Olivia Northman’s world shattered the day she lost her wife to a drunk driver. Three years later, she still struggles with grief and the demands of being a single parent to their autistic son, Ben. After her first attempt at a new relationship crumbles, Olivia retreats to the simple, the predictable. It’s what’s best for her son and her heart.

Ellie Vasquez isn’t simple or predictable. In fact, she’s charmingly impulsive, as well as gregarious, confident, and attracted to Olivia, which she reveals in an unguarded moment. Olivia doesn’t know what’s more surprising—Ellie’s interest, or her own—but a quiet conversation over drinks soon spins into something more. As Olivia’s caution gives way to hope, she sees another chance at love, both for her, and for Ben, who takes to Ellie with a tender openness. Ellie is fearless about love in a way that makes Olivia want to be brave, but the deeper their passion, the closer she gets to drowning—in grief, in fear, in guilt. To have a future with Ellie, Olivia must come to terms with her past. If she can’t, she risks losing the second love of her life.

Anne E. Terpstra’s Beyond Any Experience is an intimate, emotional debut that explores grief, parenting, neurodiversity, and the vulnerability of love after loss.

TAGS: LGBTQIA+, contemporary, lit/genre fiction, women’s fiction, LGBTQ+ literary fiction, women’s domestic life fiction, romance, mothers and children fiction, lesbian, occupational therapist, age-gap, children, hurt/comfort, over 40, grieving, PTSD, family drama, autism, neurodiversity, interracial/intercultural, #ownvoices, tear-jerker, parenting

WARNINGS: references to an auto accident/collision; PTSD/past trauma; loss of and grieving for a loved one; loss of a family member; discussion of suicidal ideation; ableism