This book took me a moment to connect with Darby and his motivations, but he becomes a more understandable character over the course of the book. It's often curious to me when I read books about characters returning to their hometown, and their former love interest is somehow still waiting for them, despite something cruel happening in the past. I loved this brief book, and I think many audiences, young and old, will connect with Darby's need to return home and re-experience what he chose to leave behind. Bonus points for some diversity and inclusivity in the cast of characters.

I really liked the concept of this book. It sounds like it'd be Sci-Fi with the talk of time travel and such, and while it does, it mostly dealt with coming to terms with who you are, with change, and finding out where you feel home is. I was hoping that the outcome would come out sort of differently, especially with how Darby tried to change how his life turned out, but ultimately, I understood the ending and what needed to come out of it.

I was very disappointed by the ending of this book. The first 2/3 was great and 5 stars. I loved how Darby interacted with Young Darby and was really though he would help Young Darby find himself sooner. As soon as the past portal started to not work, the book started going downhill. By the time the story ended, it was a 1 star. I didn't like Darby's life choice, the portal ended in a clunky way and I was generally annoyed by the way the story crash landed in the end. I hope the ending is changed by the time it is published.

It was a solid 3.5/5 for me. The book was great for the first 75% but the ending was just heartbreak after heartbreak. Why did we have to do Michael like that? He was always so kind to Darby even after what he did to him. I did love the book and it even made me cry at times, especially the melancholy end. I think the author did well showing that sometimes a hometown is NOT home but that home is where you are loved and cared about.

Mr. Underhill, I will not forgive you for poor Michael. Yes, he was probably my favorite character. It was obvious he loved Darby and just the heartbreak of them mutually admitting what they had wouldn't continue just shattered me.

always weary of a YA author making the jump to adult fiction. this was no different. there just wasn’t a purpose?
I did enjoy the book but wish it had more character growth.
I didn’t like Darby very much and my contempt did not lessen as the book went on.
I do like that this captured accurately growing up queer in a small town. There’s this strange ache of homesickness while feeling suffocated.

I originally picked this book up because it was painfully familiar to myself - queer, small town, moved away, came back and felt alone and confused. I’m realizing now that may have been a mistake and perhaps swayed my reading a little bit (?). It was good, but just didn’t hit the way I thought it was going to.

Throughout there were a bunch of little things I enjoyed like the descriptions of the surroundings and being able to picture that small Illinois town perfectly down to the literal smells. It felt like I was a child in my hometown which is probably specific to people like me from the Midwest but I just really connected to it lol. The universe jumping/time traveling within the bookstore was also really cool. I think we all wish we could have the same chance the main character got.

That being said I can’t bring myself to overlook the things I didn’t enjoy. The characters were definitely written by an author who mostly writes YA. They were supposed to be 30 but I genuinely felt like I was reading about teenagers with their personalities and inability to communicate like adults. I also DESPISED the ending but that could also mainly be from my abandonment issues and refusal to let anything go lol.

All in all, the book was good and well written but I think there were just too many factors going into it that made me disconnect pretty quick. If the overall plot is something you relate to I’d say there’s a 50/50 chance you’ll either fall in love with the book or have the same experience I did. If it’s not something you entirely relate to I’d say it’ll be a pretty enjoyable read if you like some angst and existentialism !!

This book was vastly disappointing.

It started off well enough, almost-30-year-old Darby having just lost his job, and getting completely burned out on NYC. When his mom decides to downsize his childhood home and move to a condo, Darby thinks its time to return to the small-minded small town of Oak Falls. He's hardly been back since he left for college, missing only two things: his former best friend, and the bookstore where they spent their afternoons. Darby hasn't spoken to Michael since the falling out they had in high school, long before Darby transitioned. But when he returns to the home he never quite fit into, he finds that the world changed while he was gone, and Oak Falls isn't the stifling place it once was. Not to mention, the absolutely impossible things that happen every time Darby goes into In Between Books...

This book had potential, and I'm all for contemporary magic and timey-wimey stuff. Missing the mark, this time-portal bookstore seemed to serve one single purpose, and that was to get adult Darby to talk to teenage Darby. And they barely did that until it was almost too late. Not to mention that adult Darby was an almost unbearable wet blanket almost the whole book. Miserable in NY, sure. Miserable when returning home, absolutely. But it didn't seem to be until the literal final chapter that he finally lightned up. In fact, he was a rude jerk to everyone the entire time. His reconnection with Michael was without, too, and the guy deserved way better. I hope he got closure, because I sure didn't.

While the storytelling lacked, the writing quality was good. I'd love to read a revised version of this, with Darby acting a little kinder. And maybe give us some more information on the magical bookstore?

2.5 stars

I got this book as an ARC and I am happy I read it. It's a pretty quick read and flows well. I enjoyed the authors voice for Darby.

The book FELT like it was leading up to something more than just personal discovery. Don't get me wrong, I was fine with how it went and ended but it had potential to be more. I can't really say much without spoiling up but the time "traveling" bookstore didn't really do much besides help the main characters personal reflection.

I wouldn't read this book again but I did like it. It isn't a book I am going to shout about to my friends or talk about in the future. it was emotional to me as someone who moved away from a "small town" to discover myself but I wanted more.

This is the story of Darby, a trans man who left his hometown never to come back so he could create the life he wanted with found family in NYC. As a result of several overlapping circumstances, he ends up having to go back home.

As walks through the doors of the bookstore where he used to work, he sees his teenager self behind the counter. Caught in between the now and then, Darby puts both the past and present puzzle pieces of his life together and works towards healing some of his trauma as he revisits his journey.

I loved every moment I spent with this touching and lovely book.

with gratitude to netgalley and Avon for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

A trans man returns to the small town he was raised in after being laid off from his job in New York. The small town that always felt too small, too closed minded, and too old fashioned to welcome change. New York had felt like a safe place for Darby, who made friends like him and transitioned with their love and support.

When Darby returns to his hometown, he learns that his childhood best friend Michael has come out as gay during Darby’s time away. Darby and Michael had a falling out before Darby left for boarding school - a falling out that has always confused Darby, who never stopped caring about Michael.

Also in his hometown is the independent bookstore he worked in during high school. To his complete surprise, the store is unchanged. It smells the same. It looks the same. Darby cannot believe the condition of the store; it feels like he just left yesterday. Then he notices the lack of new releases, and the girl behind the counter that has his eyes. The girl that, impossibly, is pre-transition Darby. Somehow the bookstore has transported Darby back to 2009, where it is days before he and Michael had a fight that changed their friendship forever.

This book felt like a hug. It was warm and healing. My only complaint is the ending - it felt lackluster. But lovely, lovely story.

A little too on the disillusioned and melancholic side for me. I understand the author's previous works were YA so I was a little thrown by the malaise inherent in the story, even though the character landscape and dialogues were very vivid and engaging. The magical realism of this leaned too far from the whimsy of magic and more towards the realism, which in itself isn't a bad thing. But I guess I was hoping for more...wonder, given the bookstore and second chances vibes.

This is a deeply personal book to me, first of all I have to thank the author for writing a trans guy that is not in their teenage years. It is not often I see people my age in books that have a trans MC so I appreciated that a lot.

Darby was very relatable, specially at the beginning of the story. Having left his small town for a big city where he felt accepted is something I can relate to. At the beginning of the story we find he has just lost his job and decides for a change of scenery and go back to his small town to help his mom move while running into his childhood friend who he had a falling out with.

There he also finds that the bookstore he use to work at makes him travel back in time and come face to face with his younger self. It was sweet and it was a story I read surprisingly fast because I wanted to know what happened next.

After the 70% is when I start losing a bit of my likeability for Darby, I feel like he's almost there with a good come to Jesus moment and then he doesn't reach that moment. It was frustrating to read as I wanted him to realize that his issues could be solved if he talked to people in his life (his friends, Michael, his mother). At the end I felt he was a little bit of a selfish character though he complained often inwardly about the selfish thoughts he had.

I understand what the author wanted to do with the ending but it felt bitter sweet and that maybe we went through this journey for not a lot of payoff. But that's life sometimes so in that way I suppose to book was very real to what the human experience is like.

I initially was drawn in by the mention of a bookstore, in the title, and then, it just got more gravitational from there. We've got a sort of time traveling bookstore, BUT, it doesn't completely send you back in time. As soon as you exit, you return to the present. Exploring paths not taken, regrets, family (both found and genetic), and where your people are were all phenomenally done. If anyone finds themselves wishing the book ended differently, just remember, in another lifetime it did.

Really enjoyed this book & as someone with social anxiety connected with some of the choices and things in this book some will not.

A really great read - definitely worth recommending to others and re-reading again in the future.

In someways it fell kind of flat and was slow burnish to me but I still really enjoyed it & think it’ll be a hit in 2025!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this lovely story in exchange for my honest review.

thank you netgalley for the e-arc of this book!

This touches on so many necessary topics. Its themes resonate with the times. Somewhere around the 60% mark, I lost the urge to read it, perhaps feeling like this could have been more of a novella. i did dnf.

Final rating: 3 Stars.

This was one of those books where it wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t spectacular either. The writing was solid, I’m not crazy about voice, but it was still engaging enough for me to stick with it. The characters were interesting. The plot was…interesting. I wouldn’t say I had a terrible time; I just didn’t have an amazing time either.

My feelings towards this book are so strange that I can’t accurately put into words what they are. This wasn’t bad at all, but I don’t think it was the book for me. Solid 3 stars for me, but I do think that this tale will resonate with others.

Actually 3.5. <3 Netgalley <3

An "it's not me, it's you" kind of book. I don't think it's bad, I just don't think it was for me.

I also kind of feel like labeling it as sci-fi/fantasy isn't the best move, it's closer to literary? Yeah, there is an element of that with the time travel, but given that it was kind of the selling point of the book to me it was...kind of underutilized. That entire plot point could have been cut and the story would effectively not change. The time travel is effectively just a metaphor for Darby reflecting on his actions before leaving his hometown. If you go into it like me expecting that to be a more focused on plot point, you're going to be disappointed.

Darby can be pretty relatable with his social anxiety and teen angst, but he's pretty consistently a bad friend. He doesn't reply to his found family back in NYC for pretty much the whole book, and the entire plot happens because he fails to communicate properly with Michael as a teen. We also learn he like never speaks to his mother? Darby seems to have some kind of a character growth realization moment at the end, but because this is one of the most consistent patterns we see with his behavior it kind of adds a layer of,,,just annoyance throughout the book.

One thing I did really, really enjoy was Darby's relationship with Michael. Watching it progress and learning more about their past as friends was cool. That ending beat the shit out of me though. My god.

I do love reading books about trans adults because there aren't a whole lot of them and it's always a bonus when an actual trans person is writing it. I had a different experience from Darby, but it was pretty cool coming across things where our trans experiences still overlapped. You can tell the author put a lot of himself into the book. I think for someone who has shared more experiences with the author, it'll be a 5 star.

I was initially drawn in by Darby’s internal conflicts and the complicated relationship with ‘home’ and childhood born his queerness and transness. His memories of his teenage years were all warped through the lens of this hidden turmoil he couldn't even name yet at the time. And it’s stuck that way even as an adult far from his hometown, he’s carrying that. The use of the time travel element as a device to reframe this time of his life, allowing him to see that wider, adult perspective, hooked me. However, I wasn’t fully satisfied with how it played out. The magical element went fairly underused. Darby‘s character development ended up feeling a little weak. The themes and emotions it explored could have gone deeper and gotten more evocative.

The story was entertaining and flowed very well. I enjoyed the writing and I liked the main character. The main character was one that you wanted to root for and have him end up happy.

A book hadn't made me tear up so much in a very long time, and on the simplest scenes. The characters were very relatable. The way the time travelling is explained is satisfying. I love how diverse the cast is. This is my first Edward Underhill book read and I will definitely be reading more of his books.

The ending was bittersweet and I didn't mind at all because it felt real. Like it's a scenario that would happen in real life and it's not the "and they lived happily ever after" ending that a lot of books have.