🌲Out of the Woods ARC Review🌲

“It doesn’t feel like I’m healing... I kind of feel like I’m  b r e a k i n g   o p e n  more than ever.”

“Often, we can find ourselves playing what-if instead of recognizing what we can do now to build the life we want. The truth is the past is one of the only things as stubborn as us humans.”

I screamed when @netgalley @randomhouse and @dellromance approved me for the Out of the Woods ARC a few months ahead of its release, and I devoured it immediately. I became an instant @authorhannahby stan the minute I finished Out on a Limb, the preceding novel, to Out Of the Woods. I loved getting the opportunity to learn more about the seemingly stable, happy couple, Sarah and Caleb, and their relationship beyond the small glimpses we see in OOAL. I appreciated how Bonam-Young poignantly wrote about the challenges of young love and the growing pains of a relationship. This book hit incredibly close to home as I met my husband at 19 years old, and we have also had our share of obstacles and need for couples therapy to buoy our relationship when life seemed destined to rip us apart due to unforeseen circumstances. For Sarah and Caleb, it’s grief, the untimely loss of Sarah’s mother due to ALS, and the need to forge their own identities outside of each other. What struck me the most about this book was how astutely Bonam-Young captured the experience of how love is constantly evolving and that sometimes we need just a little help to see our partners clearly again. Caleb and Sarah unpack their grievances and try to find their way back to each other at a nature retreat that helps couples rekindle their relationship, all while not being the outdoorsy type of people, making it even more entertaining and beautiful as they put themselves outside their comfort zones in more ways than one. I cried a lot reading this book — primarily because of how tender and affirming it was — and I was filled with joy getting to see Bo, Win, and Gus again. 

Highlights:

🌲Found family 

🏕️High school sweethearts 

🌲Marriage in crisis

🏕️ Grief and healing

🌲 Personal growth 

CW: death of a parent, grief, terminal illness, medical trauma, head injury