A former sorority girl starts a prestigious poetry MFA program only to discover that one of her fellow grad students is her high school crush-turned-nemesis—who can't stop writing about her.
No one’s more surprised than Leigh when a prestigious MFA program in North Carolina accepts her. A former sorority girl, Leigh’s the first to admit she knows more about the lyrics of Taylor Swift than T.S. Eliot, and she’s never been able to shake the “all-style-no-substance” feedback her high school crush made in their poetry workshop. Bad enough that her tattooed, New Yorker tote bag-carrying classmates have read all the right authors and been published in the country's leading literary journals, Leigh's insecurities become all too real when Will, that same high school crush-turned-nemesis, shows up at orientation as a first-year in the program, too. And now, he’s William, exactly the kind of writer Leigh hates, complete with his pretentious sweater vests and tattered Moleskine.
Leigh’s determined to prove herself—and William—wrong by landing the program’s highly-coveted fellowship. But Will’s dead-set on it, too, and in a small cohort, they can't keep apart for long. When Will submits an intimate poem (that's maybe, probably, definitely about Leigh) to workshop, they’re both forced to realize there’s more to the other than what’s on the page. And what’s between the lines may be even more interesting.
No one’s more surprised than Leigh when a prestigious MFA program in North Carolina accepts her. A former sorority girl, Leigh’s the first to admit she knows more about the lyrics of Taylor Swift than T.S. Eliot, and she’s never been able to shake the “all-style-no-substance” feedback her high school crush made in their poetry workshop. Bad enough that her tattooed, New Yorker tote bag-carrying classmates have read all the right authors and been published in the country's leading literary journals, Leigh's insecurities become all too real when Will, that same high school crush-turned-nemesis, shows up at orientation as a first-year in the program, too. And now, he’s William, exactly the kind of writer Leigh hates, complete with his pretentious sweater vests and tattered Moleskine.
Leigh’s determined to prove herself—and William—wrong by landing the program’s highly-coveted fellowship. But Will’s dead-set on it, too, and in a small cohort, they can't keep apart for long. When Will submits an intimate poem (that's maybe, probably, definitely about Leigh) to workshop, they’re both forced to realize there’s more to the other than what’s on the page. And what’s between the lines may be even more interesting.
Title: You Between The Lines
Author: Katie Naymon
Publisher: Forever
Expected Publication Date: February 18, 2025
Expected Publication Date: February 18, 2025
Review:
Thank you to NetGalley, Forever, and Hachette Audio for providing me with an audio ARC of this title to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
Leigh has been admitted to a prestigious MFA program. All she wants to do is keep to herself and write her poetry. When her childhood nemesis, Will, ends up in the same program, she wants to stay as far away from him as possible. But when the work he submits makes it obvious he's writing about her, she can't help but feel drawn to him. Competing for the same fellowship could possibly push them further apart. Or will it bring them closer?
I love the premise of this book. I was an English major who always dreamed of getting my MFA. And if you like poetry and romance, you will more than likely enjoy this title. I wanted to connect with these characters and understand their thought process and reactions. Unfortunately, that was not to be for me. I ended up DNFing this title at 55%.
I need to start by saying I was expecting this to be more adult than it came across. The characters just did not seem like people who were in their late 20s with some life experience behind them. But both main characters came across as immature.
Leigh centers her whole personality around her having been a sorority girl in college, though I actually never got the sense that she had those connections with her sorority sisters I know happen. Her constant insecurities about being in the MFA program also seemed odd to me. She got into the program but was always stating she didn't belong. I cannot imagine she would have been admitted had that been the case. I did not see her growing and developing and understanding her worth. I didn't get a sense that this would change, either. I was also annoyed with the fact that she had one experience with Will in high school she deemed bad and that was what shaped her entire opinion of him. And that moment was about constructive criticism, which she tells us she can take a few times in the book. Obviously this was not the case. Listening to her POV became exhausting and repetitive.
As for Will, I didn't know him at all. He was very surface level. Given the book was only from Leigh's POV, I needed more from her to show who Will was and that just didn't happen. All I saw was what she deemed a pretentious white male poet. But I never got that sense from him. I didn't get much of a sense of him at all.
As for the romance, it felt a little forced. I know the characters had some past engagement that was part of what should have been their underlying chemistry, but it didn't resonate with me. I wanted to feel the emotion between them and it just wasn't happening for me. There were some sweet moments when I though this might turn around but for me it did not.
I really thought this would have been a bit more light-hearted than it was. It was bogged down with a lot of emotion centering around the death of parents and lives that did not go as planned. While I don't mind emotional things in a book, I need to see the characters utilizing it for growth and this was not happening. The blurb made it feel more like a rom-com than it was.
There is much potential from this author, though. I can see it in her phrases and how her words flow. She just needs to tighten up how she portrays things on the page. A little more showing and a lot less telling. I did like the inclusion of the poetry in the story.
The narrator was fine but I think because the pacing of the book was so slow, it made me not like her as much as I might have.
Overall, the book fell flat for me. The plot was monotonous and the repetitive scenes never seemed to move the story forward. I wasn't invested in the story and I didn't care about the characters. I didn't find the FMC likeable and the themes were repetitive to the point I didn't understand why they were never getting resolved or at least developed past being the same thing over and over again. This book is likened to Julie Soto's works but I just don't see it. I do see I'm in the minority on that opinion, though. Perhaps the book would have hit me better in print and I'll give it a try that way once it's released.
Author:
Katie Naymon lives and writes in Stockholm, Sweden. Originally from Northeast Ohio, she got her BA in creative writing at Johns Hopkins University and her MFA in poetry from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. YOU BETWEEN THE LINES is her first novel.
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