BOOK REVIEW⎜A Little Too Late by Staci Hart

So this is the part where I confess having a slight obsession with the romance single dad’s trope.
And this is the moment where I realize my addiction got the best of me.

I was so excited about this book when the author started sharing teasers and snippets about it, I was convinced it would put put me in bookish book heaven.

I mean, Single dad falling for the nanny, two adorable kids… I kind of expected a sweet romance here.

If you’re going into this wishing for a hot dad falling for the sweet nanny, need your angst levels revved up and a quick read, this book is for you.

One one hand, A Little Too Late delivered exactly what it promised on paper, an attractive dad falling for the au pair nanny.

What I didn’t expect on the other hand was the lack of build between the main characters for me to even get a chance to connect with any of them and the amount of drama infused in a story that I hoped was a sweet little ride through romancelandia.

Lord the drama.
But let’s keep the drama for a little… later.

I’m going to address what failed to make me connect with either main characters in this book. If you’re not into reading anything negative about books. The short version is : This book wasn’t for me.

If you want to know what buggered me, here you go :

Honestly I started A Little Too Late feeling… giddy with excitement! Seriously excited over it.

It didn’t last long though, after reading what  had lead Hannah—our twenty-two years old au pair—leaving her previous lace of employment, I’m going to be honest here. I judged. Hard.

I judged her for choosing to flee and keep her incident silent. (spoiler: <The dad of the family she au-paired for sexually harassed and assaulted her. She just decided to leave the morning after. He didn’t rape her but STILL.) I know many victims do  so. It’s not a choice really, but a real psychological defense issue, I get it. But here and then, I judged my fictional character hard and thought it didn’t mean any sense to just try to keep the incident quiet>. Anyway, moving on.

She luckily finds another job a few days later, and meets Charlie’s family. He’s a single dad, two kids, the mom left them for various reasons—which I felt were very much contrived and oh so possibly cliché— a little less than a year ago.

Hannah’s characterization was… flawless. Really. Staci Hart did a brilliant job at portraying a quintessential young angel. As a romance reader, I felt envious of Hannah. As a woman, I felt downright jealous.  And as a mom I felt like a total failure. As a whole, I felt extremely begrudging of every quality she had. And she had them all. It’s simple really, in a dictionary, look up for the word perfect, you’ll see a picture of Hannah the nanny next to the definition.

So there is that. I felt threatened as a woman by a fictional character. Instead of looking up to her as a woman, Hannah perfectness made me feel insecure. How is that for not connecting with a main character?

From afar, Charlie, our older (not sure how much older than Hannah he was, she was twenty two) hero and single dad of two cute kids had everything to make me melt. But somehow… The more I learned about the guy, the more I felt some kind of unease. He was… a complete contradiction.

We learn early in the book why his wife left him to care for their two young kids (one is five-years old, the other two-years old maybe?) and as she is pointed at for being the only one at fault, we’re left with no choice but to side up with Charlie. Let’s comfort the hot single dad.

Except… A few things didn’t add up for me. During almost a whole year left with both his kids we’re told he still doesn’t know about something as simple as… their nightly routine. He’s portrayed as a caring and loving dad but can’t make time to give ONE single bath in a year of time. I mean really? Yes, he works A LOT. But in a year of time surely you had a few days with your children? What about the years prior their mom left them? Where was Charlie then? As a reader, a woman and a mom, I felt… dumbfounded. But again, moving on.

Hannah is there now and Charlie feels inspired by her to be a better dad. Yes you heard me, basically he was an absent dad because his wife didn’t inspire him to be a better one. That’s just how I read what I was presented with and for me Charlie was maybe just a little… too late realizing he had children to take care of. But here comes waltzing this modern dutch Mary Poppins baking pastries and singing tunes and Charlie finally open his eyes.

Welcome to my jaded and cynical mind.

So about the drama… 

Then there was the issue of the many—too many—strained and forced dramatic situations.
The ex employer turned stalker.
The ex evil wife comes back with a vengeance.
The total lack of communication between both MCs.
The mistrust between the MCs.
The fighting in front of the kids.
The recurring fleeing pattern Hannah seemed to be fond about. (But she’s young so it may excuse her immature reaction, not so perfect after all!)
The constant and only excuse about working too much whenever Charlie wouldn’t fill his fatherly obligations. (But he could get off work early for a quickie :/ Men! )

The whole plot was very simplistic but soaking into so much unnecessary angst and drama… It ruined the book for me I’m afraid. We’re far from the sweet and romantic read I had in mind. But I know what we say about expectations. Always lower them. Damn.

A word about the author’s writing, throughout all my struggles to get into this story, I really enjoyed the flowing writing and beautiful words Staci Hart infused into A Little Too Late. I do enjoy her prose and I did in previous books so I’m bummed about my complete lack of attention for this one. 

I’m going to end this review—which I guess reads very much like a rant at this point— by saying that I truly enjoyed a couple of Staci Hart’s books in the past. Really loved them even. So while I can’t heartily recommend this “single dad falls for the nanny” story, what about a best friends to lovers trope? Nerds and Geeks? Wasted Words and Chaser were both 5 stars for me and I heard great things about A Thousand Letters which is on my TBR pile already.