afictionalhubbard's review against another edition
5.0
From the first paragraph, Beyond the Surface plunges you into an intense domestic drama spanning multiple families and down through generations, where trauma begets trauma, but healing also leads to more healing. At the very center of it all is Ella, a recently divorced woman with a teenage daughter, who thinks that being loved is for the perfect, not for her, and as such, she pushes love away when it comes in the form of a handsome older man. Ella cannot see past her own family of origin or her own dissolved marriage, and cannot see what anyone else would see in her. Through it all, she must navigate fractured relationships with her aging father, her adulterous ex, and even the woman he'd cheated with, all while trying to raise her daughter--and hopefully prevent her daughter from repeating the same mistakes she now regrets. Nothing is easy or straightforward in this complex, emotionally-wrought story, which will keep you on your toes until the very end.
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