4 Stars!

Yay!!  Colleen Hoover has written a free novel on Wattpad and it is a wonderful gift.   Too Late is a much darker, more serious, and heavier book than what Collen normally writes, but nonetheless, her writing remains superb.  She never fails to enrapture me with her words and draw me into her stories. Too Late is no exception.

This is a crime romance novel revolving around Sloan, Asa, and Carter.  Sloan has found herself mixed up with Asa, a big time drug dealer for the college campus.  Asa is crazy and possessive of Sloan. He loves her in his own dysfunctional and delusional way. Sloan stays with Asa for her brother and through time, she has trapped herself in his world. A couple years later…in comes Carter.  Carter is an undercover cop trying to uncover the drug ring developing on campus.  As Carter gets involved, he can’t help but fall in love with Sloan.  But falling in love is dangerous for both of them. Will their love overcome the obstacles or bring them down? Can they both come out of this unscathed?

This story deals with the crazy and dangerous world of drugs.  It touches on some heavy themes such as violence, drug abuse, and sexual abuse. It isn’t extremely detailed but I certainly got a glimpse of the world Sloan and Asa live in and it’s a world that is scary, disgusting, and sad all at the same time. The story is told in 3 POVs.  Being able to be in all of their heads was a treat!  It balanced the story and gave me a good understanding of everyone and everything happening.

Asa…what a psycho! I read somewhere that many readers felt sorry for Asa, but I didn’t quite have that reaction. I thought he was certifiably CRAZY!! He is a drug dealer and user who abuses Sloan and the people around him. While his childhood is tragic and I understand how he came to be the way he is, he is a sick man who deserved what he got.  He is a product of his environment and it saddens me because that’s real life.  People like Asa turn to violence, drugs, and crime because it’s all they know.  Unfortunately, I can’t find it in my heart to excuse his behavior or forgive him in anyway.

Next, there is Sloan.  What can I say about her…I have ambivalent feelings toward Sloan. I didn’t not like her, I just didn’t love her. My problem is that I like the main female character to be strong, maybe it’s the girl power in me.  Unfortunately, I don’t think Sloan is strong. I actually find her character weak. She’s a good person, has a good heart, and I think her intentions are good, but she fails on many levels for me.  Carter tells her she is one of the strongest people he knows.  I don’t feel that way. Sloan knew Asa was a drug dealer and chose to be with him so he would support her little brother. She basically uses Asa for money.  I partly get it, but I’m not sure that is courage; to me, that’s the easy way out.  I think courage would be standing strong and refusing to use drug money to fund her brother’s care. Courage would be working long hours and multiple jobs, to make an honest living to support herself and her brother.  She says she’s not okay with drug dealing, but she’s okay with using drug money  to care for her brother…yeah I just don’t know about that.  I think anyone one of us could turn to crime for the things we want, but many of us don’t. I also find it extremely incredible that Sloan never figured out that Asa lied about funding her brother’s care.  I’m the caretaker in my family and trust me there are always issues with funding and paperwork always goes wrong.  It’s frequent meetings and telephone calls to fix the issues. So, the fact that Sloan never tried to meet the social worker or did multiple phone calls with different people to figure out the issue is baffling. Sloan says she’s smart, but I’m not seeing how.

Last, there is Carter/Luke. He is the ultimate good guy who wears his heart on his sleeve. He’s sweet and I just loved him!  However, he seriously was the worst undercover cop I have ever read. He was so bad, I started laughing a little.  He ruined the case and I hope he takes Sloan’s advice to change careers as a Spanish teacher.  With that being said, he was my favorite character. The little things he did made me swoon and I could see why Sloan was so smitten with him. For me, he is the selling point for this novel.

Overall, I enjoyed Too Late very much.  Colleen Hoover’s writing remains impeccable. I enjoyed taking this crazy ride with all the characters.  I appreciate that Colleen put this on Wattpad for us all to enjoy. If you are a Colleen Hoover fan and you don’t mind a little heaviness in your story, then read this story! And it’s free on Wattpad, Yay!! Happy reading =)