Out on a Limb

Hannah Bonam-Young is a Canadian author of romances featuring diverse, marginalized characters (including characters who are LGBTQ+ or have a disability) who, as she notes in her author biography, deal with “the beautiful, messy, and challenging realities of life” (363). Bonam-Young began self-publishing her novels in 2022. After experiencing viral popularity on the social media platform TikTok, Dell, an imprint of Random House, acquired and released her works. Bonam-Young lives near Niagara Falls with her husband and two children.

Out on a Limb, as she shares in the Author’s Note and Acknowledgements, was a deeply personal book because Bonam-Young gave her protagonist, Win, a limb difference in the form of a less-developed right hand, a limb difference with which Bonam-Young was born. Bonam-Young shared on social media about the worries she felt as an expectant mother and the joy she experienced after her first child was born. She addresses, in her Author’s Note, her wish to portray love that is “validating, kind, considerate, joyful, patient, and gentle” (x).

The author’s debut novel, Next of Kin (2022), is a forced-proximity, roommates-to-lovers romance featuring two characters who partner to provide a home for their respective family members. Chloe, who is trying to gain wardship of her baby half-sister, teams up with Warren, who is trying to receive custody of his nephew Luke, who is deaf and communicates using sign language. Next to You (2022), next in the Next series, is a friends-to-lovers romance about Lane, who decides to remodel her life by moving into a school bus and enlists her friend Matt to help. Late in 2022, Bonam-Young published a holiday novella, Set the Record Straight, in which Clare, to please her new boss, pretends to date Evan, a female friend who’s had a crush on Clare for years.

Out on a Limb, published in 2023 and rereleased by Dell in 2024, is the first in a pair of novels that includes Out of the Woods (2025), which returns to the characters of Sarah and Caleb. Out of the Woods explores the past and present of their long-term relationship as Sarah confronts anxieties about her career path and Caleb worries about the future of their marriage. Book reviewer Theja Pk has praised Bonam-Young’s books for their “quick wit, authentic characters, and charming dialogue” and called Out on a Limb in particular “both eye-opening and inspiring” (Pk, Theja. “How To Read Hannah Bonam-Young Books in Order.” The Creatorpreneur Diary, 21 Sep. 2024).