Reviews with content warning for Grief - Too late

I thought this book was okay, 3/5⭐️.
I understand why it was written the way it was through use of Hoover’s explanation at the beginning. But just because I understand why it was written that way doesn’t mean I enjoyed it being written that way. It all became really weirdly disjointed when we edged into the latter half of the book.
For me personally I didn’t really enjoy the ‘prologue’ and I could have done without it entirely. I understand that to some it may serve a purpose, describing Asa’s and Sloan’s relationship from his psychotic POV, and seeing how different scenes can be through his eyes compared to hers. But personally I feel as though Hoover achieved the display of Asa’s insane thought processes enough throughout the rest of the book, making the prologue a bit redundant and in fact just really grim to read. Like why did the sexual assault scenes need to go into such detail, as though we were reading a smut book. Like no, I don’t wanna read a smut scene about this guy.
I enjoyed the premise of the book, the plot was something new from Hoover, and it was really interesting to be inside the mind of someone continuously experiencing emotional, domestic, physical and sexual abuse, how trapped they feel due to their circumstances and how frightened they are. Though I have definitely read other books in the past which describe this state of being in a much more harrowing way, getting across the mindset of the victim in a much more heart hitting way.
I quite liked the romance between Luke/Carter and Sloan and they had a lot of really cute moments together. It was great to read a romance story with this obstacle of another person being in play - that being Asa. Although at times I felt that perhaps the ‘love’ between them was a bit too one dimensional if that makes sense? Perhaps I believe that the love was formed too fast and I needed it to be built on more.
That being said this book felt longer than necessary (?make it make sense?) and after chapter 45 and the epilogue I kind of lost interest. I think it could have been wrapped up/edited down better, but again I understand why it wasn’t.
Satisfactory ending? Eventually, yes, but why was the kid named Dalton and not Carter?!

Content Warnings

aledslvr's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Okay so this is probably one of my favourite colleen hoover books and it is definitely underrated, i would 100% recommend this (with informed tw's). This is a dark romance and i believe colleen hoover did an amazing job at writing this. She captured the struggles of being in a toxic/dangerous relationship so well and it honestly made me worried. As someone who has experienced similar emotions to sloane, this book hit differently and i felt scared and sad her her characters. There was a lot of shocking moments in this book which i hate because they happened but love for the shock factor. I knew this was a good book from the moment i started feeling sorry for the antagonist of the book (asa). I have to applaud coho for this one, i really do, it does not get the hype it deserves. I do have a few negatives. firstly, i believe the book was too long. the prologues and the epilogues to the epilogues i just found extremely unnecessary and although i understand their importance to the story, i believe it couldve been done better. and this negative is the only reason i will not reread this book. it felt like a chore when i got to the end. the second and last thing i did not like was the slang used. I am british so ofc american slang is not gonna be the norm for me. i understand that as the book is set in america, this way of talking is generic, however my issue is some of it felt a little too forced as it occurred very often.

Content Warnings

travelthrupages's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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