✨Bring✨ | Borrow | Bypass

Thank you to Edelweiss, Doubleday, & Penguin Random House for the opportunity to read and review this book before it's publication date! This in no way affected my review, opinions are my own.

Review: I was utterly charmed by this novel, and oh so so so so deeply desire for this to be a film - with the right actors and settings this could be one of the top films ever made and I'll die on that hill. The puzzles?? Creighton Hall?? The relationships?? The PUZZLES? Ugh, it'd be amazing.

This had a now & then narration; now showcasing Clayton trying to figure out who he is in the world without his adopted mother, Pippa; and the then showing how Pippa came to found The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers and how she became Clayton's family (as did the rest of the Fellowship, but don't even get me started on that because I'll cry).

There were a lot of side characters here, some more enjoyable and fleshed out than others - but I really didn't mind. The ones that needed to be full were, and the ones that weren't were still delightful.

I really liked how the end all came together, even if (by that point), it wasn't wholly surprising. Definitely recommend this cozy, lovely, wonderful novel.

(Also, I didn't get many of the puzzles throughout but it didn't dampen my enjoyment.)

Some quotes that I loved:

A good friend should build you up, she always used to say. They should help you become the best version of yourself. In that sense, forging a friendship was akin to finding a soulmate.

"But the trick, young man, is to find the person who loves you the way you love them. The way you deserve to be loved. Because, in the end, ..." Her hands were clasped around his again. "Love is all that matters."