Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review

Review: This book broke me and put me back together! 

 

“Out of the Woods” follows high school sweethearts Sarah and Caleb Linwood as they join a grueling hiking trip intended to guide couples through rough patches in a desperate attempt to fix their relationship. 

 

I really connected with Sarah in reading from her point-of-view. While I haven’t experienced the death of a parent, I empathized with her grief and found myself relating to her struggles to find herself and determine the legacy she wants to leave behind. Rather than let life pass her by, she actively takes steps to know herself fully and I was moved by her journey of self-discovery. 

 

Having been introduced to Sarah and Caleb in “Out on a Limb,” I enjoyed getting to know more about their beautiful, messy, complicated love story. Some chapters alternate between the past and the present, so in addition to seeing how the loss of Sarah’s mother shaped her, we see how Sarah and Caleb’s relationship came to be and why it was really important for them to reconnect seventeen years later. The flashbacks left me feeling deeply emotional and raw upon seeing their young love and the way they navigated tough moments together. 

 

Watching Sarah and Caleb grow together as individuals and as a couple across the span of the week they spent in the wilderness warmed my heart. Knowing that they love each other so deeply, even when they are at their lowest, left me feeling a sense of hope as they worked through decades of grievances between them, found new ways to communicate with each other, learned to be more present, and reignited their love. I truly experienced a whole spectrum of emotions—their banter left me in stitches, their internal struggles made me sob, and the way they found their way back to each other made me swoon. Their relationship isn’t perfect and that’s what I love so much about this book, because no relationship ever is. You need to overcome the imperfections and inevitable hardships—deal with the differences, compromise, give something up, be willing to work at it—in order to have something great.