Thank you Netgalley for the advanced reading copy! This was a sweet story that I enjoyed by Hannah Bonam-Young. This is the follow up to Out on a Limb, which was one of my favorite reads this year. This story is very different, being a marriage in trouble plot, but it’s based on the best friend of the female main character from Out on a Limb. The love story is from a high school romance of Sarah and Caleb to marriage to hitting a rough spot so they go on a couples retreat in the woods to find each other again. I think that Bonam-Young is a master at inner thoughts and dialogue - she balances sadness and sweetness really well. Though this is four stars, I will say I think this book had too much going on - grief from a parent death of ALS, marriage issues, mental health issues, and issues at the retreat. But overall this was a sweet edition to Bonam-Young’s work and I will continue to read her - she’s a great romance writer. Side note, I have a parent who is dying from ALS right now, and the author did NOT get that experience correct - if any authors are thinking about writing about ALS experiences, please use a sensitivity reader (would be happy to help) or do more research. To be fair, almost every romance I have read does not get this right at all. Overall I recommend this book for fans of Bonam-Young, contemporary marriage in trouble romance, and hiking - they are out in the woods 🙂

I don't usually like to read books about couples whose marriage is in trouble because I don't enjoy the amount of conflict and sadness and I'd much rather read about couples falling in love. But I really wanted to read this book because I absolutely fell in love with Sarah and Caleb (Sarah in particular) in Out on a Limb. And Hannah Bonam-Young absolutely delivered here!

It was never in doubt how much Sarah and Caleb love each other, and I think that made the real difference here. That is, of course, helped along if you connected with them in the previous book. It's not strictly necessary, but I really recommend reading that one first! The conflicts between them were so understandable, and the flashbacks to the beginning of their relationship (a plot device I also usually dislike) only underlined both their love and the issues they were struggling with. I loved their deep and sometimes painful conversations, but Hannah also infused so much joy and humor into the story.

Bonus points for a very strong third act, and also the way Win and Bo were integrated into the story.

Out of the Woods comes out in January 2025, and I highly recommend it! Thank you to Dell and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest feedback.

Loved this! So tender and engaging. Love this author's writing style, and felt like this was a very realistic yet new depiction of long-term relationships and the realities of changing over time.

•Story ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
•Vibe ⛺️⛺️⛺️⛺️⛺️
•Writing ✏️✏️✏️✏️✏️
•Characters 🫶🏼🫶🏼🫶🏼🫶🏼🫶🏼
•Spice 🌶️🌶️

•Description of the book:
Have you ever felt like you just haven’t had a successful-fulfilling life? Like everyone around you is doing great amazing things, and you’re just stuck… Well, Sarah Linwood feels the exact same way. After marrying her high school sweetheart and losing her mother to ALS, Sarah has just been stuck. Stuck in her productivity, her life, her feelings, in heartbreak, in mourning. Even with knowing that she absolutely loves her husband, she feels like an absolute failure and thus believes she isn’t enough and wants out. That is until her bestie, Win, recommends a couples camping/hiking retreat. Here she finds that she isn’t the only one that’s hurting, her husband is too. It’s up to both of them to figure out how to communicate and rekindle their flame before it’s too late.

Notable parts:
•Caleb being by Sarah’s side through the good and the bad times.
•Win & Sarah’s best friendship
•The beautiful relationship between Sarah and her mother
•Paper Airplane notes

•Thoughts:
As a 30 something year old currently facing some tough life trials, this book hit home. I don’t specifically love seeing or hearing that others are “suffering” or going through a midlife crisis, but it was beautiful reading that the bump in the road can always be crossed. That the small problems of today won’t be there tomorrow. That with a little bit of love, understand and patience, we can conquer it all.

Appropriate for who?
Adults, 18+

Would I recommend?
Absolutely yes yes and yes

Would I read the sequel?
If there was one, a million times yes.

Would I read more from this author?
Yes!

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 Caleb’s romance unfold on these pages was an honor. Hannah really captured the fact that even the best relationships falter sometimes and it’s 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. 𝙊𝙪𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙒𝙤𝙤𝙙𝙨 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 ♾️⭐️

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.

𝙊𝙪𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙒𝙤𝙤𝙙𝙨 also deals with grief and loss. I was not prepared for the emotions I would feel. I was full on sobbing at one point. It’s beautifully done. This book seriously deserves all the stars. Please, please, please read this wonderful book!

ᴛʀᴏᴘᴇꜱ:
💘 Highschool Sweethearts
🫶🏼 Self Discovery (within marriage)
💍 Marriage in Trouble
🧁 Cinnamon Roll MMC
⏰ Now and Then Timeline

Thank you Hannah Bonam-Young, Random House Publishing, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of 𝙊𝙪𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙒𝙤𝙤𝙙𝙨.

“𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝚍𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚎 𝚊𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚍. 𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝚍𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚎 𝚎𝚡𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚘𝚛𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚊𝚛𝚢. 𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝚍𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚍𝚘 𝚊𝚗𝚢𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐. 𝚃𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎'𝚜 𝚗𝚘 𝚜𝚑𝚊𝚖𝚎 𝚒𝚗 𝚕𝚒𝚟𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊 𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚎𝚏𝚛𝚎𝚎 𝚎𝚡𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎."

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. It’s a fantastic read and if you’re a romance reader then you should preorder this ASAP!

Thank you Penguin House/Dell Romance for the eARC through NetGalley!

I’m 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. They’ve been through everything together since they were 14 including the heartbreaking death of Sarah’s mom. But after nearly two decades together, Sarah is starting to question who she is without her other half. (Cue tears y’all) 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?

Let’s 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. I’m a dual timeline hater so I didn’t love this but that’s a me thing. The writing was lovely so take that critique with a grain of salt.

HBY really helped us understand Sarah’s 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. He’s 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!!!

”if you give me the space to grow, i’ll plant myself next to you. always.” ₊ ⊹

my thoughts┊this 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. there’s no other people or distance or anything, they’re committed to each other. yuuuup. i’ll eat it up every time.

i found myself relating to sarah’s 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! i’ll be thinking about this one for a long time <3

I think this could be HBY best work to date, and I can’t believe I’m 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 after… 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 Sarah’s 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. There’s 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 that’s 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 don’t 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 I’m 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!

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

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 😭

you can tell when this author writes from the heart. hannah’s characters have a way of pulling you in, making you feel like you’re 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 + caleb’s love story felt REAL in a way deeply personal to me. it wasn’t until i was halfway through that i realized i’d 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 “what’s next?”. caleb’s declarations of love + fear + anxiety by the fire hit me so hard, and manifested a very real question in long-term partnership that’s often missing in media.

i truly didn’t believe she could top out on a limb, but hannah did and we’re all the better for it 🫶

All the stars! HBY doesn’t 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 can’t 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 didn’t 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.