I read OUT ON A LIMB last year and loved it. I'm so glad Hannah Bonam-Young returned to this world with OUT OF THE WOODS because I truly think it will be one of my favorite romance books of 2025!

This book evoked so many emotions in me and I could have spent another 100 pages with these characters. I loved the dual timeline that flashed back to Sarah and Caleb's past. It was so sweet seeing how they met, but it was also heartbreaking reading about Sarah's mom being sick with ALS.

Marriage in crisis is typically not one of my favorite tropes -- but I'm now questioning that after reading this! It's probably my favorite marriage in crisis book I've read. Sarah and Caleb are high school sweethearts needing to reignite their love. I adored these characters and it was evident how much they loved each other. Being out in nature with other couples was the perfect place for them to get back on the same page. The other couples were wonderful side characters.

And speaking of side characters, I was so happy that there were cameos from Win, Bo, and Gus from book one! I will always be a big fan of inter-connected series <3

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5 stars- full review to be posted in goodreads and on bookstgram @fadhee.reads

Finished it around 3 a.m. today and all I got to say is this book was too raw, realistic and beautiful!😭💙 I loved reading about Sarah & Caleb, them trying to mend their relationship and also learning about eachother all over again and trying to change themselves for each other for the better. They made me giggle like a teenager, and they made me sad at so many moments.🤧 I just wish I could give the biggest hug to Sarah for going through so many things at such a young age 🥺🫂❤️‍🩹 Also the characters like, Nina, Helen, Libby, Yvonne and all the others from the camp were so good! And meeting Win & Bo again with their baby girl Gus was EVERYTHING!!🥹💗 Overall, the epilogue ATE, it was so wholesome!!!🫶🏻💘

Thankyou to the Author, the Publisher and Netgalley for this beautiful ARC inexchange for an honest review 💌

1⭐️ Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine for an advanced copy of Out Of The Woods.

Sarah is feeling like a failure and that she has accomplished nothing in her life. She feels like her life has been wrapped up in her husband Caleb so they decide to change it up and go on a week long camping retreat. Can they find their way back to each other?

I did not like the female main character at all. She came off as selfish, ungrateful, and blamed everyone else for her problems. She honestly came off as a spoiled brat. I was not a fan of this book at all.

"Out of the Woods" by Hannah Bonam-Young is a fairly decent marriage-in-crisis romance about high school sweethearts Sarah and Caleb Linwood, who have been married for seventeen years. Sarah, grieving the loss of her mother, wants to prove to herself—and everyone else—that she’s capable of being independent by taking on a fundraising gala in her mother’s memory. But when the event fails and Caleb steps in uninvited to save the day, it creates a rift between them. This forces the couple to confront years of unspoken doubts, eventually leading them to join a grueling wilderness retreat for struggling couples to try to rediscover their relationship.

It was surprisingly cozy, with relatable characters. I liked Sarah and Caleb, and I don’t think anyone was truly at fault in their struggles. It didn’t even feel like their marriage was really in crisis—Sarah just wanted to find who she was outside of the relationship. I do think a conversation would have resolved a lot of their tension without the drastic steps they took. The flashbacks to their earlier years were okay but didn’t add much to the story. Honestly, they could’ve been condensed into one chapter, and the story wouldn’t have lost anything.

The romance itself was a lackluster as it often took a backseat to Sarah’s personal journey. While I enjoyed watching them rediscover themselves and make an effort to move forward, the stakes didn’t feel particularly high. The steam was minimal, except for a scene in the woods that gave me the ick—it’s hard to find a moment sexy when they haven’t showered in days, but that might just be me.

Overall, this wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t amazing either. The author did a wonderful job portraying a natural, realistic marriage, but the story lacked focus, and the romance didn’t pack much of a punch. Decent, but not remarkable.

Hannah has become one of my very favorite authors, and I will read literally anything she releases! Out on a Limb is one of my top favorite books, so I was so excited to read about their best friends, Caleb and Sarah! I’ll be honest, I’m not usually the biggest fan of the “marriage in trouble” trope, but as per usual, Hannah absolutely killed it, and I loved every second! Sarah was freaking hilarious, and everything that came out of her mouth made me laugh! I loved getting to hear their story from the beginning and seeing how Sarah and Win became best friends. The way Caleb loves Sarah so deeply is swoon-worthy, and I can only hope my future husband is as good to me as Caleb is to Sarah. This one comes out on Tuesday(January 28th), and I hope you all love it as much as I did!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5!

Thanks Hannah for once again make me question everything about life, contemplate moving to Canada, and loving words more than ever. Reading anything Hannah writes makes me feel like I'm empowered but also as if I was being taken apart piece by piece. I promise, it's for the better.

I'm so glad we got Sarah and Caleb. The dual timelines were done well and other than wishing we could have had heard from Caleb - I've got no complaints. Hannah is a please give me now author.

Thank you Dell & NetGalley for the emotional spiral. I'll send you all my therapy bills. All thoughts are my own.

Thank you Hannah Bonam-Young and Dell for an ARC of this book via NetGalley!

I love Caleb and Sarah so much!!! I adored them in Out on a Limb and seeing their struggle here broke my heart. There was so much love but also so much left unsaid between them. Yet, the solution wasn't simply talking (tho that was part of it); it was confronting the reality that the roles they assumed no longer fit in their relationship. In this aspect, I think many of us, in *any* type of relationship, could relate. Bc it's not just a matter of self-reflection; it's challenging the place others occupy in our lives which could potentially threaten *their* sense of emotional security. Then when all these factors collide, the future suddenly looks so unclear. And that's scary. So watching Sarah and Caleb work through their frustrations, their insecurities, *all of their struggles* tugged at my heart. But seeing them through this journey was absolutely worthwhile. And the fact that they had *so* much history, their growth felt esp meaningful bc we got to see where they started *and* and where they finally landed.

And altho this was a journey that Sarah and Caleb took together, this was very much Sarah's story. Her frustration with not being able to make something of herself felt so real and I felt it so deeply. The way her circumstances led her to rely on Caleb. How that dependence became security. Then wanting to *be more*. Only to fail and fall into self-doubt. And I loved her development bc it wasn't about making drastic changes in the pursuit of grand plans. It was personal. It was Sarah giving herself grace, finding and meeting herself again, and reclaiming her dream by taking one small step. And every bit of that just felt remarkable.

CN: open-door romance, grief from parental death (ALS), diagnosis & treatment of terminal illness, questioning of religious practices/spirituality, accident resulting in hospitalization

This book was super surprising to me. I know that this is a super popular author, but was new to me.

As woman who married relatively young, I really enjoyed how this book played out. I really felt the emotion between Caleb and Sarah throughout the book. The dual timeline was a unique way to share the story of how they got to where they were, and how their emotional state brought tension.

I loved the set up of the outdoor excursion camp as a way to connect to their base relationship.
There were a couple of spicy scenes and they were pretty well written!


Pick this one up if you enjoy:
* marriage in crisis
* high school sweethearts
* therapy during outdoor excursions

Out on a Limb is one of my all time favorite books so when I was approved for this ARC, I was so freaking excited to read Sarah and Caleb’s story and I wasn’t disappointed!

Am I normally a fan of the “marriage in crisis” trope? Absolutely not but this story was very emotional and raw and I loved every minute of it! Caleb and Sarah married young and found themselves questioning their marriage but the way they found their way back to each was so beautiful!

Sarah losing her mother so young really struck home for me and I related to her so much!While I still enjoyed Out on a Limb more, Sarah and Caleb’s story was beautiful in a different way!

Thanks so much to Hannah Bonem Young and Netgalley for an ARC of this book for an honest review!

This was a cute, quick read! I loved seeing the two reconnect and how much they love each other. It was really sweet! I can’t wait to read other books by this author.

3.5/5

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.*

This is the second book in a series of standalones and I loved this one just as much as I loved Out on a Limb! I absolutely love the way Hannah Bonam-Young writes her characters and love stories. I do have a trigger when it comes to dead moms in books as plots because of losing my own mother unexpectedly and quickly in 2020 but I thought that the dead mom representation was done so well in this book. I can't wait to read more by this author!! Definitely an auto-buy author for me!!

Out of the Woods follows Sarah and Caleb Linwood, however, some of the characters from Bonam-Young's 2023 novel 'Out on a Limb' follow into this 2025 standalone. Sarah and Caleb are the perfect young couple, but a disagreement at an event Sarah organizes causes them to doubt what they thought was a near flawless relationship. Sarah's best friend and pseudo sister gives them an opportunity to go on a nature retreat to sort it out, but what they come home with is much more than they anticipated.

The writing here is simple, yet thought provoking. I really liked Bonam-Young's banter between the characters, the emotion you feel with them, and the character and relationship building is felt throughout. I expected a light, cozy romance and I got that, but I also got a little bit of spice, a little bit of sadness, and a whole lot of hope. The story did lull for me a little bit in the middle, but picked back up very quickly and I enjoyed it through to the end. The chapters can be a bit long, but there are a few shorter chapters as well, so overall the cadence of the read was a good pace.

I think previous reader of Bonam-Young will enjoy this as a next step in Win's life but new readers of her work (like myself) can still jump right in without feeling like we've missed anything.

Solid read for me, overall 4.5 stars. Highly recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing House for an Advanced Reader Copy of this novel.

I am completely convinced that Hannah Bonam-Young can just do no wrong.

I was outrageously excited to read Out of the Woods and read more about Sarah and Caleb. Like Sarah and Caleb, I also met my spouse in high school and we have been together for over a decade, so the story really hits home for me and I cannot express how on the mark HBY is with every single thing in this book. The feelings. The fights. The relationships. Everything.

I honestly am struggling to put into words what this book meant to me - it affected me that much. The characters are so complex and I just can't get over how much I relate to their struggles within themselves and with one another.

The relationship between the main couple is so unbelievably realistic (which makes sense since HBY also met her husband very young, so she would have first hand knowledge about so many aspects of this type of relationship) that I really felt immersed into the story and could see how while they truly love one another - its the little things that build up and up over time and end up being big things before you even realize its happening. How HBY manages it is true art.

If you haven't preordered, ordered, put on hold, requested at your library, etc then you really need to go and do that right now. I honestly think this may be the best book Hannah has written and I truly cannot wait to read more and more of what she comes out with. I wish I could rate this more than 5 stars.

I’m having a hard time putting how incredible and perfect this book was… When I picked this book up, I knew it would be incredible because come on, it’s HBY 🤭 but I will say, coming in knowing it was a marriage in crisis book, which is one of the tropes I don’t love as much, had me a little nervous about how much I would enjoy this one! But wow, it was incredible.

There’s so much that I enjoyed about this book… The story, the characters and their growth, the setting… This book felt really unique and I enjoyed every second reading it and I didn’t want it to end. I love that the main trope in this book, marriage in crisis, was so well done and how much grief, which is such a huge part of this book, was handled with so much love and care. This book pulled at my heartstrings and had me wanting to cry many times, and I love when a book is able to do that!

There’s just something about HBY’s writing that’s so beautiful and raw and real, and it definitely comes through in this book. The dialogue between our characters was perfect and so so so real, and made this work of fiction feel so real.

Speaking of characters, I ADORED both our MMC Caleb and FMC Sarah. I loved their relationship, how they’ve been together through thick and thin and still love each other, and how they grew together. They really complemented one another, and i feel like they’ll be one of my all time favorite book couple. Their love just felt so real and beautiful. I also really loved the journey that each character went through during the story, and I love seeing their growth individually as well as together. It was so beautiful to see, and it really made the story what it was.

I have a feeling this book will stick with me for a very long time, and I can’t wait until everyone has a chance to read it! Everything in this story worked so well together, and it was just such a pleasure to read!

5⭐️

High School Sweethearts
Midlife Crisis
Acts of service
Flashbacks
Healing with humor
Self discovery


This book knows how to hit you in the feels. A well written, introspective look into what can happen in a marriage.

The things unsaid? The dismissed fights? It happens, you know?

Sarah’s feeling of insecurity in her life was valid and made a lot of sense. There were times where I was very frustrated with her but I understood how her trauma stilted her. I couldn’t image being in her shoes, even though we all most likely will lose our mothers and it’ll be tough. I definitely related to her in the sense of how I feel like it would be debilitating. Unbelievable tragic. Granted, she was younger when her mother died, it makes sense that she would question everything. She needed to process and move on with her life. She had been holding on to that pain and hurt for so long that it affected her so much. It made her make decisions based on safety and comfort because that’s what helped keep the pain at bay. Once again, makes sense to me. I was frustrated with her sometimes because it felt like she often seemed to place blamed on her mother and even Caleb for how things turned out. But, she did acknowledge that, so, in the end I was less frustrated with her because she did acknowledge her part in the issues they were having. Sarah was a great character though, she made me feel all things in my own life and made me think. So much depth in her character.
Caleb, such a sweet and caring husband but yeah.. clueless. Not even in a bad way. When he tells Sarah that he thought they were the lucky ones? It broke me..I get it. When you aren’t communicating truthfully then things get lost and you can’t address something if it was never said. He wasn’t a mind reader. I liked his character. I understood his point of view without the book being dual pov. The author was very clear in making sure that Caleb’s side was acknowledged. I felt his pain, feeling so lost and shocked at hearing these things for the first time when he thought everything was ok. His character having those moments of recognition and even moments of doubt? Beautiful. But something that was even more beautiful was that the two never doubted their love for each other.

The flashbacks were well done and at a good pacing. It gave a look into Sarah and Caleb as this young couple with everything in front of them. The journey they had both in the past and present was represented well.

The side characters were very funny and definitely lended a hand in giving both main characters some perspective that I feel we all need sometimes.

Such a beautiful book about the ups and downs of life, and specifically marriage and relationships. A story where each person loves the other so much that they are willing to fight for not only themselves but for the life that they want to build and rebuild together. A truthful and loving story.

LOVED this book! The characters were so relatable and real it was incredibly easy to fall in love with them and root for them. The ending of the book had me holding my breath, and left me feeling a renewed sense of hope and love.

Full disclosure: I am not a fan of marriage-in-crisis OR timeline-jumping, and this book has both. *insert major self-own here*

Caleb and Sarah both got the therapy they needed, and the storytelling was objectively superb—a quality we’ve come to expect from Hannah Bonam-Young!

What irked me is that the entire crux of the story seemed to stem from Sarah’s sudden early mid-life crisis. She’s too insecure and stubbornly too proud. Did they both have issues to work on? Yes. Could their issues have been solved by having open, honest, and frequent communication? Absolutely. Also, I didn’t really feel like the flashbacks added much to the story. The takeaways could have been addressed in exposition (which I know is lazy) or in conversations between the characters.

In the end, Hannah delivered an emotional story with careful attention to the grief and trauma that Sarah and Caleb carried with them. It truly is a beautiful story.

*This ARC was provided by Random House Publishing Group via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.*

Hannah did it again. She turned my heart into mush and then repaired it again with her beautiful and talented words. Caleb and Sarah's story was everything and more one could have expected from the snippets we saw in Out on a Limb. I expected a young and wild love, but she hit me harder than I expected. The way she handles Sarah's conflicts with her being made me feel so heard and seen. Being with your partner for a long time can take a toll on you and she voiced so many personal concerns. As usual, she makes us think in a deeper way that usually make our emotions bubble up against our will haha. This is not your regular romance story, but for me it was so comforting to read something this unique and to remind me why I love my partner so much.

HBY has the ability to write books where everyone can relate to it in one way or another.. and as someone who married their high school sweetheart, and found their person at the age of 15 I was excited to connect with this book.

I appreciated that it wasn't necessarily a marriage in trouble, because I never really feared they wouldn't make it.. instead it was a relatable ebb in a marriage when you feel so distant from your spouse, but also cannot imagine you're life without them.

It also felt so accurate that even during the hard times, there are moments when you're reminded that you're with the person you know, maybe even more than you know yourself, and vice versa.. and there's such beauty about that.

More than a marriage, there's a story of finding yourself, dealing with grief, prioritizing what's important in your life, and remembering to laugh and be silly because there's something so healing in that.

The way HBY had me nearly spraying my coffee across the room as I could so vividly envision the hilarious scene unfolding after their first hike was pure gold.

One of my favorite parts of this book was the playful banter between Sarah and Caleb.. there was a familiarity that comes from years spent together that I was able to recognize and love in my own love story.

📖 𝙊𝙪𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙒𝙤𝙤𝙙𝙨 𝙗𝙮 𝙃𝙖𝙣𝙣𝙖𝙝 𝘽𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙢-𝙔𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙜

“𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘰𝘸𝘯. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭, 𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘺. 𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭. 𝘉𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘐’𝘷𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘯.”

This whole book was unbelievably relatable in a seriously triggering way! Sarah is literally every one that has ever felt stagnant in their day to day routine or relationship. The story is told in a then & now fashion that lets you see how Sarah & Caleb started, where they are now, and where they will go in the future.

There was a ton of great dialogue surrounding therapy and discussing the issues Sarah was dealing with.

Sarah and Caleb have the kind of chemistry everyone dreams about having with a love one. They’ve been together for over a decade and this book really stresses the need to continue evolving in your relationship everyday.

“𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘣𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴.”

Hannah edged us for AGES before finally hitting us with the spice! (It was so worth the wait though!)

“𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘮𝘺 𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘧𝘦,” ❤️‍🔥

I cried multiple times while reading this story so I definitely recommend having some emergency tissues nearby! The ending was everything I could have ever wanted for Caleb and Sarah!

If you miss Win & Bo, go read this book! I loved seeing how their relationship has developed since the end of Out on a Limb. The friendship between Win & Sarah will always be so special!

I get to go to Hannah’s signing for this book next week and I am beyond excited!

𝘛𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘴:
💍 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘛𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘦
💞 𝘏𝘪𝘨𝘩-𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘭 𝘚𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘴
🏕️ 𝘍𝘰𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘥 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘹𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘵𝘺
🥹 𝘓𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘈𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘓𝘰𝘴𝘴
✨ 𝘍𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘠𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧
🫶🏼 𝘍𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘍𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺
❤️‍🔥 𝘚𝘭𝘰𝘸 𝘉𝘶𝘳𝘯
🌲 𝘞𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘴𝘺 𝘚𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘦