This was a delightful listen. Jenny Holiday wrote a wonderful romance, and Kit Swann and Teddy Hamilton did a great job of bringing it to life.
We met Gretchen as Rory’s boss and best friend in Canadian Boyfriend, but Into the Woods works perfectly well as a standalone. Gretchen and Teddy each end up in the woods, literally and figuratively, while putting a pause on their respective lives. Gretchen wants to avoid a midlife crisis, so she’s bought a building and plans to expand her dance studio. She’s also decided to give up on dating and enter her crone era (after a bad date with someone we hear more about later). She sees a month in the woods as a dance mentor at an arts camp is an excellent opportunity to detox from the men on the dating apps.
Teddy’s band has just broken up, and he responded with an act of hotel room destruction. Teddy needs time and space to recover and write a revenge album, but he hasn’t paid attention to the details and thinks it’s a band camp for adults, not an art camp for teenagers. Teddy and Gretchen’s meet not-cute happens off page. We hear about it as Teddy reflects that he was an ass because he thought Gretchen was a super fan of his now deceased band.
Gretchen and Teddy are where they are to deal with their mess. The joy is watching them work out that they can make room for each other, mess and all. Tbh, romance main characters are messy and that’s why I love them. Insert gif of Marie Kondo saying, “I love mess.”
Teddy is clearly a mess. He’s angry and without direction. His ex-girlfriend is still living in his apartment. He has a lot of unresolved issues from his childhood, which get a lot of airtime in the book.
I saw a review that stated Gretchen didn’t deserve Teddy, and after considering throwing my tablet across the room, I thought about how someone would come to that wrong conclusion. I think the short answer is internalized misogyny. But the longer answer is the different journeys Gretchen and Teddy are on. They start in very different places and Gretchen’s growth is more subtle. Because Gretchen is already a competent adult. Teddy is also a competent person, but he has much more emotional intelligence to gain.
Gretchen’s mid life crisis and cronification goals are based on avoidance. She has her life together in enviable ways. She’s made thoughtful choices about what she is going to prioritize in her life, she’s running a business that’s doing well enough to support her expansion plans, and she has a well developed sense of empathy and good boundaries. She does not need to be rescued in tangible ways (except for that one time she and Teddy got lost in the woods), not by Teddy and not by anyone. Gretchen is open to a fling, but doesn’t see how a rockstar would improve her life. She would be fine as a single person with friends and a satisfying life as an entrepreneur. To me the question was not whether Gretchen deserves Teddy, but whether Teddy would make her life better.
Teddy does not have his life together. He starts angry and feeling betrayed. But, early on, he accepts the advice of the women around him and lets go of the revenge album. He reluctantly starts to plug into the world around him. He starts a mile behind Gretchen, so his emotional growth is more obvious and easier to measure. Gretchen’s drunken rant about men on Tinder, and mentoring Anna, a teen prodigy opens Teddy’s eyes to the world experienced by girls and women. Teddy believes them. He accepts the lived experiences of women. He recognizes his mistakes (mostly) and corrects them.
Teddy’s growth is about doing for others, considering the impact of the world on other people. Gretchen’s growth is about letting herself grow artistically and taking emotional risks.
In the midst of the emotional growth, Teddy and Gretchen connect over long conversations, horizontal hugs, and art. Because they are in a place outside their regular lives, they open themselves up to care and tenderness. I loved their relationship and the changes they make to their lives at the end of the book. This is out January 7, so you won’t have long to wait.
I received this as an advance listener copy from Hachette Audio and NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.