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.

3/5 ⭐️
I have mix feelings about this book, the premise was actually very good but I feel like it needed to go more in depth about what the MC wanted in life. This was a good read and I would definitely read this author again. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I would like to thank the author and Avon | Harper Voyager Publishing for providing me with an ARC of this book. The anticipated publication date is 14 January 2025.

Although The In-Between Bookstoredeviates slightly from my typical reading preferences, its inclusion of time travel and bookstores captured my interest. I found the author's writing style and humor appealing from the outset. The interactions between the main character and his mother were particularly amusing. I also love a book that can evoke all of the emotions, and this one did just that; certain parts of the dialogue had me on the verge of tears.

The time travel element of the narrative sustained the book’s momentum, rendering it a compelling, fast-paced read. However, some parts of the story could have been better developed, especially regarding topics that I am less familiar with, and probably other readers as well. A more thorough exploration of certain conversations would have improved the story and filled in some gaps. I found the ending to be disappointing, and after finishing the story, I was still left with many unanswered questions. Another round of edits could have improved this book substantially.

This story teetered between 3 and 4 stars, but I'm rounding down to a 3—it has a decent premise but average execution. I would still recommend this book as I think it has potential. Keep an eye out for this author!

**2.5 stars, rounded up

As a trans man who grew up in the midwest (not Illinois), moved to a much more liberal place, and is currently working on a graduate degree, I wanted to like this book SO bad. I often think about if a 15-year-old me would know who I am, if she would believe me about what we would become, and so having that idea be put into a book really caught my attention. It feels like it was made for me.

Problems: it's way more YA than I typically read, even though it's marketed as an adult fiction book. Darby and Michael both bothered me in the sense that the only reason this book even continued the way it did was because you had two men who refused to communicate, despite the fact they are now in their 30s when this book is occurring. And of course, there is a brief romance plot between the two, but to me, it just felt unnatural.

That, and the answer to the premise of 'what would you tell your younger self' is apparently nothing until 80% of the way through the book. Until then, we get a lot of half conversations between young and old Darby, where old Darby is trying to get information about why he and Michael are no longer friends, but like, why does he care? I get he thinks he can change it, but I just found myself not caring why they were arguing in the first place.

Despite all this, I actually did like the ending and how it wasn't necessarily 'happy' - it was realistic, it was genuine. I just didn't feel particularly connected to anyone in the book, despite the fact some of the things Darby said were relatable.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

It took me a while to get into reading this one. But it gave me “midnight library” vibes. I don’t know that I can say much about it. But it is a good read once you get into the story.

Darby is a trans man living in New York City when he’s fired due to the start up failing. His mom is moving into a condo in his home town outside of Chicago. So Darby leaves his apartment and his friends and goes home to help his mom. His childhood best friend who stopped talking to him senior year is now a gay teacher at their old school. The bookstore Darby used to work at is still there and when he goes in he’s transported back to before he left town. But it only happens in the bookstore. The story develops from there.

It’s really all about miscommunication and perceived insults influencing our lives and about the road not taken.

The story was entertaining, tender, original, and flowed very well. I really enjoyed the main character and wanted a good outcome for him. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

A lot of people talk about having a book end in a “happily ever after” and how it wraps up the book in a bow and it’s great. The In Between Bookstore didn’t have a HEA, it had something better, this strong sense of melancholy combined with optimism. Edward Underhill is an incredible author and I always know that what i’m going to read is going to make me think and feel so strongly that I don’t stop thinking about it until I read something else that feels the same way. The In Between Bookstore was no different. Darby’s story of not knowing hit me so strongly and will continue to hit me anytime I think about.

This was so good.

I saw a lot of reviews for this one that said they didn't understand Darby's choices in this. But, as someone with really bad social anxiety, I totally got all of his choices. Not replying because he doesn't have the energy or doesn't know what to say, yeah I totally do that. And then a week goes by and I'm a horrible person for not responding and should I respond now or is it too late?

Not feeling like you belong anywhere? Yeah, I 100% get that. Growing up I was always too nerdy to fit in with normal people, not nerdy enough to fit in with other nerds, liked punk/heavy music but didn't fit in there either because I was too shy.

This book just spoke to the nerdy, socially anxious, shy kid that is still inside me and I loved it for that.

This was a very interesting concept, and a great premise although I feel like the execution was a little more drawn out and slower moving than I wanted it to be...

Overall, this was a good read. Some parts felt shorten. I just wanted a little bit more about the decisions that Darby ended up making. Yet, in a weird way it makes sense how the story unfolded even if it felt a bit off. After all it is about Darby making choices in his life and following his own path. Overall , good read.

This is the case where I really wanted to like the book, but ended up feeling like it was kind of half baked. There are several interesting elements to the book happening simultaneously, and I don’t think there’s enough time spent balancing them, or showing us how Darby works through them to get to his final decision. Multiple times in the book, Darby needs to make a decision, but he talks about being too overwhelmed to really do anything and so avoids thinking about it. There are also many scenes where he is unable to really interact with anyone around him and so you don’t really get to see what’s going on outside of his confusion. I can totally see something like this happening in real life, but it’s less satisfying to read. Also, I feel like there could’ve been more deliberate thought about the push and pull between trying to figure out his problems in the present versus trying to fix the past, so they never happened. Ultimately, it all goes back to I feel like I never got a really good grasp on his motivation, other than not wanting to make a decision or not knowing how to, and so I didn’t feel satisfied with the decision he ultimately made. There really was a lot of potential here though, and so I’d be curious if another round of edits fixes this and the finally published book is much better.

I am a little torn regarding the rating here. On the one hand, I liked how things started and the direction I felt they were heading. On the other hand, I am not really satisfied with the ending and how the concept of the book gives me the impression of not having been ewploited to its full potential.

'The In-Between Bookstore' is a vividly written book, with great descriptions, if sometimes a bit long, with great interiority, edging to the nearly too much end of the scale. The main character, Darcy, is a perfect exemple of a flawed character, who easily slips into a distant mode toward his friends or family, quite self centered and a tendancy toward lying if a subject is uncomfortable.

And that's exactly where it start to feel like the story isn't developed to its full potential or in the direction I thought it was headed. Because even though Darcy learns to open himself more throughout the book, learns about his flaws and mistakes, I don't have the feeling he really grew that much in the end. I am okay with open-ish endings, but I need to feel like most of the issues surrounding the story are resolved enough for the character to live another story outside the pages. And I don't really have this feeling with Darcy. He is on the right path, and yet... I'm not sure he will not fall back into his habits.

His relationship with Michael is something I have ambivalent emotions about too. I didn't expect a romance when I started, but then, as I saw how things were going, I thought there might be one. In the end, there isn't, and I am somewhat bitter, because I have the impression Darcy let Michael down, not the other way around, and it isn't resolved by the end. They managed to get back in contact, but I am not satisfied.

The concept of Darcy meeting his younger self in a bookstore and trying to fix thing is great, but again, it felt a bit under exploited. I can't really explained how and why, but there was so much potential there, both for Young Darcy and his older self, to confront himself, to heal, to understand. And I don't feel like it happened. Sure, he managed to act and there is something hopeful about how the author decided to play things, but I am not sure I got what I wanted.

Maybe I didn't get what the author wanted to share with this story. In a way, it is a great tale about healing, without big changes withing the character. More like a little introspection on Darcy's side, enabling him to chose what he wants in life, with the hope of that things might have gone differently, if he had made certain choices.

The In-Between Bookstore is a charming and introspective read. Darby, a trans man, returns to his small hometown after losing his job in NYC and stumbles upon a magical bookstore that lets him meet his teenage self. It’s a fascinating concept that really dives into Darby’s past and his old friendships, especially with Michael. The time travel twist adds a unique layer, though it felt like it could’ve been explored more deeply.

The characters are well-crafted, and Darby’s journey of self-acceptance is touching. The ending ties things up nicely but might leave you wanting a bit more detail. Overall, it’s a thoughtful and engaging story about coming to terms with your past and finding your way forward.