Hannah bonam-young – Romance Reviewed

Out of the Woods is out now! Thank you Dell Romance for the ARC.

This was a gorgeously written, tender, soft hug of a book.

We met Sarah and Caleb in Out On A Limb, where they appeared to be a perfect happy couple. They were childhood sweethearts who got married as teens, and now in her 30s, Sarah is questioning her life and whether she has anything to show for herself outside of being Caleb’s wife and has grown to resent her situation. Her best friend recommends a marriage retreat in the form of a hiking expedition with a group of strangers, and Sarah is just desperate enough to take her up on it.

Sarah is a great character, it’s a single POV from her so we get to learn all about her and what shaped her into the person she is today. She’s a bit lost and adrift, not sure what she wants from life but she knows she can’t stay stagnant where she is.

It’s technically a “marriage in crisis” story but that’s really only from Sarah. Caleb, sweet Caleb, loves his life and his wife and will do anything to keep her even if it means a week long hiking trip with strangers. I just really, really, loved him and his big heart.

I really enjoyed their journey and all the quirky characters they were on the trip with. I also especially loved that this couple was childfree by choice, which was reaffirmed multiple times throughout the book. Their HEA looked different than we normally see in romance and I LOVED it.

Since this is really one woman’s journey to self acceptance, I think this was women’s fiction rather than romance, but nonetheless I swooned, I cried, I laughed.

What an excellent book!

Books like this are why I’m scared to DNF! At first I wasn’t feeling the humor in the book and wanted to give up but then somehow it turned into a moving, tender, gorgeous romance and I’m so glad I didn’t quit.

It’s an accidental pregnancy story between two virtual strangers who hook up at a halloween party, only to discover they’re pregnant a couple months later. They move in together (just as friends of course) so he can support her during her pregnancy and they can get to know each other better since they will be forced to interact for at least the next eighteen years.

As this is a single POV, this is mostly Win’s story. She’s been burned before so has trouble letting Bo in and sets boundaries left and right so she won’t be hurt again. She finally finds the love and acceptance she desires in Beau, and the way the two love each other is just beautiful. Also, her lifelong friendship with her bestie was a delight to read about.

The disability rep (she has an underdeveloped hand, he is an amputee and uses a prosthetic) is outstanding. It’s an own-voices story and you can really tell how personal this is for the author and it was pretty eye opening to me about things I had never considered.

It wasn’t a 100% perfect read for me but I’m not going to nitpick because overall though those things didn’t matter to me by the end. The love story was so dreamy and tender and was a great read I’ll be thinking about for a long time.