Oh what a brilliant read this was it was full of all the things I love in a fantasy type book and having had a hit and miss history with fantasy I am thrilled to say this is a huge hit for me. The concept is so clever and I loved the way time travel and all that goes with that was done so well and oh how I wanted a Book of Doors for myself!
The characters are all well crafted as is the story and it’s hard to believe that this a debut by Gareth Brown and I look forward to whatever will come next from him.
So a super read full of magic, a whole heap of wonderful characters some nice and some not at all and an excellent story what more could you ask for!
My thanks to NetGalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers, Bantam Press for giving me the opportunity to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I will admit I was unsure about this book with the first few chapters, character dialogue was a bit odd, a bit wooden.
When they started using the doors I still didn’t have much of an urge to pick the book up but I kept going and was giving myself another 10/15% to try.
Honestly I’m glad I did, the book picks up tremendously, and also the ending is also tied into the beginning ans makes way more sense and part of a bigger picture.
I loved the detail within some of the doors, including the graphic scenes of the villain lady.
The found family aspect with some of the other book holders and book hunters was good.
A great book adventure and I will be recommending ..

Sorry i couldnt get into this. The characters didnt engage me and it seemed too foreboding to pursue to the end

Thanks to NetGalley and Bantam/Penguin Random House for the free e-ARC in return for an unbiased review.

I’m disappointed to have to give such a low rating to this book. I was really looking forward to reading it – hence why I requested it as an ARC. A fantasy tale about a magic book that can open doors seemed ideal for me. I also dislike being negative when it’s a debut book.

I felt that the book opened well and I was drawn in to the mystery of where the book came from and what it could do. I liked the notion of the other books and their capabilities. I also felt the reveal to Cassie about the book's full powers was well done.

Unfortunately there were also significant parts of the book I disliked. What I found most off-putting were the detailed descriptions of what The Woman did to her victims. I didn’t need the specifics and it was jarring to find them in this type of book, especially one marketed as Teen/YA. There are other ways to make it clear a character is dangerous or evil.

I felt the text could have benefited from greater editorial guidance. There were quite a few instances where the female characters spoke and acted quite woodenly. They didn’t come across as fully fleshed out characters but as Female 1 and Female 2. Their derogatory remarks about themselves/their eating habits didn’t help this. Other reviewers have mentioned some of them but once which stood out for me was that Cassie very early on describes herself as too thin. Yet when she meets another character she makes a comment about how she has never been accused of being to too thin. Which is it? Another aspect which rankled was the use of the same descriptions such as the barrel of a gun being like a black hole.

In terms of the plot I liked the way the MCs actions caused the antagonist to come into existence. I liked the back story of the Fox library and Drummond’s friends. I just found it difficult care for any of the characters and I found their relationships a little forced. I can't detail the full reasons here without spoilers but I felt they were poorly developed and unrealistic.

If I hadn’t agreed to review this book I wouldn’t have finished it. In defence of the book the blurb does mention violence – I just didn’t expect it to be so graphic. If it had been just that I could have skipped over those parts. But in conjunction with the writing and lack of character development I’m sad to say I didn’t enjoy this one.

Wonderful story full of twists and turns which kept me from going to sleep at night as just wanted to read another page!
It mixes intrigue with humanity for the heroine as she leads a quiet and unassuming life in New York until she is given a wonderful book, a magic book which bestows special powers. But it is not the only book in this library of magic books and Cassie has to navigate her way through them to reach ........

If you could open a door to anywhere, where would you go?New York bookseller Cassie is living an unassuming life when she is given a book as a gift from her favourite customer. It's full of strange writing and mysterious drawings. At the front there is a handwritten message to Cassie, telling her it is the Book of Doors, and any door is every door. And some doors should never be opened.

This book to me is a mixture of time travel and fantasy and whilst there are a couple of undoubtedly unnecessary comments about weight/diet by two of the main fmc’s, the book on a whole is extremely interesting and well written. The ending tied everything up perfectly as you finally get to understand ‘the woman’ character and what made her that way. The many characters in the book perfectly intertwined at the end as well. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and in my opinion there is scope for at least another book or possibly a series. Thank you to the author and publishers for accepting my request to read this book.

Gareth Brown's "The Book of Doors" is a magical, time travelling novel. Set in New York (at least in the beginning) it features Cassie a twenty something bookshop assistant who goes from leading a normal life, to being drawn into the dangerous world of magical books: such as the book of illusion, the book of pain and the eponymous book of doors. All of these books can be used in positive and negative ways, and as a result people hunt them, will pay millions for them and will kill for them. Being given the book of doors by an elderly patron therefore results in Cassie going from fun experiences where she gets to revisit old holiday destinations with her best friend Issy, to being chased by 'The Woman' and Dr. Hugo Barbary, who enjoy torture and inflicting pain, and will stop at nothing to get the books.

Writing about time travel in a way that hangs together for a reader is incredibly difficult. Whilst complex, Brown manages to create a concept that means the twists and time loops in his novel make sense and provide some satisfying outcomes (e.g. how 'the woman' becomes who she is). The characters in this novel are well drawn and believable and there were certainly times when I became quite emotional reading it, as well as occasions when the humour had me laughing out loud. I don't think you need to be someone keen on fantasy or science fiction to enjoy this book - it hinged on the human condition - and as a result I would recommend it to all.

So I adored the premise of this book, it had so much potential but sadly fell flat. I was so excited to read this at first, it was a good opening and set the stoey up well. But then...I feel like the author had 2 choices with this book, an epic story where the books of doors was used to do all sorts of cool things and go amazing places, especially since time travel is in the mix, but instead they went for (minor spoilers) what is basically just a bunch of people brawling over getting possession of this book and some other magical books. Which was just...dull...
I wanted to love this book, but I got to the point that I stopped caring about the story or characters (who also started off well but then didn't develop much as characters). By the end I was power reading just to get it over with.

So I don't really recommend this. It had a great idea which just wasn't used or executed well.

I was lucky enough to get this book as an ARC and I would say this has set the bar very high for the rest of my 2024 reads.

For me, the magic and wonder in this book was definitely shown in the way the whole story came together and every part of this story ended up being linked together. I think the author deserves recognition just for the intricacy of that. This is the kind of book where what you first read is not the full picture of what happened in that scene because in a few chapters you’ll learn that a lot more happened for that moment to occur then you realised.

There was one part that literally had me crying in bed as I was reading it just because of how moving the scene was and I can honestly say I can’t remember the last book that made me cry. The ending nearly had me going again but I managed to hold that one together!

It’s hard to write about the reasons why I adored this book without spoiling anything and so I’m trying my best not to, but that means you’re just going to have to trust me when I say this book is worthy of blowing up on bookstagram and I really hope it does because it would be well deserved. Even though I received an ARC copy of this, I’ll definitely be buying a physical copy when it’s released because this will be a re-read for me.

The release date for this is 15th February 2024 and I’d recommend adding it to your TBR

This was such a fun book with a really interesting and unique magic system that I adored. I'm a big fan of time travel books so this was a surprising element I wasn't expecting to see when picking this up but that I'm so glad was included. Would highly recommend.

Ok, so you might have to bear with me for this review because I really enjoyed this book, but also... didn't. Yes, I don't really know how else to explain it, there are a few things I can pin point that I will talk about, but the rest was just a feeling I got, so I'll apologise in advance.

So... the characters, there are a few of them and we do get multiple POV's, but the main one, and the one I loved the most was Cassie, the woman who originally finds the book of doors and sets the whole story into motion. Cassie is someone who is incredibly easy to bond and empathize with. Not only because she loves books, but because she's someone all alone in the world, no parents, grandparents, no family to speak of except for her best friend and roommate Izzy. I think what made me really enjoy her character though was that Brown didn't make her the usual hero style type, the one who would give everything up to save the world. She's complicated, layered, a little selfish in parts, and because of this reads as more realistic. We also have Drummond Fox, Librarian and the first person to stumble upon Cassie with the Book of Doors. His character is shrouded in a little mystery, we want to trust him, but also feel he has ulterior motives, and I enjoyed how his POV didn't just flesh the world out, but also took us back to some moments in time that were pivotal to the story.

What Brown does incredibly well though is draw a clear line between the 'good' characters and the 'bad.' While the likes of Cassie and Fox may not be wholly good, they are certainly better than The Woman, the mysterious figure who spends the book doing everything in her power to get her hands on the Book of Doors, as well as others. She is someone whose story is kept close to the chest, someone we never learn much about, not until the end of the book anyway, but she is vicious and is someone with no moral code, willing to do whatever it takes to gain as much power as she can. There are other characters who get POV parts, some you will like and others you will hate, but there was one character that I felt wen't a little OTT over to the evil side. He almost read like an evil comic villain, you could imagine him sitting there twirling in a chair stroking his cat, and I think he could have been much more sinister without some of the language and actions that he used.

I do feel like the writing style took me out of the story a little in parts, it never seemed to move with the story at all, rather stayed the same, bland, almost simplistic style the whole way through, so the parts of the story that should have been high octane and filled with danger didn't really hit as much as they could have done. I also felt like the way it was written almost left a gap between the reader and the character, it was hard to develop emotions for these characters when there was little to no emotion on the page, and if you know me I am 100% a character over plot reader, so you know the plot was good for me to have finished this.

The use of time travel in this story was done exceptionally well, in fact the use of the Books in general was brilliantly done and I do feel like Brown got the perfect balance of the high octane vs the slower scenes. It's a dark story, and there are certainly scenes that are not for the faint of heart, but the time travel is where this book really shone for me. I loved how parts of the story almost came round a full 360 through it, and I also enjoyed how it was used to add both emotional and tension filled twists. Despite the lack of emotion and depth in the writing, some of these scenes certainly still hit, and some absolutely gave you that edge of your seat, nail biting moments.

The ending was both a hit and a miss for me, and I still can't decide which side it falls on, in fact I still can't quite decide if I loved this book, of if it felt more of a meh read for me... I did warn you this would be a mixed review! I rated it 4* because the bits I enjoyed I loved, but I did feel there were lots that let it down and, had those been fixed, it could have been a truly amazing read.

I absolutely devoured this book. It’s the perfect mix of friendship, magic, time travel and good vs evil. I loved the idea of the books and the characters within. I really enjoyed how things connected in the end and I honestly just couldn’t put the book down!

Unfortunately this book was a DNF for me.

I could not get into it, but that’s just me, it just seemed a little all over the place. Thanks for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Book of Doors has very good premises and I was curious to read it. Unfortunately, it didn't fully work for me. The general concept was interesting, a book that allowed the owner to travel through doors, but the final delivery could have been improved. The characters weren't fully fleshed out either and I couldn't connect with them. Even their reactions sometimes felt unrealistic. The worldbuilding was good but in the end I hoped for something... more.

Received arc from random house UK and Netgalley for honest read and review,this review is my own personal review.
Still have covid so reading a lot just now.
The blurb on this sounded quite good so requested a copy, it was quite a good story.
Kind of a time travel and door hopping mystery.Maybe.not so much my type of book, I didn't really relate to any of the chart and it seemed.to jump about.

I am going to be absolutely bold and say that this is it...the best book of 2024. I know its only January but my god...I thoroughly got lost in this book. It's s a fantastic idea brought to life and the whole time I was reading it, I just kept thinking...this has to be made into a film. It just has to.
I love the magic, I love the characters, I love the time travel and how the link and add to elements of the story. It was so cleverly considered and planned out. If I think about it too much, it totally addles my brain but still makes sense so fair play to the author. This was no easy feat but he has nailed it.
I wish I could read it for the first time again and not on my kindle because I just know this is a book I will want to own and keep forever.
An absolute joy to read. Thank you to the publishers for allowing me to read it in advance. I'm so excited to see how it does this year.

This book took a while to get going, and honestly, from both the description and the first few chapters I thought this was going somewhere else entirely. It seemed more whimsical and light hearted, and while it certainly started that way, it ended up somewhere altogether darker and more adventurous.

I would compare this book to the Skulduggery Pleasant series actually, now that I'm thinking back on it, although less sarcastic in tone. But the adventure, the twists, the dark moments are all there. There's a wholesomeness there at times too, and a certain sense of satisfaction at how it all comes together. I sped through the last third - by that point, the plot had well and truly gripped me.

Cassie finds herself in possession of a book that has extraordinary power, it can turn any door into any door. She can open her bedroom door and find herself stepping out of a doorway in France right opposite her favourite bakery.
The Book of Doors is coveted by those in the know about about these powerful books and Cassie soon finds herself the object of much unwanted attention.
I liked this, i liked the relationships with the other characters, I liked the travel aspects, i enjoyed the time travel, i loved the dual timeline Cassie. Overall it was a good read, if you enjoyed the Extracted Trilogy i think you will like this.

Absolutely amazing. I don't want to give the plot away, but this is a fantastic read. One of my books of the year, no doubt at all. Loved it and can't wait to see what the author comes up with next.

THE BOOK OF DOORS
by Gareth Brown
Publish date - 15 February 2024

I was looking forward to reading this novel and happy I did, as I was taken on a wonderful reading adventure. A clever, interesting and thought provoking plot, so be prepared to be transported!

The writing style was to my liking and well written. There are lots of great characters in this book. Cassie, the protagonist and her wonderful friend, Izzy, share a flat in New York. Cassie works in Kellner Books in New York and Izzy works in the jewellery department in Bloomingdales, New York.
Cassie and Izzy met while both were working for Kellner Books before they started sharing a flat. They have a lovely relationship, although very different personalities. Their journey begins when Cassie, who inherits The Book of Doors from a customer of Kellner Books, Mr John Webber, when he passes away.

I was blown away by this wonderful plot, writing and characters. I decided to go with the flow and be transported through the plot like a James Bond novel! There is friendship, time travel, horror and magic all rolled together in this book. Please read this wonderful story!

I enjoyed believable characters to love and hate in equal measures. Mr Webber, a true gentleman, Drummond Fox, the librarian. Azaki, bookseller, Hjaemer Lund, his bodyguard, silent but deadly, Dr Hugo Barbary, an awful character but the worst character is the Woman. They all go on a time travel journey you will never forget and this book will stay with me forever!

I enjoyed this book and give 5 star rating.

THANK YOU TO NETGALLEY FOR THE OPPORTUNITY OF READING AN ARC OF THIS BOOK IN RETURN FOR AN HONEST REVIEW