Out of the Woods by Hannah Bonam-Young
Published: January 28, 2025 by Dell
Buy this book at: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Kobo
Review:
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.
Rating: 
Review:
My success with books this week is 0 for 3. 3 books started, 3 books abandoned. I am in a slump that I hope doesn’t continue any further. I only made it about a quarter of the way through this one so the review should be short.
What I hoped to get: A cute little romance about a married couple who have lost each other in the years since their marriage and go on a retreat to find that cute, romantic love story again.
What I got: A rich, spoiled girl who regrets her life choices and decides that it is her husband’s fault that she is unhappy. Proceeds to drag him to a marriage retreat so she can further whine about her own choices.
I hated Sarah so much. Initially I had sympathy for her given the tragedy of her mother. But that sympathy disappeared the longer the book went on. She decided to be a stay at home wife and defers all of her decisions to her husband. She wants him to take charge because she didn’t feel worthy of being with him. So she defers to him for 15 years. And then the one time she decided that she didn’t want him to intervene, she blames him for over a decade of her unhappiness. Caleb is wonderful. He loves Sarah so deeply, and loved her mother too. He became part of their family and it was lovely. Hell, even when Sarah is threatening him with divorce he remembers to bring her Kindle on the retreat, with a portable charger AND remembers what she was reading. WTF?! This is the man she is dissatisfied with? Girl, get a therapist or leave that man alone!
Written Among The Stars 
HE can’t be that wonderful if he has no clue she’s been miserable for the last 10 years!
You didn’t say anything about children, so I’ll assume there aren’t any, but they CAN be glue.
Or really show where the fault lines lie.
“They have everything they need but can’t figure out how to be happy.” Sad.
The thing is, it didn’t seem like she was unhappy for 10 years? At least in the part I read before giving up. He tries to help her, she gets mad about it and decides that she’s been unhappy with all her life choices and blames Caleb. But he actively encouraged her to pursue whatever passion moved her..she declined. The author really failed to show me why this was a marriage in trouble versus a grieving woman who needed helped to recover from her loss. I think that’s where my disconnect is. The author didn’t bother to show me why Caleb had a hand in Sarah’s unhappiness. 🤷♀️
It’s all in the execution: ‘He tries to help her’ can be supportive or it could be oppressive and controlling. How many men have ‘tried to help’ their wives lose weight by buying them a gym membership – it’s practically a meme (on what not to do).
Just curious – so much nuance in these things! Humans are complicated, but I’m intrigued by your take.
I read somewhere that no one knows what really goes on in a marriage except the participants, which is a stretch, but there ARE indicators, and enough of them can add up to almost-certainty.
Interesting to consider – we’re celebrating our 50th, and I have no clue where the years have gone.