Member Reviews
This book was so good! The story was so unique and heart felt! Hannah really makes you feel for the characters and it was so well done!
*Thank you to Dell and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review*
I think marriage in crisis may be one of my favorite tropes, especially when you do it like this. There's so much love in Hannah Bonam Young's writing. Caleb and Sarah love each other, but marriage takes work. Between a weeklong hike through the wilderness, a pesky abstinence rule, and all of the pent-up trauma from Sarah's mom dying, there's some real angst to process here. And process it we DO. (Also we get some delightful spicy tent scenes, meow!)
I loved how the focus of this book is on Sarah discovering her identity - who is she apart from a daughter or a wife? I think we've all felt lost at some point in our lives and that really hit home for me. This book is tough love followed by a warm HBY hug and hope for the future. Chef's kiss, utter perfection.
I absolutely adored this book! I loved that it followed a established marriage and was about strengthening love that was already there. Getting to watch Sarah and Calebโs romance unfold on these pages was an honor. Hannah really captured the fact that even the best relationships falter sometimes and itโs okay for you to reroute your relationship and change together. Also really enjoyed the reappearance of Winnie, Bo and Gus!
I honestly cannot even begin to adequately express how much I loved this book. ๐๐ช๐ฉ ๐ค๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐๐ค๐ค๐๐จ just spoke to me. I deeply related to the FMC, Sarah, and reading this book felt healing. Absolutely without a doubt one of my favorite reads of the year โพ๏ธโญ๏ธ
I was so moved by Caleb + Sarah. They are so wholly and completely in love with one another and committed to making their marriage work, even if that means acknowledging hard truths. They showed tremendous strength by truly putting in the work to communicate and heal. This book was inspiring and really focuses on the realities of marriage.
๐๐ช๐ฉ ๐ค๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐๐ค๐ค๐๐จ also deals with grief and loss. I was not prepared for the emotions I would feel. I was full on sobbing at one point. Itโs beautifully done. This book seriously deserves all the stars. Please, please, please read this wonderful book!
แดสแดแดแด๊ฑ:
๐ Highschool Sweethearts
๐ซถ๐ผ Self Discovery (within marriage)
๐ Marriage in Trouble
๐ง Cinnamon Roll MMC
โฐ Now and Then Timeline
Thank you Hannah Bonam-Young, Random House Publishing, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of ๐๐ช๐ฉ ๐ค๐ ๐ฉ๐๐ ๐๐ค๐ค๐๐จ.
โ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐'๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐. ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐'๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ก๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ข. ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐'๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ข๐๐๐๐๐. ๐๐๐๐๐'๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ก๐๐๐๐๐๐๐."
Hannah Bonam-Young is my favorite author, and this book was another 5-star read for me. This book follows Sarah and Caleb as they navigate their relationship. I love how real this book was and how vulnerable the characters were. As with all of Hannah's books, the characters seemed so real and authentic. I loved the updates about Bo and Win (from Out on a Limb) and seeing Sarah and Win's friendship continue to grow! Also, the flashbacks adding something really special to this book. I highly recommend this book, as well as all of Hannah's books! Thank you Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine for this ARC!
5 stars. No notes.
But actually this was the perfect book for me and was such a sweet Romance. Hannah is an auto-buy author, but for a good reason. Itโs a fantastic read and if youโre a romance reader then you should preorder this ASAP!
Thank you Penguin House/Dell Romance for the eARC through NetGalley!
Iโm thrilled that dell decided to bless me with an arc because I have been absolutely obsessed with reading this book since hby announced it. I mean a companion novel/sequel to out on a limb? Consider me sold.
Synopsis: Sarah and Caleb are high school sweethearts. Theyโve been through everything together since they were 14 including the heartbreaking death of Sarahโs mom. But after nearly two decades together, Sarah is starting to question who she is without her other half. (Cue tears yโall) Sarah and Caleb spontaneously end up on grueling trip in the woods designed to help couple through rough patches. Can they come out on the other side stronger?
Letโs just get this out of the way: I ate up the Bo/Win cameos. Every time they graced the scene my heart fluttered.
Okay back to Cay/Sar! This is dual timeline, so we got snippets of their past as they grew into a couple in addition to the present day storyline on the hiking trip. Iโm a dual timeline hater so I didnโt love this but thatโs a me thing. The writing was lovely so take that critique with a grain of salt.
HBY really helped us understand Sarahโs feelings in a way that felt real and relatable. The couple stuff almost felt too real at times, it hurt my heart!! I think I learned while reading OOTW that marriage in crisis hits too close to home.
Caleb Linwood - you are a sweetheart. Through and through. Heโs not immune to having faults but he is good at heart. He was so in love with Sarah he would do anything for her.
All in all, it was such a solid book. I decide on 4 stars because it was a bit slow in the beginning and I felt a littttttle bored from time to time. Thank you to dell for the advanced copy!!!
โif you give me the space to grow, iโll plant myself next to you. always.โ โ โน
my thoughtsโthis was beautiful! this little duology from hannah bonam-young is probably one of my all time favorites; the stories are so fun, the plots are always interesting, and the characters are flawed and complex and always make me fall for them!
i think this book solidifies the fact that the marriage in crisis trope is my favorite. i always thought it was second chance romance, but i feel like marriage in crisis has all the same components of second chance, but the characters stay in the relationship and are desperate to make it work, not walk away. thereโs no other people or distance or anything, theyโre committed to each other. yuuuup. iโll eat it up every time.
i found myself relating to sarahโs character so much, i way more than i was anticipating. she has a few years on me, but i found her struggles mirrored mine and i really admired the way she pushed to resolve her issues. and caleb, ugh. he was such a sweet and genuine character; their relationship was honest and loving and not without its faults, but they both wanted to fix things and put in the work and there is nothing hotter!!!
i loved every bit of this. i simply cannot wait for this to be published, so that i can snag up a physical copy asap and reread it! iโll be thinking about this one for a long time <3
I think this could be HBY best work to date, and I canโt believe Iโm saying that considering how much I love Win and Bo.
Out of the Woods had a trope that I do not normally gravitate towards, marriage in trouble. I much prefer a happy ending. Have no fear, Caleb and Sarah very much live happily ever afterโฆ but not without putting in the hard work.
While on an outdoorsy couples retreat Caleb and Sarah realize more than ever how much they need each other, just not in the ways they knew. All Sarah ever wanted was to be the herself. She didn't need Caleb to be Clark Kent all the time (spoiler already: he still is but in the right place at the right time). Sarah needed to discover herself by reliving her past and present to really truly find the future of her marriage. Caleb was always the answer even if it took some blood, sweat, and tears to get there.
Hannah Bonam-Young really loves to tear my heart out with each book. I was so excited for Caleb and Sarahโs story and also so nervous - marriage in trouble is hard! But like with anything Hannah does, their book was raw and delicate and full of longing. The way Hannah manages to take ordinary characters and make them feel larger than life is so beautiful. Thereโs magic in the day to day and Hannah brings that to life like no other.
Full review will come closer to pub in January, but Caleb and Sarah gave me so much joy and hope. They grow together and apart, they ebb and flow and through it all have an undercurrent of love and respect thatโs so critically THEM. Being married is hard. Being married as a young couple and then having to grow together is REALLY hard. My heart hurt in the best way watching them fumble and figure out their way to the new versions of themselves.
It also made me want to go camping. And I donโt camp.
Expect to laugh and cry quite a bit on this one. Beautiful written. This read tackles topics some may find difficult including loss of a parent, navigating grief, and marital conflict.
eARC via Netgalley.
I loved Sarah and Caleb in Out on a Limb, and Iโm so glad we got to experience their story from the beginning. This book made me FEEL, and after finishing it, I immediately gave it 5 stars!
โIf you give me the space to grow, Iโll plant myself next to you. Always.โ
thank you to Penguin Random House, Dell, and NetGalley for the ARC! well folks, hannah bonham-young has done it again: she poured her heart out into these characters, told a vulnerable + realistic love story that never felt pedantic, and had me crying on public transit ๐ญ
you can tell when this author writes from the heart. hannahโs characters have a way of pulling you in, making you feel like youโre hearing from an old friend. her sentence-craft levels up the story, bringing a lyrical quality to a genre that rarely reaches those depths.
more than anything, sarah + calebโs love story felt REAL in a way deeply personal to me. it wasnโt until i was halfway through that i realized iโd never seen my love story written before: two soulmates lucky to meet early in life, weather their toughest moments as a team, and in the calm afterwards wonder โwhatโs next?โ. calebโs declarations of love + fear + anxiety by the fire hit me so hard, and manifested a very real question in long-term partnership thatโs often missing in media.
i truly didnโt believe she could top out on a limb, but hannah did and weโre all the better for it ๐ซถ
All the stars! HBY doesnโt miss. Every time she writes a trope that might not be a favorite of mine I go in cautious only to be met with such tender and heartfelt writing that I canโt help but love it. Sarah and Caleb first appear in her novel Out on a Limb, and while this can be read without having read that one, I was happy I already knew our main couple upon starting. This was more than just a marriage in crisis romance. This was also the main character Sarah, truly finding herself after spending most of her life in the shadows of those around her. I loved her journey and how supportive Caleb was even when he didnโt fully understand.
Highly recommend!
first, im so thankful that queen hby and her team at netgalley allowed me this honor
second, i absolutely loved this book and seeing an actual established couple struggle and grow together, i loved being inside of sarahs mind and seeing how she processed everything that had happened to her, although in that some of the choices she made weren't my favorite and i couldn't understand why she made them but i've never had to experience the things that she went through so thats on me lol, i also LOVED caleb so much hes just such a nerd and so obsessed with sarah and just wants to love her well, the only thing that knocked it down a star was the bit about religion at the end, as a Christian it felt like it was making it seem like praying and having a relationship with God wasn't beneficial, when i felt like everything that happened to sarah was meant to happen to get her (as unfortunate as it was) to get to what happens in the epilogue <3
Thank you NetGalley, Hannah Bonam-Young, and Random House Pub for this e-arc!
Out of the Woods is about soulmates who found each other way earlier in life than most are lucky to.
But it is also about the struggles someone can have when they lose themselves and their identity in another person; when their identity IS that other person.
Hannah wrote Sarah and Caleb so so well. When I was reading the past chapters (there is a past and present timeline) I saw them fall in love, saw them just FIT with each other. they are truly together in every universe. I loved Caleb and how he was always there for Sarah and the acts of SERVICE!! he spoke his love but also showed it in the little things he would do for her.
the scene where she can't walk to the tent because of a long hike day, or when he remembered her kindle will forever be the standard.
Sarah i love you girl and you are so strong. that is what i was thinking the whole time i was reading this masterpiece of a book. The grief portrayal in this story was so thoughtfully written and it really hit home for me. I saw alot of myself in sarah in both the struggles she had with having no idea how to move forward in life, but also in her love for stories and escaping into them.
Hannah has quickly become an auto buy author for me. She writes characters with so much depth and nuance that I can't believe that they aren't out in the world playing Dungeons and Dragons or going on wild marriage retreats.
3.5 stars rounded up. This was a good, quick read. although I could not get invested in the characters or their relationship. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy.
โ๐๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ช๐ง ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ธ๐ณ๐ช๐ต๐ฆ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ญ๐ช๐ง๐ฆ, ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ฏโ๐ต ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ข๐ด๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ต ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ช๐ต, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถโ๐ญ๐ญ ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ต ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐บ ๐ข ๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ด๐ต๐ฐ๐ณ๐บ.โ
- ๐ถ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐
๐ ๐๐ ๐ฏ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฉ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ฑ๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐
๐๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ด:
โฐ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ณ๐ณ๐ช๐ข๐จ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ค๐ณ๐ช๐ด๐ช๐ด
โฐ ๐ฉ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ ๐ด๐ค๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ญ ๐ด๐ธ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ด
โฐ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ข๐ญ ๐จ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ต๐ฉ
โฐ ๐จ๐ณ๐ช๐ฆ๐ง & ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ข๐ญ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ
โฐ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ข๐ญ๐ต๐ฉ๐บ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ
The best feeling in the world is reading a highly anticipated book and it being just the perfection you expected it to be!
Hannah did it again in delivering a soft, comforting yet angsty and emotional romance. Sarah and Caleb's journey from meeting amd falling in love when they were kids to growing up together and being now at 31 in crisis was quite emotional. I really liked how it was never about falling out of love with each other but more like learning to communicate their feelings better.
I truly adored it and I think this is a book you wouldn't want to miss out.
*arc kindly provided in exchange of an honest review
I found the perspective of two HS sweethearts was so fascinating especially as Sarah explored her codependency on Caleb. I had fun reading the reigniting story of Sarah & Caleb but I just found myself not caring much about either of them. Found Caleb to be too perfect at times and while Sarah was relatable, her character just didn't resonate with me.
The frustrations between the two never seemed too serious enough to jeopardize their marriage and I think that's where the story kinda lost me. It just felt as if we already know they're going to make up in a matter of time and not much is at stake. Them running through the woods was fun but a therapy session could've had the same outcome. The last part of the book also felt rushed with Caleb's parents as nothing felt resolved.
Little disappointed in the execution, especially having loved HBY's other works, but it's an entertaining read nonetheless.
Thanks to NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.
The amount of love I have for this story is just ridiculous at this point! I already adored Sarah and Caleb from their spot in Out on a Limb and this has just fully solidified my love for these people that don't even exist in real life (so unfortunate...)! It was captivating and raw and I could not stop reading, I was so upset when it ended, even though we were given a decent length for an epilogue. The marital problems hit hard and true, as I'm sure a lot of married couples have experienced after a good amount of time being together, especially those of us that were together during a much younger phase of life. The surrounding couples were all amazing as well and made me so curious to continue following them to their every day lives! The growth and healing and self-confidence that Sarah was able to gain throughout this story was so encouraging, along with Caleb. P.S. it's not just emotionally great, the steam is very much steaming, y'all. Do yourself a favor and get this the second it comes out!