I really loved this book. It proved a really good getaway from real life due to how it blended the fantastical and realistic into one. The characters were all really interesting to follow especially when the real action was going down and the stakes were raised. I would read more by this series and author if that was possible as this was everything i wanted from it. The writing was excellent and i feel like it delivered exactly what it promised.

This is an incredibly complex, intricate narrative weaving past and present together. Cassie is given a book by a customer in the bookstore where she works. The book has magical properties but more than this it leads her into a world where other such books exist and have been used to manipulate society - generally for harm.. There are so many strands to this book and yet the writing is such that it is not difficult to keep track of all the action.

As a debut book It is a staggering work -which I am sure will lead to many more from the author. Perhaps become a series??

amazing… i am struggling for words as i loved this. the journey, the friendships, the horror, the fantasy and the hope. this book has everything and leaves you wanting more. maybe a book 2?

I really enjoyed this book. I always love books that feature books and libraries and this did not disappoint.
Perfect for fantasy readers, I absolutely loved it, I felt completely immersed in the world that I was actually sad when I finished.

This book is just about a love letter to the magic of books, perfect for fantasy readers and book fanatics (as we all are). I just wanted to jump into this book and be Cassie, but as it is, this was a wonderful vicarious experience. Stakes are high and the adventure is twisting, plus I'm just about hungover after this. Thank you so much for the ARC!

This book was amazing and definitely read it in one sitting. As a fantasy reader, this book felt like a summer fever dream. It was so good and honestly a very cozy read for me.

Thank you Netgalley and Publishers

The book of doors was a great read filled with magic. I really enjoyed the world building and the characters. I felt the descriptions were lavish and made the whole story come together.
I really enjoyed the direction the story went and found I really enjoyed it.

An absolutely magical read, especially for book lovers. Cassie is gifted a special book; the book of Doors, which has the ability to allow any door to open to any door in any place across any time. She is thrilled by the discovery and appreciates its sheer beauty and power , having grown up with a grandfather who loves books and having worked in a bookshop. Cassie and her best friend Izzy make the most of the book by going on adventures. However, there is more than one magical book, and people with dark powers and darker intentions want to possess them. Cassie and her precious book are in their sights. A superb story. #thebookofdoors #Garethbrown #netgalley

I hoped ‘ The Book of Doors’ would live up to my expectations but wasn’t really sure it could. However it did just that. From the outset I felt at home with this – the characters and settings are realistic enough to ensure I could travel in time with the main characters.

This contains plenty of nail-biting action but, thankfully, I didn’t have to confront the protagonists myself!

I would certainly enjoy reading a sequel to this.

Thank you to Transworld Publishers (Penguin Random House) and NetGalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

A very interesting and engaging book, a page turner that makes you want to gallop to the end to find out how it ends.
Beautifully written and definitely recommended.

Cassie Andrews lives in New York City with her flatmate Izzy, working quietly yet happily at Kellner Books as a bookshop worker. When regular customer Mr. Webber dies in the store, she finds that she is left his notebook.

This book has special powers, as we later discover that it is The Book of Doors. Namely, it will allow the user to travel through a door, any door, providing that the user has seen what is on the other side before. As Cassie and Izzy have fun exploring the possibilities that the book provides, they also find themselves in a dangerous situation. Owning the book means that they're being hunted by a group of booksellers who wants the book's powers and will stop at nothing to get it.

This situation also leads them to meet Drummond Fox, the librarian in charge of the Fox Library. Drummond has the Book of Shadows, which allows him to become invisible and keep the library hidden from other Book owners. Cassie finds that the library has other books and that there are more held in secret around the world, each of them have names that describe their function or power such as The Book of Joy, The Book of Matter, The Book of Despair, The Book of Pain, The Book of Speed, The Book of Faces, The Book of Control, The Book of Light and The Book of Water.

The Book of Doors seems particularly useful in that it would allow access to other books and other places, and so Cassie, Izzy and Drummond spend much of the middle of the novel avoiding those wishing to obtain the The Book of Doors. In particular they come across The Woman, a psychotic killer who wants to not only collect the books, but enjoys killing people to get them.

When an auction is held for the Book of Pain, the consequences are fatal for some and has consequences for our main characters. The solution is that Cassie, using the The Book of Doors, can travel through time to solve the problem and deal once and for all with The Woman.

The Book of Doors is a novel that begins in the realm of magic realism and ends up as a time travel novel. The initial setting is delightful and will be valued by anyone with a love of books, book shops, and book collecting, although the time travel element may be divisive. Generally it is nicely done, except in one aspect when the unnecessary death of a character seems to serve little use but for an attempt to introduce a twist into the plot.

On the whole, though, the main characters are rather well done. Cassie and Izzy are wonderful characters, whose friendship seems genuine and realistic, without descending into boring platitudes. Fox Drummond adds an element of dark complexity to the plot, in part due to his previous dealings with The Woman. He is haunted by this and the book shows him still trying to resolve his previous traumas. There is also a minor touch of possible romance hinted at here, although the situation remains unresolved.

Of the minor characters, some of the other Book owners are a little bit more clichéd, yet serviceable, and their quirky and rather unpleasant natures are telegraphed by some rather gruesome deaths, which keeps the peril within the plot a constant.

In short, this one begins well and rattles along nicely, carried by the characterisation and the setting, more than enough to reduce the areas of minor irritation. There is an ending of sorts which closes things nicely, whilst also leaving the possibility of further books should this be found to be popular.

If I had a magical book that could transport me anywhere around the world, I would simply do nothing. I'd just hang out in places. I was hoping that Cassie would do the same, but unfortunately for me this story is all over the place, with villains popping up, big reveals and time travel.

I wasn't a fan of the writing style of this story, or the strange obsession with croissants. The writing would feel almost too flowery one minute, and then choppy and lacking description the next. I didn't feel the need for the racist slurs to be thrown around, and it was painfully obvious that this book was written by a white guy.

I really had to slog my way through the last few chapters, as I didn't really care for the action scenes and the book was largely being used to just randomly chuck people through time, which rarely stuck. There were some big reveals about Cassie that were never explained, leaving me with more questions than answers in the end.

This debut novel resembles Jumper, a great film. THE BOOK OF DOORS is unusual in the tale, given to Cassie Andrews by an elderly customer in her New York bookstore. The man passes away quietly, and the young woman bookseller doesn’t realise how precious this gift will be.



Together with her irrepressible flatmate Izzy, Cassie discovers the joy of using the Book of Doors to visit other countries, opening any door to step out into a square in Italy, a Japanese restaurant, or a Manhattan rooftop bar. Izzy becomes concerned, though, saying that such a book would permit crimes, and using it must be paid for somehow. Her words come true all too quickly, and sinister forces start shadowing the two friends.
Continued.

Oh wow! What an epic thrill that's like any other book I've read. This intricate clever plot kept me invested through out. It has everything I love - magic, books, emotional journey and characters to remember. It's a book hangover inducing fantastical read. Five stars doesn't give it justice.

I feel this was written specifically for book readers and I love that. It encapsulates the idea that books are magic, and incredibly precious. And basically give us superpowers which I feel is something we've all thought or wished. It is a very clever magic system, based not only on books but the characteristics of the person themselves, and you can see the thought and detail that went into this idea.

The character as well are gorgeously detailed and portrayed so in depth and vividly I feel like I'd know them if I met them. This, combined with an in-depth, intriguing plot, that is equal moments enchanting and thrilling. Makes for an amazing read. Can't recommend this highly enough to lovers of books and magic and that spark you get when you open the pages of a new book.

An interesting concept of time travel in a book shop, I wasn't too sure about the main characters Cassie and Izzy. A fun read in the main though.

The Book of Doors is the kind of book that leaves you in a haze days after finishing it. I couldn't stop thinking of the story and the characters, and the next books I read really paled in comparison.

The Book of Doors follows Cassie, a bookseller who receives a little notebook from a customer. She soon will discover that this notebook is actually the book of doors, a book that transforms any door in another door, allowing her to travel anywhere she wants. But she will also find out that she is now in grave danger (as is the world).

I loved everything about this book. The idea of the books was really fun (well, not all of them), the characters were real to me, the friendship between Cassie and Izzy so beautiful and strong, the grief so heartbreaking and everlasting, the baddies so terrifying...

What an utter joy this book is!! This really is something special. The literary agent and publishers reading this for the first time must have thought all their birthdays had come at once. It's glorious. It's literally magical, yes, I said literally. I was given an ARC in exchange for an honest review, and my honest review is that I love it so much I wish I could give it 10 stars. It is head and shoulders one of the best books I've ever read. Gareth Brown is incredibly talented to have produced such a gem. It's the sort of book that even if you buy an electronic version of it, you want the physical copy and I have done just that. This book will stand the test of time, it is a delight.

Everything about this book had me quite excited- I love a good book about books, make them magic books and it's even better. Unfortunately the execution here fell flat.

While did enjoy the cozy aspects of this book, I seriously struggled through reading it, especially the first 25%. I nearly DNF'ed and probably would have had I not agreed to review in exchange for the ARC. The main female characters are very one dimensional and hard to feel any feelings about whatsoever. Some of the body shaming comments were pretty disappointing, and should have been caught by any editor or sensitivity reader (not to mention the racism).

The prose itself was extremely sporadically paced, and lacked consistency and depth. The fact that the author and editing team couldn't come up with a name better than "special books" for these amazing tomes that can perform miracles rankled me through the whole novel, and is pretty indicative of the writing style.

One thing I did really enjoy was the carefully woven plot that took into account time travel and its repercussions. This clearly took a lot of effort and, I imagine, a lot of sticky notes on a wall. It's just a shame the writing couldn't back it up.

And a final note, though I know this ARC was an uncorrected proof copy, the formatting on e-reader was absolutely abysmal. We all make an effort to not let these things affect our opinion of the book, but it does. One cannot impartially judge a novel when struggling to read 10 word sentences because it's been randomly parcelled out over three lines. Let alone the seemingly random italicised words that must have been headers when formatted properly. Here they just popped up in the middle of paragraphs.

Overall, it could have been great, but I won't be recommending it to fellow readers.

From the first few pages, the writing style I knew was an immediate no for me, but I decided to try and press on to see if the plot and characters would get me through. (They did not).
The writing is all telling and no showing, and I mean that quite literally, with lines like <i>"He coughed a little self depreciating laugh, signalling to Cassie that he knew he was being silly."</i> and <i>"[He] rubbed his hands together as if they were cold."</i> and <i>"Cassie looked around the store. ... It was everything a bookstore should be."</i>. This is just from the first few pages. It is such a bland way of writing, not what I would expect from a fantasy book with a whimsical plot, especially not one comped to V.E SCHWAB AND ERIN MORGENSTERN!?

The way the plot unfolds is okay but not very immersive and a little like a pantomime. As soon as we reached descriptions of the places behind the doors I was like Okay!! Here we go!! I can get on board with this!! But the characters held it back so much that I couldn't even enjoy that.

The characters that I met in the first 8% are Cassie (protagonist) and her close friend/flatmate Izzy. They are nearly indistinguishable as characters. Truly two pieces of flimsy cardboard. Whats more, they seem to be written like early 2000s YA protagonists:
<i>"To her own eyes she was too tall and thin. She thought her hips were too narrow and her chest too flat, and her eyes were big and wide, like a startled deer's. She never wore makeup because she never really learned how to do it."</i>
I'm sorry, what in the Bella Swan is this? This comes after two different strangers (men) call her pretty too. Also, this description is given to us because Cassie gets home and happens to look in a mirror. Normal people don't get home from a long day at work and glance in the mirror and assess their reflection in this way, as if they are describing themselves for an audience.
Her flatmate is what truly made me DNF. I let one comment about bread going to her hips slide, but when we reached this (context, they are eating pancakes at midnight), I had to DNF:
<i>"Look at me," Izzy complained miserably, "I am disgusting, it's midnight and I am doing this to my body."
"There's nothing wrong with your body and you know it."
"There might be if I keep eating like this. Have you seen my aunts? They're all huge. That is in my genes, Cass."
????????? I'm not saying there is anything wrong with depicting characters with bad relationships with food, in fact far from it! But the way this is dropped in reads like a fat joke from the early 2000s. It's 2024, and it's more powerful to write characters who have healthy relationships with food, especially fat ones.

After reading a few other reviews I can see there are similar instances with racism and sexism dropped in from a villain later in the book, but I didn't get that far so I couldn't say. But with this writing style they don't seem to be elements that are important to the story, but rather cheap jokes and weak attempts at characterisation.

I'm so mad - you're going to give me such a good premise and comp a book to Addie Larue and The Night Circus and then give me this?????? I feel swindled.