses her father during his long absences. She becomes more and more unmalleable and eventually escapes what has become imprisonment. She has her parents' wanderlust and some special abilities that enable her to find and transit the Doors to other worlds.

This book is the story of her coming of age and seeking to find the truth about her parents and whether they are alive or not. She must battle villains seeking to shut the Doors but she also has some allies: her beloved dog Sindbad, her friend and protector Jane, sent by her father to keep her safe, and her childhood friend and loyal love Samuel.

Thanks to Net Galley and to the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I received an advanced copy for Netgalley for an honest review. I was so excited to get this book I actually bought the hard bound also. Big disappointment. I found this a whole lot of nothing. I was bored 1/3 of the way through but plowed on. One half of the way I DNF'd. I hardly ever quit a book even if it is just a little boring but this one I put down. I had many more exciting titles on my list to explore.

This is a beautiful, well thought out book with stories inside of stories inside of stories. Or books inside of books if you will. Anytime you start layering reading with reading you're pretty much guaranteed to get my attention. The Ten Thousand Doors of January is a beautifully written read. From a heart breaking love story, to new worlds to be discovered to the mystery of doors and even a puppy (named Bad); I can imagine revisiting this story again and again in the future and loving it just as well.

Lead Gal
Our lead girl, January, is an intriguing child. She's a bookworm who is the ward of a rich and powerful man obsessed with collecting unique things. Her father goes on 'errands' for him and brings back amazing wonders from around the worlds (yes plural) that many doors scattered across Earth take him to. I think January is a very well put together character and she felt very real as the story progressed. In fact around 75% I found my mind wandering and getting a bit bored; then I realized it's because that is how January was feeling! It's an impressive feat when I literally feel like the character in the story without realizing it immediately. That is a sign of a heroine that I connected with in a profound way.

Doors to Doors to Doors
If there was one thing I wanted more of it was doors! We certainly don't encounter ten thousand of them; although there are quite a few. For me any time there is an opportunity to set-up a new world or version of an existing one I'm intrigued and want the ideas to be endless. This endless number of worlds/doors reminded me of Seanan McGuire's book Every Heart a Doorway in that it could continue into infinity. And while many people will see similarities in McGuire's story to that of Alix E. Harrow I think they are both very different books. Ten Thousand Doors is more of a character study while McGuire is far more about the setting and worlds. Harrow does a good job of setting up 'rules' for the doors and keeping strictly to them. Magic without rules is just lazy writing and so I appreciated that it was obvious from the beginning what the constraints are that allow these portals to open.

Action and Adventure
If you're hoping for some flashy sword work, great escapes or vast adventures then Ten Thousand Doors is not for you. Harrow has given us the perfect book for an introvert if you will. As January is an introvert herself she doesn't really push the limits like many other heroines. There are lots of things that happen and some very tense moments but no real fighting or 'action' the way a lot of fantasy is. I personally feel this made Harrow's story stand-out from the crowd for me in a way most fantasy doesn't. It may also be that the stunning prose gives a certain pace and feel to the book that exude a quieter experience than a lot of fantasy books these days.

Relationships
There are some very unique and heart breaking relationships that January either finds herself in or is privy to throughout the story. There is quite a bit of romance without it ever feeling over the top or sappy. I liked the slow methodical set-up of all the relationships whether between parents, January and her father, January and her friend, etc.
The most intricate of these pairings is by far between January and her master Locke. It's a love/hate, hate/love relationship and we are strung along with January as she desperately wishes the man loved her or had some sort of affection to show for her. It's apparent from the get go that this is a man who collects 'things'and January is merely one of them due to her unique look. I found myself often asking if it would be better for her to be a kitchen worker than to be a 'doll' shown off. Although it seems cruel at times the freedom January gets because of her unique position with Locke plays a large part in how she finds her first door. So all's well that ends well.

The Ending
I have a hateful relationship with most endings. Easily the most likely thing to annoy me in any book is the ending. Often they are cheap, contrived, convenient or cliche. (ohhh, that's some good alliteration there, totally by accident, lol) The exact opposite is true with Harrow's ending to Ten Thousand Doors. It just felt perfect. All the ends are elegantly tied up, it's not happy but not really sad. It just is. Very much like life's endings which is probably why I liked it so much. It felt real.
The icing on the cake? This is a stand-alone fantasy book. While you may mourn that there isn't a series here by the end merely because you wish for more; I am very pleased to have read a wonderful fantasy story that won't take half my life or more to get to a satisfying ending. As Harrow tells us early on; "Doors, once closed, do not reopen."

Overall
I can't really imagine another hating this book. Disliking it, perhaps; not really getting into it, sure. But actually thinking it's awful? I'm sure there will be people but it seems unlikely to be often. This is easily a book in my top recommendations for 2019. Lovers of YA/Teen, fantasy, fiction and even probably sci-fi are all likely to find something to love in The Ten Thousand Doors of January. I'll leave you with just one of many beautiful lines from this masterpiece:
"May she wander but always return home, may all her words be written true, may every door lie open before her."

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January is a book that felt like polar opposites throughout the story. There were times that I was utterly entrances with the story, but there were also times that I just wanted the story to end. This being a story about magical doors that transport you to different worlds and different parts of the world I thought there would be more magic involved, but there really wasn't as much as I was hoping for. For me this brought the rating down slightly.

As for the characters I was mostly disappointed because I never felt a connection to them. I never really felt a need to care about them or what happened to them, this left me feeling disjointed from the story. Especially during the slow parts when there wasn't much action.

Compelling from first to last, a lonely young girl finds power in her own words, travels to other worlds and learns about herself and others. A must-read..