Thank you so much to the William Morrow Team for providing me with this ARC!! I've heard many great things already about this book and was stoked to be approved for the digital copy.

Elevator pitch for why you should buy this book Feb. 13th ->
-> Cassie works at a bookshop and loves reading books. An old patron of hers gives her the Book of Doors that can "open any and every door." She goes on adventures and addresses her past. Meanwhile, there are other magical books out there and people who will do anything to get them all

This book has been an adventure from beginning to end. The pacing is even, and it doesn't feel rushed at all. The end felt right, and the page count was perfect for this story. I'm sure we've all experienced books that seem to rush in the end and quickly wrap matters up in a haphazardly manner. Not this book.
The main character has so much depth, and I cried several times on her behalf during this novel.

I can tell this book is going to be a major hit, and I can't wait for Feb. 13th to go and buy a physical copy to support.

This book has a lot going on, in fact there are a lot of books and a lot of characters to keep track of. I enjoyed the first part of the story, but then it seemed that so much was thrown in from alternate views of different people that it got muddled down with too much.

I found some things such as the foul language was not needed in the frame it was used and there was quite a bit of violence. I had not anticipated the track the story took. I did finish it but by the end I was glad it was over. The storyline was enticing, but the delivery could have been told in 100 pages less. Unfortunately, this was one comes in at 3 stars.

William Morrow and NetGalley provided this Galley edition for no requirement other than my offer to provide an unbiased review. This one comes in with 3 stars.

Cassie finds The Book of Doors at the end of her shift at a bookstore one night. Seems excited at first because it will allow her to see the world. Quickly she realizes there is a dark side to the magic.

This one was a fun read. I’m not usually a fantasy reader, but this one fell more on the side of magical realism. I really enjoyed it and it wasn’t predictable.

#netgalley #TheBookofDoors

This is a well-written, entertaining, fast paced, fantasy novel. It has a likable and engaging female protagonist, an interesting and unique premise, books, magic, adventure, action, twists and turns, and a gratifying conclusion. Mr. Gareth Brown, William Morrow, and NetGalley kindly provided me with an advance reader copy of this fantastic novel, and this is my honest opinion.

I think The Book of Doors is going to be a really big hit for a lot of people! I’ve seen a lot of rave reviews. I loved the concept - a bookseller ends up getting a magical book that makes it so that she can travel through a door to anywhere she’s been. And there are other people who want that book back at any cost! Amazing setup!!

Unfortunately the execution is where it lost me. I wasn’t feeling invested enough in the characters. There was casual fatphobia that served no purpose at all. And ultimately whenever I put it down, I just didn’t want to pick it back up so this ended up a DNF for me. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the free ebook to review.

The Book of Doors has several things going for it. It’s a book about books and I love those. There are a lot of characters in the book and they’re all different enough that it’s easy to keep them straight, which is often not the case. The important books give the owner a special power and the thought behind their powers and how they work are really interesting. However, the details of the ability of the actual Book of Doors (I’m trying to avoid spoilers) and the origin of these special books don’t completely make sense to me. The explanations are either not clear enough or too complicated, perhaps both, and that takes away from the overall enjoyment of the book for me. The bones of the book and the idea are interesting but the execution still needs work for me.

I was given a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

How would you like to have a book that would let you travel to any place or time?

I loved this magical story! It was an adventure from start to finish! I loved the friendship between Cassie and Izzy and the great cast of characters. The storyline flowed well and I hated for it to end. Fans of fantasy reads will love this story! I am looking forward to reading more by Gareth Brown. Thank you so much for the opportunity to read and review!

I enjoyed the opportunity to read this novel and found it to be exciting and compelling. The characters were well-developed, and I was anxious to discover the outcome of all of their adventures. The premise that there exist books that can magically impact the world is certainly an interesting idea for an avid reader, and the wonderful possibility that one could revisit moments of significance is exciting. This book gave the reader many lasting questions to ponder. If you could go anywhere, at any time period, where would you go and why? What could you learn from a past that you experienced once and choose to relive? Imagine how this skill could be used for the benefit of others? Or for personal gain? This is a thought-provoking fantasy, and I would enjoy reading more by this author.

The Book of Doors started a bit slow for me, taking several chapters before I was hooked, but once I was, I was fully on board for the ride. Some of the pacing felt off to me, having far too much detail on parts while being left wishing for more on others. I particularly wish the end where Cassie is ‘fixing’ things was longer. This seems a particularly ambitious accomplishment for a debut, and I had so much fun reading it.

Mr. Webber is a very compelling old man, who spends multiple evenings a week at a local bookstore. He’s become very fond of Cassie, who works there and has always been so kind to him. One evening when she is closing up, she notices Mr. Webber is very still and not responding. Sadness filled her as she calls 911. When the EMT took Mr. Webber’s body, Cassie found his books that were left behind. With them was a small leather book, and inside it said “This is the Book of Doors. Hold it in your hand, and any door is every door.” Mr. Webber had signed it over to Cassie. Each page is filled with words in other languages and different sketches of doors.
When she arrives home that night, holding the book in her hands, she is reminiscing with her roommate about the time she was in Venice, Italy. The cobbled stone streets, and the smell of freshly baked bread and pastries in the morning.
Still holding the book, when she gets up to walk through the door into the kitchen, it’s not her kitchen she sees. She’s gazing out at that same cobbled stone street in Venice she once was.
With a book so magical, surely she can’t be the only one who knows about it. What lengths would people go through to get their hands on it?
Things get complicated when Cassie loses the book and gets stuck 10 years in the past. And the only person she can think of to help her is Mr. Webber.

I loved how the MFC was able to travel to all of her favorite places that she reminisced about. The way the author describes the feeling made me want to hop on a plane right then and there.
I felt like this book was a tad bit too long and a little cheesy at some parts, but otherwise I enjoyed it and really liked most of the characters!

The Book of doors is a very unique and interesting premise. Different doors allow the owner to go/do different things, such as instantaneous travel to and these books are coveted by evil people. This gets very dark but will appeal to fantasy lovers.

Unfortunately the premise of this book was promising, but the motivations and momentum of the book didn’t feel fully fleshed out or have the tension it needed to propel the secret societies/urgency that the protagonist needed to fear.

Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow for an ARC. This book was not my jam. I will pick up any book having to do with books but this one was not great. There are a lot of inappropriate one liners throughout the book, including racist and body shaming comments that were completely unnecessary and could’ve been left out.

The time travel didn’t make sense to me, the book was very slow, and the characters have no depth to them. There were points in the book that it was really good and I was excited to keep reading but then it would just drag on. Overall, pretty disappointed because these are usually the types of books I would love.

I was drawn into this book from the beginning and love the idea of magical books that take you places. The first few trips that Cassie and Izzy go on are magical. It all quickly falls apart when they realize there is danger to using this book and there are other books. I really wanted to see more about the books and it just felt like a bit of jumbled mess when the villians of the story appeared. I really felt detached from the primary characters and really needed to care about at least the two original characters to make this book work since there was supposed to be such a powerful relationship that the book winds around. I felt that a lot of the disconnect was due to the language the author used in dialogue and the way the descriptions about the women were made. I really had to struggle to get through this book and had to come back to it several times. The end wrapped up nicely and was well layered for resolution, but ultimately this was not really enough. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley.

Magical, beautiful, and such a mind warp.🤯 Incredible story and writing. Brown has a brilliant mind to make all the pieces fall into place. It’s a slow pace, but the beauty of the story kept me invested

Just finished "The Book of Doors" by Gareth Brown. It was a wild ride around NYC and many other places around the world. Cassie works at a bookstore and lives with her bestie Izzy (who used to work at the bookstore and is how the two of them met).

One night one of Cassie's customers (Mr. Webber) passes away just as the bookshop was being closed for the night. However, Mr. Webber leaves her a mysterious book titled *The Book of Doors*. Thus, the real premise for the story begins.

The Book of Doors allows access to any other door, across time and space, if you can imagine it. This premise is right up my alley, as someone who enjoys both sci-fi, travel, history, and historical novels. . I mean, who wouldn't want the power to step through doors to any destination or era they desire? I keep thinking of where I'd go first, and I can't make up my mind. :-)

While the book takes a bit to find its footing, once it does, it's like a roller coaster you don't want to end. The story's complexity and twists more than made up for it, making it an overall fantastic read.

For those who's read "The Midnight Library" should enjoy this book as well.

Big thanks to NetGalley for hooking me up with this ARC.

4 ⭐
0 🌶️

What an adventure. It was a bit of a slow start for me, but once I got a feel for the characters and the magic system I was fully invested. The concept started interesting but quickly became mind-blowing as other aspects came into play. Cassie and Drummond were sweet book nerds who had to dig quite deep to be the heroes of the book. I enjoyed how the author took two people who liked living in their books and the shadows and forced them to live their adventure and be more. The villains were horrible, really horrible and the good guys were real. The pacing seemed a bit uneven at times but as I said once I got a feel for the world it moved along very quickly. I was immersed in the storyline as Cassie went on her many poignant visits. The book was heart-wrenchingly moving at times. I believe this is a debut author and I categorize this as a heck of a great start and a wonderful urban fantasy.

Truly a magical book. The Book of Doors was hands down one of my favorite books of 2023. It has the aura of a classic and I have a feeling it might join the canon for fantasy. I almost had a strange sense of Deja Vu that the book already existed or perhaps always had, From the endearing to characters to the warm voice of the story, as well as a really interesting exploration of time bending, it provided deep enjoyment. For fans of Eva Ibbotson, JK Rowling, and Maggie Stiefvater - or really anyone who likes to cozy up to a good book. I’m terribly excited to see where Gareth Brown’s writing career takes him. What a brilliant debut.

This book was an early reader copy I received through Net Galley. All words are of my own opinion.

2 stars. Great concept and I had been looking forward to reading this, but the writing style sadly didn’t work for me at all.

The way this is written felt incredibly simple and juvenile. And so bland. Very few descriptions or explanations and those we did get seemed almost amateurish. Not very magical for a book about magic. I really struggled with it. I know many people enjoy this kind of writing; it just isn’t for me. It lacked personality!

Unfortunately, I felt the same way about the characters. They were flat, their motivations made no sense to me and there were no connecting moments to explain their choices. If you just found a magic book that lets you travel wherever you want to go—which you immediately use, by the way—you should have a reaction beyond something along the lines of “This is the best thing ever, but now I’m hungry, let’s go eat.”

The good guys, especially the two female friends, were annoying and the baddies resembled cartoon villains. The dialogue was atrocious and very much fell into the category of “People don’t talk like this!”

After introducing all the important characters, the plot went in a direction that didn’t interest me at all. I might have been able to get on board with it if I hadn't felt like I was fighting the stylistic writing choices with every page read. I wanted to enjoy a magical and immersive story all about the power of books, but regrettably, it was not to be.

This book sure did not disappoint. I went in not knowing what to expect but exceeded my expectations. This is a unique read and I would try to go in with very little knowledge. If you love time travel books, be sure to pick this up. It is an adventure read with magic sprinkled throughout.
3.5 stars