As an Amy March girl (and someone who has no idea what they want to do with their life 👀), this hit home. I normally don't love second-chance and fixing a marriage kind of plot but I loooved this. Sarah is such a grief-stricken and lost person at the beginning and throughout this you get to see her heal, help someone else heal and find out what she wants to do with her life. She's so strong and I wish I could be more like her. I cried waay too many times reading this. And Caleb..he's a very good boy. Also I met Hannah while I was reading this and she's the most lovely and funny person ever.🩷🥾🐿️🍃🏕️

Thank you for the ARC! It was an honor to picked and I can’t wait to have the physical copy in hand to display on my shelf.

The story was very relatable to me as I was also married at a young like Sarah and Caleb. I did start wondering to myself if I have done enough with my life like Sarah was questioning. I really liked that bo and win were included in the story line. I haven’t read a book before where the characters were already together and married. There no break up at all by the way. I think Sarah had a touch of undiagnosed adhd for how often she would zone out during conversations. I get it, I’m the same way but it got to be a little much half way through. Now the ending took me for a ride. Still no break up, just everything comes full circle. I did enjoy the dual timeline and it was some very nicely.

This would be a reread for me in the future!

⭐️⭐️⭐️½

I thought I was going to love this one. Like Caleb and Sarah, I have been in a relationship since high school. It's interesting that people sometimes comment on how easy our relationship must be since we've known each other so long. This book illustrated the point that every relationship requires work. No matter how long you've been together, every couple can grow in communication.

I'm not sure why, but I had a hard time connecting with Sarah in this book. In Out on a Limb, I thought she was funny. But I kind of feel like she worked better as a supporting character. She was not likeable on some levels and I felt like Caleb was too good for her. Hannah Bonam-Young does an amazing job of writing male main characters with heart and who will make you swoon. I just kept questioning why Caleb loved Sarah so much in this book.

Nonetheless, I love Hannah Bonam-Young's writing. And the sex scenes in this book get an A+!

Steam level: 🔥🔥🔥
⚠️: cancer, death of a mother, grief

Thank you Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for the ARC! This was absolutely incredible! I adored how Hannah Bonam-Young was able to take such big topics and allow the reader to feel so many emotions. I was sucked into the story from the start! This book had me laughing and crying and I couldn't put it down. I really appreciate how throughout her stories she writes such powerful messages that leave you feeling so strong. This book was perfect. Out of the Woods publishes on January 28, 2025.

**ARC Review**
1. Thank you to Hannah BY, Netgalley, and random house publishing for this ARC. To receive an ARC from my favorite author…. Mind blowing
2. Holy shit. Out on a limb has been my favorite top 5 books since I read it, but this one is honestly rivaling for that spot. As a married woman who has experienced communication issues, this hit the nail on the coffin. I FELT their problems and related on such a real note. I loved watching Sarah and Caleb fall back in love again. I’ve never cried so much AND laughed so hard during a book.
Hannah, I love love love you and I love the way you write. There’s a rawness to your stories and characters that are so relatable. I can’t thank you enough for writing a story like this bc it’s not something that’s often written about.
Anyway, NO NOTES!!!!!!!

⭐️: 5.0
Kindle

- marriage in crisis
- high school sweethearts
- first love
- second chance

5⭐️3🌶️

“That’s my good wife.”

“It’s been a very long time since I fucked you quickly, baby. A grown man knows how to take his time.”

One thing about me? I’m a sucker for a second chance, marriage in crisis. Sarah & Caleb were each others first loves back in high school, and have now been together since they were fourteen years old. But, they’re both starting to realize that they’re not 14 anymore, and what worked for them before doesn’t necessarily mean that it’ll still work for them now as Sarah is beginning to question her life’s purpose.

As Sarah is trying to talk to her best friend to figure out what to do, Win suggests they attend a week long couples retreat/camp to help learn how to better communicate and listen to one another. Will they use this time to reconnect and grow their relationship? Or will their time together really cause them to grow apart?

THANK YOU THANK YOU to Dell, NetGalley, HBY, and the rest of the publishing team for this ARC!!

WOW! This is probably the best book I've read in a minute. I adored Out on a Limb. I absolutely loved every snippet of Sarah and Caleb I could get and was so excited to be getting a book all about them. This book was a beautiful letter to the way love can heal and persevere. Through all of the hardship and scary life things, their love was always there. It was such a comfort to them, and to me too, because Caleb and Sarah love so hard and so deep. The way their love extends to the people in their lives makes them the kind of characters you cannot put down or walk away from. Above all else these two loved each other so completely. Their story was built on such a solid foundation that even with a few shakes, they ended up okay. May a love like theirs find everyone who wishes for it. I also haven't laughed out loud reading a book in a while and this book had me genuinely laughing. I needed that this week.



This review is available now on Goodreads and will be available on my Instagram @kays.reads_ before the publishing date.

First and foremost, I want to thank the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for accepting my request to read and review Out of the Woods!

This is my first Hannah Bonam-Young book (but not by choice - the library waitlist for Out on a Limb is a million people long. Good for HBY! Not so good for me, lol), and I fell in love.

This story drew me in from the get-go. The second chance marriage trope is a favorite and this one did it so incredibly well. That sweater analogy is one that will stick with me.

I felt that the author did an amazing job on characters! For one, I could FEEL the tension, love, fear, and hope between Sarah and Caleb throughout the story, and it kept hitting me right in the gut and making me feel things. There were definitely watery eyes a time or two. Second, I thought the relationship between Sarah and Win was incredibly well done. Again, I could FEEL their friendship. The author did a good job of writing their relationship without trying too hard. There was just an ease to it, and their dynamic worked really well. And lastly, Sarah had a quirkiness to her that I loved - it was super relatable. It's nice knowing other people have weird, quirky thoughts bouncing around their heads, too (she reminded me a bit of Sarah Adams's quirky characters).

My only reason for not giving it 5 stars is that there was something about the ending (the third act) that left me unsatisfied. I felt it wasn't needed, and I'm not sure how it added to the story. I can't exactly put my finger on the reason, but it threw me off.

But overall, I really enjoyed this book, and I'm looking forward to reading more of this author's work!

Thank you to the author Hannah Bonam Young, NetGalley, & RHP for this ARC of Out of the Woods!!!

I absolutely adored this novel. I read Out on a Limb earlier this year and loved it, so I was incredibly excited to revisit Win & Bo as well as explore the marriage between Sarah & Caleb.

I related so much to Sarah. I love how the author portrayed her and expressed her feelings about how she was feeling in her life. I also related to a few things she mentioned (in terms of age) because we are the same age hahaha so it made me giggle quite a few times!

Sarah and Caleb were too cute. I found their relationship to be great even before the wilderness trip but during it only created a stronger bond. They truly were always meant to be together, and I can see how Caleb is a lil cinnamon roll MMC.

Overall, this book showcases a beautiful relationship, friendships, and necessary spice 🥵
While also teaching you a few lessons about life and how important it can be to put yourself first. Highly recommend!!

Took off a star because I felt like it may have needed a little more conflict? Overall it was so realistic but I would have loved just a little bit more oomph to get me going!!

P.s whenever Caleb says baby I swoon

Out of the Woods is a simply beautiful book with real feeling, real conversations, and a real approach to how a young couple who married out of high school might feel in their 30s and how to overcome the what ifs and mid life crisis that might come up in their marriage.

Sarah and Caleb had been together since they were in high school, always supporting and having each others backs. Caleb supporting Sarah more with the illness that swept her mother away. Now, Sarah questions who she would be if Caleb had never been there, is she her own person? The two embark on a hiking trip for couples and see if they can get out of these woods they are stuck in.

This book has a lot of heavy topics, marriage in trouble and grief. I don't think I was prepared for the emotions around her mom in addition to their own issues which caught me off guard, making this more serious and gloomy than I was expecting. It was really beautiful and I thought it was honest, how they worked through their issues. More realistic than other marriage in trouble books I've read.

Thank you NetGalley and Dell for an eARC of this book in exchange for my opinion.

This book was absolutely amazing!!! I’m happy I got the chance to read this book and I loved it from beginning to end. The characters development and their love story was the best I’ve read in a while. I definitely recommend that anyone who is wondering if they should read this book DO IT you won’t regret it.

You never know what a couple is going through behind closed doors. Sarah and Caleb are picturesque in Out on a Limb. Relationship issues come to light in Out of the Woods when Sarah realizes she has felt complacent and unaccomplished since her mother's death over a decade prior.

This book was a beautiful journey of a couple reconnecting with each other both within and out of their comfort zones. The emotions both main characters go through are so real and raw.

Sarah has a hilarious inner (and sometimes outer) monologue that keeps the story feeling light and refreshing, even when dealing with heavier topics. I might even love her now more than Win...

Honestly this book couldn't have come at a more perfect time in my life (thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!), as similar to Sarah, with marriage and motherhood, it is so easy get lost in everything relating to our kids & husband that we forget to make time for ourselves. We sometimes lose what makes us, us.

This can be read as a stand-alone, but the story is much better having read Out on a Limb first.

... Oh and Miss Hannah, I caught the extra subtle Taylor Swift reference in that of Sarah's e-reading streak, and my little millennial heart adores the NSYNC line.

High school sweethearts Sarah and Caleb have hit a rough patch in their 17 year marriage and make the spontaneous decision to get out of their comfort zones and join a grueling hiking trip intended to guide couples through rough patches. It's unusual to have a romance novel about an already established couple and I was a bit skeptical, but Bonam-Young won me over. Told from a single POV, it has a dual timeline with flashbacks of the couple's origin story. Also, I loved that Sarah and Caleb are childfree by choice.

Although this can be read as a standalone, I highly recommend reading Out on a Limb first, not only because it's an excellent book but also because of the cameo appearances you'll get of Bo and Win in Out of the Woods.

This was another really great read from Bonam-Young. I love her quirky characters, humorous dialogue, and the realistic yet feel-good growth arcs they experience across the storyline.

I was first introduced to Sarah & Caleb in Out on a Limb, and was excited to read about a happily married couple going on a camping/hiking retreat to address some underlying issues that crop up after 10 years of wedded bliss. These two decidedly not outdoorsy people find themselves connecting with other group members while also reconnecting with each other (with a few bumps along the way). Interspersed with the current-day chapters are scenes from their past, the history of their relationship and the loss of Sarah's mother, which plays a significant role in the plot.

A key moment in the plot is when the protagonists develop a 10-year vision/plan to help them focus on a shared goal moving forward, and the book wraps up with an epilogue ten years into the future that shows which elements of their plan worked out and how it all impacted their life together, making for an extra special HEA.

Sweet, nostalgic, and memorable, OUT OF THE WOODS was such a beautiful novel. I am such a sucker for this trope, and Bonam-Young executed it so well. I had so many moments where my heart hurt for these two lovers only to have my heart soar with happy emotions after. This is Bonam-Young’s best novel so far.

This was a gorgeously written, tender, soft hug of a book.

We met Sarah and Caleb in Out On A Limb, where they appeared to be a perfect happy couple. They were childhood sweethearts who got married as teens, and now in her 30s, Sarah is questioning her life and whether she has anything to show for herself outside of being Caleb’s wife and has grown to resent her situation. Her best friend recommends a marriage retreat in the form of a hiking expedition with a group of strangers, and Sarah is just desperate enough to take her up on it.

Sarah is a great character, it’s a single POV from her so we get to learn all about her and what shaped her into the person she is today. She’s a bit lost and adrift, not sure what she wants from life but she knows she can’t stay stagnant where she is.

It’s technically a “marriage in crisis” story but that’s really only from Sarah. Caleb, sweet Caleb, loves his life and his wife and will do anything to keep her even if it means a week long hiking trip with strangers. I just really, really, loved him and his big heart.

I really enjoyed their journey and all the quirky characters they were on the trip with. I also especially loved that this couple was childfree by choice, which was reaffirmed multiple times throughout the book. Their HEA looked different than we normally see in romance and I LOVED it.

Since this is really one woman’s journey to self acceptance, I think this was more women’s fiction rather than romance, but nonetheless I swooned, I cried, I laughed.

What an excellent book, and what a gift the author gives us in sharing her tender heart with us all.

This book has truly left me speechless. It struck the perfect balance of emotions—joy, sorrow, love, and resilience. Sarah and Caleb feel like my best friends; their struggles, triumphs, and deep connection resonated with me in such a personal way. The way their relationships are portrayed—authentic, complicated, and tender—felt so real, and I could see myself in them.

Though I haven't experienced the same loss as Sarah, I relate deeply to the emotional journey she navigates. My own mother had a massive stroke while I was pregnant with my first child, and reading Sarah’s story of learning to cope with a life she never expected made me feel understood in ways I didn’t know I needed.

What struck me most about Sarah and Caleb's relationship is how rare and beautiful it is to find a soulmate at such a young age. Their commitment to one another, through the good and bad, was so touching. They were truly all in—no hesitation, no reservations—and that kind of love is so incredibly rare.

I adore this book and its characters, and it hit home for me in such a profound way. I’m beyond grateful for the chance to read this ARC. Thank you so much for this incredible gift. Hannah, your writing is exceptional. You've created something special that will stay with me long after I’ve finished reading.

Love love love. She does it again. I did not want to put this book down. You definitely don’t have to read Out On a Limb first, but I would highly recommend it. Seeing Win and Bo again was a treat.

Hearing Sarah and Caleb’s story in both the current timeline with flashbacks to their beginning was perfect. As with all her books, the pacing was perfect. The story keeps moving but nothing felt rushed. Their story is one of young love and how time changes relationships. Both main characters have to face their own insecurities and how to deal with them. I appreciated how none of the issues ever felt childish or forced, they were well explained and valid. A very healing book!

Their love is a great one and their story is worthwhile read.

Thank you to Random House and Hannah for this amazing ARC.

This was fantastic! All HBY books are, but I loved it so much. She does such a good job exploring difficult topics in a beautiful and make me cry way. I can’t wait to have a copy on my shelf.

This is lighthearted romance that brings a bit of charm to the workplace romance genre. The characters are likable, and the storyline is engaging, but it doesn’t quite reach its full potential. The chemistry between the protagonists is enjoyable, but there are moments when the pacing feels uneven, which affects the flow of the story.

While there are several funny and heartwarming scenes, some of the plot points feel predictable, and the character development could have been deeper. Despite these minor issues, Its still enjoyable read for anyone looking for a feel-good romance with a few laughs along the way.

Rating: 3/5