This story follows Sarah and Caleb, a married couple who have been together for 17 years. They’ve supported each other through some some incredibly hard times (notably the loss of Sarah’s mother when she was 19) but they now feel disconnected and are struggling in their marriage. They embark on a week long couples wilderness retreat to reignite the spark in their relationship.

Oh what a book! This story had so much substance and depth to it! It touched on a number of heavy topics including terminal illness and grief, as well as how we change as we age and how that impacts our relationships. Each topic was fully explored and was beautifully handled. In particular I appreciated the discussions around grief, which I felt were extremely touching and very realistic.

This book made me laugh, cry, and I came away with so much respect and love for both of our main characters (as well as the author for her brilliant work!)

This was my first Hannah Bonam-Young book, but it certainly won’t be the last! This story was so much more than your standard romance book.

Out of the Woods by Hannah Bonam-Young is a heartfelt and emotional story about love, identity, and the struggles of long-term relationships. Sarah and Caleb Linwood, high school sweethearts married for 17 years, find themselves drifting apart as life’s challenges pile up. Desperate to reconnect, they embark on a week-long couples’ hiking retreat that forces them to face their issues head-on.
The story beautifully captures the complexities of marriage—how easy it is to lose yourself in a relationship and how hard it can be to rebuild. Sarah and Caleb’s journey is both raw and inspiring, filled with honest communication, emotional breakthroughs, and heartfelt moments that brought tears to my eyes. I loved the flashbacks to their earlier years, which showed the foundation of their love.
This book felt like a therapeutic experience, offering hope and realism about what it means to grow together. Highly recommended for fans of emotional, character-driven stories!

This was absolutely incredible. I didn’t expect to feel so much and learn so much from so early on. Such a beautiful story and SERIOUSLY worth reading. Chef’s kiss!

I absolutely adored this book!

After reading Out on a Limb, I was so excited to read this one and get more from the characters Sarah and Caleb, and this book delivered!

I don’t know what HBY puts in her books but whatever it is I eat it up!

I loved the exploration of relationships and how you can lose yourself within one , especially when you e been together for a very long time.

The characters just feel so real I loved every moment of this.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my e-arc copy 💕

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My first 5 star read of 2025 and I couldn't have wanted a better book for it!

Sarah and Caleb relationship felt so real and you don't often see the struggles of relationships enough in books. At first I was skeptical about the idea of a couple therapy hike but I ended up loving it! Something about them being disconected from the world as having to face their struggles without a way to procrastinate or avoid it all made it a lot more emotional to read. Their heart to hearts during the hike and how they worked through their struggles made me tear up on multiple occasions. If I was to sum up how I see their relationship it was be what marrying your best friend looks like and lets me real thats the dream. I loved the little flashbacks we got of their relationship over the years and how they really are just two best friends.

I love Win and Bo so so much and their daughter August is the cutest. Win really is the best friend we all need.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this an an arc!

Out of the Woods comes out January 28th and I cannot recommend it enough.

Thank you so much to Hannah Bonam-Young and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book.

I was not prepared for this book to be my first 5 star read of the year, but I’m not sorry and nothing will change my mind about how flipping amazing this book was! This book made me feel so many things!! I have no words for how it made me feel and everything I feel like I learnt from this book. It felt like one big therapy session and I will think about this book for a long time to come.

After reading out on a limb, Sarah and Caleb were some of my favourite people, they had me cry laughing on many different occasions so reading this book healed apart of my heart knowing that not every relationship is smooth sailing and its normal. This entire book broke me and healed me at the same time.

After so many books having the miscommunication trope, this was the complete opposite, this was about little communication causing a marriage to struggle and what they need to do to save and change the dynamic of their relationship. I fell in love with how they learned to love each other again.

Sarah was such a strong character, who dealt with so much at a young age and knew no differently from her current life as a stay at home wife, so good on Sarah for voicing her opinion and showing her vulnerable side when she wasn’t happy. Seeing her stand up for her relationship when so many people would give up is so inspiring and I can’t remember the last time I felt so strongly over a book.

And then Caleb is your classic golden retriever, so in love and oblivious but would do anything for those he loved. I feel like this entire book was such an eye opening experience for both main characters but seeing Caleb be so open and willing to try, even though at first he was confused and couldn’t see the problems, the more they spoke and argued, the more the cracks started to show and he became more understanding of the things they both needed to work on in order to save their marriage.

This books is more accurate of how a couple can be after so long married and they get stuck in a rut, it was very refreshing and felt more realistic then the expected happily ever after.

Watching them come back together was so natural and I loved their story, their progression as a couple but also as individuals. I will rave about this book for months to come and I can’t wait to see what’s next for Hannah Bonam-Young

4.5

Thank you so much to NetGalley for the ARC!

I think I’m going to find reviewing this book slightly difficult because I don’t think I have read anything like it. This is a marriage in trouble romance but the so called conflict is so mundane (in the best way) that it makes you feel so deeply.

I fell in love with these characters (not having read Win and Bo’s story) and Sarah and Caleb are true soulmates. I felt the depth of their love through every single page and this book had some of the best character development and depth I have ever read. Such an amazing read, all around!

i actually teared up at portions

Sarah and Caleb made my heart hurt so much throughout this book at least the humorous side characters helped soften the blow

LOVED IT and will definitely be reading the next !!

A real honest novel - Caleb and Sarah are the original high school sweethearts who find themselves in their early thirties in a relationship crisis. A chance of making or breaking their marriage comes along in the form of a week long couples retreat style get away. I like how the author showed the build up of gem getting together versus the present day storyline interwoven throughout the book - I've only marked it down to 4 stars as I just didn't like Sarah - at times her resentment came across as being spoiled and I couldn't warm to her. This was the first novel I have read by this author & I'm definitely intrigued to read more. Thanks to Net Galley for the advanced copy

4 Stars!

Hannah Bonam Young can do no wrong and this second chance romance following two high school sweethearts who are trying to rekindle their marriage was such a refreshing romance!

This felt really different to other Romances I've read recently. Their love story felt so comfortable and familiar and more true to life. I loved watching them grow both together and separately as people.

I'm a huge fan of this author and will read whatever she writes! Already looking forward to seeing what she does next.

Hannah has proven she can write a fantastic romance with real life issues.

You can definitely feel the love that Sarah and Caleb share. They’ve been together so long and through so much but Sarah isn’t happy with the roles they play in the relationship so they go on a week long couples wilderness retreat to get back on the same page.

The story was emotional, dealing with grief and finding yourself while being married.
It did take me a little while to fully get into the book because Sarah took a while to understand, Caleb is a sweetheart but apart from that fell kind of flat, this is definitely focused heavily on Sarah, Caleb doesn’t even have a POV.

Out on a Limb was one of my favourite romances books of this year so I was really excited to read a companion novel that tells Sarah and Caleb's story. Out of the Woods follows Sarah and Caleb as they navigate growing up and changing over the course of their long relationship. I really enjoyed reading this perspective of a relationship in a romance book as its not one that is written about much. There is lots of emotion packed into this one and I felt it was done really well. It is a beautifully written book with lovable and relatable characters and an emotional and romantic story.

An absolute fantastic companion novel to "Out on a Limb". A second chance romance without any uneccessary misscomunication, we love to see it! Hannah created such an healthy relationship everyone should use as an example!

I had all the feelings!!! This book really hit home for me and made me deal with some of my own thoughts and feelings. It was so beautifully written - Sarah and Caleb might just be my new fave book couple. I didn’t want the book to end! You can never go wrong with a book by Hannah Bonam-Young

Honestly, such an amazing book I absolutely ADORED these characters. I will most definitely recommend this book to everyone to read as it has so many loved tropes like found family and second chances. I wanted to thank NetGalley for the opportunity to get the eARC copy of this book.

Loved this book and left me wanting more. I truly enjoyed reading this book and I want more more more. I loved the characters and storyline as it continued through the book .

Loved it! Sheds light on how things can get in certain points of marriage and when one feels like they’ve lost themselves. I adored this read and was super grateful to be chosen to read it! 4.5 ⭐ from me! Hannah knows how to write a beautiful book!

Thank you for the opportunity to read this eARC ahead of release.

I’ll start by saying that a lot of people will love this. It’s a very good story with tropes that are popular and well loved - second chance, childhood sweethearts. I will recommend this whole heartedly to friends and other readers because it has so many great ingredients. It just wasn’t the book for me. I struggled with the subject matter of a relationship in crisis and found the main character, Sarah, to be childish and hard to warm to. Personal preference though as I have loved Hannah’s other book, Out on a Limb.

4.5 stars I absolutely loved Out of the Woods! Out on a limb is a firm favourite of mine and Hannah Bonam-Young didn't disappoint with this book either.
I really love Hannah's writing style, her books are so true and realistic.
I really liked Sarah and Caleb from when they were introduced in Out on a limb, so I was so excited to read this book.
Sarah and Caleb have been together a long time and they have a rift between them, they decide to go on a week long couples camping retreat to try to mend the relationship. It was so relatable and true in how you can sometimes be so comfortable in a relationship and not realising someone isn't as happy anymore or not bringing up issues that are bothering you because you don't want to argue.
I loved seeing how Caleb and Sarah first got together and how they were when they were younger and then getting to see through the book in the present, them slowly coming back together and working through the issues.
Sarah has gone through so much in her life, she really is an amazing character and how Hannah wrote her grief was done so beautifully.
Sarah was so relatable in the way she was trying to find her purpose and what she wanted to do in the future and just feeling lost. I think we've all had phases in our life where we don't know what we're doing with our lives and feeling lost. Sarah is also for all us book girlies she loves her books.
I absolutely loved Sarah and Caleb's relationship and they truly are an amazing couple.
I loved getting to see Bo and Win as well, the found family of all these characters is truly what makes the book so good and they are always their for each other.
Thank you to Bedford Square Publishers and Netgalley and Hannah Bonam-Young for the ARC!

4.5 ⭐️

Firstly thank you to @netgalley & @bedfordsq.publishers for the early ARC!!! If you know me then you know Out on a Limb is not only one of my favourite romance books of 2024 but of all time, so you can imagine my reaction when I got approved for this 😭💚

“The comfort of having my family in one place. How glad I am to know and be know by them all. The relief of sensing that it will all be okay. The knowledge that we’ll all be here for one another if it ever isn’t.”

Win, Bo, Sarah & Caleb are my found family. I felt so comforted reading this story and it felt good to be back with my soul characters. I knew this one was going to be good when the authors note had me choking up, one thing about Hannah Bonam- Young she knows how to get you right in the feels.

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

There was so many times throughout this I wanted to jump in the pages and give Sarah a big hug, what she went through with her mother is something no one should ever have to experience. Thank god she had Caleb by her side every step of the way 🫂. I don’t think I’ll ever look at paper airplanes and not think of Sarah and Caleb 🥹

I loved the flashbacks and how we got to see more of Sarah and Caleb in their younger years and of course I loved reading every single interaction they had with Bo & Win!!! This book balances humour, depth (exploring topics of grief) and fun perfectly!

“We’re just getting started.”