A Thousand Doors: An Anthology of Many Lives

In exchange for an ARC of this book, I agreed to give my honest and unbiased review. I commend J.T. Ellison and the other writers for undertaking the task of writing Mia's life stories. Each author's entry is as unique and different as the authors themselves. It made for a very adventurous read. On the day that Mia Jensen is killed by her husband, she begins an amazing journey into what if's, or past lives or life memories. Each life is so vastly different from the next. My favorite was her life as a homeless woman. My least favorite was her life as a seeker, but that was because I did not understand some of the terminology that was used as I have never studied yoga. The main thing that the lives have in common is that Mia does not seem to remain satisfied or content like a piece is missing. So what is the point of all this soul searching or traveling? Pick up the book and find out. Discover if Mia can make the right choice and find peace.

“What if” is a premise that calls to me like the song of the siren. A THOUSAND DOORS is a very daring enterprise as it has a head writer J.T. Ellison, if you will, along with a slew of guest contributors. Would Mia Jensen’s essence remain intact? Would it form a coherent whole? It does, except that I found that The Author by Kaira Rouda did not capture Mia’s spirit as well as the other ones did, and The Seeker by Paige Crutcher was a little too esoteric for me. The short stories are independent of each other, and can be read in any order, as they are standalones, apart from Ms. Ellison’s, which bracket the whole. I did read every story, which is unusual for me when anthologies are concerned, and I would give a solid four stars for the overall quality of the stories as well as the writing, with a few that were so terrific that my rating of five stars is justified; besides Ms. Ellison’s story is well worth five stars. A few stories really have the feel of the “what if” as pertaining to Mia, while others seem more independent of the theme. However I am pleased to say that Mia remained a tall, blue-eyed blonde throughout. Some offerings suffer the curse of the short story, that is a non-ending or where you have to draw your own conclusion. It would be too long to evaluate all the stories individually, so I will only mention a few that really stood out for me and why they were so special. The Happily Married Wife and Mother by Kimberly Belle is excellent. Rebecca Drake’s The Archaeologist is stunning – very detailed and the ambiance is fabulous, although I’m not sure I quite understood the ending. The Widow by Kate Moretti is fabulous, very clever, and is possibly the best “what if” of the lot. My favourite story was The Homeless Woman by Kerry Lonsdale, which is fantastic. It’s a very touching story that made me cry, and to do that with a short story is quite the achievement. J.T. Ellison opens and closes this collection with the bones of Mia Jensen’s story, and I wish she would have done the whole thing by herself. Ms. Ellison was a new author to me, and it was a revelation! Her writing is outstanding: stylish, literate, and with impeccable timing; she conveys tension and atmosphere spectacularly, and I am looking forward to reading anything by Ms. Ellison because I was totally awed. What a talent! Even though I read an advanced reader copy, the editing is stellar: in all those pages, I found exactly ONE typo, which is almost unheard of. If A THOUSAND DOORS was not precisely the sort of “what if” book I was hoping for, it is a wonderful read, a great opportunity to discover new authors, and do a bit of thinking on our own life as well.