I finished this book in two sittings and less than twelve hours after I started it, if that gives you any idea how much I enjoyed this book.
I recently come to a new conclusion on how I can classify a book as five stars – if this book were to have a sequel, or another book in the series, I’d have to feel happy about reading it. Not even halfway through this book, I was hoping for a sequel, or another standalone in which Sarah and Caleb were background characters like Bo and Win.
Childhood sweethearts with an already established relationship is an uber specific trope that I didn’t know I could search for in books. Going into a story where the couple is already together, and the love interest is already showing affection for the main character is heart-warming and refreshing. Even when there was tension between the characters, it never went on for long, and they always managed to come back to each other. I could see each of their points of view and understand what they were feeling and, as someone who doesn’t really read romance books, it was refreshing.
I am lucky to have a mother like Sarah’s, and I’m lucky that she is still in my life. If I’m being honest, my life actually couldn’t be more different from Sarah’s. But she’s relatable, and even if our personalities weren’t so similar, the way Bonham-Young writes Sarah’s inner monologue is so raw and full of emotion that it allows the reader to put herself in Sarah’s shoes, constantly reminded of her struggles in a way that adds more layers to the story rather than feeling like the author’s trying to fabricate a mutual understanding in which the reader is emotionally invested in Sarah’s life by forcing the same exact thought over and over again down your throat.
“Out of the Woods” is classified as a romance novel, and, yes, there are a few sex scenes in addition to the fact that Sarah and Caleb are already together. But this book could have very easily fallen into the trope of the woman that forgets she had hopes and dreams before she got married, but it’s okay because the man in her life is nice to her, so she guesses she’ll just keep being a housewife, get over her internal struggles, and pop out enough children for her own professional football team. Sarah is a character that stands on her own, makes her own decisions, and grows as a person because of it. Rather than push away her feelings to keep Caleb happy or lean on him and expect him to be the sole reason that she deals with her grief, she decides to take matters into her own hands and trusts that he will be there for her when she’s ready. I don’t think I’m wording this right, but I loved the book, I was so excited when I found out I got approved for an ARC, and I knew from the bio that it was going to be a book that hurt my heart in a good way.
Thank you to Dell and Penguin Random House for allowing me to have an ARC and thank you Hannah for writing a story of growth and grief and love. If you ever have another book in this series, please let me have the honor of reading it so that I can interact with the characters that I have grown to love so much.

✨ “If you give me the space to grow, I’ll plant myself next to you. Always.” ✨

Oh how I loved these two so much. Sarah and Caleb are high school sweethearts. They’ve been through so much in the last 17 years together but Sarah is struggling. She needs a change and that’s how these two end up on a hiking retreat for couples. It was so funny seeing these two go on an adventure because they are so not outside people but they truly wanted to work on their relationship.

✨“I would climb mountains for the chance to watch you come undone, baby.”✨

I really connected to Sarah and her struggle with finding herself and figuring out what she wanted to do with her life. I’ve felt stuck in life myself just like her. We see the tension in their marriage but this trip… it’s definitely something they needed.

✨There is a shirtless, hairy lumberjack carrying me through the woods who distinctly resembles my husband.✨

Gosh I just loved all the cute moments in this book. My heart swooned so much and the spicy scenes had me bluuuushing. I truly enjoyed this book. Caleb was so sweet and just wanted to make Sarah happy and loved. 🥹 Thank you NetGalley for providing this arc. 😊

✨I feel beautiful. I feel wanted. I feel loved. I feel so seen by him.✨

Tropes:
•High School Sweethearts
•Camping/Hiking trip
•Self-Discovery
•Forced Proximity
•Past/Present timeline

This was such a unique book for me . This is the first book I’ve read about a couple who are settled in marriage and want to rekindle . I loved watching the couple grow together and fall back in love . I laughed .. I cried . It was just beautiful !
Hannah’s writing is amazing and i would absolutely recommend this to a friend !

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Ballantine, Dell & Hannah Bonam Young for the chance to read this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Listen- I'm an HBY stan. She can do no wrong by me. I will follow her into the dark. And when I heard "marriage in trouble" I came running ! As someone that is 18 years into my relationship with my husband- we don't see enough of this trope. How was it that I already had the bar set high, because I love her writing so, and I was STILL blown away?

HBY nailed some DEEP concepts here: grief, identity without a career, moving forward, dependence on your partner, trauma, and the unknown. I say this fully- and without dramatics- I think this book altered my brain chemistry AND came to me right when I needed it.

Special callout to the commitment to the childfree life for our MCs. As a mom, I am the fastest to tell my childless by choice friends- GOOD FOR YOU! DO YOU, BOO! I feel like sometimes we expect people to change their minds about this and I love that they don't in this book.

Sarah & Caleb 🥹 This book. Wow.
♾️ all the stars (and tears 😭)

Not sure anyone else could have me reading & loving a marriage in trouble novel, but here we are.
I’ve loved every book of Hannah’s I’ve read, and this is definitely no exception.

Sarah is dealing with a lot - the grief of losing her mother (11 years ago), and how this pushed her to marry young.
While Caleb is definitely her person, she doesn’t know who she is without him - they’ve been together more than half their lives!

She’s lost, and feels like everything is tied up in Caleb.
They go to a couples’ retreat to work on their relationship, and themselves.

I love these two so much, and the side characters at the retreat were a great addition to their journey!
I also loved seeing Win & Bo again, and little Gus 🥹

While this can definitely be read as a standalone, I think the impact is just so much greater when you already know & love Sarah & Caleb 🥰 so I do recommend reading Out on a Limb first, but you don’t HAVE to (but you have to because it’s amazing!).

read if you love:
💍 marriage in trouble
👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨 high school sweethearts
🏕 couples retreat in the woods
⌛️ dual timeline
❤️‍🩹 grief + healing + self discovery
🤓 a nerdy mmc in glasses
💖 single 1st person pov

THANK YOU so much to Hannah & her team, Dell Romance & NetGalley for an advanced copy!
All opinions are my own.

This is such a unique story and one you won't find everywhere. Our main characters started as high school sweethearts and now, as adults, are struggling with their marriage. Sarah finds herself wondering who she is as an individual outside her relationship with Caleb. It was wonderful to see Sarah work on herself individually and her relationship with Caleb. This story has lots of feelings that come from both flashbacks (of younger Sarah and Caleb and Sarah's relationship with her mother) and present day (of Caleb and Sarah at their couples therapy retreat).

3.5 Stars
This had no business being so relatable to me lol (some of this was hard to read because it was a bit too relatable to me at the time I read it). Marriage is hard and I admired how Sarah and Caleb worked through their issues together and came out stronger in the end. I should have read Out on a Limb prior to this to get more background on the characters and I probably would've enjoyed this a little bit more if I did. I had the opportunity to meet Hannah Bonam-Young at an author event and she has such a warm personality and I was pleasantly surprised to find that carries into her writing as well.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group/Dell for the ARC!

Rating: 4.0

Spice: 2.5

After reading Out of the Woods I absolutely knew I had to pick up this author’s other books! Typically, I don’t always enjoy the failed marriage/rekindling marriage trope in my romances, however Hannah Bonam-Young knows how to write a refreshing and lighthearted adventure filled with many sweet moments and emotional growth between the characters.



If you are a fan of Out on a Limb this book is a must read for Sarah and Calebs story! How each character matures through this book and showcases how small issues can buildup in relationships is a very real aspect I loved reading about!

Thank you for the arc 🤍

You can check out my posts/reviews at @Aethers.Library on Instagram!

Out Of The Woods (e-arc)
Rating: 4/5

Special thanks to NetGalley for the e-arc in exchange for a genuine review.

Thoughts:
Wow—Hannah Bonam Young really took me on an emotional roller coaster! This is the first book where the topic of death and grieving doesn’t make me angry/frustrated. I truly loved the dual timeline and heavily enjoyed seeing Caleb and Sarah fall in love! Also, seeing how Sarah dealt with the loss of her mother—that broke me. I got teary-eyed sooo many times while reading this book. I usually never cry while reading books but this one!! It was testing me. Some moments that I loved was Sarah realizing what she wants to do, her understanding that she’s not falling behind (I really needed to hear this because I feel like this all the time), and Caleb’s letter. My heart was filled with so much happiness seeing Sarah and Caleb grow together and seeing the new found family they have!! And Sarah’s friendship with Win—I WANT THAT! I adore what they have and love how they’re always there for each other. Also, when Caleb was unconscious I was going to quit if he died. No but seriously, Caleb was such a perfect book boyfriend!

Now, you’re wondering why I gave it a 4/5 right? Well, it’s cause I’m not the biggest fan of reading about the topics of death/grieving and felt like beginning was a little slow because I wanted to know what happened right away lol Also, this is the second book I’ve ever read about a marriage in crisis and even after this one, I’m not sure if it’s a trope that I truly like but of course I’m always willing to give it a try.

Overall, I have become a Hannah Bonam Young fan and can’t wait for the book to published! Once again, thank you so much to NetGalley for the e-arc!

I did not finish this one. I love the concept of a marriage needing help and going out into nature but I found the characters unlikeable, the marital troubles feeling contrived and the constant sex in the midst of a supposedly strained marriage annoying.

Thank you so much to PRH audio for this audiobook and thank you to Random Housing Publishing Group/Dell/Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was a marriage in crisis situation. Sarah & Caleb have been together since they were teenagers and then got married at 19. She gets to this point in her life where she's wondering who she is as her own individual person. I could really relate to this one. I've been with my husband since we were 16 and we were married at 21. I just really understood a lot of their feelings and emotions.

Sarah & Caleb end up on this hiking retreat with other couples in order to reconnect and figure out how to fix their communication issues. Oh sweet Caleb... what a good husband. I love how supportive he is of Sarah, no matter what. He broke my heart a few times, honestly. But Sarah needed more from him and I loved seeing them work that out. The last 20% tore me apart too... especially because I just kept putting myself in that position and I could just not even imagine. I loved how this story was filled with real life situations and the feelings we have while going through them.

I love the relationships between Win, Bo, Sarah & Caleb. They are just a tight knit, wonderful group of people. And the flashbacks between Sarah & her mom were so sweet. I loved the close relationship they had together.

"If you give me the space to grow, I'll plant myself next to you. Always."

Audio:
Victoria Connolly is a new to me narrator and she was perfection. She kept me engaged in the storytelling the entire time. I felt like she did a great job bringing the emotions out for Sarah.

What to expect:
High School Sweethearts
Marriage in Trouble
Forced Proximity
Single POV
Dual Timeline

Oh, I had such high hopes. The first book in this series, Out on a Limb, was one of my favorites from 2024. It was swoony, steamy and made me actually like reading a pregnancy trope. And the way disability was handled...I just really appreciated the entire thing. So, getting a chance to read the next book in the series (a little earlier than others), was exciting. Sarah and Caleb were quirky and cute in Out on a Limb, and then came their own story.

Cue the disappointment. It just didn't do it for me.

As someone who has been through marriage therapy twice, I can guarantee that a couple walks in the woods, sex against a rock and some grounding exercises does not cure a couple of their issues. But in this book, it magically did. I think this kind of storyline does a disservice to people. Oh, it’s just fiction, Lacey, you say. Yes, but I’ve read plenty of fictional stories that have been healing to me in whatever way. So, to write about a couple who are having problems and then poof, those problems just go away after they brainstorm their ten year plan, well, it’s misleading. It’s completely non-factual and fictional.

Sarah and Caleb have a communication problem. I’ve been there. I’ve been in her shoes. Not only is she held back by grief, but she thinks if she voices her concerns, she will lose her husband. And he in return believes that if he doesn’t help, even if it’s not asked for, he won’t be useful anymore. They both have these issues with themselves that they need to work through. Sarah loses her mother young and to a terrible illness. Caleb is ignored by his parents, specifically his father. But instead of speaking to their spouse (or God forbid, a therapist) about these things, they bottle them up. And while I’m grateful that Sarah’s friend Win at least suggested they do the marriage retreat - see my feelings about that above - they need so much more than this.

Both characters fell short for me. I didn’t like the dual-time frames, although I loved the unconventionality of how Sarah and Win grew up. I feel like the story could have been so much more if it focused on Sarah’s grief and her deciding it was time to do things for her. She had such an internal struggle and her self-worth was so low. I’ve lived this, I totally get it. And it took a lot of hard work to move past this and grow from it all. As someone who can recognize herself in a character, I would have loved it if the story revolved around that. I don’t think it needed to be wrapped up in Caleb, who let’s face it, has been written like the “perfect” man. But I get it, it’s a romcom. We needed to have an entire chapter detailing their sex in the woods, I guess.

I wanted depth, and there wasn’t any. I feel let down, and that’s more my fault because I put Out on a Limb up there on a romcom pedestal. I will keep room for other HBY books, but I am so very sad about this one.

Another wonderful book!
I’m so glad that I was approved for this book from netgalley.
I loved the characters and the rediscovery of themselves and their love for each other.

A definite must read

4.5⭐️ Out of The Woods was such a beautiful, heartfelt read!! Sarah and Caleb were my introduction to Hannah Bonam-Young's writing, and let me tell you, it was terrific.

Out of The Woods is about high school sweethearts Sarah and Caleb, who have spent 17 years as each other's rock, but cracks in their relationship begin to show when Sarah takes on a project to prove her independence—and fails. With old grievances coming to light, the couple joins a hiking retreat to save their marriage. Along the way, they navigate their differences, rediscover themselves, and fight to reconnect.

I fell in love with Sarah from the very beginning. I loved seeing Sar find herself and deal with her grief. Those past scenes are profoundly emotional and truly show that every girl needs their mother. While it took me a second to warm up to Caleb, I ended up really loving him and learning to understand why he was acting the way he was.

It was so sweet to see these two reconnect and find their way back to each other. You could tell even when things were rough, they still loved each other deeply. They both had to come to terms with the fact that they were no longer the same people they were when they first got together. Sarah and Caleb's love was pure, soft, and overall relatable.

Sarah and Win's relationship was another thing about this story that I adored. Their bond is the definition of sisterhood. It excites me to go back now and read Win and Bo's story and hopefully see more of their connection.

The quotes in this book had me tearing up. It was such a raw, moving story on so many levels. No matter what age you are when reading this, whether it is closer to Sarah's age when she got married or her age in the present, you will find some piece of this book to resonate with.

Thank you to the publisher, Dell, and Hannah Bonam-Young for this arc!

Hannah Bonam-Young has such a way with words and telling emotional stories. Out of the Woods absolutely delievered for me and had me in tears for the l;ast 20% of the book.

Sarah and Caleb are our main characters and they have been with each other for years, marrying young. They set off to a couples therapy retreat in the woods to reconnect and so our story begins. I am a sucker for any books that introduce and have therapy. That right away was an absolute love. Anything that promotes open communication and the expression of emotions is a win for me. In addition, to the retreat our story also has flashbacks to the couplke when they were young and we get to see Sarah and her relationship with her mom. This was perhaps my favorite part of the book. Reading about Sarah and her mother and how she navigated her mother's daignosis had me in my feelings. Just hug your moms okay?

I wish we had more from Caleb. I felt he was just there outside of the spice scenes. Also, if you like spice, this book defintely has that and while I do love a sexy moment ( or two), I didn't need it in the book. I honestly wanted more emotion, more depth and less of the physical intmacy.

Just an extra little thing, there is a chapter with a side character with the name of Libby where Sarah has a beautiful conversation with her while walking. This is where I started crying and didn't stop until the end.

Any book that makes me feel so much, is an auto recommend. Well done HBY. Welcome to my autobuy club.

This book broke me and put me back together!

“Out of the Woods” follows high school sweethearts Sarah and Caleb Linwood as they join a grueling hiking trip intended to guide couples through rough patches in a desperate attempt to fix their relationship.

I really connected with Sarah in reading from her point-of-view. While I haven’t experienced the death of a parent, I empathized with her grief and found myself relating to her struggles to find herself and determine the legacy she wants to leave behind. Rather than let life pass her by, she actively takes steps to know herself fully and I was moved by her journey of self-discovery.

Having been introduced to Sarah and Caleb in “Out on a Limb,” I enjoyed getting to know more about their beautiful, messy, complicated love story. Some chapters alternate between the past and the present, so in addition to seeing how the loss of Sarah’s mother shaped her, we see how Sarah and Caleb’s relationship came to be and why it was really important for them to reconnect seventeen years later. The flashbacks left me feeling deeply emotional and raw upon seeing their young love and the way they navigated tough moments together.

Watching Sarah and Caleb grow together as individuals and as a couple across the span of the week they spent in the wilderness warmed my heart. Knowing that they love each other so deeply, even when they are at their lowest, left me feeling a sense of hope as they worked through decades of grievances between them, found new ways to communicate with each other, learned to be more present, and reignited their love. I truly experienced a whole spectrum of emotions—their banter left me in stitches, their internal struggles made me sob, and the way they found their way back to each other made me swoon. Their relationship isn’t perfect and that’s what I love so much about this book, because no relationship ever is. You need to overcome the imperfections and inevitable hardships—deal with the differences, compromise, give something up, be willing to work at it—in order to have something great.

5/5 stars

Thank you to net galley for giving me this as an arc! I absolutely adored Caleb and Sarah. I enjoyed reading a story about a couple who has been together for a long period of time and that has stuff they have to work through when they think they know eachother really well. Seeing Caleb do what he thinks is best for Sarah when she doesn't want him to anymore was interesting to read about. Once they went to the retreat and slowly started talking all the things out and getting how eachother truly felt was so good to read. I really enjoyed when they took the time to talk to eachother and see what eachother truly wanted from here on out. I loved how soft Caleb was for sarah and how much he truly loved her. sarah was such an easy FMC to read about I think because she felt so real and relatable. I loved these two so much and I wish I could stay with them forever.

I’m discovering that I honestly enjoy the marriage in crisis or second chance with divorced couple trope because I love the background and foundation the relationship already has. And I really enjoyed this marriage in crisis romance. Caleb and Sarah’s love for each other was so strong and evident. It wasn’t that they had fallen out of love with each other and were trying to rekindle that. It was about how do we keep loving each other when we also want to grow and change? How do we keep loving each other when we married so young and may not even know who we are as individuals anymore? I really enjoyed watching them work through this and have such great communication about the things they wanted out of their marriage.

I think this book does a great job at looking at marriage and its complexities, ourselves as individuals and how we grow and change, and the expectations we place on ourselves. If you got married really young you may be able to relate to this more than others, but I think everyone can identify with at least one aspect of this story.

Thank you NetGalley, Dell Romance, and Hannah Bonam-Young for the ARC!

👍🏻Read If You Like:
•Marriage in Crisis
•Camping
•Good Communication
•High School Sweethearts

🛑Content Warnings: troubled marriage, death of mom (seen in flashbacks), moderate language

🌶️🌶️🌶️Open Door Romance (Closed Door Mods: Ch. 18 and middle of Ch. 20

I was skeptical if I was going to like "Out of the Woods" as much as Hannah Bonam-Young's other titles, but I knew from Chapter 2 that this was going to be a five star read. Hannah Bonam-Young can do no wrong.

As a general rule, I'm not a huge fan of second chance romance or alternating timelines (this book has both). This is a personal preference. One of my favorite parts of romance novels is experiencing people falling for each other for the first time, and I sometimes feel alternating timelines take me out of the flow of the story a bit. However, I thought both of these elements worked really well in this book. Surprisingly, I really liked reading about Sarah and Caleb rekindling their relationship and thought the flashbacks served the story really well. Since Sarah and Caleb had a long history predating the events of the book, it made sense to get some glimpses into where they came from to see where they were going.

Another common element of second chance books that I don't love is when the couple dated as adults, broke up, and then gets back together again during the events of the books (I'm rarely convinced it's going to work the second time when it didn't work the first time). I really liked that while Sarah and Caleb had a lot of work to do, they were both 100% committed to their relationship from the outset and willing to put in the work. That doesn't mean that this book didn't have emotional highs and lows, the emotions were HIGH in this one. But there was none of the toxicity that comes with a past breakup.

Overall, I just love the way that Hannah Bonam-Young writes characters and stories. I adored every part of this book. If she wrote a takeout menu, I'd read it and probably give it five stars.

5 stars

Thank you NetGalley and Dell for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

Hannah Bonam-Young did it again with another amazing, well written story. All of the emotions I felt while reading this book, it was so good. I love Sarah & Caleb 😍