This book was quite a ride! I really enjoyed it after I got through about 20% of it. I don’t know what it was about that first 20% but it took me a while to get through it. After that I flew!
The story was so unique and fun. I am hoping that there is a sequel!

I liked the multiple perspectives - this can sometimes be overdone but this book wasn’t.

I didn’t really like the Izzy character. Or her relationship with Cassie- why do they only have relationships with each other? Where are their other people? It didn’t need this information but I definitely was curious.

I love the concept of “The Book of Doors”, and was very intrigued in this story telling.
This was very well thought out and an interesting weave of magic and time travel. I was not expecting the dark portions with villains etc but this just added to the mystery.
That being said, there were parts that felt very slow to me, and I had to push through them.
The ending was beautifully told. Looking forward to other books by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley for this advanced copy in return for my honest opinion.

Pub date: 13 Feb 2024

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinions.

I wanted to love this book so much! I did somewhat like it but it had so many slow parts I felt like quitting…and because of that it took me forever to finish.

I absolutely loved the idea of this book and it’s so very unique. But I feel like I couldn’t connect well with the characters and there were things the villain says that hint at racism and that just wasn’t for me. I understand it’s the villain and they are supposed to be bad but it felt over the top unnecessary.

I could definitely understand how some people will love this book but I think maybe it just wasn’t for me.

3/5 stars because I love the concept I just wish some parts had been tweaked a bit before it was released.

Thank you to Net Galley and William Morrow. I was pleasantly surprised with this book. Fantasy is not my normal genre and sometimes has a hard time capturing my attention, but this book peaked my interested right away. I loved the premise of this story about a book that can open a door to anywhere. It was a quick read. Check it out!

Thank you to Netgalley and William Morrow for making this book a Read Now and allowing me the opportunity to read an advance digital copy early!

This book is unfortunately a DNF for me, however, it's a temporary DNF. It's just not the book for me right now. I'm hoping later on, I'll be in the mood for magical realism/contemporary fantasy and can pick this back up again at a later date. I dropped this book at 40%.

That said,

The writing in this book is gorgeous. Gareth Brown is a artful storyteller. This book is a piece of classic art while also feeling incredibly believable. The premise is familiar—young adult finds magical object, magical object leads danger to them, older wiser soul rescues them and reveals information that the magical object is apart of a much bigger world that's been hidden from normal eyes—all familiar but the premise of magical books with different abilities, especially one that allows one to travel anywhere in the world and time, gives the familiar premise a fresh take.

Mr. Brown also shows excellent use of 'voices' when swapping POVs. Its so easy to get lost in multi-povs, but I found that the author is able to give each POV their own unique voice that allows the reader to keep track of whose pov we are following with ease. Personally, my favorite so far is the POV of The Woman. She's got me morbidly curious about her.

The book does start extremely slow, enough that it's made it rough for me to keep reading. I ended up giving up at 40% and decided to just come back to the book later. I will update this review later if/when I return to The Book of Doors.

The plot of this story was very interesting. At first I thought there wouldn't be much depth just based on reading the synopsis, however Brown made this story very deep with many layers by adding the concept of time travel and seemingly endless magical books.
Overall, I thought this book was very good and strong. I do feel that it was a bit long in some parts, but overall I did think it was fun to read and interesting.
Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow for the opportunity to read The Book of Doors as an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of Book of Doors!

This book was excellent! I felt like it was a slow start, and I was a little slow on the uptake of the *magic* that was truly central to the tale. However, the pacing picked up (quickly!), and the book was ultimately quite a page-turner!

I loved the characters, and I felt like I understood them more as the book went on. There were multiple plot twists I didn't see coming, and I actually felt like the magic made sense by the end of the book -- which I feel is rare!

I loved the complexity of the storyline and felt like it was a well-thought-out tale. Would be great for lovers of time travel, metaverse, or magic books -- none of which is typically me! Rather, I was attracted to the story for the character development, the emotion, and the unique concept.

I recommend this read! 4.5/5 stars

“𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘖𝘧 𝘋𝘰𝘰𝘳𝘴. 𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘥𝘰𝘰𝘳 𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘥𝘰𝘰𝘳.”

What an enchanting book! Seamlessly blending elements of time travel, fantasy, and magical realism, this book will definitely appeal to fans of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘯𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘓𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘥𝘥𝘪𝘦 𝘓𝘢𝘙𝘶𝘦. As the main protagonist, Cassie takes readers on a thrilling adventure as she is given an unusual book that unlocks both the ability to travel to anywhere in the world but also to different time periods.

The story leads us on a journey filled with great danger and strange characters. There are lots of people who want Cassie’s book and would do absolutely anything to take it from her. There are other magical books besides Cassie’s, and the person who holds the books also possesses extraordinary abilities.

I had the book, but the audiobook was tremendous, especially the voice for the very unusual Drummond Fox.
Marinda Raison’s skilled narration really gave each character their own unique voice. I highly recommend listening to this story in audio format.

The clever time jumps, good vs. evil, and unique characters made this an unforgettable story. This book world make an amazing movie!

(Many thanks to William Morrow Books for providing me with a digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.)

One of the best books I've read. I started one evening and finished the next evening. It kept my interest the entire time. I couldn't see the ending because the author kept me guessing & the plot gave many options. I liked the characters and they moved well through the story. I'm amazed that I was so captivated. There isn't much I can write about the actual story without giving something away & I don't want to ruin it for another reader.

#Netgalley #TheBookofDoors #GarethBrown #HarperCollins #WilliamMorrow #mystery #amazing

I received an advance reader copy of this story. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher! I was a little torn throughout my entire reading of this book. There were some parts I liked, others that I hated, the writing style being one of my biggest issues. It was really difficult to get through many intense scenes and some dialogue unfortunately. The magic system was also a little hazy and hard for me to understand and agree with at times, and I think the characters could’ve used more fleshing out; they felt a little one dimensional. There is definitely a compelling plot and heart to this story that will resonate with some audiences, I just wasn’t the best target. My final rating ends up at 3/5 stars rounded up from a 2.5.

A very fun romp of a novel that allows its threads of narrative to breathe as they come together and pace apart

This was more than I thought it would be. Part Literary Fiction, part thriller, part horror...if you like books (special books, lol) then you'll most likely enjoy this one. Some aspects were a little hard to follow, as is the case with most time travel books because you have to avoid the conundrum of changing what has already happened, but the story and characters were enjoyable and memorable.

A clever story with a unique twist on time travel. A tale of magical books attracting collectors and villains. I especially liked the descriptive settings of the Fox Library, Mr. Webber’s reading nook, the hotel and the cozy bookstore. Oh, how I would love to visit the Drummond mansion in the mountains. For the most part, I liked the characters and found the relationships our protagonist had with her grandfather and Mr. Webber heartwarming, yet the characters lacked dimension and the dialogue seemed designed more for young adults. More time/pages devoted to character development and some editing would make this a 5-star book. Keeping in mind this is a debut, overall. I enjoyed the book.

ARC was provided by NetGalley and William Morrow in exchange for an honest review.
#NetGalley #TheBookOfDoors

This was a fantastic story!!!! I know books are magical but it would be wonderful if there were these special books too. From the book of Luck, to the book of Illusions and of course the powerful book of Doors that shows up in Cassie's life after the death of Mr. Webber. This book had the right touch of magic and interesting characters and ways that the problems were solved (and how they were created in the first place). It also had the right amount of wistfulness with Cassie's grandfather and the time spent with Mr. Webber too, plus the strong friendship of Izzy. That book of Doors is really the book that can make anything possible. I would not mind borrowing it for a bit so I could visit my family without driving or flying cross country!

Cassie works in a book shop in New York and is given a gift one day by a favorite customer. An old book with mysterious writing on it and a message: This is the Book of Doors, and with it, any door is every door.

The gift lets Cassie and her roommate Izzy travel the world in an instant, but also leads them down a dark and dangerous path as they discover that the Book of Doors leads not just to new places, but to a world of other magical books, and to the sometimes quite deadly people who hunt them.

OK, my favorite part of this book is how it handles (spoiler!!) time-travel. You can't change the past - anything you do becomes a part of your existing past, so it has always happened for you. But that means that you get to see how everything that has happened in the past can be explained by things that take place in the future - and the reverse, so the story circles back on itself it ways that tie everything up neatly, and very satisfyingly!

The characters (there are many!) are well portrayed, and I did really feel the deep friendship between Cassie and Izzy. The writing occasionally gets a bit too flowery-Brown is clearly going for a literary angle here-and it was a shade to violent for my tastes (I am a scaredy-cat). But all in all an enjoyable read.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow Publishing for a digital advanced copy of this e-book in exchange for my honest review.

3.5/rounded up:
One of my friends loved this book and her recommendation convinced me to get a NetGalley account to read and review this book!

This book had a lot of things going for it that I love: magical realism/magic, multiple POV, convergence, beautifully illustrative descriptions of places and things. I thought this book was 90% fast paced. Every chapter left you wanting to read onto the next chapter. It was a slow start and there were some shifts in plot or perspective that gave me some whiplash (the first chapter about The Woman, for example, I wasn't aware the book got so graphic and dark.) Later on there are some plot points that slow the plot down almost to a halt. I also liked how the author handled a particular sci-fi/fantasy plot mechanic: time travel.

However, there are things that left a bad taste in my mouth. While the description of places and things was beautiful and vivid, I found the description of people lacking. I felt like the characters were caricatures, especially the villains. To me they read almost like a cartoon villain, merely evil for the sake of evil-ness. Also, the way the author attempted to double down on one character's evil-ness was to ham-fist bigoted statements from this character. And its not just this character, later two characters, Izzy and Lottie, are describing other characters and many of the descriptions are racist and unnecessary. ("They look like a shampoo commercial for Nazis." The West African man who is a drug lord. The Chinese people who are rumored to work for the Communist party.) As other reviewers have also said, the women in the book often comment about their looks and food. Regarding the plot, I was annoyed at how there were gaping plot holes which mostly became plot armor or a means to forward the plot. However, it didn't make sense to me that the characters would miss these kinds of things. And the delivery of the plot twists therefore felt underwhelming.

Who it's for: entry level fantasy readers, someone who needs a fast-paced stand alone read, people who love books about people who love books.

Who it's NOT for: people who think too hard about what they read (e.g. me all the time), fantasy/sci-fi pros, people who are bothered by inflammatory characterizations and language, people who don't like meta and philosophical ideas in their books.
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This was one of my most anticipated reads for 2024 and sadly, I didn't enjoy it because of tiny thing that means a lot to me and many other female readers- negative body image comments. The FMCs inner monologue about how she saw her body, along with mentions of characters not being able to eat foods they enjoy because "it will go straight to my hips" felt incredibly out of place and just all around gross. As a plus size reader, I find comments like this to be incredibly offensive and just unnecessary.

"If you could open a door to anywhere, where would you go?"

In New York City, Cassie Andrews has a normal life working in a book store and sharing an apartment with her best friend Izzy. One day a regular customer who loves to chat with Cassie gifts her a book, The Book Of Doors. The message written in the book reads "any door is every door."

Back at her apartment with Izzy they discuss the odd book with it's writings and illustrations of doors until Cassie opens her hallway door and what lies on the other side is a street somewhere on the other side of the world. Impossible. Right?

As Cassie and Izzy explore this magical book they soon learn there are very dangerous people out there who would do anything for that book, and other magical books like it. With a random stranger, Drummond Fox, waking into their lives they are faced with the choice to trust him in order to save their lives and the books.

This was filled with magic, wonder, mystery, and a little heart break. What an absolutely beautiful and, at the same time, edge of your seat book. The writing was beautiful and clear. The story was woven so intricately it deserves a chef's kiss. I wanted to give this 5 stars *so* badly. I really did but there one one major plot point not explained at all, and another left open ended. If the author plans to make a second book then this makes sense. If that's the case I will come back and change my review to 5.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and William Morrow for the ARC!

This is a magical little book! Well, ok, lots of magical little books (: Brown did an *excellent* job building this world full of books with special powers, and the characters are rich and lovely. I want to live in this world and be friends with them, comfortable and cozy in the Fox Library. This story has drama and warmth, the stakes are high, violence never gratuitous, and it moves compellingly along, whichever timeline we’re in at the time. Altogether fantastic.

Cassie says goodbye to an old friend and receives a curious book. She discovers that when thinking about a place, she can walk through a door and be in that place she was thinking of. This isn’t the only book with special abilities and it’s up to Cassie and Drummond aka The Librarian to keep these special books out of evil hands.

This book was like Inception, the books can do so many things that I found myself thinking “What is reality?!” Some parts were a little slow, but overall, it was a clever idea and although disturbing at parts, it definitely kept me reading.

Character development was good, dialogue could have been better, was a bit boring. Action was good!

3.5 stars