Absolutely obsessed with this book! Out of the Woods is a raw, emotional, and unexpectedly funny take on the marriage-in-crisis trope. Sarah and Caleb have been together forever, but when Sarah starts feeling lost in her own life, she drags them on a wilderness retreat to figure things out. Cue therapy hikes, forced proximity, and ALL the tension.

Hannah Bonam-Young delivers her signature wit, swoon-worthy romance, and a brutally honest look at love, identity, and growth. The banter? Perfect. The emotions? Gut-wrenching. The chemistry? Off the charts. Plus, the found family vibes with Win, Bo, and Gus were everything.

Heartbreaking in the best way but so full of love. If you love marriage in crisis/second-chance romance, forced proximity, and a good cry with some laugh-out-loud moments, this one’s for you!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this second chance romance. Sarah and Caleb were characters that I wanted to see happy and I was rooting for them the whole time. I think the characters were both complex but relatable; Sarah's journey to discovering herself felt super authentic.

HBY has done it again. Just like every other one of Hannah's books, Out of the Woods is delicate, emotional, and feels unabashedly real. Featuring the best friend side-characters from Out on a Limb, Sarah and Caleb have been married since they were practically children and for the most part it's been happy. But when some personal setbacks bring up long-buried feelings, these two indoor cats join a week-long hiking trip to try and save the marriage they both dearly want. This book deals deeply with feelings of grief, guilt, and inadequacy, so if you are in a tender place right now you might want to tread carefully but also know that there are no more tender hands to hold you while you process big feelings than a HBY book. Drink this book: Enjoy with a really nice bottle of Champagne!

I love a marriage in crisis trope and this one didn’t disappoint.

4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sarah and Caleb are from Out On A Limb but this is a few years later. Caleb is successful in his career and Sarah is a wife at home unsure about what her calling is. She’s struggled since losing her mom and is finally trying to figure out what to do. But Caleb is happy with things as they are and they have to find a way to get back on the same page. To do so they go in a marriage retreat camping in the woods.

This book is sooo much deeper than just a marriage in crisis. Sarah lost her mom to ALS and the book covers that.

I was really looking forward to this book coming out and it didn’t disappoint. I loved Out On A Limb and really loved this one. Sarah and Caleb really love each other and it shows throughout the book. While Sarah’s problems of being a rich wife with no purpose seem frivolous it’s a fair problem.

I think my two complaints that made me dock a star was just that I didn’t love the epilogue a ton and I thought the book took a deeper turn. Which was great just unexpected.

Rating: 4 stars!

Sarah and Caleb. Love you both. The bond between two high school sweethearts going through the challenges of life. As someone who enjoys a lot of outdoor adventure style books, I loved the focus of this book being a hiking/camping couples bonding trip. The flashbacks broke my heart, but the way the characters lean on each other makes it all worth while.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

I absolutely loved this book! The author tackles some really heavy topics, yet still manages to make me giggle! The writing is super engaging and flows so smoothly that I just kept turning the pages. This one hit especially close to home for me since I’ve been with my high school sweetheart for ten years, so a lot of the relationship dynamics really resonated. On top of that, it delves into the impact of medical issues on families and how kids can end up taking on way too much responsibility. Emotional, funny, and so real…I couldn’t put it down!

I didn’t think I’d love a Hannah Bonam-Young book more than Out on a Limb, but honestly? Out of the Woods absolutely blew me away!! I did not want to leave! HBY writes such tender, heart-warming, and realistic stories with such care, it’s truly a pleasure from start to finish! She is definitely one of the best romance writers of our generations, and I can’t wait for People Watching to come out next! Already recommended this to a few patrons at work, and they also fell in love with her (and her characters)!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine for an ARC! I fell in love with Win and Bo in "Out on A Limb" and was ecstatic to hear we got to dive into Caleb and Sarah's relationship! Witnessing their beginning in high school allowed me to relive meeting my own husband in high school. Their story was a combination of heartache, romance, and laughter! Their chemistry and love for one another made this book a 10/10!

Thank you SO much to Dell for giving me an e-ARC of my new favorite book ever. This book was SO insanely good. Hannah Bonam-Young's writing is nothing short of mesmerizing. I loved Out on a Limb, but there are almost no words to describe how much I absolutely adored Out of the Woods. Hannah's comedic timing was excellent and the way she grapples with such existential issues was so incredible to read. This easily could have been a romance I got irritated with - with Sarah having a life crisis because she got married at such a young age and feels like she doesn't have anything of her own to be proud of. Even though it was a romance book and the happy ever after was guaranteed, I love that Hannah made sure we knew that Sarah would choose Caleb every single time, and that her crisis was because she felt like she never formed an identity outside of her marriage where she had to rely on him so much, and it was never about Caleb himself. She wanted Caleb AND to figure out herself. Her talks of divorce and leaving were always framed as him getting tired of her or something along those lines, not because she ever wanted anyone—or even anything—other than Caleb. She just always wanted HIM, she was just afraid he didn't want her once these issues came to light and just going down this spiral of questioning in her life.

The flashbacks were SO well done. Sometimes in romance books, flashbacks feel clunky, but Out of the Wood's flashbacks were some of the best I've ever read. Sarah's relationship with her mom was so beautiful and I loved the way it colored the present as well. Everything about this book was perfect. Every sentence was perfect. The end was perfect. I cannot recommend this book more!

I knew I was going to love this book just based on how much I adored out on a limb, but wow this book blew me away!! Caleb and Sarah are soulmates in every sense of the word. The longing, the desire and love that surrounds these two was so dang good. And that scene in the woods??🤭🔥👀 I’m not an outdoorsy gal but maybe I should be after that😂🤭

This was such an emotional read and I loved every minute 💚 If you haven’t read this book yet this is my plea for you to read it because the love I felt in this book made me swoon🥹🩵

Hannah!! Omg!! I swear every single thing she writes is just fantastic in every possible way.
I laughed, I cried, and I felt every single thing that Sarah and Caleb did. This is such a beautiful story of learning to love yourself while also making sure you’re loving your partner as much as you can, and vise versa. It was such a unique setting and the pacing and execution were just flawless.
Hannah is definitely one of my grocery list authors now and I cannot wait to read every single other book she ever writes because I love her!

Marriage is not a walk in the park or woods 😉.
Love is hard work and a choice we make in life. It’s ups, it’s downs and it’s all kinds of emotional crap in the middle.

It’s easy to quit but it’s much harder to work for the love you believe you have

So realistic and loved it

Cute but not for me. I was bored. I really wanted to love this one especially having just read Out on a Limb and LOVING it. I’m not sure if I just couldn’t relate to the marriage aspect of the story? But sadly I couldn’t connect with the story at all.

Maybe I missed it from the first book but I thought Sarah and Caleb were a solid couple, so when this book came out that they were going on a marriage retreat in the wilderness I felt a little confused.

Overall 3 stars. Wasn’t my favorite but could have been worse. The writing was there and overall story. I sadly just didn’t connect or relate.

I loved this book so much. Sarah and Caleb are the absolute easiest couple to root for. Both of them are such genuine people. I could feel the tension between them in the beginning of the book and it was painful because I just wanted them to be happy.

But I think the story behind their relationship and the conflict that arose was both realistic and heartbreaking. I could immediately relate to Sarah and understand her fears, as well as Caleb and how he didn’t quite realize they’d stalled.

I just really loved this story. This is a more introspective, character driven book and I think it was so well done in conjunction with the outdoors couples retreat. I loved the side characters, the humor, and the beautifully sad flashbacks to Sarah’s memories of her mother.

There were so many little parts of this book that brought tears to my eyes. Hannah’s writing feels like chatting with a best friend. I’m happy to say that I loved this book and can’t wait to continue making my way through all of her novels.

5 stars 🌟 Another fantastic book by HBY! The characters are relatable, funny and lovable. The heavier topics are addressed with grace and authenticity. I’ll read (and probably love) anything you write Hannah. Amazing job 💕

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

3 🌟
Spice: open door

This wasn't for me. I didn't want to give up on it, so I persevered through it. Unfortunately, it just didn't land right for me. For starters, I wouldn't call this marriage in crisis. Their marriage was fine, Sarah just has a tendency to blow little things little of proportion. She came off as such a brat and not in a cute way. Caleb is the mvp for not calling her out on her shit. If she's struggling so much with grief so many years later, she should seek therapy. Instead, she leans on Caleb and then blames him for her not having her own identity.

I’m not entirely sure if I would classify this as a “marriage in crisis” so much as a…Sarah is having a crisis? But the JOURNEY…wow. This book did not make me ever want to go hiking, or on a wilderness couples retreat, or ever climb anything…but it sure did make me well up with tears on more than one occasion. Sarah & Caleb had such a long history and had been together through the best and worst parts of their lives. And I think, though seemingly dramatic at the start, Sarah’s inner turmoil was so realistic. The flashbacks were perfect- just enough of their beginning to understand their current relationship without being too much. The way that the author built sexual tension between a couple that’s been married for forever was brilliant. The cast of characters was wonderful (and of course loved getting to see Bo & Win again). It was just so beautifully done. I loved it.

February has been a synonym for Hannah Bonam-Young for me. After reading 𝙊𝙪𝙩 𝙤𝙣 𝙖 𝙇𝙞𝙢𝙗 and loving every second of it, I just had to read other books from the same author. I started with 𝙊𝙪𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙒𝙤𝙤𝙙𝙨, which I received as an ARC. Then, I proceeded to reading 𝙉𝙚𝙭𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙆𝙞𝙣 and 𝙉𝙚𝙭𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙔𝙤𝙪. I can honestly say that these books will have a special spot on my shelves, among my favourite romance authors like Emily Henry, Abby Jimenez and Sarah Adams.

𝙊𝙪𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙒𝙤𝙤𝙙𝙨 really stood out to me because it’s a second chance romance in which the main characters have been together for years. It reminded me of 𝙃𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙮 𝙋𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙚 by Emily Henry in some ways — there is something truly beautiful about two people who love each other enough to work on themselves and address issues in their lives or relationships in order to reach happiness, as a team. If you haven’t picked this one up already, I urge you to do so. It’s beautiful and heartwarming in every single way.

Wow, this was such an amazing story. It was both beautiful and heartbreaking. I have been married for years, and this made me take a good look at my own marriage. I love when I can see myself in the book I am reading and apply things to my own life. Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this early! I have a paperback copy on my shelf as a shelf trophy!

“It can sometimes be difficult for me to feel grateful for what I have because I’m thinking about what I’ve lost or what I could lose. I feel directionless, because I don’t really know my own feelings or wants or desires. I just sort of live in some…middle.”

Out of the Woods was a book that was actually pretty difficult for me to read but only because of how deep it resonated within me. I hated how much I could relate to Sarah and there were several times I had to put the book down and walk away to process. That is one of the best things about Hannah's writing, it's real. Out of the Woods is one of the most raw and real books I have read recently and I feel like I have grown as a person after finishing it. I cannot wait to see what comes next from her as she is now one of my top 5 authors.