Blog tour: The In-Between Bookstore

Welcome to the blog tour for The In-Between Bookstore by Edward Underhill!

More about the book…

If you had one chance to talk to your younger self… would you? What would you say?

A healing novel about a trans man in New York who - almost 30, laid off, broke - moves back to his small Illinois hometown.

Darby left Oak Falls, Illinois years ago, hoping to find a community and to leave behind the memory of his childhood best friend, Michael, and the painful way their friendship ended.

He walks into the bookstore he worked at in high school and feels an eerie sense of déjà vu – everything is exactly the same. Even the newspapers are dated 2009.

And behind the till is a teen who looks a lot like Darby did at sixteen... a teen who just might give him the opportunity to change his own present for the better – if he can figure out how before his connection to the past vanishes forever.

More about the author…

Edward Underhill grew up in the suburbs of Wisconsin, where he could not walk to anything, so he had to make up his own adventures.

He studied music in college, spent several years living in very small apartments in New York, and currently resides in California with his partner and a talkative black cat.

He is the author of the young adult novels Always the Almost and This Day Changes Everything.

The In-Between Bookstore is his first book for adults.

My impressions…

This novel is a tender and reflective exploration of identity, memory, and self-acceptance.

It follows Darby as he returns to his hometown and unexpectedly encounters his teenage self, prompting deep questions about the past and its role in shaping the present.

The story is heartfelt and emotional, and makes you wonder how you would reassure a younger version of yourself if you had a chance to. Thoughtfully written, it’s a story that I won’t easily forget.