A review by gillyreads
Out of the Woods by Hannah Bonam-Young

emotional hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
 When done well, I think ‘how do we fix our marriage’ books are one of my favourite kinds of romances and I have mostly liked Hannah Bonam-Young’s previous books so I was hopeful that I’d enjoy this. It did take me a bit to get into, I had to push myself a bit to get through the first few chapters and would say I probably didn’t start really enjoying it until about halfway through. I found Sarah to be a frustrating character to relate to initially, and I was concerned this was going to be one of those books where you’re just yelling at them to just have a conversation the whole time. However,  I think that the author actually did a really good job of exploring the communication issues, and once the book got started it was obviously something she really thought through rather than a plot device. She did a great job navigating the more complex, trauma-related aspects of it, and also working through what it means to grow into adults together when your relationship dynamic was set up as teenagers.  I loved that they were both committed to working things out from the beginning, but were unsure of what exactly they were going to be able to do. 

The thing I found almost unbearable was how much money they had. I don’t think this was thought through in an interesting or compelling way. It was sort of acknowledged but I think a lot could have been done with the dynamic that just wasn’t. She kind of tacked on the end that they could downsize and try and run a more ethical business.

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