I honestly had such high hopes for this book. I enjoyed Edward Underhill’s previous novels, and along with the fact that this has a trans main character and involves a seemingly magical bookstore, it seemed like the book had plenty of ingredients for success. Bookstores are inherently amazing, and I could relate to Darby’s struggle of feeling lost almost too well at times.

Unfortunately, this was a case of a good book being done in by a bad ending. The whole thing about finding out Darby was altering the past for the better in a parallel universe the whole time when readers were led to believe it was actually his own past felt gimmicky, and like the author had pulled one over on me. Don’t get me wrong; I can appreciate surprise endings, but being duped like this is not how I want that done. It kind of ruined the book for me.

THE IN-BETWEEN BOOKSTORE is a wonderfully touching and tender story about self-discovery and identity. Thanks to NetGalley and Avon for the advanced copy!

Unfortunately a DNF for me. I just had a hard time getting into this read. I truly do love Edward’s books but this one just wasn’t for me.

Thanks to Avon & NetGalley for the free arc!

I think overall this just might not have been the book for me. It was super slow moving for the majority of the book. The main character Darby wasn’t very likable for me, which made it hard for me to connect with his story. I thought the time travel bookstore aspect would be fun but it kinda just fell flat. I don’t feel like much happened in this book at all, which again just made it hard to push through to the end. I did have a genuine curiosity of how it would end so I didn’t DNF but I kinda wish I did cause the ending wasn’t that great either. A bit of a disappointment all around, but maybe it just wasn’t for me.

This novel kept seeming like it was just about to really get going, but just never applied the gas. For a book with an amazing concept about change and the growth of self-knowledge—unexplained time travel introduces a man to his younger self before he came out as trans—there was just so little change or self-knowledge for this character. It was amazing, in a disappointing way, how little actual growth there was between his older and younger selves, and how little change or growth happened for him at all, in any time, between the start and end of the novel.

I went into this book knowing one thing: there was time travel. And I was incredibly blown away by just how incredible this story was.

Don’t get me wrong, this is a bittersweet novel. There’s a profound love of books, a distaste for one’s past, a need to reconnect with oneself and determine where things started veering off course, and a desire to forge a new path. To fix things that might seem unfixable in reality, but with just a bit of magic, might not be that far out of reach.

What I loved about this book was the authentic portrayals. Written by a trans man about a trans man, we get a genuine depiction of life from teenage years through his twenties where he grappled with his own identity, security, and sense of belonging. It felt real and as the reader, I was walking through each moment with Darby, because while he might have felt secure in his gender representation in his own skin, he felt insecure in his life and his future. Likewise, in just what had gone on in his past to set him on this path.

I’ve read a few other reviews that mentioned slow pacing or wishing there had been more character development, but honestly I think it was matched perfectly for the story. Slow pacing was necessary in order to convey everything this book carries with it—all of the heartache, the unease, the fear. And the character development felt incredibly genuine to someone going through this experience. This isn’t a book with a pretty wrapped bow at the end. This isn’t a romance book with a HEA. What it is is a story of self-discovery, a journey into one’s past to determine what they want for their future, and for most of us in our thirties, it felt sincere and incredibly relatable.

I recognize that this is a slower read, but it needs to be in order for us to take the time to fully absorb everything it has to offer. Likewise, this truly has to be the most authentic trans-rep, LGBTQIA+, feeling-lost-in-life story I’ve ever read. Mix in the time travel and the bookstore and I’m completely sold. I cannot recommend this book enough.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me review this book. Darby is living in New York and ends up losing his job. He goes home for a bit to help his mom move and try to figure out what he wants to do with his life. He catches up with old friends and gets the chance to change his past. He tries to right the past and learns a few lessons along the way.

can i first start by saying that i have loved both of this author’s other books, (always the almost & this day changes everything) so when i heard he had his first adult novel coming out it was an immediate must read for me.

i have been buzzing to start this since the moment it arrived, so i knew it would be a special treat to kick off the new year - and boy howdy was i right.

the characters are flawed, relatable, and easy to genuinely care for. i’m not much of a fantasy reader but the time traveling element was super well done and i liked that the book didn’t take away from the story by trying to explain the mechanics. also…..who doesn’t love a magical bookstore???????

this book is heavy on the nostalgia but still manages to not feel stale or overdone. if you’ve ever daydreamed of what it might be like to go back in time and have a conversation with your teenage self, this story is sure to pique your interest. i also loved how diverse the QUEER people within the book were. (shoutout to the gay who's wardrobe came from tractor supply 🤪🤪)

The In-Between Bookstore is a standalone queer friendly fantasy coming of age novel by Edward Underhill. Released 14th Jan 2025 HarperCollins on their Avon Books imprint, it's 272 pages and is available in hardcover, paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout.

The author has a good grasp on the technical aspects of writing. The scene settings, descriptive prose, and storytelling themselves are all competent and well wrought. The idea of being able to timeslip and go back and maybe change our future selves, is powerfully attractive. This is a well told story about precisely that. Darby gets the chance to go back to interact with his 16 year old self when he accidentally time-slips into 2009 in the bookstore he worked at as a teenager.

It's a wistfully told story and not always a happily-ever-after (though the denouement and resolution are fully developed). The characterizations are a trifle two dimensional and trope-y, but overall, it's a solid novel and a satisfying read.

Three and a half stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

The In-Between Bookstore by Edward Underhill is a beautifully crafted story.
I truly enjoyed this read. I was delightfully surprised at how quickly I got sucked into this story.
I found myself easily engrossed in the story and not wanting to put it down.
I really loved Underhill’s previous titles and this was another one added to that list.
The characters in this book were believable and well built.

A queer time travel novel, centering around a bookstore? Say less! Darby is an almost-30 trans man living in NYC when he loses his job, prompting the big decision to move back to his midwestern hometown. This comes with a lot of trepidation, as Darby hasn’t been home since his transition. Deciding to visit the bookshop that was his refuge growing up, he realizes he’s been transported back to 2009. Faced with the chance to revisit his past, can he learn enough to improve his current life?

I really enjoyed this book! I absolutely adored Darby, but I did find myself craving more character development. It could have added a layer of depth that I felt wasn’t there. Although it reads more as a YA novel, that didn’t take away from the storyline as a whole. I appreciated that Darby decided to keep his name so that there isn’t confusion between past and present, and most importantly that he isn’t being deadnamed throughout the novel.

What I most loved was the emotions portrayed through Darby’s eyes. That homesickness and longing for a place that you left because you felt suffocated and alone… I think a lot of people can relate to that, including myself. I was incredibly moved and just wanted to wrap Darby in the biggest hug to let him know I see him.

The ending still has me thinking about it days later, and I still can’t decide whether I liked it or not. It was more gloomy with a hopeful undertone when I was expecting a HEA. Either way, this novel has stayed on my mind, and I will be recommending it to everyone!

Big thanks to NetGalley for the eARC, and to Avon and Harper Voyager for sending me the physical book!

Because I have committed the cardinal reader sin of "I've bought this book... I'll read it one day I promise!" with Edward Underhill's other books, The In-Between Bookstore is actually the first of his I read, and his first foray into non-YA books. It's a short, tight piece at just under 300 pages with not really many excess threads to snip in its 'big life change, big self-introspection, also teenage me is here somehow?' journey.

A lot of people treat turning 30 as a bigger milestone than 20 or 40 and so it was very realistic that on the cusp of his 30th birthday, on the eve of job loss, Darby would just have no idea what to do with his life-- and his mom is selling his childhood home? That's a lot to deal with all at once, mentally, and then throw in a 12+ hour road trip after a friend family fight and just running into yourself, but younger, in your old place of work like a portal to a place in time? Truly too much.

What I really loved about this book actually (and weirdly enough I could have done without the time portal aspect? I know it was a vehicle for part of Darby's self-discovery/self-acceptance in this big crossroads) but I actually would have enjoyed this book just the same without it) was that it was very realistic in depicting the sort of prejudices and negative thoughts we have about those who are like us, but we assume are not because of their background (as in, 'what do you mean there's more queer people in my tiny Midwest town, wasn't I so alone I needed to get out immediately???) and what they look like. There's always a big conversation in queers spaces (and even outside but that doesn't count here) about "looking" queer enough, "looking" trans or non-binary, "looking" gay, lesbian, and every subsect therein, and honestly, we are all just people even if there's not easy Tells to heterosexual folks or cis folks or even each other sometimes. I'm human enough to admit I've been surprised finding out a coworker or acquaintance is on the same side of the road as I am because I was by-default judging them as not being so due to what they talked about and how they presented themselves. (I think too it comes from a place where we in the LGBTQIA+ community do not always know who is safe without obvious tells and it leaves us warier than we really should be- thanks society!)

The teenage memories felt really raw and understandable (even though I had queer friends as a teen they sure were loaded up with certain biases and by 'queer' I mean, at the time, cis and bi/gay) and that sort of constant questioning the world around you is definitely something I can relate to. Love the descriptors of the old bookshop vs the new, and the overall sense of melancholy that comes with Big Life Changes, Big Introspection, and trying to connect with things that maybe you could have all along if only you, yourself, and uh.. you again, I guess, weren't in the way.

Thank you to Avon (HarperVoyager) and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for review!

***Thank you to Netgalley & Avon for the advance reader copy in exchange for my honest review!

This story is ultimately about Darby's journey of self-discovery after losing his job in NYC and deciding to "move back" to their midwestern hometown at the age of 30 in order to help his mother downsize from their family home into a brand new condo.

When Darby is back in his hometown, he decides to visit his old safehaven/job, The In-Between Bookstore. However, he realizes that the bookstore is magically stuck in the past whenever he walks inside. When leaving the bookstore, Darby runs into his childhood best friend, Michael. Michael and Darby have not spoken since their senior year of high school. There was a big falling out but Darby is having a hard time remembering/understanding why.
Darby spends their time in their hometown trying to piece together what happened between himself and Michael all of those years back & ultimately where Darby feels he belongs.


The time travel element in this book was fun to explore (even though it was never thoroughly explained how it worked).
Darby is a young trans man and I loved the discussions of transitioning and being your true self, no matter what.
I also very much enjoyed Darby's relationship with his mother.

This book is overall very...melancholy. I hoped for more at the end of the story but I also understand why the author took the route they did.
3.5/5 stars, rounded up!

this book is entirety beautiful in every possible way. it is a love letter to oneself, in all our maddening and unique layers of growth over time. it’s a reflection on choices made and consequences thereof. it’s a promise of love and acceptance to all people regardless of background and experience, not always with the ones we think it will be with, but the ones we deserve to have.

the idea of going back to your younger self, to a pivotal moment in your life when you are realizing who you are and what you want, being able to talk to them, promise them it’s ok. it won’t all work out perfectly but you are ok. Darby brings us on a journey of learning you may never feel like you fully understand yourself or where you belong, but that’s ok, nobody does! it matters how you live your life, the choices you make, the people you keep close. of all the different branches of time that can exist from our choices, the ones you make lead you to where you are meant to be with the people you are meant to be with. trust yourself, trust your people. it will be ok.

reading this book, it left me feeling so raw and vulnerable and loved and loving. like I could better love and forgive my former self & my current, still-growing self. it left me better loving other people on a life’s journey so different than my own, onesI desperately want to respect & uplift in joy but don’t always know how best to do so. as always after reading an Edward Underhill book, I am left feeling like I can better love others and myself, like there’s more love in the world. it’s why I will always read & encourage others to read these stories. they make our scary, unpredictable world a better place.

thank you so much for the arc!

I love Edward Underhill’s YA books and really liked the concept of this but I think it lacked something. The writing is superb and the story was emotional but it sort of fizzled out. I wanted more for these characters. It was a good read but fell a tad short of my expectations.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book!! This was a beautiful story!! I thought the magical realism was an interesting twist. I wish the relationship in the story could’ve ended differently but that’s ok. Overall, I definitely recommend it!!

Time travel is a story convention that I almost always like because of the way it allows writers to play with the concept of “what if” as well as being a means to explore regret and process past traumas. That is why the description for Edward Underhill’s upcoming novel The In-Between Bookstore caught my interest. Focusing more on regret and the self-doubt that often comes during times of great personal upheaval, The In-Between Bookstore walks the line between being a little absurd because of the time-travel element, and taking itself too seriously exploring some pretty heavy and emotional self-reflection. Luckily, Underhill manages to walk that line using engaging, entertaining, and thoroughly relatable characters.

Darby is having a difficult time as he stares down turning thirty in a few weeks. He’s lost his job and the rent for his absurdly small studio apartment is going up. Despite his friends’ questioning his decision, Darby is headed to his hometown of Oak Falls to help his mother downsize and move from his childhood home to a new condo across town. But going home means facing some difficult memories and emotions. He never felt quite right there, especially after a falling out with his best friend, Michael, when he was seventeen. It was going away to college that gave Darby the courage and comfort to come out as trans and make his transition. When he discovers that Michael never really left Oak Falls and that he’s come out as gay, running into one another seems to become as unavoidable as it is awkward. Upon walking into the bookstore where he worked as a confused and uncomfortable teen, Darby discovers that the teen behind the counter now doesn’t just look like he did, it actually IS a younger Darby and that walking through the bookstore door is somehow transporting him to 2009 and the days leading up to the falling out with Michael. As Darby tries to navigate reviving his friendship with Michael, he wonders if the quirk of traveling backwards in time whenever he goes to the bookstore isn’t the universe trying to give him a second chance at preventing that falling out and the loss of a friendship that once meant so much.

While the rules of time travel in the book are a bit shaky and Darby’s attempts to figure out how it’s happening and why can be clunky, the introspective lessons he learns are relatable. Perhaps more engaging than anything to do with the bookstore and time travel are Darby’s awkward attempts to interact with both those people he knew from childhood and those he’s meeting for the first time. In a lot of ways, it was easy to understand Michael’s frustrations with Darby – even Darby gets frustrated with his younger self. There is a level of self-centeredness that comes with being a teenager. Suffering from dysphoria on top of that would only add to the opportunities for miscommunication (and given Michael’s own personal struggles, there was a bit of self-centeredness on his part that played a role in their falling out too). The social anxiety of seeing people from his youth, regardless of how they treated him in high school, was so accurately depicted, it can spark some serious second-hand embarrassment.

I was a little disappointed there wasn’t more to the actual mechanics of time travel and Darby’s interactions with his younger self, but the resolution the novel finally reached absolutely felt like the right one from an emotional standpoint. It would be interesting to see either a standalone novel where the same thing happens with the same bookstore and a different character from Darby’s youth (Michael in particular with a timeline overlapping with this one) or even an entirely different character from town (actually, Darby’s mother might be a good option…).

The In-Between Bookstore will be available January 14, 2025.

While some of the characters in this book I really enjoyed (Mom, Mr. Grumpy, NYC friends), I just couldn't really appreciate Darby and Michael. They were too... Awkward? Strange? I get that they were supposed to be, but it never felt natural when they were talking. Others, a good book with an interesting premise. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

4.5 ⭐️ rounded up
I really enjoyed the authors writing throughout the book and got sucked into the story once Darcy returns home for NYC to help his mother move and figure out his life. The storyline intrigued me and did not let me down. There is a lot of self-reflection by Darcy throughout the book. Darcy left his small town of Oak Falls because he didn't feel like he fit (but he also doesn't communicate those feelings to his best friend, which leads to lack of communication/miscommunication). This book really puts in the perspective how we, especially as teenagers, get caught up in our own world and get tunnel vision - and how looking back on our past selves we might see things differently.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

The In-Between Bookstore by Edward Underhill reminded me of that point in Rupaul’s Drag Race where Rupaul asks the contestants what they would say to their younger self. This book is about self discovery and finding your people. Does changing something in the past result in a better or different present or future? I loved Edward Underhill’s previous books, Always The Almost and This Day Changes Everything. I enjoyed the “weird quantum shit” in this book but I’m not sure why I didn’t love this book. It might come down to misunderstanding. I received an advance review copy from Avon Books for free. I am leaving this review voluntarily.