I hovered between a 3-5 rating for this book. It didn’t start off the strongest or hook me right away, and there were so many characters introduced at the beginning that it started to get a little confusing. But I’m so glad I stuck with it, because it finished off strong and just for the last third of the book I would have rated it a 5.
I liked all the characters in the book- maybe not quite loved, but I appreciated it wasn’t just all heroic types that can be kind of cliche. The beginning is more world building and introduction of all the characters, which made the pace kind of slow. But once the plot gets going, the book gets really good and the pace definitely picks up near the end.
One thing I really liked about this book, was how much a love for books really came through. And not just “special” books, but all books and a love of reading in general. I found myself highlighting so many sentences that were just odes bibliophiles like myself would resonate with about literature.
Overall, this was a fun fantasy read for me. I appreciated that it was a standalone, so there weren’t any cliffhanger endings. Definitely check out if you like fantasy and have a love of literature!

📖 Read if: 📖
✔️ You love magic-based fantasy genres
✔️ You’re looking for a standalone novel in that category
✔️ You have a special love of literature

This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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WHAT'S THE BOOK OF DOORS ABOUT?
Cassie Andrews grew up in the Northwest and had what you'd call a typical, nice life (with a little tragedy, because we all do). She grew up, had one big adventure, and then settled into New York City, and is having a typical life—with enough fun and love to keep going, but nothing exciting happens to her. Then one day a regular customer that she'd befriended dies and leaves a book for her. It's a lovely little book, so she takes it home with her.

She quickly discovers that this isn't any ordinary book—in fact, it's called "The Book of Doors" and the inscription inside it tells her that every door is any door. An odd thing to say, but she discovers that it means she can open and step through any door with the book in her hand. Cassie and her roommate Izzy have some fun with the book, before Izzy starts to worry about the cost of this magic.

Cassie's undeterred, however, and keeps experimenting. It's not too long before a man called The Librarian (by some) finds them—warning Cassie that she's in danger because of this book. There are many "special books" like the Book of Doors (not all as powerful), and there are those who want to add her book to their collection and will stop at nothing to get it. As these people are equipped with their own special, magical books—the things they can do are pretty remarkable.

Can Cassie stay ahead of these people—or off of their radar entirely? Can she use her book to help the Librarian keep his collection of books safe from a mysterious woman determined to possess them all?

TIME TRAVEL
This is more of a Fantasy kind of Time Travel than a Hard Sci Fi Time Travel. That's really not a profound observation on my part, come to think of it—everything these books do is described as magical. So a lot of your typical rules when it comes to Time Travel are thrown out. You're not going to get a butterfly effect here, or see what happens if you go back and keep your dad and mom from going to the Enchantment Under the Sea dance together. It's more along the lines of what the Wyld Stallyns did (at least in the first movie, I can't speak to the others).

I mention this just so you know what you're getting into—I have friends who take a very purist approach to Time Travel, and want scientific explanations for everything (hopefully with a good amount of theorizing). They will probably not appreciate this book for that. On the other hand—I have friends who get tired of that kind of thing—they'll have a lot of fun with Brown's take. There are probably more people who won't care, and will just have fun with the wibbly wobbly of it all.

THE REST OF THE MAGIC
There are many more books than The Book of Doors running around (more than we're told specifically about), and all of them have applications you wouldn't immediately think about. What the Book of Illusion can do by someone who knows what they're doing? Awesome. The Book of Luck is pretty much what the tin says. The Book of Despair...it's worse than you think, at least when used by someone who knows what they're doing (and who should never be allowed to use it).

I'm tempted to keep listing the books, but that would get boring for you and me. The great thing about Brown's magic system is the wide diversity of magical abilities and the way they're used. I don't know how much time he spent coming up with the ideas behind them, or if he just had a handful and then created a new book when he wrote himself into a corner—but either way, a good deal of ingenuity is displayed here, and I want to see more of it. (honestly, I assume he did a thorough job of coming up with the books beforehand, but I just like the idea of him getting to the point where says..."I need a Book of Antigravity so Cassie can float away from a thrown knife."*)

* Not anything that actually appears in the book.

QUIBBLES
It's not a perfect book. Few are, so this isn't about me listing off reasons to avoid this book. I just want to be thorough as I talk about it.

First off, the book (particularly in the beginning) relies too much on the POV characters looking at reflections of themselves. This is a pretty common thing—some would call it a cliche (particularly as a woman character describes some of her physical attributes)—and the first time that someone did it, I rolled my eyes and moved on. But then it happened again, quickly after that, while it was still echoing in my ear. And then again. And it became a thing I paid too much attention to because it happened so much. If mirrors and reflections had become very important to the magic or plot as a whole—I might have spent a paragraph or two lauding this. But it didn't. It just distracted and kind of annoyed me.

The "Big Bad" doesn't have a name. She's simply, "the woman." If she was a character who showed up in other places, and we were supposed to figure out which of female characters she was—that'd be one thing. But there's never a doubt about that, she's simply "the woman." She doesn't even get a nickname like "She Who Must Not Be Named" or even "The Big Bad." Surely, at some point, the subculture surrounding these special books would've started referring to her as something along those lines. A name, a title (like The Bookseller did), something whispered in the shadows. Not just "the woman."

There are probably other flaws in the book—undoubtedly there are*—but these are the only two that jumped out at me (and kept doing so). In the end—both were easily overcome by the weight of all the good-to-great things about it. But I was irked enough that I had to talk about them a bit.

* Just before I hit "Publish," I remembered a chapter focused on "the woman" that made me briefly consider stopping entirely. I am so glad that I persevered, and it wasn't that difficult to.

Now, let's get back to the good stuff. I probably won't think about these issues again myself, when I think back on this book, I'm only going to think of what I say next.

SO, WHAT DID I THINK ABOUT THE BOOK OF DOORS?
If you took Peng Shepherd's The Cartographers and merged it with Robin Sloan's Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, you'd get something sort of like this. The secret subculture that arose around these special books—subcultures, really—made me think of these books, as well as the devotion to something that's increasingly archaic—a typeface, paper maps, antique books, etc. There is great power, as well as great affection, in these artifacts of a former age. Sure, they're not magical or mystical like Shepherd, Sloane, or Brown say. But these novels resonate for the same/similar reasons, these things call to us.

Setting aside all the magic and plot and character—just focusing on what The Book of Doors says about books in general, is pretty special. This aspect alone is going to speak to a lot of readers (most people who'd call themselves "readers," in fact.). And you could spend time just flipping through those parts of the book.

On the whole, this novel was a slow burn for me—I was instantly drawn to the idea behind the books, I liked Cassie, and the way that Brown showed her reacting to the book. But then once we got into the story about "the woman" and the Librarian, my interest waned a lot. I'm not sure it should've, and many will likely have a different reaction, but it did. But as I kept reading, I got more and more invested and my inner-critic shut up because he was as interested in what was going to happen next as the rest of me was.

By the time you figure out what Brown's end-game was—and Cassie's, too—it's so satisfying to see it all play out. It's really a very tidy book and everything means something. But it's not just the plot that works so well, all the emotional beats are so well-executed that you will be tempted to go back through Brown's non-existent backlist to see where he figured out to write them so effectively.

If you like the idea of a kind of magic you've not seen before, magical time travel (among other things), an off-the-radar subculture devoted to this magic (or at least the idea behind it), and a quiet bookseller finding her inner strength and perseverance in the face of evil—you're going to want to check out The Book of Doors. I strongly recommend you do.

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from William Morrow & Company via NetGalley in exchange for this post—thanks to both for this.

My thanks for the ARC goes to NetGalley and William Morrow. I'm voluntarily leaving a review.

Genre: Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, Weird Fiction, Urban Fantasy, Time Travel, Magical Realism, Books about Books
Sub Genre: Romance (slow burn), Mystery
Language: Medium (some swearing)
Spice Level: Low (no sex on page)
Violence Level: Medium (on page)

This is a debut—*what???* It doesn't feel like a new author, but rather, someone who is well-practiced in writing novels. Brown guides the reader on a tale of wonder and weirdness. (Weird in the best sense of the word.) Have you ever read a middle grade book where the kids are saving the world and wished there was something like that for adults? I have! Look no further.

Anyone who loves mystical books about books is going to be hooked into this one.

The Book of Doors says that any door is every door. And let the mayhem enter. Sure, you can slip off to a foreign country for lunch, but what else can happen? Especially when there are more books with magic.

In the author notes, Brown says that his editor told him to put in more "wonder," and I'd like to say thank you! The wonder in the novel kept me going as much as the mystery. I also enjoyed the subtle slow burn romance. Toward the end, there was a moment when I went back and read a portion—I just wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything because there are so many moving pieces. I loved how it ended, mostly wrapped up, but with some elements to still wonder over.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and it will stay with me.

Yes! I recommend it!

Happy reading!

Cassie inherits a magical book that can take her anywhere in the world. She doesn’t want to stop using it, but her friend Izzy worries it could be dangerous. Drummond Fox, the Librarian, has been running for years and wants to help protect these young women before it’s too late. Hugo Barbary is greedy and wants more books of power. Lottie Moore, the Bookseller, wants Azaki, another book hunter, to retrieve the book, and something even more important. Lund, Azaki’s bodyguard has plans of his own. And there is one person all book hunters fear…

There were a lot of characters and POV shifts in this one, making it interesting but hard to get into a rhythm in the beginning.

The Book of Doors is a very cool magical artifact, with more power than Cassie understands at first.

I enjoyed the developing relationship between Cassie and Drummond.

The mini villain, Hugo, was a bit larger than life and his angry tirades rubbed me wrong often.

The big villain—called “the woman”—was pure evil. A quarter of the way in, we get some of her backstory, but her twisted and violent desires had unclear motivation (until the very end), making the whole section a bit of a turn off for me. The more we learn about her over the course of the book, the more abrupt and gruesome her violence gets. Some horror vibes here, and that’s not really my jam.

The tone and pace shifted a lot, so I struggled at times to sink into this book and keep reading.

The second half took an unexpected and interesting turn, and I enjoyed how the characters and details began to come together, but there were some distracting, rushed plot details and it unfortunately descended into gruesome violence for a bit.

Overall, this story had a really interesting magical concept, some good intense twists, and a well-plotted ending, but parts of it skewed too much toward the horror genre for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for the opportunity to read The Book of Doors as an eARC for an honest review! The concept of this book had me hooked since I read the synopsis and I was so excited when I received the eARC for it. The execution of the concept of the book was overall okay I felt. The beginning of the book felt very rushed and the character development lacked for me. It wasn’t until more than halfway through the book I felt like the story became way more detailed and hooked me. I ended up enjoying the main character at this point. What I did not like about this book that really brought my rating down was the amount of racist language used. I feel like there are other ways to establish a character than use so much derogatory language. This felt really unneeded with the book. There are other ways to show a character is a bad man than this. This was an overall, okay book for me.

Such an incredibly interesting plot. You have Cassie who is lost and greatly mourning the loss of her grandfather and spends her days working in a bookstore. And tell a mysterious book The Book of Doors comes in and she realizes that this book has the ability to transport her into any world that she can visualize.

I loved the magic system that is developed around this book. It was fully fleshed out and very easy to understand.

And of course, this book is not without it drama and villainy because with any powerful item there are those who wish to control it for themselves. And that's what happens in this book. There are others that are after the book that Cassie now has.

I absolutely loved this book. I devoured it in one sitting.

A young woman named Cassie comes across a magical book called, The Book of Doors, promising that “any door is every door.” With this special book, ordinary doors become portals to any place, allowing Casie and her roommate to visit different cities. They soon discover that others are after The Book of Doors, including cold-blooded killers, and there are more magical books in the world.

I oscillated between a 3 and 4-star rating for this novel. In the beginning, it felt like a 3 then maybe 3.5. I was a bit iffy about certain aspects of the story like the dialogue and characters, some plot points (conveniently not ending or incapacitating the villain/s immediately when there was a chance), and pacing. Also, the origin of the books just came out of the blue with no set-up. So I agree with most of the 3-star reviews.

BUT the story grew on me, and I kind of enjoyed it towards the end, so I rounded up to 4 stars. There were some heartwarming moments, and I particularly enjoyed the time travel bits and how they fitted together like a puzzle. At times, the feel (the wonder?) of the portal adventures and the magical books reminded me of children’s books. But then the extreme scenes of violence, gore, and swearing made it feel more adult. Anyway, though I didn’t connect to the author’s style, overall the story got more interesting towards the end. Definitely for fans of portal fantasies. Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow Books for the ARC.

Time travel, a battle between good and evil, and a belief in the power of books. The Book of Doors truly does have it all, and should shoot to favorite status with book lovers.
Our main character Cassie is put through it, let me tell you. There are moments where you think she can’t catch a break. But she remains incredibly resilient throughout, a heroine for the ages.
The supporting cast of characters-both heroes and villains-are extremely well written.
At the end of the day-even knowing all the trouble it might cause-who wouldn’t want to own The Book of Doors?
Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow for this adventure of a read!

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

Cassie and Izzy worked together at Kellner Books for more than a year and they had become fast friends. Izzy cautioned Cassie about using The Book Of Doors indiscriminately. They don’t know what dangers could be involved. What can be used for good can also be used for bad.

Drummond Fox was The Librarian, but because of the dangers involved, he has hidden his library in the Shadows. Even he can no longer access it.

Each book endows the beholder with a special power. Of course, there are those who are book hunters that want to make money, others want power, and others want to protect the books from the world.

A motley group of friends face unspeakable dangers, some will die…sorta…

Where did the books come from? That was a surprise, but in hindsight I see it.

I love books about books, magic and danger, quirky people who come together in the most unlikely ways, and surprises that pop up as we travel through the doors pages.

See more at http://www.fundinmental.com

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for the ARC of the gem of a book!

This may go in my top 5 books of all time--right next to Babel, The Starless Sea, The Little Paris Bookshop, The Book of Longings, and Brida. It made me cry three separate time, two of which were happy tears, and I find is incredibly difficult to do in a book, rather than just sad/emotional tears. But this is truly a lovely urban fantasy for book lovers navigating the human experience. Also a big fan of found family/academic cohort tropes. This really just hit the marks of all the things I love, while doing it in a unique and fresh way.

As someone who was raised by a grandparents in many ways, and misses their absence in adulthood terribly, I can say this made my heart feel so seen and held. Cassie's relationship with her grandpa in the past, and Mr. Weber in the future(/past) are so special and really pull at the heartstrings, while grounding you in the humanity of "good" in good vs. evil.

Spoiler alert:
My only critique is that when Cassie falls into the nothing/nowhere and discovers that she is the one who created the books, it feels like there is only a page and a half at most explaining this in a very acid trip esque way, and then it is only briefly mentioned two other times whether she should tell her friends and Drummond or not, and in the end she doesn't because it would be "too much to take in." I mean...after all that they have seen and gone through together, how is that possibly why? I feel like this could have been because to open that can of worms amongst characters would have set it up for a second book, possibly with the bookseller trying to get her Book of Protection back but being corrupted buy the book of pain, and figuring out how/if Cassie could create other/new books...and on the saga would go...so maybe the author was trying to tie it up neatly with a bow to keep it as a stand alone novel (which I can also respect and appreciate).

Additionally, I did love that we found out how Rachel (The Woman) came to be corrupted and evil at the end, and it did match up with my suspicion in it being tired to Barbary but not quite the way I thought! On the note of her character: why couldn't Cassie just use a gun and shoot her at the end?! Did she not learn her lesson from the first time Barbary came back after she threw him into the past instead? Then what does she do with the woman at the end? Throw her through a door! I thought she would at least find a way to use the book of Pain and take away her pain and darkness first too and maybe it would be painful enough to kill her from the withdrawal of the evil, but no. Again, I understand the author's choice in why--probably to keep this to a single book rather than a series but those few things keep sticking with me as UGH moments. Still a book I will treasure and likely reread once its magic has faded from me in a few months to a year. Will be purchasing when it comes out, I loved it that much! Thank you Gareth!

This is a book that I would really recommend you go into blind. I honestly can’t believe that it is a debut as the author's writing was well developed. I felt immediately transported to the places the author described. There is also amazing character development and so many twists and turns that had me invested until the very end. I also really hope there is a sequel!

If you are a fan of time travel, great adventures, and magic, definitely grab this one out February 13th!

4 ⭐️

Thank you @netgalley and @williammarrowbooks for the early copy

“Life is full of hard and scary things. . . but you have to get on with it.”

The Book of Doors is a beautiful magical fantasy novel. What would you do if you found a magical book that turned every door into any door? You could travel the world, or even back into the past. Cassie finds herself in this situation and our story unfolds!

I loved the magical elements of this story as well as the characters. In the beginning, I did get a bit overwhelmed because there was so many people and elements being introduced. Once you you were given all of the necessary information, the story really took off.

I found myself smiling, crying, and anxiously awaiting what was next. I really enjoyed this story and am so excited for it to be released soon! Preorder today, as it is out February 13th!

Thank you to Netgalley and William Morrow for this Advanced Reader’s copy in exchange for my honest review.

The Book of Doors is a magical premise that is unfortunately poorly executed.

The premise: Cassie, a bookseller, is gifted a magical book that allows her to open any door, and travel through it to another door. What initially seems like an uncomplicatedly joyful present (she goes to a roof bar with her roommate! They travel through New York without having to use the subway!) turns out to be far more complicated than she thought. This book is just one of many that has powers, and many people will stop at nothing to own and wield these books, often for nefarious purposes (violence, power, money, etc).

I love this concept! What could be better than magical books? I unfortunately really struggled with the writing. Here are just two representative examples:

- "Oh, I'm not a real doctor. I mean, I did go to medical school. But it was so boring that I didn't finish. I just call myself 'doctor'." - a villain, in the midst of threatening one of our main character's lives.

- "She turned a man to liquid. I think...I think he was screaming as she did it. But it sounded like a gurgle because he was all liquid. Oh god..." - I don't know what context I could give that would make this quote better.

The pacing was often too slow and I struggled to get into the book. There were also relationships, both romantic and platonic, that did not make sense. I also felt that the book chose to overexplain things at times. For example, we get the origin story of the books but it doesn't really make sense and I didn't need them to be explained.

The last 20% had more of a buddy heist / Scooby gang saves the day vibe and I enjoyed that more. There were also a few bold choices I respected that I will not give away. Overall, the plot of this book is an ode to the magic of books but the writing is not strong enough to bring that magic off the page.

Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow Books for the ARC.

I adored this book. From about 20% through, I knew it was going to get timey wimey, but I never quite knew how it was going to happen. While it took me a while to get through it, it never felt slow or boring.

I hate to do this so much, but this was a DNF for me. The writing/dialogue felt like it was written by a teenager, and I hated that one of the female characters berates herself for eating pancakes and bacon and calls it "gross," then talks about how her aunts are heavy and that it's "in her genes" to get fat. I started looking at other reviews at this point that talked about racist comments by characters later in the book and I just didn't think I could get through it without getting even more frustrated. I liked the initial concept of the story but the execution just felt so amateurish.

This was such an amazing concept! Magic books that each do something very different, torn between good and evil. Inspired! I loved the way each tiny detail was all wrapped together to explain everything happening. My one negative would be that I didn’t love the writing itself. It seemed disjointed somehow? I’m not entirely sure how to explain it other than to say the flow wasn’t what I had hoped. The first half of this book felt sooo slow, but really picked up towards the end making this a solid 4.5 star read!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review!

"Any door is every door." I loved the concept of this fantasy book so much. Magical books? Yes please! This book is said to be for readers of The Midnight Library and The Night Circus, both books I absolutely loved.

While this book did not quite hit the mark for me to LOVE IT, there were still a lot of promising components that kept me reading.
1. I was intrigued by the concept of magical books. It reminded me of my love for reading The Magical Treehouse books while growing up and again as a teacher. I started the book thinking it was only about the magical book called The Book of Doors and was pleasantly surprised that more books were included. HOW the many books were used went far beyond what I initially expected, which was exciting!
2. I enjoyed the many different characters in this story.
3. It was exciting to see how the author used time travel to fill in "holes" in the story. Sometimes I wouldn't even realize that something had happened as foreshadowing until it was revisited.

Then there were the aspects of the book that left me wishing for more...
1. There were many points throughout this book where I was confused. At the beginning of the book during the "world building" phase it was not immediately clear why I was reading about different characters in completely different times and places. Thankfully, it all came together and made sense.
2. I was hoping for more romance. The author wrote in moments periodically that let the reader know that some of the characters were interested in each other. I wished for more development of that plot.
3. While I love the concept of time travel with the book of doors, the time jumps were confusing at times.
4, SPOILER: I had to reread the chapter about Cassie making the books because that was confusing at first.

Overall, I am grateful for the opportunity to read this book. Thank you William Morrow and Gareth Brown for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I almost never, ever DNF books. But I was struggling. I read four other books while trying again and again to pick this back up, but I just couldn’t get into it.

The premise sounds amazing and I’m sure it’s a great story, but the writing style didn’t allow me to get there. I felt like I was reading some sort of fanfiction or a school project - The writing seemed juvenile and clunky. I love long books but 400 pages of this I just couldn’t do. I made it a quarter of the way through before I had to give it up.

I’m glad to see others enjoy it, though!

The Book of Doors
by Gareth Brown
Pub Date: 13 Feb 2024
Mark your calendars! You are going to want to get this one. I used to be a huge fantasy/magic reader, but then, quite frankly, most fantsy books got pretty monotonous for me.
This one got me out of that slump. It's more of a mystical thriller.
Cassie works in a bookstore and when one of her favorite customers passes away, he leaves her a book. It's a special book called The Book of Doors, where any door is every door. Cassie and her roommate soon discover they can travel anywhere by using the book and any door. But a book like that? Just think of what could happen if it fell into the wrong hands...and there are many hands who will do anything to get a hold of it.
Cassie learns there are more books with other powers out there. Some of these books are being kept safe by The Fox Library; others have been bought or stolen by countries, cartels, world leaders, and pure power-hungry, evil human beings who will stop at nothing to collect them all.
This book does contain some gruesome scenes (The Book of Pain doesn't do pretty things); however, there's no sex and very few curse words. Some people have complained that the dialogue seems disingenuous, but I didn't feel that. I usually dislike time travel because it never makes sense and there are usually so many holes; however, this one wraps everything up nicely. That was a pleasant surprise!
Definitely a fun ride! My high school students will like this one.
#GarethBrown #TheBookofDoors #NetGalley

"The Book of Doors" is a captivating debut novel that seamlessly blends magic, adventure, and romance into a thrilling contemporary fantasy. Reminiscent of beloved works like "The Midnight Library," "The Invisible Life of Addie Larue," and "The Night Circus," this novel introduces readers to a world where the wonders of the unknown are intertwined with a touch of darkness.

The story follows Cassie Andrews, an ordinary New York City bookstore employee, whose life takes an extraordinary turn when a favorite customer passes away before her eyes. Left with the last book he was reading, Cassie discovers the extraordinary nature of the "Book of Doors." This enchanted tome, adorned with enigmatic words and mysterious drawings, promises Cassie the keys to any door, if only she knows how to open them.

Enter Drummond Fox, a gaunt stranger in a rumpled black suit with a Scottish brogue, who reveals himself as a librarian guarding a unique set of rare volumes. Cassie's book is not the only one with great power, but it is the most coveted by those who collect them. As Cassie becomes hunted by those aware of the Special Books, she must decide whether to aid Drummond in protecting the Book of Doors and the other books in his secret library.

The novel excels in its prose and plot, delivering an engaging narrative that keeps readers on the edge of their seats. The author's writing style is both vivid and enchanting, creating a world where magic and reality seamlessly coexist. The characters are well-developed, and the dynamics between Cassie and Drummond add depth to the story.

The plot unfolds with a perfect balance of suspense, mystery, and a touch of romance. The concept of the Book of Doors is both imaginative and intriguing, setting the stage for a unique adventure that explores the boundaries between worlds. The inclusion of a shadowy, sadistic antagonist adds a layer of darkness that intensifies the stakes for our protagonists.

Overall, "The Book of Doors" is a spellbinding read that will appeal to fans of contemporary fantasy. With its interesting prose, well-crafted plot, and a cast of compelling characters, this debut novel is a must-read for those seeking a magical journey into the unknown.