This was such a nice, emotional read about growing up queer and reconciling the many versions of you in adulthood.

After being laid off from his job, Darby sits at a crossroads. Unsure where he lands, he decides to uproot his life for a couple of weeks to help his mom pack up her house and move into a condo. After not visiting his small hometown for years, Darby comes back and begins reconnecting with his previous life and everyone - and every place - in it. As he explores his old haunts, he returns to the In-Between Bookstore, where he was a cashier during high school. However, when he enters the store, it’s 2009 and he sees his former self at the register. Darby rekindles former friendships and mentors his former self on his journey of self discovery to determine what and where he goes next in his life.

I really liked the premise of this book - especially the magical realism elements. I adored the scenes with the main character encountering their previous self in the bookstore. However, it really did not use this element to its full capacity. Additionally, I was drawn into the story by the author’s writing and the fast pace of the story. I loved many of the characters, especially Michael and Darby’s mom. But I felt like Darby’s character growth was limited and found myself incredibly frustrated by the ending. While I appreciated the message, I just wanted more resolution to all the loose ends! Ultimately, while I wanted to love this one, I felt a bit mixed on it.

Thank you Avon and Harper Voyager and NetGalley for the ARC!

Darby returns to his hometown of Oak Falls after losing his job in NYC and discovers his childhood bookstore unchanged, with a mysterious teen who might offer him a chance to revisit his past. As he confronts his strained relationship with an old friend and the changes around him, Darby faces the possibility of altering his present and future.

I absolutely adore Edward Underhill’s YA novels and was so excited to see an adult debut from him. I dove quickly into Darby’s world and was immediately bought into the story.

I loved the use of time travel here, and how Darby tried to figure out where his friendship with Michael fell apart. I know this wasn’t a romance but Edward wrote the hell out of this friendship, making my heart squeeze multiple times.

The supporting cast of characters is really good. I loved Darby’s mom and her rants about the neighbor, lol, but I loved how much she loved Darby!

Ultimately, this book is about found family, forgiving yourself, giving yourself grace to make mistakes and own up to them, and finding your bliss, even if it takes longer than you expected.

I really enjoyed this and I think a lot of people will be able to relate.

I enjoyed it. Edward's writing was beautifully written, fast pacing, and had a great group of characters. There were a couple of things throughout the book that made me stop and question.

Why did he not want to go visit his mom who always supported him?
Why couldn't Darby remember what happened between him and Michael throughout their friendship?
Why doesn't he keep talking to his NY friends once he goes back to Illinois?

I loved the idea of going back in time and seeing your young self. If I was able to, I would in a heartbeat.

Overall, this book was considered a healing and accepting choices book, which I quite liked. It's all about self-discovery, how to accept your self, and how to accept the choices that we make.

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book.

If you're someone who grew up queer in a small town, or at the very least felt like an outsider no matter where you went. Or if you're someone having quarter-life crisis... This book may be perfect for you.

This novel really brings out the uncomfortable truths of turning 30, going back to the hometown you never thought you'd go back to, and coming face-to-face with childhood problems and teenage mistakes. The time travel aspect of this book really tied it all together, it would not have made sense or hit the same way it did otherwise.

Darby, the most perfectly imperfect character. I think it was important for his own development to have these interactions with his younger self. I think it was his own way of healing himself and his inner child. The decisions he made along the way were not always the best choices, but I feel like it's quite realistic to not always do things right the first time. The journey is sometimes more important than the destination. I feel like Darby's argument with Olivia was kind of pointless, and the fact that he ignored them for so long. There are plenty of other ways to introduce Darby's want/need to go back to Oak Falls, especially without leaving his friends in the dust.

The book as a whole is very low stakes and the sci-fi aspect is pretty minimal/easy to digest. I thoroughly enjoyed the delivery of this book and all the issues it addresses (regardless of how they're resolved). I hope that if you choose to read this, that it will heal you a little bit as it did for me.

Every time a YA author reveals they’re publishing an adult book, I get really enthusiastic. And some of those are awesome, just as good as their YA stories, and some even better. But sometimes, I wish they’d stick to what they were good at.

First of all, I really loved Edward Underhill’s writing in The In-Between Bookstore. All his descriptions were incredibly vivid, and I smiled so many times. I love flawed characters, and I found Darcy kind of a jerk when I first met him—not visiting a mom who had always supported him, hmmm. But he’d probably grow a lot during the story.

On the surface, this is a wonderful book. There’s so much to love: great writing, pretty fast pacing, and a diverse cast, and I flew through the first half. But slowly, I started shifting in my seat because I wanted more. I didn’t understand why Darby couldn’t remember what happened in his friendship with Michael back then.

This story is pitched as a healing novel, but I really wanted more character growth. I knew beforehand this wasn’t a romance, and I usually don’t mind. But towards the last pages, my shifting got worse, and I kind of hated the ending. I didn’t like Darby’s choices and that he was still lying to Michael. And his world in New York and his world in Illinois felt so disjointed. This probably doesn’t make sense if you haven’t read the book, but overall, it felt like he had hardly learned anything. Now I’m in doubt. Because I loved the first half but didn’t like the ending. The first half is definitely a four star read, but the last chapters maybe barely a two star. So, in the end, I think my average is somewhere between 3 and 3.5 stars, rounded down to 3.

I think this book would have been better had it not suffered from a pretty boring main character, because a lot of the plot lines that could have been fairly impactful didn’t really make their mark on me because I did not care at all about what happened to Darby or the past version of him at all. However, I think that the transition from writing YA books to writing adult books was pulled off pretty well, and I wasn’t bored of the book, just its narrator (if that makes any sense)

What would you say to your younger, pre-transition self?

When Darby leaves New York after being let go to help his mother move in his small hometown, he visits the bookstore he use to work at, his refuge, only to find his pre-transition self looking back at him. But why is his pre-transition self so miserable? And is this his chance to find out what happened between him and his best friend?

While I loved "This Day Changes Everything," this one didn't quite make it for me. The time travel is CRIMINIALLY underutilized, and I was left wishing Darby was different. While touched on, I wish there was more in-depth insight into what it was like visiting his home town, seeing his past self, living in his pre-transition room. He blows off his mother's attempts to reconnect. He barely talks to his New York friends after leaving. There was such an opportunity for growth for Darby that the reader just didn't quite get. In one way this works, because he's an adult and life isn't quite so neat, but I don't know if he really learns anything, either. I don't believe him when he says he'll try to visit his mother and home town more often. I just don't believe him.

After loving "This Day Changes Everything," I'll continue reading anything Underhill writes. This one just didn't quite make me fall in love, though.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

I really liked this. I didn't read the synopsis closely and didn't realize it's a very personal story about coming out as trans and accepting choices. The parallel time travel was fascinating without getting bogged down in science, adding to the fantasy of the story. I really liked how the story ended (no spoilers) because it felt real and earned.

I had the opportunity to read The In-Between Bookstore, by Edward Underhill, which will be released on January 15, 2025 📚

Thank you NetGalley, Avon, and Harper Voyager for the chance to read this one early!

We follow Darby, a trans man who, after losing his job in New York, decides to travel back home to a small town in Illinois.

He visits the bookstore where he worked in high school and finds his teenage self through time travel. As Darby begins to notice how much his small town has changed and he runs into his former best friend, Michael. Through time travel Darby gets the chance to change his own life for the better.

This was an interesting read filled with self-discovery, self-acceptance, and how the choices we make come to shape us. I wish we could have had a bit more time travel, but also understand that wasn’t necessarily the point! This was different from my usual reads, but I still found it interesting!

As a non-binary, queer person who worked at a book store in high school, this book hit WAY too close to home. I love time travel stories and have spent more time than I should on what I would tell young me, so thing book brought up a lot. What kept it from being great was the miscommunication in the regular timeline between all the adults. It was frustrating. I planned on rating it a 3, but it made me cry, so a 4 it became. The ending will be hit or miss for people, but it felt right for me. So grateful to NetGalley for this arc!

This book simultaneously made me feel joyful and sad while reading, and I did NOT see that coming. I thought I had a clear picture of where the author was going in this book, but I was blindsided and left feeling like each page would shock me. Darby is a trans man living in NYC, when he is suddenly out of a job and unable to pay his rent. After a large fall out with his closest friends, he packs up a cheap rental and goes to Oak Hills, Illinois - his hometown. Back at home, Darby comes face to face with an old best friend whom he hadnt spoken to in decades, and travels to In Between Books, a treasured place in his youth, but when he walks in the door, he discovers…his younger self?
This book featured several queer characters, including Darby as a transgender man, and I felt like these characters were incredibly well written. I loved how real and raw Darby’s relationships were, and I never felt like the book was lagging.

I have a bit of mixed feelings here. One the one hand, I like some of what this book explored: there's trying to navigate your late 20s/early 30s yet feeling like you're somehow behind everyone else; there's finding your own queer identity (especially as it relates to queerness in small towns); there's the variety of queer places and spaces and how they're not all one size fits all. I think the time travel element, too, added a bit of seasoning to the mix, as well.

On the other hand, as whole, this felt pretty disjointed. I recognize some of what the author was trying to do, but it didn't always feel cohesive. That, and not everything felt resolved in a way that either made sense or was satisfying to me. Sometimes it even felt like steps of Darby's thought process weren't completely relayed to the reader, so decisions he made ended up coming out of left field.

I just wanted a bit more. A bit more even pacing and a bit more communication to the reader (I guess?) about what the concrete intent of the book was. Because I can name a few things that might be the central theme(s), but at the end of the book, I couldn't tell you definitively what that was.

I appreciate what this book tried to do, though. And I do like seeing books about queer adults trying to navigate their space or identity. I just this were a bit... neater, I guess.

This story is about Darby, a transgender person now living as a man. It's about Darby's experiences as a young teen trying to understand who they are and how they fit in the world. The magical In-Between Bookstore gives Darby a chance to go back and talk to his younger self and older Darby believes he is there to help young Darby become comfortable with who he is. In the end though, it feels as though this opportunity presented itself to help present Darby resolve the feelings of not belonging that he felt even to the present day.

I've never read a book with a transgender main character before; heck not even a book with a transgender person, period, at least not that I recall. This story touched me greatly. It was near the end that I finally understood the anxiety that is almost persistent in anyone in the LGBTQ community, wondering if they will fit in, if the new person they met will reject who they are. I felt it. That's how good this book is. I am honored to have the chance to read it and I thank the author for writing it.

The story is touching, heartbreaking, endearing and at the end of it I just want to reach out and give Darby (both of them) a big hug of acceptance.

This is the first adult novel by the YA author of Always the Almost and This Day Changes Everything.
The book follows Darby, a trans man approaching his 30th birthday, who's more than a little lost. Losing his job and his New York apartment, he returns to his small hometown to help his mother move out of his childhood home. There, he visits the In-Between Bookstore and is confronted with a younger, closeted version of himself through some unexplained time travel magic. Being home takes Darby on a journey of self-discovery that has him questioning the end of his best friendship with Michael, now a teacher at their old high school. I understand that Darby spent high school processing his gender and dealing with dysphoria, but for adult him to "not remember" the fight that ended it all seems odd. He uses his time in the bookstore to try and learn what happened from Young Darby.
I really enjoyed the time travel/parallel universe piece to this story, but would have liked more explanation as to why Darby was able to step back in time (and just as suddenly couldn't).
Honestly, it was a bit hard to find the love for Darby, who was dismissive of his best friend in high school and flat-out ignored his New York friends for the whole book after one made a negative remark about him returning home. I guess it gave him lots of room to grow. And he does. Ultimately, the story deals with owning up to your past, the choices you make, and the paths you take.
The In-Between Bookstore will be released Jan 14, 2025.

I picked up this book as an ARC on NetGalley. Thank you so much for letting me read this book.

I all in in all loved it. It is the first Magical Realism book I have read in a long time and was so happy I picked it up. Darby is a trans man who due to a bit of a crisis around his 30th birthday goes home to help his mother with her move out of their family home to a new condo.

While he is home he finds himself traveling back in time to a time in his teenage life when he wrestles with his identity. He still isn't that comfortable in his own skin but this weird bit of paranormal allows him to go back and come to terms with the choices he made in his life. Sure I would have loved for the ending to be a smidge different but I thought the ending was perfect.

All in all, it is sweet, wistful and wonderful little book. Can't wait for it's release.

◇ Synopsis
The In-Between Bookstore follows Darby, a trans man nearing thirty who, after losing his job in New York, returns to his Illinois hometown. There, he revisits the bookstore where he worked in high school and slips through time to meet his teenage, pre-transition self. As Darby navigates a changed town and a strained relationship with his old friend Michael, he gets a chance to alter his present by reconnecting with his past. This novel explores love, self-discovery, and the choices that shape our lives.
◇ Thoughts
I didn't realize from the synopsis that The In-Between Bookstore is a personal story about coming out as trans and accepting choices. The parallel time travel was fascinating without getting bogged down in science, adding to the story's fantasy. However, other characters felt underdeveloped. After getting laid off and losing his apartment, Darby returns to his hometown, disconnecting from his New York friends, which made it hard to understand his connection to the city.
In his hometown, Darby reconnects with his childhood friend and meets queer people who stayed behind, facing a dilemma of whether to stay or return to New York. His growth felt lacking, making his final choices surprising and unexplained. Despite this, the personal journey and fantasy of time travel were intriguing. The time travel element, where he meets his old self in the bookstore, felt underused and didn’t significantly impact the story. I wanted to see more of the time travel aspect and interactions with younger characters. Still, I appreciated the realistic and earned ending.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing an ARC of this book!

I was hopeful that this would be a 5 star read, and I did enjoy a lot of elements, but I've ended up with such mixed feelings.

My main issue is that I just can't make sense of what the book was aiming to do, exactly. There's so many incongruences in what the main character wants and is striving for. At the start of the book, he travels back to his hometown from New York after getting laid off and losing his appartment. He leaves his friends behind and goes pretty much no contact with them for the duration of his stay home. This immediately means we don't see what his connection with New York truly is.

In his hometown, he reconnects with his childhood best friend and gets to meet a lot of queer people who've stayed behind in this small town instead of leaving like he did as a teen. Now, he has to figure out if he wants to stay in this small town, or go back to New York.

This is an understandable dilemma, except I never felt like the main character was really thinking about anything and growing in any way, shape or form. By the end of the book, I was surprised at the choices he makes, because we just never get any depth into why he'd want to make this choice.

There's also a time travel element, with the main character travelling back in time in the bookstore where he worked as a teen, and meeting his old self. I thought this element was incredibly underused, and I didn't feel like it had all that much impact on either the main character or the story.

I was a little taken aback by the ending, because I'd expected this to be a romance novel. I think that's because it's published by Avon, but I did check and saw it isn't being marketed as a romance, so that's on me for assuming! I just wanted to mention it in case you're making the same assumption.

There was a lot I liked about this book but also a lot I didn’t love. I wanted more time in the bookstore. The romance feels unnecessary and wasn’t what I was expecting. Darby’s decision to return to New York made sense but I didnt feel like we really got the reasons why he decided it from the book. It felt abrupt. In fact many of the plot lines felt abrupt and at the same time the story felt strangely slow.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC for review.

I really liked this. I didn't read the synopsis closely and didn't realize it's a very personal story about coming out as trans and accepting choices. The parallel time travel was fascinating without getting bogged down in science, adding to the fantasy of the story. I really liked how the story ended (no spoilers) because it felt real and earned.

I would recommend this to anyone struggling with identity, and who appreciates some magic in their life.

The In-Between Bookstore is a lovely fiction read about love and self discovery. This was a good book and I definitely recommend it.