Out of the Woods by Hannah Bonam-Young

RomanceContemporary

Mar 11

Written By taylor shepeard

Title: Out of the Woods

Author: Hannah Bonam-Young

Publication Date: January 28, 2025

Audience: Adult

Genre: Romance

Sub-Genre: Contemporary

POV: Single

Series: Standalone | Same Universe

Format: Audiobook

—Narrator(s): Victoria Connolly

3.75 ⭐ | 3🌶️

Pros:
✨Cinnamon Roll MMC
✨Portrayal of Identity Struggle
✨Audiobook Narration
✨Flashback Chapters had Plot Progression

Cons:
✨Connection to / Interest in FMC
✨Slow Pacing
✨Too Long
✨Flat Secondary Characters

Synopsis

High school sweethearts Sarah and Caleb Linwood have always been a sure thing. For the past seventeen years, they have had each other’s backs through all of life’s ups and downs, achievements, losses, stages, and phases.

But Sarah has begun to wonder... Who is she without her other half?
When she decides to take on a project of her own, a fundraising gala in memoriam of her late mother, Sarah wants nothing more than to prove to herself—and to everyone else—that she doesn’t need Caleb’s help to succeed. She’s still her mother’s daughter, after all. Independent and capable.
That is until the event fails and Caleb uninvitedly steps in to save the day.
The rift that follows unearths a decade of grievances between them and doubts begin to grow. Are they truly the same people they were when they got married at nineteen? Are they supposed to be?
In a desperate attempt to fix what they fear is near breaking, Sarah and Caleb make the spontaneous decision to join a grueling hiking trip intended to guide couples through rough patches.
What follows is a life-affirming comedy of errors as two nature-averse people fight their way out of the woods in order to find their way back to their roots.

*Blurb taken from The StoryGraph

Review

This review may contain spoilers.

High-school sweethearts Sarah and Caleb have been through heartbreak and joy during the many years of their relationship, but being together for so long has begun to shave away their individual desires and leave them too co-dependent. In order to heal the fissures in their marriage, they set out into the woods for a couples therapy retreat.

While I did enjoy this, there were some pivotal moments that stunted the pacing and character development. The main thing is that I never truly believed their marriage was in danger of facing divorce. These two characters clearly loved one another, felt a deep connection physically and emotionally, and had complimentary morals. The actual problem was that Sarah had begun to lose her independence in their union and needed the time to figure out what aspirations she wanted to pursue beyond her husband. (A valid, absolutely crucial concern that I’m happy she noticed and vocalized. Caleb would have 100% cheered her on as she worked to achieve these new aspirations. He was an adorable little cinnamon roll of an MMC!)

However, the conflict felt skewed because the blurb pointed toward a fractured marriage, and this consistently felt more like an individual journey for Sarah. The “counseling” experienced during the retreat delved the teensiest bit below surface-level, and no further. It didn’t feel like we had a true healing journey. There was character growth and development for sure, but it all felt a little ... convenient? Like, the wrinkles got smoothed out with the swipe of a hand, rather than the heat of an iron.

Sarah herself also wasn’t a wholly likeable character. She acted much younger than her age—more like a teen who expected to get her way via pouting and whining. I could have explained this away due to the loss of some of her teen years as she took care of her ill mother—it’s not too far-fetched to imagine her maturity reverted due to that loss and the grief that followed. But it didn’t feel like that? I think it was just Sarah’s personality. She grew on me eventually, but even then I cringed at some of her antics.

I can’t pinpoint why, but the sex scenes were a letdown. I only half paid attention to them. This was also way longer than it needed to be. After Sarah and Caleb resolved their issues, I checked my audio timing and there were three hours left to go. At this point, a completely different conflict came out of nowhere, and I just wanted the novel to be done. Did we need Caleb to have a hero moment which put him in the hospital and created a mini family melodrama? No. We did not.

There were far too many moving parts in this that made it feel disjointed.

I enjoyed the secondary cast from the retreat, though none of them were fleshed out. I also liked this concept of camp counseling in an environment entirely outside of Sarah and Caleb’s comfort zone, but with people who still wanted them comfortable and happy.

I don’t know. I liked it, but I also didn’t? I’m glad I read it, and I also could have done without it? I think there’s an audience for this because it is so light-hearted with low stakes due to the marriage not necessarily being in crisis. (Though Caleb does end up in an induced coma in the hospital, which honestly felt like we’d slipped directly into a scene off Days of Our Lives.) But I wanted more. This never went deep enough for me.

I listened to the audio narration by Victoria Connolly, who did a fabulous job with a fairly large cast. If you get the chance to listen to the audio, I recommend it!