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A review by torilovesheas
A Little Too Late by Sarina Bowen
2.0
The premise of this book had me hype to read it. Second chance, college sweethearts, a mountain ski resort, a prodigal son returning home after years away. All right up my alley.
Unfortunately, this ended up being a frustrating mess that badly needed more editing. This is probably going to be long and may lean towards rant-y but I’m going to try and be cohesive.
Before I even talk about the characters, I HAVE to mention the bizarre choice to write present day chapters in 1st person POV and college flashback chapters in this strange, outline of a paper-esque 3rd person POV.
For example: “Reed is in the library. He’s supposed to be writing a paper for this year’s J-term class—a retrospective on food and culture.”
It reads like a plot outline. Or stage directions for a play? It’s so jarring on audio to switch to this writing style. Thankfully, those chapters are short because it’s a whole bunch of telling me things and not showing me anything (which happens the whole book, but is really highlighted here.)
The characters are so frustrating. Every single one.
Let me just….explain by character cause I don’t even know how to untangle the mess.
Ava: For someone that has spent a decade as the assistant manager of the ski resort and repeatedly tells us how much she loves it, she’s pretty gung ho to not question these new buyers on their glaringly obvious shadiness. When Reed, an actual businessman with an MBA comes in and starts asking big, important questions, she’s mad. Ma’am. These are questions you and Reed’s father should have been asking. Second of all, she’s hated Reed for a decade because he broke up with her after (SPOILER ALERT) she had a miscarriage in college. Alright. That’s fine. You’re allowed to be mad. Ya know what we don’t see? The breakup. Was he a jerk? Did he cuss you out? Did he do it a week after? A month? The day of? No one knows because it’s vaguely mentioned and never talked about. It’s built up to be this SUPER traumatic thing he did to her and it’s not elaborated as to why. Is it because she didn’t handle the miscarriage well? Didn’t know how to cope? Asked him to stay and he refused? We’ll never know because Sarina Bowen just….left it out and expected us to fill in the blanks. I’m going to ignore the fact that moving to his home and family ski resort was a weird choice. But it was weird. It’s drilled into our heads 90 times that she’s super smart, but where did I see that at? She just goes along with the terrible potential buyers and doesn’t ask questions until Reed shows up and goes “this is fishy”. Alright. Also, I know not one thing about her. She loves to ski and loves Reed. That’s….all I know.
Reed: actually the least frustrating of the characters. My dude needs therapy, but I actually liked him. Run of the mill, emotionally stunted MMC, but he was fine, I guess. Not my favorite MMC ever, but he was the character I least wanted to kick in the shin. Maybe don’t break up with your girlfriend after a miscarriage but ya know. He could have groveled more, but what is he groveling for exactly? We’re never told. Again, a character that needed a quality therapist. Lots of yelling in the last half in all caps when he didn’t exactly fight very hard to stop his dad from selling the resort.
Mark, Reed’s father and owner of the ski resort: I think I was supposed to feel bad for him? But I just wanted to kick him. This man lost his shit after his wife died and became a “mean drunk” and……is mad that his sons want nothing to do with him or the resort? Sir. Your children are traumatized and are allowed to feel that way. A newly happy marriage and ten years of sobriety doesn’t erase the fact that you neglected them and emotionally traumatized your sons. His whole reason for selling the ski resort is so he can retire and take Melody, his new wife, traveling. Can we….apologize to your traumatized children first? My guy didn’t care that his whole plan to sell was going to shaft everybody as long as he got his money and got to ride off into the sunset with Melody (who I actually liked so no hate to her). His small act of redemption in the last 10% wasn’t satisfactory and again: You traumatized your kids!!!!!!!!! I also don’t know what purpose him breaking 10 years (!!!!! Good for him) of sobriety served other than to make the bad guys look *extra* bad. But it was extremely contrived for angst sake and contributed nothing to the plot other than a vague “yeah he called his sponsor” moment. Which good on him for calling his sponsor. I’m all for redemption ARCs because addicts deserve happiness to, but this man wasn’t redeemed. Holding out hope for the next two books.
Ava’s friend Halley: my GOD. She acted like a high schooler with her petty attitude towards Reed. Just sell the man a damn drink, girl. I get riding for your besties. But they’re in their 30’s. Come on now.
There were so many plot lines going on ALL OVER the place and it was way too much for a 300 page book. Childhood trauma, miscarriage, selling of the resort, the underhanded businessman, the other brothers, Reed’s moms pottery (?), Mark’s addiction, Reed being a previous star level athlete. I needed a nap afterward.
This had a terrible habit of telling and not showing. Why did Reed and Ava love each other so passionately back in college? Don’t ask me. I know they boned a whole lot and ate pizza. That is it. That’s all we get.
This is only the second Sarina Bowen book I’ve read, so I’m going to chalk this one up to a fluke? I always hear good things about her books and I’m willing to try another one, but I did not like this book. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I hated it cause I’ve definitely read worse. However, I was so frustrated listening to it that I couldn’t enjoy it at all. I am still mad about those bizarrely written flashback scenes though.
This just…needed better editing. Or a more cohesive plot. Or better characterization for our main characters. Or…something. I don’t even know.
Audio narration was great! Andi Arndt and Sebastian York did a great job with….whatever this was supposed to be.
CW: miscarriage (historical), childhood neglect/emotional abuse (historical),
Unfortunately, this ended up being a frustrating mess that badly needed more editing. This is probably going to be long and may lean towards rant-y but I’m going to try and be cohesive.
Before I even talk about the characters, I HAVE to mention the bizarre choice to write present day chapters in 1st person POV and college flashback chapters in this strange, outline of a paper-esque 3rd person POV.
For example: “Reed is in the library. He’s supposed to be writing a paper for this year’s J-term class—a retrospective on food and culture.”
It reads like a plot outline. Or stage directions for a play? It’s so jarring on audio to switch to this writing style. Thankfully, those chapters are short because it’s a whole bunch of telling me things and not showing me anything (which happens the whole book, but is really highlighted here.)
The characters are so frustrating. Every single one.
Let me just….explain by character cause I don’t even know how to untangle the mess.
Ava: For someone that has spent a decade as the assistant manager of the ski resort and repeatedly tells us how much she loves it, she’s pretty gung ho to not question these new buyers on their glaringly obvious shadiness. When Reed, an actual businessman with an MBA comes in and starts asking big, important questions, she’s mad. Ma’am. These are questions you and Reed’s father should have been asking. Second of all, she’s hated Reed for a decade because he broke up with her after (SPOILER ALERT) she had a miscarriage in college. Alright. That’s fine. You’re allowed to be mad. Ya know what we don’t see? The breakup. Was he a jerk? Did he cuss you out? Did he do it a week after? A month? The day of? No one knows because it’s vaguely mentioned and never talked about. It’s built up to be this SUPER traumatic thing he did to her and it’s not elaborated as to why. Is it because she didn’t handle the miscarriage well? Didn’t know how to cope? Asked him to stay and he refused? We’ll never know because Sarina Bowen just….left it out and expected us to fill in the blanks. I’m going to ignore the fact that moving to his home and family ski resort was a weird choice. But it was weird. It’s drilled into our heads 90 times that she’s super smart, but where did I see that at? She just goes along with the terrible potential buyers and doesn’t ask questions until Reed shows up and goes “this is fishy”. Alright. Also, I know not one thing about her. She loves to ski and loves Reed. That’s….all I know.
Reed: actually the least frustrating of the characters. My dude needs therapy, but I actually liked him. Run of the mill, emotionally stunted MMC, but he was fine, I guess. Not my favorite MMC ever, but he was the character I least wanted to kick in the shin. Maybe don’t break up with your girlfriend after a miscarriage but ya know. He could have groveled more, but what is he groveling for exactly? We’re never told. Again, a character that needed a quality therapist. Lots of yelling in the last half in all caps when he didn’t exactly fight very hard to stop his dad from selling the resort.
Mark, Reed’s father and owner of the ski resort: I think I was supposed to feel bad for him? But I just wanted to kick him. This man lost his shit after his wife died and became a “mean drunk” and……is mad that his sons want nothing to do with him or the resort? Sir. Your children are traumatized and are allowed to feel that way. A newly happy marriage and ten years of sobriety doesn’t erase the fact that you neglected them and emotionally traumatized your sons. His whole reason for selling the ski resort is so he can retire and take Melody, his new wife, traveling. Can we….apologize to your traumatized children first? My guy didn’t care that his whole plan to sell was going to shaft everybody as long as he got his money and got to ride off into the sunset with Melody (who I actually liked so no hate to her). His small act of redemption in the last 10% wasn’t satisfactory and again: You traumatized your kids!!!!!!!!! I also don’t know what purpose him breaking 10 years (!!!!! Good for him) of sobriety served other than to make the bad guys look *extra* bad. But it was extremely contrived for angst sake and contributed nothing to the plot other than a vague “yeah he called his sponsor” moment. Which good on him for calling his sponsor. I’m all for redemption ARCs because addicts deserve happiness to, but this man wasn’t redeemed. Holding out hope for the next two books.
Ava’s friend Halley: my GOD. She acted like a high schooler with her petty attitude towards Reed. Just sell the man a damn drink, girl. I get riding for your besties. But they’re in their 30’s. Come on now.
There were so many plot lines going on ALL OVER the place and it was way too much for a 300 page book. Childhood trauma, miscarriage, selling of the resort, the underhanded businessman, the other brothers, Reed’s moms pottery (?), Mark’s addiction, Reed being a previous star level athlete. I needed a nap afterward.
This had a terrible habit of telling and not showing. Why did Reed and Ava love each other so passionately back in college? Don’t ask me. I know they boned a whole lot and ate pizza. That is it. That’s all we get.
This is only the second Sarina Bowen book I’ve read, so I’m going to chalk this one up to a fluke? I always hear good things about her books and I’m willing to try another one, but I did not like this book. I wouldn’t go so far as to say I hated it cause I’ve definitely read worse. However, I was so frustrated listening to it that I couldn’t enjoy it at all. I am still mad about those bizarrely written flashback scenes though.
This just…needed better editing. Or a more cohesive plot. Or better characterization for our main characters. Or…something. I don’t even know.
Audio narration was great! Andi Arndt and Sebastian York did a great job with….whatever this was supposed to be.
CW: miscarriage (historical), childhood neglect/emotional abuse (historical),