Gahhhh this book is beautiful. I’m at a loss for words, and am just sitting in the feeling of being enveloped in a gorgeous story and not sure what to do with myself now that it’s over. You Between the Lines is so quietly unassuming and is the type of book I’d suggest you pick up for vibes alone.

Leigh is accepted into a MFA poetry cohort that also happens to include Will, the crush from high school whose “all style no substance” commentary on Leigh’s work left her disgruntled for years. As a former sorority girl, Leigh feels like she has a lot to prove with her pop referencing poetry, and she desperately wants to feel accepted and validated as a part of this group. I felt immersed in the tiny insular world that is table reading and critiques and felt like I knew each of the personalities that made up this group. This book is about vulnerability and the ability to let yourself be seen through your art and the way Leigh tries so hard to be liked and yet remain true to herself made me want to rub her hard edges and tell her, “Girl, you’re fine”. But it’s the tension between Leigh and Will where Katie Naymon really shines.

I felt Leigh’s nervous anxiety at table readings where her peers gave her constructive criticism and lived for the moments when she and Will read and wrote comments to one another. They have their own secret language in the margins and are so desperate for each other’s approval, but neither of them believes they are good enough for the other. The book is written from Leigh’s POV which felt so authentic to how she might misinterpret Will’s responses to her. I identified with Leigh’s constant overanalyzing and her desire to be seen without being vulnerable which made her such a beloved character.

If you want a book that may break you a little before it heals you, then you’ll live for Will and Leigh’s dynamic. It’s like a simmer that lives in the quiet spaces, the minutiae of everyday life, the glances and touches. And when that simmer begins to boil, it is so hot and beautiful and irresistibly portrayed and I enjoyed every minute of it.

The other thing this book does really well is portray mental health in a realistic and positive light. Leigh has a therapist, Will takes an antidepressant and I appreciated the normalization mental health as being something that is vital to these characters being their best selves. Katie Naymon has written a fantastic debut whose characters I know I’ll be thinking about for quite awhile. I know we’ll see big things from her in the future. I received an early copy from the publisher, all opinions are my own.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Steam: 🪭🪭.5
Emotional Damage: ❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹
Swoons: 💌💌💌

"But I’ve never been able to sink my teeth into these lauded literary classics— the ones written by men, the ones set in wartime, with stream of consciousness as their stylistic mode of choice, the poverty and depression of men as their focus."

I don't know if it was because the main characters are both writers or what but the descriptions in this book really hit me- I don't think I've ever highlighted this many times in one book!

I really related to Leigh and her people-pleasing ways, her fear of being vulnerable, her desire to be creative but still feeling held back.

Between the pining, dirty talk and general obliviousness of how the other feels about them, this book is definitely going into my favourites list!

Emotional Romance
Therapy and Anxiety rep
Will they or Won’t they?
Pop culture references
I know nothing about poetry and enjoyed learning a bit. Looked forward to Will’s notes on Leigh’s poems and his poem about her.
Slow burn romance, fast paced book

Author is a Swiftie and it shows

You Between the Lines follows Leigh as she enters an MFA program for poetry and encounters the last person she wants to see — Will, the former high school classmate who called her poetry “all style and no substance.” As part of the same cohort, they're forced to spend time together in and out of the classroom. Soon, they're rekindling an attraction that came to a boiling point six years prior, when their paths last crossed.

I thought the writing in this book was strong, but I found the characters frustrating, Leigh in particular. She’s still hung up on something from high school despite being in her late twenties. And she somehow made it all the way to an MFA program without the ability to handle constructive criticism about her writing. She damn near has an internal meltdown during her first workshop when she’s not praised and everyone points out what could be improved in her work. You’re in a workshop where the whole point is critique! What did you think would happen? She also looks down on other women in her cohort whose appearance and fashion sense fit the “poet” stereotype. Leigh used to be in a sorority, so she’s not like THOSE girls. I was hoping she'd display growth throughout the story, but no such luck.

This book was begging for Will’s POV. I would have loved to get his side of things, and his POV would've broken up the monotony of being in Leigh's head and contributed to a more well-rounded romance. I also might have warmed up to Leigh more if I saw her through the eyes of someone who loved her. Instead, she remains frustratingly judgmental and immature.

The pacing is also slow — it feels like the characters do the same things over and over, with not a lot of forward movement to the plot. There’s absolutely no reason why these two characters can’t be together, which meant the push and pull between them felt manufactured. A romance needs internal and external conflict. Everything here was internal. Nothing was keeping them apart aside from their own issues. A fellowship they’re both applying for seems like it’s going to raise the stakes and add conflict, but it really doesn't.

I wanted more romance (more scenes like when they go to the pumpkin patch! I enjoyed that!), more conflict, and more of the characters spending time together, and less MFA minutiae and Leigh's musings about her classmates. Unfortunately, strong prose couldn’t save this one for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC, which was provided in exchange for an honest review.

🦇 You Between the Lines Book Review 🦇

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

❓ QOTD Write a six-word poem about your current read (who will rise to the challenge?)!

💜 You Between the Lines is brimming with mutual, long-time pining, mental health rep, and poetic reveals. Let's break it down:
✨ Characters: Leigh is one of the most painfully relatable characters I've read in a while. Her people-pleasing leads to self-destructive tendencies, which sometimes make her a frustrating narrator/FMC (specifically because I would have repeated her exact mistakes and chastised myself for them after). Will is sweet, but his desire to respect Leigh's wishes at all times leave him passive from the very start. I wish there was more depth to these beautifully flawed characters. I did appreciate the mental health rep (for both MCs), but it takes ages too long for Leigh to reach important realizations that would have helped us avoid the ongoing miscommunication.
✨ Plot and Pacing: The pacing drags, namely because of Leigh's long-winding exposition. The constant use of the miscommunication trope leaves the story dragging at the middle. There are too many scenes focused on the MFA minutiae/workshopping sessions, too (and as a Creative Writing graduate, I've had a lifetime of those, thank you).
✨ World-Building: Leigh's world feels very insular. She's in beautiful North Carolina, but you would hardly know it, even when the story leaves the college campus. The descriptors of her environment never place you in the story.
✨ Romance: There is SO MUCH about this romance to discuss. The spark of interest they both felt initially but never acted on. Mutual feelings of low self-worth, leading them to think the other wanted or deserved better. Subtle love notes hidden in the commentary of one another's poetry. Missed chances, again and again and again. Unfortunately, these moments repeat so often that the pacing drags, leaving US pining for a real moment between Leigh and WIll. The story also lacks strong romantic moments (we get the pumpkin patch, but everything after that is physically driven, despite the fact that the MCs are POETS). Getting Will's point of view would have given the romance more depth.
✨ Mystery/Suspense: There are a few mysteries left throughout the story that add tension. I'm glad they were left unrevealed for a while. This story was desperate for real conflict to drive it forward.
✨ Tone/Prose: For the story's ongoing focus on workshopping and editing, this story feels like a first draft. The prose lacks strong, descriptive language or that hint of poetry that REALLY could have enthralled readers. We're constantly dependent on Leigh's internal dialogue, more so than external dialogue or action; some poetic prose would have added life to those long-winding expositions.

✨ Characters: 4
✨ Plot and Pacing: 4
✨ World-Building: 3
✨ Romance: 4
✨ Mystery/Suspense: 5
✨ Tone/Prose: 3

🦇 Recommended for fans of The Roughest Draft by Emily Wibberly & Austin Siegemund-Broka and Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell.

✨ The Vibes ✨
🖋 College Setting
📎 Slow Burn (High School Crushes to Adults)
🖊 Long-Term Pining
📘 Found Family
📘 Mental Health Rep
🖊 Rivals to Lovers
📎 Flirting Through Poetry
🖋 Forced Proximity

🦇 Major thanks to the author and publisher for providing an ARC of this book via Netgalley. 🥰 This does not affect my opinion regarding the book. #YouBetweentheLines

💬 Quotes
I am nothing but where our bodies connect.
It’s a push and a pull, a call and a response. It’s a rhymed couplet, this poem we’re writing.
He can’t write a single poem where I don’t exist.
Not a tipsy accident. Something fated. Something poetic.
I am just words on a page and he’s the poet, arranging me how he wants, using alliteration, rhyme, white space. Every moan a couplet, every breath a sonnet. He creates tension and I barrel down the blank page until the turn, the final stanza, where he breaks the words open into something more beautiful.
I love everything you’ve been, everything you are, everything you could be.
I can hardly remember a time I wasn’t in love with you.

Leigh, a poet who loves Taylor Swift and all things pop culture, starts a MFA poetry program at a college in North Carolina. She goes in with imposter syndrome and expecting to be judged by her cohort, which only doubles when she realizes Will(iam), her high school crush and nemesis, is part of the same program.

Not going to lie, this book was painful to read at times because Leigh's people pleasing tendencies and her aptitude to self destruction hit a little to close to home for me. I spent most of the book frustrated with her, but I realize it is because her personality contains many of the characteristics that I don't like about myself. She was immature at times and self destructive at others and even though I wanted to throw this book against the wall about half the time, it felt real and raw. I did enjoy the cohort and their personalities and the found family aspect of the book.

Tropes:
* College setting
* High school crushes as adults
* Pining
* Talking through poetry
* Slow Burn
* Rivals to Lovers
* Mental Health Rep
* Found Family

3.5 stars

Lovely, tender, heart fluttering goodness!!!

I am OBSESSED with mutual pining that spans years, it is decadent and delicious!!!

Leigh and Will…i love you

also, did anyone ever tell poor penelope what was going on in her bedroom??

Great plot and wonderfully written!!!

4.5 stars

Still thinking about this book and the chemistry that jumped off the pages between Leigh and Will. I am putty when it comes to academic rivals and anything that feels remotely bookish in theme so this was basically written for me. Beautiful prose. Great flawed characters (a personal favorite) and sweet sweet pining. Couldn’t ask for more.

When Leigh is accepted into a prestigious MFA program in North Carolina, she has no idea her nemesis and high school crush William has also been accepted. Now, she’s vying for a coveted fellowship, dealing with insecurities around her poetry writing and her parent’s impending divorce, and is confronted with both old and new feelings for Will while also working with him.

I am a bit of an outlier here. I wanted to love this book so much, after all it felt practically made for me. Cute cover? Check. Emotional rom-com with mental health rep? Check. MFA studies in Poetry? Check, check, check. And while it started out strong, by the mid-way mark I began to disengage. The characters, particularly the FMC Leigh, seemed very immature and as a result, there was quite a bit of miscommunication. The relationship (and spicy moments) between Will and Leigh felt forced, and the plot began to drag more and more as time went on. This is not a bad book by any means, but in the end, it ended up not being for me.

Read if you like:
▪️MFA centered stories
▪️poetry
▪️student competitions
▪️crush to enemies to lovers
▪️forced proximity
▪️mental health rep
▪️North Carolina setting

📆 Pub: Feb 18, 2025

Thank you Forever Pub for the advanced copy. .

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Forever Publishing for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed reading this debut novel by Katie Naymon. I was drawn to the cover and premise of the story. I did overall enjoy it! If you are a fan of Taylor Swift there are some references which was fun.
If you enjoy the following premises you'll enjoy this novel!
Literary Obsession & Identity Formation – The protagonist’s life has been shaped by a specific book, influencing their identity, choices, and relationships in profound ways.

Friendship & Complicated Relationships
Coming-of-Age & Self-Discovery
Slow-Burn Romance
The Power of Literature
Nostalgia & Revisiting the Past

Thanks to the author, NetGalley and the publisher for a free eARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

As a debut, I was not expecting to be wow-ed but boy did Katie Naymon prove me wrong. This is an excellent debut novel that brings a lot of depth to a romantic storyline. I was drawn in by the premise of this story: two characters with a complicated history that find themselves not only in the same poetry MFA program, but also competing for a prestigious fellowship. Almost second-chance romance with a bit of rivals to lovers? I signed up very quick.

The writing was well-done - easy-to-read but still enough depth to not make the dialogue or the storyline cliche. I appreciated how the author included elements of poetry throughout the story. The chemistry between the two main characters was great, although their lack of communication gets frustrating for the reader. However, as the author explores the characters’ vulnerabilities and their individual life experiences and challenges, you understand why they communicate (or don't communicate, rather) the way they do.

Overall, You Between the Lines is an enjoyable romance with a fresh twist that doesn't feel cliche, thanks to its focus on poetry and university setting.

THIS. BOOK. The yearn is YEARNING in this rivals to lovers, blast from the past romance. It is smart and GORGEOUSLY written. What an absolutely fabulous debut novel. @katienaymonwrites is certainly one to watch!

Not only is this a stellar romance, Naymon weaves poetry into and between the writing in such a smooth and perfect way. The characters, the dialogue the prose, all of it is sublime! I knew just a couple chapters in that this would be an easy five star rating for me.

This book brought me back to my own grad school days (though I was in a cohort of four other women), and it was nice to revisit some of the creativity and stress of being back there without *actually* being there again. Naymon captures the expressly vulnerable period of grad school, complete with the love, lust, creativity, and drinking sessions that go along with it.

I’m not always one to say that I’ve got a bunch of book boyfriends, but Will Langford is my book boyfriend. And I will love him forever.

I was lucky enough to buddy read this book with @midwestreading and @bookologist_phd and we all LOVED IT. We agree is was a top read of 2024!

Thank you so much @readforeverpub for the eARC in exchange for my honest (and RAVE) review.

DNF at 20%. This one just wasn't for me. I was intrigued by the premise but I could not get into it. I don't know how many times MFA was mentioned but it felt like it was every paragraph.

Thank you @readforeverpub for a copy of the book.

Thank you Netgalley for the arc! Going into any romance, I’m always a bit skeptical. Going into a romance that’s been compared to Beach Read? My skepticism has never been higher. However, You Between the Lines did not disappoint! In this romance, we follow Leigh, a 27-year-old who has just been accepted into an MFA program for poetry, after years of being stuck at a marketing job she absolutely hates. Little does she know, her high school crush and biggest critic Will, is also attending. Once they see each other for the first time in six years after an ill-fated almost-kiss, both realize that they’ve never left each other’s minds. Although this book is a romance, we get to see Leigh come into her own and deal with the insecurities she’s been unable to get through. She struggles with feeling like she’s not smart enough to be in the MFA program and flinches at the thought of sounding stupid. As a retired sorority girl, Leigh experiences a cognitive dissonance between the woman she’s been and the woman she wants to be; an intelligent and worthy poet who deserves to be there. Through the program and Will, Leigh is able to come to terms with her insecurities and recognize her own intelligence and worth and find her voice as a poet. As much as I loved the relationship and Leigh’s growth throughout the story, I could have done with less of the “lit-bro,” and “only books that white men like to read” comments. Leigh repeats those phrases constantly throughout the book, almost as a shield over her insecurities for her own writing and skills. Although her tone changes by the end of the book, it makes one feel judged for potentially enjoying the books that white men like to read. It’s been a while since I’ve loved a love interest, but Will is so utterly charming that it’s difficult to not fall in love. His attention to Leigh, his completely obvious love for her and his ability to see her as she is, makes him such a loveable love interest. I absolutely adored this book and understand the comparisons to Emily Henry’s Beach Read. However, I think this book totally stands on its own and can’t wait for others to read and love it.

You Between the Lines was absolutely fantastic. I loved Leigh and Will so much! Their story was so sweet, and I could not put this down.

You Between the Lines was a beautiful introduction to Katie Naymon’s writing! I couldn’t help but get invested in Leigh and Will’s story. I truly enjoyed them, the story, the writing, and everything in between!

The depth to both Leigh and Will’s characters was so well-done. I adored the amount of mental health representation, ranging from depression to anxiety, to self-esteem issues, and more. I found both Leigh & Will to be very relatable, even frustratingly so because I felt as if I was getting called out at times. I think a lot of readers will be able to feel seen in the way Will describes his struggles with depression and how Leigh feels like she needs to shape herself to those around her. Both of their stories made my heart hurt for them in different ways, and truly made me want to give both of them a big hug. Will and Leigh both carry their own flaws, but they also carry personalities filled with humor, kindness, care, and undying wit.

Speaking of wit, I loved Leigh & Will’s dynamic so much! The one-sided rivals to lovers that they existed in made for so much banter, tension, chemistry. It allowed for the romantic, intimate moments between these two to shine and made me giddy! Seeing these two experience growth in their own way, break down each other’s walls, and get their chance together after so many years was truly special!!! I adored these two so much, even when I wanted to grab them by the shoulders and shake them.

As a whole, I really enjoyed this story and being immersed into the world of MFAs was so fun. The side characters added so much to the story, I loved the friendships that were created and the scenes where the entire group were together.

There were moments in the story where the miscommunication/lack of communication between Leigh and Will was a bit frustrating. However, the issues that appeared on that front make so much sense for both of their characters and make it feel genuine!

I would definitely recommend this one, especially if you love a book where there’s two writers, lots of hidden feelings, one-sided rivals to lovers, and mental health rep!!!

What really resonates with me is Leigh’s insecurities about her work and her fear of rejection. As I am in my last semester of my final year of university, these feelings of inadequacy have been cropping up and it mirrors the way Leigh compares herself to the rest of her cohort. She has also helped me unpack a little bit of my fear of rejection when it comes to figuring out a game plan for after graduation and hopefully, I follow in her footsteps on that front. Leigh and Will feel as though they are exactly what the other person needs to grow.

4.5 stars rounded up!

If you Googled swoonworthy, this book would come up first for sure. It had angst. Second chance romance/enemies to lovers. A rivalry competing for a prestigious MFA fellowship. Tear-watering prose. Deep characters with believable problems and motivations. I loved this and recommend it to anyone looking for:
-second chance romance
-enemies to lovers
-heartmelting banter
-angsty buildup
-personal growth

Thank you Forever and NetGalley for the e-arc of this stunning debut!

Loved it from start to finish. Made me miss college/grad school and the community you find with such a variety of personalities. Loved Leigh and Will’s banter/bickering/flirting.


I’m not a big poetry gal and I actually really enjoyed reading Leigh’s poems ! Will is just such a gem. 🥹

Excited to read more from Katie Naymon.

🌶️🌶️ maybe a little tamer or on par with Emily Henry

Thank you to NetGalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for this ARC. All opinions are my own. #YouBetweenTheLines #NetGalley

This is a stunningly crafted debut about two people who missed each other once in high school and again in college, who find themselves rivals in a poetry MFA program. Their rivalry, as well as the unravelling of the real motivations behind it, is brilliantly crafted; like real people, both characters misunderstand each other, and once they figure out that it is not actually hate that keeps them apart, well, the burn is so real. I'm rooting hard for Will Langford, a poet living in the shadow of his disapproving father even after the man's death, and Leigh, the sorority girl whose self doubt turns her slightly bitter to her colleagues in her MFA. I love that they both need to learn that they are enough as individuals before they finally get together; that felt like authentic and rewarding growth! This was a great read!

Thank you to Katie Naymon, Forever, and NetGalley for the copy of an eARC in exchange for my honest review!!