Debut author Gareth Brown stuns and dazzles with THE BOOK OF DOORS. This magical, dreamy, book-loving journey through time and space reminds us that books are doorways to anywhere, and adventure is always a page flip away.

Booklover Cassie Andrews has lived a simple life since settling down in New York City. An orphan raised predominantly by her beloved grandfather, Cassie once traveled the world after his death 10 years ago. Now she is working at her local independent bookstore, sipping wine out of mugs with her roommate, Izzy, and, of course, books. On the night we meet Cassie, she is just closing down the store when a favorite regular of hers, John Webber, drops dead at his cafe table with two books still in his hands.

"Readers will love the way that Gareth Brown carefully balances his clever, taut plotting with an invigorating air of adventure and mayhem. His quirky, lovable characters help propel the novel along."

The EMTs arrive to handle the body, but Cassie is left with Mr. Webber’s books: a worn copy of THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO and an even more battered journal of sorts, full of etchings and drawings that she can’t quite make out and a message she wishes she couldn’t: This is the Book of Doors. Hold it in your hand, and any door is every door. Beneath it is a more personal note from him: Cassie, This book is for you, a gift in thanks for your kindness. May you enjoy the places it takes you to and the friends you find there. Is it possible that this man with whom she traded book recommendations and kind words was insane?

No, as it turns out. Holding the Book of Doors at home, Cassie recalls a past trip to Venice when talking to her roommate. When she opens their apartment’s hallway door, she is greeted not with tiled floors and flickering lights, but with the sights, scents and breeze of Venice. Izzy is immediately suspicious, but Cassie, who still harbors a lot of grief and regret at the passing of her grandfather --- a man who devoted his whole life to raising her instead of traveling the world or embarking on his own adventures --- sees potential in the mysterious little book. Rather than committing to a boring life of customer service, retail and missed connections, she can go anywhere she wants. But what she doesn’t know is that the book doesn’t just go anywhere, it goes anytime.

But Cassie and Izzy are not the only ones who know about the Book of Doors or its unusual powers. When Izzy frantically searches the web for some clue concerning its origins, she unwittingly sends out a beacon informing a dark underground collective that the book has been found. Before long, the girls are approached by a mysterious man named Fox Drummond. He has seen them using the book, igniting its colorful magic and disappearing into random doors. And, he tells them, he is not the only one. The girls are in serious danger.

As it turns out, the Book of Doors is only one of a collection of books, an entire library if you will, each of them granting their owner a different power: the ability to fall into shadows and disappear, the ability to always have good luck and, more sinister, the ability to fill another person with all-consuming despair. Drummond is part of an underground group dedicated to collecting and safely storing these books for study and for the good of all mankind. But for the last 10 years, they have been forced to hide from a dangerous, evil woman known only as “the Woman,” who also is in search of the complete collection…so she can put an end to the world as we know it.

Having unintentionally and unwittingly become embroiled in the biggest, most time- and space-defying battles the world has ever known, Cassie agrees to join forces with Drummond, who comes to reveal himself as the Librarian, the holder of the bulk of the known books. In her travels with him, she meets the Bookseller, a sharp-eyed auctioneer who works out of New Orleans; book hunters Azaki and Lund; a villainous man named Dr. Hugo Barbary; and, of course, the Woman herself. With an epic showdown on the horizon, Cassie and Drummond begin laying careful traps, clues and supports through time and space to help their past, present and future selves prepare for the most dangerous battle of all. At the same time, their careful friendship and individual acknowledgments of their own hurts and loneliness form a sensitive, deeply human throughline that grounds the book’s more sensational uses of magic.

Readers will love the way that Gareth Brown carefully balances his clever, taut plotting with an invigorating air of adventure and mayhem. His quirky, lovable characters help propel the novel along. They each give readers someone to root for and a new reason to care about these mysterious little books, even beyond their seemingly unlimited powers.

Blending mortality and magic, books and reality, sensitivity and power, Brown's debut is pure reading delight. Adventurous and smart, creative and refreshing, it is not without a few plot holes (some of which may be blamed on this reader’s limited grasp of time travel). But the magic, whimsy and heart of the book more than fill these holes, making it endlessly compelling. THE BOOK OF DOORS announces an exciting new talent in the world of fantasy fiction, a natural follow-up to works like THE ONCE AND FUTURE WITCHES, THE WISHING GAME and television’s “Doctor Who.”