First off, this was a review copy from Netgalley and Bantam (the publisher) so thanks for that. All views are my own.

For the most part I enjoyed this The Book Of Doors - the idea of a magic book that can turn 'any door into every door' sounded just my cup of tea but the downside to that there seemed to be a book for every occasion, just when the owner needs it - The Book Of Joy, Of Luck, Of Shadows, Of Luck, and so on and so forth, I'm sure you get my drift.

The characters were interesting at first, the lead Cassie just the right amount of nice person vibes with a curiosity to where the book would lead her, the grey characters which could go either way (book collectors of various stripes) but the main villain (The Woman) soon seemed more like a pantomime villain to me.

The magic and world building worked well but there was just something missing and even though the story is over and I've had a good think before writing this I just can't place what it was that stopped it from being a 4* read (although I'd go as far as 3.5*).

The idea that a book can take you anywhere is one that most readers will appreciate - after all, don't stories take us to all manner of places.

So, final verdict is Good but not Great, although I will keep an eye on this author

2024 52 Book Challenge - 5) Magical Realism

This book starts off really slowly, and all of the main characters are really boring. I almost DNFed this book around 20% because the characters were so dull and the plot was so slow.

But, after about 50%, the book picks up and it gets much more enjoyable, more fast-paced and the characters all get some really decent character development. I particularly liked the part with Cassie and Mr. Webber, and how much more confident Cassie is after that point. I also really liked the premise of the books and the powers that they contained. I thought that it was a really cool concept, especially as I love Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series which uses doors in a similar fashion.

The one major downside that I really didn't like was the book spewing racism and sexism. I understand that it comes from the character that you identify as the villain, but that isn't an excuse to include it in the book.

Absolutely amazing!
This seems like a book lover’s dream, being able to be transported to any location using a book as a portal. But we already do that every time we pick up a book, this is more than that…. A lot more!
I loved this book so much, it was magical and thrilling and most of all, satisfying. The author introduced a wonderful magic system and made it work, no loose ends or unanswered questions. The story was richly detailed and the characters were perfectly executed.

I want a book about doors. How come I can't have a book of doors?

Gareth Brown takes us on a magical time travelling adventure full of very real characters to the good, the bad and all the grey loveable characters in-between.

Cassie lives in New York with her best friend Izzy they met at work when they both were working at a bookstore. Cassie still working at the bookstore has a regular customer who comes in one night who leaves her a mysterious book which starts off a crazy chain of events.

Absolutely loved this book and I can't wait to tell everyone about it.

Gareth Brown's debut fantasy is a enthralling and wondrous magical adventure that will appeal to booklovers, even if fantasy is not their jam! In New York, the unassuming Cassie Andrews works in a bookstore, still grieving the loss of her grandfather, finding some comfort in being surrounded by books. Her uneventful life is upended when a a favourite customer, the lovely old Mr Webber, dies, and she finds herself bequeathed with an astonishing 'book of doors'. There are strange symbols, and it is set to open up the world for Cassie in ways that she could never have imagined as she learns how to use it. In a narrative structured into 7 parts, Cassie's amazing book allows her to travel anywhere in place and back and forth in time too, with her good friend Izzy, who is initially hesitant, as it turns out with good reason.

Books are extraordinarily powerful objects, and there are many special magical books, such as the Book of Luck, the Book of Health and the Book of Mirrors, and they can be used for good and for evil. Many are desperate to get their hands on the Book of Doors once they become aware Cassie has it, and will even kill for it. This opens the path to the great action fuelled and dangerous adventures that follow for Cassie and Izzy, meeting the Scottish book protector in the shadows, the 'librarian' Drummond Fox, who warns they are in danger. They become aware it is within their realm to change history, a double edged sword that can hurt and kill too. This leaves Cassie and Izzy having to survive being chased by a disparate cast of self serving hunters and collectors, the list of villains and adversaries continuing to grow, and including the horrors of a woman that is truly evil.

Brown writes a enchanting, centertaining, intriguing, vibrant and gripping mystery read that mesmerises with all the twists and surprising turns, and left me wanting more when it finished. This is a book I adored, beautifully plotted, with terrific world building, a breathless magical fantasy that I am certain will do well once it is published and which I have no hesitation in recommending to booklovers and anyone else! Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

Magical, mysterious, with pages bursting with utter brilliance, this book is everything and more.
This is hands down the best book I have read in a long time! Worthy of every five star review it gets plus added bonus stars 🌟
A world where magical books exist. Books that can do amazing things, good, bad and plain evil. Who wouldn’t want to own one or even better, all of these wondrous books?
Luckily for the world only a few people know of their existence because if some of these books were to fall into the wrong hands who knows the terrors they could unleash.
After a long time customer to the bookshop she works in leaves Cassie a book, she has no idea how much that strange book is going to change her life.
Unbeknown to her this peculiar book has now put her and her best friend, her flatmate Izzy in the path of danger as there are people out there that not only know about these magical books, but those that covert the book she now holds in her hands.
People who will go to any extremes to have The Book of Doors for their own.
This book is filled cover to cover with nonstop action that casts its own spell over you making it impossible to put down and stop reading. Even then, when sleep won I found myself dreaming about the book!
I am not a massive fan of fantasy books so please don’t let that fraction of the book dissuade you from picking this book up and reading it. Although it is about magical books with powers, it is a book that anyone who enjoys exceptional storytelling will not be able to put down.
It is as beautiful inside as is the cover.
This book has it all. Mystery, adventure, danger, thrills, friendship all tied up with a magical twist.
If you only read one book this year, make sure it is this one!

Loved this novel from Gareth, although I'm not sure if categorise it as Teen/YA seems there's too much graphic/ gory detail in it for that (not sure why it goes into that much description the novel would still work without that!). What a fantastic rollercoaster of emotions you go through with Cassie!
Cassie is living with her friend Izzy and working in a bookstore when she comes into possession of a magical book given to her by a customer. It comes with a message 'Any Door is Every Door' but the problem is some doors should stay closed and never be opened! Once Cassie starts to use the book it soon transpires that there are lots of other magical books out there and there are lots of unscrupulous people who would stop at nothing to get their hands on them. In particular 'the woman' no-one knows who she is it where she came from but they all fear her! She is in possession of some of the magic books and wants to find all of them for herself. She knows she needs to find Drummond Fox, (the only one who can help Cassie and Izzy) But just what does she want with him and why? Just where did the books come from and how many are there?
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me read this novel. Can see a second novel following on from this - please?! Would love to see it adapted for tv. Definitely be looking out for more from Gareth!

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me, which sucks because I was really looking forward to it! The concept had me super excited, it just wasn't executed very well. I only got 24% in and had to stop, I'd been trying to read it for over a week and everytime I tried again I was still bored.

Cassie, a young woman living in New York and working in a bookstore, comes into possession of a magical book that can transport her anywhere in the world.

Unfortunately the characters fell flat, the pacing was off and I just wasn't drawn into the story like you'd expect to be. It felt like I was being told a story, rather monotone-like, instead of being immersed in this world of magical books.

Also, multiple body shaming comments directed at the female characters made me feel icky. God forbid a woman ests pancakes and bacon *shocked face*

Thanks to Netgalley for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Like a lot of reviewers I also thought this book was similar to The Ten Thousand Doors of January. This was an intriguing story full of evil characters and mystical goings on. I loved this unusual story and was sad to finish it. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

Loved this book – it gave me the escapism I was looking for!

A well-woven debut novel by Gareth Brown. A fascinating and magical read brimming with suspense, friendship, opportunity, likeable characters and time travel. What's not to love?

Highly recommend if you want to curl up, close your own front door and escape to a new world!

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.