Cassie lives in New York City where she works in a book store and shares an apartment with her best friend Izzy. She loves books and her job. When an elderly customer, one of her favorites, dies in the bookshop he leaves her a mysterious book. It is unlike any book she has ever seen. It is the Book of Doors. Cassie finds that she and Izzy can travel anywhere she can envision by holding the book and opening a door. But there is danger. Other people know about these magic books and they want hers.
Thanks to NetGalley for providing an eGalley of this title.

Was not a fan of pacing or character descriptions that rubbed me the wrong way. Unfortunately was unable to finish.

The Book of Doors is a deeply moving, amazing and sometimes, horrific adventure! I enjoyed enjoyed it immensely and highly recommend it. I sincerely hope that there is a sequel in the works, especially exploring Drummond and Cassie’s future.

Disclaimer: I received this ARC from Netgalley and this is my honest and freely given opinion.

The Book of Doors
by Gareth Brown
Pub Date: 13 Feb 2024
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Cassie Andrews works in a New York City bookshop, shelving books, making coffee for customers, and living an unassuming, ordinary life. Until the day one of her favorite customers—a lonely yet charming old man—dies right in front of her. Cassie is devastated. She always loved his stories, and now she has nothing to remember him by. Nothing but the last book he was reading.

But this is no ordinary book…

It is the Book of Doors.

Inscribed with enigmatic words and mysterious drawings, it promises Cassie that any door is every door. You just need to know how to open them.

Then she’s approached by a gaunt stranger in a rumpled black suit with a Scottish brogue who calls himself Drummond Fox. He’s a librarian who keeps watch over a unique set of rare volumes. The tome now in Cassie’s possession is not the only book with great power, but it is the one most coveted by those who collect them.

Now Cassie is being hunted by those few who know of the Special Books. With only her roommate Izzy to confide in, she has to decide if she will help the mysterious and haunted Drummond protect the Book of Doors—and the other books in his secret library’s care—from those who will do evil. Because only Drummond knows where the unique library is and only Cassie’s book can get them there.

But there are those willing to kill to obtain those secrets. And a dark force—in the form of a shadowy, sadistic woman—is at the very top of that list.

This is an epic tale of a quest with magical books and their impact on those who possess them and those who want to do so. It was very dark at times and full of adventure. It is a very long book so prepare to spend some time in this fantastical world.

Wow! This book was amazing!
Okay so short synopsis: Cassie works in a book store in NYC, living a predominantly boring life. One day her favorite customer comes in and dies in front of her. Saddened of course, but his death brings a whole new world and meaning to life due to the fact he left a book for her, The Book of Doors. Once Cassie has this book, she experiences being hunted for the magic it possesses, by people who hunt and collect these magic books for a living. With the help of her best friend and some unlikely individuals, Cassie learns and maneuvers through this new world she is creating and in control of. But will she be able to defeat the evil lurking in the shadows or at every turn?

This book took me by surprise! I wanted to read it because of the concept, however I found myself sometimes lost or maybe confused at parts and I questioned if I truly was enjoying the book. Well I was! Because everything eventually ties into itself in such a way that leaves your mouth open. This book has humor, subtle romance, sadness, adventure, and page turning mysteries that keep you needing to read to see what happens. This is an onion of a book with all of its carefully thought out layers of excellence. Everytime you think “I know what’s going to happen” you don’t. If you want a fun read for 2024, please get this book when it’s released on February 13, 2024!!!

One of my last reads of 2023 is also one of my favorites. I didn't know too much about this book before starting and I think that added to my immense love of it. All I knew was from the few adjectives that were included in the NetGalley email: fantasy/thriller, magical artifacts, unexpected allies, cozy bookstores and mysterious libraries. I was sold. It is very similar to The Night Circus, The Starless Sea, and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.

With the Book of Doors in your possession, any door is every door.
Cassie is gifted this magical book by a patron of the bookstore she works at. She pretty quickly discovers how to use the book and travels around the world. But this isn't the only magical book in existence and there are people who will kill to have them in their possession.

The Book of Doors went from "ok, I think I like this" to "oh my goodness, I am loving this" once time travel was introduced. This element brought the story together beautifully.

The idea for this book is genius, however the execution wasn’t amazing.
The idea that books have powers and the classic fight between good and evil was the setup for a really cool book lover’s fantasy story.
However, I found the writing inconsistent with the depth of the story. I felt like the writing style (excluding the random swearing and extremely visual deaths) was that of a teen. I almost thought maybe this was an accidental YA read, but it’s made for and written by an adult.
All in all I still really enjoyed this book. I wish it had the time and description a story like this deserves.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC

If you could open a door to anywhere, where would you go?
This book follows Cassie who works at a bookstore and lives a fairly quiet life with her roommate, Izzy. Until she is gifted that Book of Doors. After that her whole life changes.

This was such a great book! It felt like it was in the longer side, but I managed to always be interested in what was happening. There were great twists and turns and it even had me in tears at times. This book will likely live on in my mind forever. I highly recommend everyone read it.

The Book of Doors is a wonderful blend of mystery, suspense, and urban fantasy. Carrie finds herself in posession of a unique book one evening while working at a bookstore. While learning about the book and the secrets it holds, she soon learns that there are other people who are not just interested in the book, but will do anything to posess it.
The Book of Doors intrigued me from the first few pages and did not stop until the final page. The characters are welll written and relatable and Gareth Brown did a wonderful job with the pacing.

My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Despite having very high hopes going into this one, I couldn’t even force myself to continue and had to DNF.

Exceptionally juvenile writing. Marketed as adult but reads at a middle grade level at best. The main character was one of the most, if not the singular most, boring and disinterested characters I’ve ever read. Half the time she speaks it’s to say “mmm” or one word responses. It’s as if even SHE doesn’t want to be a part of the story. The word “murmured” appears at least once per page.

The whole thing felt flat, rushed, fake, clunky, and lacked any substance. There was no depth or character to any part of the story.

I hate that it’s so bad, as the premise is so good.

If I’m being honest, I think the characters should be aged down and this be rebranded as a middle grade novel as that is how the writing style reads.

This book deserves all the stars. I was hoping it would be good, but it blew my meager expectations completely out of the water. I felt connected to the characters from the very beginning, as if I were sitting in a comfy chair nearby while Cassie and Izzy had their conversation that very first night. I wept with Cassie as she was able to do something extremely cathartic that I’ve dreamed of doing since 2001, 2009 and 2014. You’ll know what I mean.

There are a few scenes in here that are horrific in their brutality…but we must have villains to offset our heroes. Every scene has its place, however, and serves both as character development and as justification for what must ultimately happen. Brown’s ability to explain and tie up every loose end is so satisfying.

“The Book of Doors” is a masterpiece. It goes up there with Haig’s “The Midnight Library”, Klune’s “The House in the Cerulean Sea” and Novik’s “The Golden Enclaves”, and I plan on buying a physical copy for my library when it comes out in February (even though I was gifted an advance ebook copy).

Extreme thanks to Gareth Brown for writing such a fabulous story. I very much look forward to more books!

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the ARC. All opinions expressed are my own.

Fantastic story. Magical, mesmerising, packed with adventure. I read this as though a movie was running in my mind. The MC's are now my friends! Ah, the love of books.

Love the ",idea" and concept of this book but the execution of that idea...ugh! Slow-moving plot, weak style, cardboard shallow characters. And the female characters are drawn as if they are giggling tweens fussing over weight and snarking at each other. With that depiction of women, perhaps the author entered one of the magic books in the novel and went back to 1924 instead of 2024???
I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Lovable characters! Interesting magic system! Time travel! Say less! I loved the was the author connected the dots through time travel and world travel. It was a beautiful illustration of found family, magic, amazing locales and friendship.

Wow! This book was amazing and I couldn’t put it down until the last page. I was so intrigued by the premise of this book and then once I started reading it I was hooked! I would definitely recommend this book to other people. Way to go on writing a fantastic book!!!

This was the most existential book I have ever read! It’s full of everything fantastical, magical, and also scientific. It provides a clear depiction of good versus evil, and also takes a deep dive into cause and effect. I loved the take on time travel and how it portrayed the ways in which we can and cannot influence past events.

Although the pacing was slow at times, and my mind occasionally struggled to keep up with the various timelines, this was overall a brilliant debut. Perfect for fans of magical realism and for all the physicists out there!

Thank you to Netgalley and William Morrow for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

If I could give this book more than five stars, I would. This story was absolutely amazing, and I didn’t want to put it down, even when I needed to digest the horrors or wipe the happy tears from my eyes.

I loved the characters, and how the plot wove through the lives of these people, surprising me at every turn. I don’t know how you could make another book to follow this one, but I would be there to read it in a heartbeat.

The Book of Doors is going on my Best Ever list, and it’s going to be very, very hard to knock it off.


I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I was drawn in by the premise of this book and while I enjoyed the overall story, I was less than pleased with the final story arc. The characters were delightfully flawed but still came across as one dimensional.

This was such a quick but fun and exciting read! The plot was engaging and had plenty of surprises kept me on the edge of my seat. I loved the magical and fantastical elements of the story. Thank you to NetGalley for this lovely story.