The In-Between Bookstore is a captivating novel that delves into the complexities of identity, the power of second chances, and the enduring magic of books. Underhill's debut is a poignant exploration of a trans man's journey through time, offering a fresh perspective on a familiar trope.

Darby, a character both relatable and extraordinary, finds himself transported back to his teenage years, presented with the opportunity to confront his past and shape his future. As he navigates the familiar yet unfamiliar landscape of his hometown, he grapples with the challenges of adolescence and the weight of societal expectations.

Underhill's prose is both lyrical and insightful, capturing the essence of nostalgia and the bittersweet nature of time. The bookstore itself serves as a magical portal, a place where the boundaries between past, present, and future blur. Through its shelves, Darby discovers not only the power of stories but also the power of self-acceptance.

The In-Between Bookstore is a heartwarming and thought-provoking read that will resonate with readers of all ages. It's a reminder that it's never too late to rewrite your story and embrace your true self.

Edward Underhill’s The In-Between Bookstore has a lot going for it—nostalgic pop culture references, themes of found family and self-discovery, and a warm exploration of second chances. If you’re into Buffy, Veronica Mars, or Television Without Pity, you’ll find delightful nods to those cultural touchstones sprinkled throughout, which I loved!

While the story unfolds with intriguing potential, I couldn’t help wishing it had focused more on Darby providing guidance to his younger self. The premise seemed ripe for a heartfelt exploration of how we might help our past selves navigate life’s challenges, but that emotional thread took a backseat to unraveling a sort of “mystery” (that didn’t really feel like a mystery) with Darby’s high school best friend.

I also found it odd that Darby, despite being nearly 30, didn’t feel like a fully-fledged adult. His mindset and behavior often felt stuck in high school, and by the end of the book, I wasn’t so sure he had truly progressed as a character.

That said, if you enjoy a good blend of found family and self-discovery with a light touch of romance, this book will likely be for you! However, if you’re looking for a deeper exploration of trans experiences, this one might leave you wanting more.

While this book didn’t work for me in some areas, it did have many charming moments!

Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager for providing me with a NetGalley ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I’m undoubtedly a tremendous fan of this author’s previous works. There isn’t a book of his that I wouldn’t read at plain face value. I truly expected to love this move into the adult fiction space but something about it fell completely flat for me. While his previous works have a lot of heart and exuberance, this one felt misguided almost.

Our main character really just doesn’t make sense to me. Darby wants to be in New York and then doesn’t want to be there. He misses his friends and then completely disconnects from them. I completely understand reaching your thirties and wanting to find yourself, move away, broaden your horizons but that doesn’t mean everything from the past just vanishes? How does he not remember the fall out between Michael??? He mentions every couple chapters or so that he has no idea how their friendship ended but I’m not sure how that’s possible. There’s no explanation given at all.

The relationships and connection just feel frigid and detached and the time travel element is so underused. I understand that it wasn’t ever meant to be a romance and I wasn’t looking for that. I just thought that the bond between past and current self might be more pertinent to the story. It’s such a cool concept to not be taken more advantage of.

Overall though, I was glad that Darby found his way, even if I didn’t completely agree with how he went about it. The writing was great and I loved the description. It was enough to keep me vibing through it to get to the end.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with eARC in exchange for my honest review.

If you could go back in time and talk to your younger self, what would you say? Would you try to change the path you took?

Darby is a trans man living in New York City. When he loses his job, he decides to move back to the rural town where he grew up (much to the disappointment of his big city friends). Back in the town where he felt out of place, he has to face his past and his younger self. Literally. He discovers he can travel back in time via the bookstore where he worked one summer when everything he knew fell apart. Through this discovery Darby explores if leaving home all those years ago was really the right path for him.

I really enjoyed this book. The exploration of home and family and self were all well executed. Darby undergoes some real growth and realizations when he is forced to face his past and the people he left there. The story and characters feel genuine. Darby is struggling to define himself as a trans man and where he belongs. We are given insight into the internal struggles a member of the LGBTQ community goes through living in a small town. Darby gets a chance to experience the life he could have had, and doesn’t some part of all of us wonder about that?

I also like that this book isn’t really nicely wrapped up in a bow at the end. I don’t think it should have been. It’s real life. None of us should ever stop growing or questioning.

Thank you to Harper Collins for the ARC! The In-Between Bookstore releases on January 14, 2025.

I really loved this book. It is so queer and so trans and so Midwestern. It's all about reflecting on your past and figuring out where your future is. Moments of it felt a little repetitive (a lot of Darby feeling overwhelmed and Michael giving him weird looks), but overall I absolutely recommend it.

The In-Between Bookstore by Edward Underhill is a whimsical and heartwarming tale that celebrates the magic of books and the connections they foster. With endearing characters and a touch of mystery, Underhill creates a cozy, inviting world where the boundaries between the ordinary and the extraordinary blur. A charming read for book lovers and anyone in search of a story that feels like a warm hug.

This book surprised me with its tenderness and depth. Darby’s journey—returning to his small hometown, grappling with his identity as a trans man, and literally meeting his teenage self in the bookstore he once worked at—was deeply moving. The story captures that bittersweet feeling of recontextualizing your past after growing into yourself, and it resonated in ways I didn’t expect.

While I wished for a bit more depth in some of Darby’s conversations with his younger self, the emotional impact was still powerful, and the ending felt authentic rather than overly neat. This is a thoughtful, hopeful story about self-discovery, acceptance, and the quiet magic of seeing yourself clearly. Perfect for anyone who’s ever wondered what they’d say to their younger self.

This book hooked me from the beginning. I loved the queer representation. I loved it's warm, cozy feel. I would absolutely love the opportunity to talk to my younger self the way the main character did.

Underhill's adult debut novel is incredibly charming. After his life in New York falls apart a bit trans man Darby decides to go back to his small town home of Oak Falls after a long separation. While home he decides to visit the local bookstore he worked at in high school, only to walk in and come face to face with his teenage self. Darby sees it as an opportunity to try and fix what he can't remember broke between him and his high school best friend Michael. I loved that this was sort of a second chance coming of age journey for Darby. He's on a journey to figure out who he is and what he wants in the world and is doing it while going to the high school football games and helping his mom pack up his childhood home. Darby starts out as a bit hard to like - he's not particularly aware of the people around him as people as opposed to props in his life. And his journey to becoming a little less self centered i think is the strongest part of the novel. Though I do think that journey could have been stronger, with Darby choosing to share more with his mom or Michael, instead of continuing to try to process everything alone.
I felt like the time travel element was under utilized in the book. By the middle of the book I felt like it had stagnated and wasn't helping to move Darby forward much because he couldn't figure out what he was doing. The last interaction with his high school self was incredibly touching but because it ends up not really changing anything it feels a bit like it was all for nothing. Or maybe it's that we start to see glimmers of how it MIGHT change present Darby but don't really get to see the full extent.
Overall the book is a charming story of finding yourself, and finding your people, and the power community can have for queer people. It's about the choices we make in our life and the lasting impact they can have even if we don't realize it at the time.

This book surprised me in so many different ways. The ending was so bittersweet to me, but it was absolutely beautiful. I could recognize myself at every stage of my life somewhere here, in how well the experience with gender and more aptly the struggle with still being undiscovered to even yourself. I wish I could go back now and help the younger version of me, show them what living a proudly and happily queer life can look like. And recontexualizing your hometown once you've gotten away from it is such a relatable experience. There's something about being a teenager that makes you isolate your experiences, you are the only one who could possibly understand how your feeling, that can only be remind by walking away and coming back, and then suddenly half the town is gay. I really enjoyed this book.

This was a fun, cute story with likable characters. It was such an easy read, and I enjoyed the plot progression as well!

As I was reading Edward Underhill's first adult novel, I started noticing that the plot was moving rather slowly for a romance. Eventually I realized that "The In-Between Bookstore" is a not actually a romance. It uses small-town, second-chance romance tropes, but they're primarily employed in the service of the MC's personal journey.

Darby Madden left his small Illinois hometown for New York City as soon as he graduated from high school. Eighteen years later, New York is home. It's where he came out as trans and found a friendship group of other queers. But he's newly unemployed and at loose ends, so when his Mom tells him she is moving from their childhood home to a condo, he drives 13 hours to Oak Falls so he can help her. He'll stay long enough to make sure she's settled, while he brainstorms a new place to live and new job opportunities back in the Big Apple.

He almost immediately runs into Michael Weaver, his childhood BFF who inexplicably ghosted Darby right before their senior year. It's not surprising that Michael still lives in Oak Falls and teaches high school. But Darby is shocked to learn that Michael holds him responsible for for the demise of their friendship.

Darby's favorite place in Oak Falls was always In Between Books, where he worked and hung out with Michael. But it's more than nostalgia when he steps inside the shop and realizes that the familiar-looking salesclerk is himself - the 17 year old version of himself back in 2009 - when Darby was deep in the closet and Michael was still his bestie. Darby wonders if he's been given an opportunity to rewrite history. If he can get enough information out of "Young Darby" to figure out where it went wrong with Michael, perhaps he can change the future and preserve their friendship.

I'll try to avoid spoilers but I will say that almost none of the assumptions I made about the plot were accurate. Yes, Michael turns out to be gay and yes, Darby realizes that even a small Midwestern town can have a close-knit queer community. But if you're feeling Sweet Home Alabama crossed with 13 Going on 30 vibes, you need to stop watching so many rom-coms.

The choices Darby makes about his future feel very true to the character. Looking back at my 2023 review of Underhill's debut YA novel, "Always the Almost," I noted that the trans MC was fully developed, but the Love Interest was bland. So maybe Edward Underhill's heart really lies in exploring trans journeys, which may or may not include the romance novel version of HEA.

ARC received from Net Galley in exchange for review.

November 14, 2024 – Finished Reading

There are always questions like “what would life be life if?” And this is a book that really goes after that feeling in a newer way. The characters provide a glimpse of to the life that there is and a life that could be. This story though brings about more questions with identity and the what ifs and the ways that life could have been for Darby, a trans man, return to his home town after being laid off and discovering a younger self in the bookstore that has somehow taken him to is past.

An emotional read full of discovery with characters that you feel for and want the best for.

A easy to read writing style.

What a beautiful story about self-discovery! I love narratives that feature bookish tropes and time travel, so having both elements in one book felt like heaven for me. The protagonist, Darby, loses his job at a start-up just before his 30th birthday. Living in New York without a clear direction, he returns home to help his mother move into her new house. During this time, he begins to heal from past traumas. While there is a love interest, I wouldn't classify this as a romance.

I particularly appreciated how the book ended. Typically, stories like this conclude with a "happily ever after," but this ending offers a different perspective. You still get a sense of closure, but it’s not in the way most would expect.

This book is perfect for teens and young adults who are struggling with coming out or figuring out their identity. It is written with great sensitivity and taste.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Avon and Harper Voyager | Avon, and Edward Underhill for allowing me to share my honest opinion of the ARC I reviewed. My review is completely voluntary and uncoerced.

The In-Between Bookstore by Edward Underhill ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 1/2

Avon and Harper Voyager
Pub Date: 1-14-25

Thank you @netgalley, @avonbooks, and @edwardunderhill for this eARC.

"There’s this theory of the universe. It says that every time we make a decision, reality splits, like a tree branching."

A trans man, Darby never felt he fit in growing up in his hometown. A split with his best friend Michael during their last year in high school and then leaving home for college brings Darby to NYC. There he finds a queer community and friends who love and support him for who he is.

As he approaches his 30th birthday, a recently unemployed Darby decides to leave his friends in NYC to return home to Oak Hills, Illinois.

Has Oak Hills changed? Will he be accepted? When he runs into Michael can they reconnect, honestly talk about the reason for the abrupt end to their friendship, and reestablish a relationship?

Darby visits In Between Books, where he worked in high school. Oddly, Darby finds it exactly the same. When he looks at the date on the newspaper and checks out the new releases, he realizes he's gone back to 2009. Not only that, but the employee behind the counter is a young pre transition Darby.

Can Darby connect with Young Darby? How will their connection change the past and impact the future?

This time slip story really made me think. Would I want to go back in time to give my teenage self advice? Also, how can I support LGBTQ youth in my community? My daughter and her girlfriend found their people in college - and I love to read stories of found family. This one hooked me from the start and had me rooting - and a little teary - for Darby and Michael.

"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."

#theinbetweenbookstore #edwardunderhill #avonbooks #netgalley

The In-Between Bookstore is a cute, relaxed fiction about self-discovery, acceptance, and the importance of community. I love a good bookstore read, huge plus if an element such as time travel is included. I had a great time following Darby on his journey to find answers. After being laid off and with his 30th birthday approaching, he decides to travel back to his small hometown from NYC in hopes of figuring out what he truly wants. When he walks into the bookstore he used to work at as a teen, he finds himself bumping into his younger self. Although the conversations weren't as deep as I would have hoped, they were still impactful enough to get Darby really thinking, particularly about his falling out with his best friend, Michael. Darby learns a lot along the way, and even though there wasn't much character growth nor a reasoning or explanation for his choice at the end, there was a lot of self-discovery made, as well as apologies and acceptance. A solid 4 star read!
Thank you NetGalley, Avon and Harper Voyager, and Edward Underhill for this ARC.

The In-Between Bookstore is a beautiful book about a trans man who is laid off from his job before he turns 30. He ends up returning to his small town and revisiting the past... literally. As someone who is just over 30 and recently got laid off from their job, I was so connect with Darby from the beginning. The whole story is a wonderful story about forgiveness & healing, and I devoured it within 2 days. This is a story that will stick with me for a long time.

Thank you to Avon & Harper Voyager, Edward Underhill, and NetGalley for the chance to read and review. My opinions are my own!

The In Between Bookstore is a new novel from Edward Underhill, coming out January 14,2025. The premise is essentially a trans man (Darby) has hit some rough spots, moves back home to help his mom and ultimately face some unfinished business. Seems straightforward but the twist here is he encounters his younger self (pre transition) when he visits a bookstore. This completely drew me in and I knocked out the first half rather quickly; unfortunately I struggled with the second half. Before I continue I should say that I loved all the representation in this book; this was a great thing to see. I found Darby relatable but also frustrating at times with some of his choices. I found it odd that he didn’t remember anything about the breaking point with Michael and relied on younger Darby too much. I may be in the minority here but I’m happy this didn’t turn into a romance although it was teased. I think the intent here was to focus on Darby and his continued self discovery but I think my biggest issue is that I don’t know what Darby learned; I didn’t sense progression in the story or Darby and felt like we were just on a repetitive cycle over the past. I was kind of surprised with the ending; more so that the NYC crowd is not mentioned for majority of the book so I didn’t really sense his missing of that life or longing to return. I do not think this is a bad book, I just hoped for more exploration into certain aspects.

Thank you to Netgalley and Avon books for providing me a copy of this ARC.

I binged this in one sitting. Honestly, everything about this from the trans representation, friends-to-lovers, the mid-west relatability - I just gobbled it up. It hooked me, had some beautiful character-development and a the perfect amount of romantic tension.

I wanted to like this a lot more than I did, but I found myself drifting off whenever I would read it, getting distracted by just about anything around me. I appreciate the sentiments of this book, but don't think it was for me.

I do think that fans of things like The Midnight Library by Matt Haig and hometown romances will really enjoy this.