Darby, a trans man, is weeks away om his thirtieth birthday when he loses his job. He sells his furniture, packs up a rental car and drives home, unsure of what he wants or what he should be doing. While home, he walks into the bookstore and is transported to 2009, when he was working as a high school student.

Why I started this book: Time traveling book store? Yes please.

Why I finished it: This was more about understanding yourself and your journey than a time traveling magical adventure. So I struggled with it and with Darby. A case of missed expectations. Plus I hated how much Darby was floundering in life, in this adventure and in his communication.

I absolutely loved this new adult novel from Mr. Underhill! I binged it quickly and loved learning about Darcy and his life in between the bookstore in Illinois and NYC! I highly recommend! 5 stars!

"The In-Between Bookstore" is an entertaining story of Darby and how he approached life after coming out as transgender.

He stumbles on this unique ability to travel back in time through his favorite, childhood bookstore. He sees young Darby who has not come to terms with being trans and attempts to help spark the realization slowly.

Additionally, adult Darby must also come to terms with his falling out with former best friend, Michael, and how a misunderstanding completely changed the trajectory of their friendship.

While some of the book felt a little too "high school," I suppose it did make sense as Darby was rehashing high school emotions. It just sometimes felt a little too much. All in all, I think this is a great book to read, especially for allies as these stories deserve to be told and broadcasted.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for selecting me for this ARC.

I will be honest in saying I had a very hard time getting into this novel. This book felt very YA despite being billed for adult audiences. The premise is fun, though not wholly original, and the book has a least of heart and warmth. This one was not for me.

An interesting idea that could have benefited from a little more refinement and world building.

Darby has just lost his job and his rent is going up so he decides he’s done with New York. He heads back home to the small town he’s been running from. When he visits In Between Bookstore, where he used to work as a teenager, he finds himself transported in time and his younger self working behind the register. This is the perfect opportunity for him to figure out where he went wrong with his childhood best friend, Michael.

The location specific time travel was an interesting premise, but it ultimately felt underdeveloped. Darby spends most of the book trying to figure out why the time travel is happening but we’re still left with a lot of questions at the end. For example, what causes the instability in the time travel? Darby’s problem solving also was lacking in creativity. Instead of trying something new he kept repeating the same things over and over. Like seriously, why not just leave his phone in the car?

I’m torn on the idea of Darby trying to help his younger self by requesting Transgender History. It feels simultaneously like an act of kindness and a selfish decision. He’s willing to sacrifice changing everything about the world he knows to help himself figure out his gender sooner.

The idea of time traveling through the bookstore appealed to me but the execution felt clunky. If you’re not looking for the most complex and thorough world building this could be an enjoyable read. Overall, this wasn’t my favorite story by Underhill but it’s always good to have more stories about transgender characters.

Darby is living in New York City when he loses his job and his direction at the same time. I think it's safe to say he is feeling a bit lost, and takes the opportunity to go home to small town Illinois to get a handle on things. Once there, he reconnects with his best friend from childhood and tries to figure out where things went wrong.

This is absolutely a coming of age novel, and a great one at that. Darby is transgender, and that is a huge part of this book. Darby grapples with feeling at home in his body and at being secure in his identity and that comes through in his struggle to fit in in the world. I ached for Darby reading about his struggles, and wanted him to find his peace in the world. This is a beautiful story of found family and discovering who you are, as well as how to be okay with that. Overall, I enjoyed the character development and the slower paced plot. I would call this a more character driven book, so be ready to enjoy the journey.

I enjoyed Edward Underhill's Young Adult stories so I was excited to see his writing with an adult setting. However since the story is about going back in time it ended up feeling the same as his YA books. I enjoyed the characters and the writing but I was left wanting a whole lot more. By the end I was wishing it was a romance novel and left overall unsatisfied.

i really enjoyed this one! i love edward underhill’s writing, so i had high hopes for this one and it satisfied what i wanted!

i loved getting a deep dive into not only darby’s past but even seeing some of michael’s as well through the flashbacks, to really get to know them. and i loved the ending in how we may not have gotten the romantic perfect ending that was expected, but the ending that we need for our souls. life doesnt always happen exactly how we expect but it doesnt mean that we are not where we need to be!

my only complaint is that it maybe fell a LITTLE short - i would have loved more conversations with darby and his mom, or even some with some of the other people in Oak Falls that Michael stayed friends with. i loved all the characters and would have really enjoyed seeing more dynamics between different people!

thank you Avon and Harper Voyage for the eARC in return for an honest review!

I love Underhill's YA books, and was so excited for this adult debut, but this really isn't much of a departure from his usual writing. Despite not being YA, this book still has a weird obsession with being in high school that goes beyond nostalgia or unresolved friendship woes. I found high school to be utterly forgettable and couldn't understand Darby's obsession.

I had a similar falling out with my high school best friend. It was sudden and painful. But 10 or so years later, they invited me for coffee, and we started our friendship up again like nothing happened. All of those old high school hurts felt distant and unimportant. I find it hard to believe that both Michael and Darby are both still so hung up on an argument from when they were 17 on the verge of 30 that they can barely even be civil to each other.

The romance similarly felt abrupt, especially without much build up before the first kiss. They're fighting one moment, avoiding each other the next, and then suddenly they're kissing? The plot gave me a bit of whiplash. I did enjoy the time travel multiverse aspect and how it played out, and I even didn't mind the ending and the lack of a HEA, but I mostly found both Darby and Michael baffling at the best of times and infuriating at the worst.

This is a captivating read for anyone who has ever yearned for self-discovery, particularly those within the LGBTQIA+ community, who will find solace in Darby's poignant journey of embracing his trans identity and navigating the complexities of love, identity, and small-town life.

There’s always this idea that if you knew then what you know now, you could have done better. Been smarter, faster, kinder; said the right words, done the right thing, know what you’re supposed to know when you most need to know it. But when it really comes down to it, if you were given a handful of stolen moments with your younger self, what would you say? Would you give voice to all the mistakes you’ve made, all the hurt you’ve suffered? Would you want to change your life … or change theirs?

Darby is a trans man heading towards thirty with no idea of what he’s doing, where he’s going, or how he got there. With his job gone, his rent climbing, having gotten into a fight with his best friend, Darby decides to go home to Oak Falls. There, at the In-Between Bookstore, Darby steps back in time to 2009 when he worked behind the counter, uncomfortable in his own skin, living as a girl because he didn’t even know that being trans was a possibility then.

Darby doesn’t know if he wants to save himself, shake himself, or run away. With his mother downsizing to a condo, Darby finds himself going through more than just old clothes and toys, but his old life. Michael, his ex-best friend — now a teacher at their old school, and a discretely out gay man — leaves Darby shaken each time they meet. He’s missed Michael, missed his friend … and there is so much hurt between them of things unsaid. Darby doesn’t even remember what they argued about or why Michael walked away from their friendship. But here, now, he might have a chance to do something about it.

Each time he enters the bookstore, Darby steps back in time, back to when Darby and Michael were still friends; he watches the pair interact, himself as an oblivious child unaware of who he is, oblivious to Michael’s own struggles. And it hurts. It hurts to be able to see, with the benefit of time and distance, all the small ways in which he hurt his friend. While Darby’s working towards mending that broken bridge in the present day, there’s this thought: what if he could stop the fight before it happened?

The In-Between Bookstore is a melancholy character study about a man who is lost. Going home was an emotional decision, made because the stress of life in New York — the bills, the smell, the noise, the sudden unemployment — was all just too much. Going home felt simpler, felt safer. Helping his mom, revisiting his childhood … and maybe staying. Maybe small town life wasn’t as bad as Darby thought it was; maybe small town people weren’t, either.

And there is magic in going back and still finding love. Darby’s mother never once doubted her son, stood behind him when he announced his discovery of who he was. She accepted her child’s gender the same way she accepted every poorly painted mug given for birthdays and mother’s days. She doesn’t feel so much a character than an idealized mother — always accepting, always patient, never asking for anything more than company … and it’s sort of a shame. I think Darby would have benefited from someone more settled in life, someone more emotionally stable.

The book isn’t about the romance between Michael and Darby, either as teenagers or adults. It’s not about the romance at all. Michael is simply a missed opportunity. A moment that might have been, a life Darby could have had if that’s the path they had taken. Darby keeps jerking Michael around, both in the present day and the past, and this feels almost more like a deconstruction of the high school romance, or the one that got away trope.

Darby often complains that his younger self is oblivious to the emotions of others, and this is because Darby has no idea what a mirror is. Darby hasn’t really grown from his younger version other than to realize he’s trans and find friends in New York. He treats his friends from New York with the same casual obliviousness and disinterest as he does Michael and the other people from Oak Falls — people he grew up with, went to school with. Because Darby feel like he is only interested in Darby.

It’s a lot of naval gazing, a lot self-indulgent obsession — and while well written, I think the book didn’t quite manage to do what it intended to do. What I saw was an adult Darby who was ineffectual, inconsistent, thoughtless, casually cruel, indifferent, and isolated. He is someone who would rather put the burden upon the younger version of himself to fix a problem than look at the world around him and realize he’s making the same mistakes in the here and now. It’s an idolization of a magic fix for a character who does nothing to earn the fix, and nothing to earn my sympathy.

I found this book boring, but the writing is smooth and flows easily. It is so very readable that I finished it one sitting. The pace is decent; even with the flipping back and fourth in time, the momentum was never lost between one of Darby’s “woe is me” moments and the next. The time travel was lightly touched and never overwhelmed the story. I just … I wish I’d been whelmed by any part of if. I tend to like difficult characters, but Darby was just too passive, too whiny, and too lackluster for me. I wanted him to do something about his life rather than hurt the people around him because he felt bad for himself. I wanted him to have a moment of clarity about how he treated his friends — both then and now. I wanted him to do one thing purposeful that didn’t feel like it was driven either by a tantrum or self-pity. And I never got that. I’m sorry, but as much as I enjoyed the writing (and will be looking for more work from this author to see if I like another character or book of theirs better), this book is a pass from me.

When I realized that this book had magical realism + queer romance + trans representation, I hit that NetGalley request button SO FAST. Spoiler alert…I loved this book.

Darby’s story accurately captured that point around age 30 when life starts throwing curve balls and you need to step back to reset. But the fun thing about his experience is that he encountered teenage Darby along his path to self-discovery.

I won’t go into detail about the sliding-doors element, but let’s just say I was satisfied. Do I wish there had been more heartfelt bookstore moments? Yes…but I’m a sucker for magical anything, so I’ll always want more!

Darby’s transgender identity was a central part of the narrative, and it’s obvious that Edward Underhill put his heart, soul, and self on the page. This is an important book, now more than ever, and I felt so much joy seeing family members and friends represented.

Another highlight was how realistic the ending was, especially concerning the romance. As a fan of bittersweet outcomes, I thought Darby’s overall arc was 100% believable, with a beautiful emphasis on chosen family. By the final page, there were tears in my eyes and that’s always a good sign!

A book store that takes you back in time to to talk to your younger self ✨📚🪄💙

Snapshot📸
-trans MC🏳️‍⚧️, queer side characters 🏳️‍🌈
-coming of age but make it turning 30
-realistic friendships, character focused story
-themes of finding yourself, building community and forgiveness

Beautifully written and loved the time travel parts between younger and older Darby. Although this is an adult fiction book, I think YA readers would also enjoy. Darby was messy but that’s ultimately what I liked about him, he’s not perfect and has growing pains (even us 29 going on 30 year olds have them)! Michael was the sweetest guy ever 🥺 I wanted a more joyful ending for Darby’s life back home and with Michael but understand the choice to make it realistic and have it end the way it did—would love to see where Darby ends up next!

Felt like a love letter to the places, books and friends that help raise queer youth 4⭐️📖💫

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC 🩷

I was excited to read Underhill’s first adult novel. Unfortunately this really still felt very YA to me. The main character is 30 but so far he’s spending a lot of time remembering things that happened while he was in high school. I’m also 30% into the book and so far everything going on was in the synopsis. This is moving too slow and feeling too much like YA for me so I decided to DNF here. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the free book and ebook to review.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I was left wondering exactly what the author's intent was with the plot line and how it ended. I finished it yesterday and I am still left scratching my head. The time travel aspect was a little weird, especially if you believe all those things about not being able to meet yourself in the past or it will unravel the cosmic future and whatnot (I think that was even in Back to the Future?).

Honestly, I thought Darby was a totally unlikable character, now and then. I would love a book about the friend group in New York with Darby as a far removed side character. I would read the heck out of a story about Olivia and people she meets at Starbucks. She was delightful even though you only have her for a couple of chapters.

I feel like this story wanted to be the next big thing in the bildungsroman or coming of age story. Instead, I just feel frustrated and wondering what the heck I just read.

This was a bummer of a read for me.

Thanks to Avon Books and Netgalley for this ARC.

“And I care about all that and simultaneously don’t care at all because it’s worth it. Because maybe I don’t need to love everything about a place to belong there. Maybe I can choose to belong, even if occasionally pieces of me don’t quite fit, because I belong with the people I found. The people I chose. Because I did choose them, even if I didn’t realize that’s what I was doing.”

@edwardunderhill’s #TheInBetweenBookstore instantly captured my attention as a queer person who couldn’t wait to escape from the small Illinois town I grew up in. What I expected to be a sweet queer romcom quickly turned in a cathartic release of a breath I didn’t know I was holding.

Following Darby, a trans man on the cusp of turning thirty, finds himself unemployed and aimless in NYC. Not knowing what to do, he decides to return to his small Illinois town to help his mom move out of his childhood home. While there, he stumbles into his old safe harbor in a storm of teenhood, the In-Between bookstore. But when he walks through he realizes the young girl working behind the counter is him from the past. Coupled with running into his old best friend (and learning about how he’s changed), Darby has to figure out why he is time traveling in just this one spot in town, and in the process, just what home means to him.

Although my teenage years didn’t involve me coming to terms with my gender identity, I was still a gay teen trying to come up for air in a community where being gay was definitely not “normal.” Darby’s return to his hometown makes me think about my own return for my high school reunion, how I expected things to be more boring, less welcoming than my Seattle safe haven. And, well, I wasn’t wrong, but I wasn’t right either. Darby’s interactions with high school friends who have matured since graduation is an honest mirror to how people are capable of change and growth, and perhaps not who we knew back then. While the story itself does revolve around Darby righting the wrongs of his past, the strongest points for me come in the dialogue with him and his ex-best friend, Michael

This one overall reminds me a little of The Midnight Library, with the way life branches based on choices.

Darby grew up in a small down and didn't know how to find a space for himself in that smallness as he discovered and explored being trans. Instead he found room to grow and people to surround himself with in New York where he attended college and found a job. However a job loss and his mom's planned move takes him back to his small town and he discovers how much he missed as a teen wrapped up in his own struggles.

Slightly spoilery - I'm not a huge fan of the ending for this, but I think that's the point - life isn't all perfection. Still a pretty fun read and relatable as someone also from a small town (much smaller than Oak Falls) in Illinois.

The concept of traveling back to see yourself as a teenager had me hooked from the description. It was a bit of a slow burn with a mild ending, which made for a cozy read. It was nice to fantasize along our main character, Darby, about the different versions of ourselves that live out in the universe and find comfort in the life we are conscious in.

The book starts in NYC, where Darby, a trans male, is meeting his friends at a bar for a birthday celebration, he is in a pretty depressed mood as he just lost his job and feels incredibly lost in life. At the birthday, after arguing with his friend Olivia, he decides that he is going to sell all of his stuff and go back to his hometown Oak Falls to help his mother move from his childhood house to a new condo. A lot of Oak Falls has changed, but the bookstore Darby worked at is still standing throughout high school, In Between Books. When Darby steps into the store, everything feels the same, but when Darby notices the papers say 2009 and the kid working the cash register is eerily familiar - Darby realizes he has stepped into the past. Darby is now presented with a choice to rewrite his past to make his present better - as in the past he had a falling out with his best friend and life was incredibly difficult figuring out he was trans.

I give this book a solid 3, maybe even 3.5. My main problem with this book is that it had the potential to be an incredible, adventurous story about self-discovery, but instead, it felt like a lot of nothing happened. I needed more. The characters were well-written, which helped the book be better with the lack of action. It was very melancholic. I find things weren't as fleshed out like I'm sorry, but how did Darby not remember anything that had happened in his fight with Michael - I think that would be pretty memorable since he was his only friend in school.

This is enjoyable but didn't have the sweet rom-com vibes I love. If messy characters trying to adult and disaster bisexuals are what you're looking for, this book is a good one. I truly enjoyed the main characters, mistakes and all.