Ah! This book had me giggling and kicking my feet the whole time!

We meet Opal who lives her life by the seat of her pants and makes decisions without thinking of their consequences. She wins the lottery and makes the impulsive decision to buy a flower farm to live out her dream of painting shoes. Only one problem: the farm has an owner. Pepper’s grandmother has owned the Thistle and Bloom flower shop her entire life, and is struggling to make ends meet when her grandmother unexpectedly passes away and leaves the mess of finances to Pepper. When Opal blows into Pepper’s life, the two are about as different as they come. Opal is determined to prove that she doesn’t always make a mess of things and Pepper is determined to keep her only home she’s ever known.

The autism representation. The bi representation. The small business representation. Toxic relationships. Learning how to navigate emotions with strangers. This book had so many different aspects that all made me smile.
Sunshine-y Opal was so relatable as someone who has felt off in adulthood, but never knew why.

This book is also 4.5 stars, but NetGalley doesn't allow for half stars.

I love Mazey and this book was no different!

Late Bloomer was just the book I was looking for. Opal and Pepper are perfect for each other and them maintaining a lower farm together is such a cute idea!

[arc review]
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.
Late Bloomer releases April 16, 2024

<i>“And that’s my problem. I’m so hungry to connect with someone—anyone—I settle for crumbs and pretend like they’re a full meal.”</I>

Opal has just won the lottery from a scratch-off ticket, and promptly spends $310K of her $500K winnings on a five-acre farm in Asheville, <I>“for the vibes.”</I>

Thanks to her Facebook Marketplace find, she now has the perfect place to live out her dreams and put her fine art degree to good use, all while escaping the influx of people she seemingly can’t say no to.
Only, when she arrives at the farm, she’s greeted by Pepper, a woman who still lives and works on the grounds of her late grandmother’s farm with no knowledge that it was sold.

Most of my time spent reading this consisted of me yelling at Opal to grow a fucking backbone.

On <u>day one</u>, Opal is extremely lenient, agreeing to let Pepper buy back the farm over time and offering to become roommates with her. As the legal owner of the farm, Opal is not obligated to be so accommodating — it’s her investment into her dream of being an artist, yet she’s already giving it up for someone who is so brash and unwelcoming? ON DAY ONE?
I get that Pepper has memories tied to the farm and is grieving Lou, but she has no right to tell Opal not to step into a spare bedroom when Opal is the owner.

Despite the characters being in their mid/late 20s, I couldn’t picture them as anything other than YA.
Their characterizations were inconsistent throughout, and there wasn’t much more to them outside of their neurodivergent traits.

The lead up to them having “emotion-free” sex was so forced and unnatural. I wish they had started working on their competition piece for the festival together beforehand as a way to build up some believable chemistry.
Additionally, for Pepper to be autistic and have sensory issues, it was unrealistic that every instance of them having sex with lots of physical touch always amounted to a pleasant experience, especially given the fact that she was a virgin with no prior experience.

Lastly, the cover art is misleading when Opal starts the book with pink hair, ends it with green hair, and has lavender hair years later in the epilogue.

Late Bloomer has a lot of promise-a beautiful cover, a great setting, and a sapphic romance setup that is unique and fun. Unfortunately, the setting ends up doing a lot of the heavy lifting, while the romance becomes an insta-lovey mess between two women who refuse to communicate and are just so wildly immature for two adults who live alone and are trying to run a business. Also, and this is probably a me issue, but it felt too escapist. One of the MCs has big dreams of living on this flower farm and becoming a shoe artist. Yes, she wants to paint shoes forever. And it's all sweet and fun but she felt like way too much of quirky stereotype.

My point is, I didn't hate this. The setting is great, the romance is sweet, but there are too many little things that make this sort of messy. I will def recommend it sapphic rom com readers, but it's not something our small library needs to add to our collection.

#ReadMoreQueerLit hosted by @eloise_bradbooks on StoryGraph

I would rate this 4.5 out of 5.

I want to thank NetGalley and Wednesday Books for a copy of this book.

Brief Summary: Opal has had a turn of luck and will finally pull the pieces of her life together and pursue her dream of being an artist. While doing some late-night internet surfing, Opal decides that the Thistle and Bloom flower farm is the perfect destination to make all her hopes come to life. Pepper, the current resident of the farm however has other ideas—many, many ideas in fact, but none of them involve Opal. Forced to work together Opal and Pepper begin to learn a great deal about themselves and each other and what they find might be 1000 yellow daiseys worth of joy.

Thoughts: Eddings is an excellent writer. The way that she can elicit such emotion from her characters makes them jump off the page. While I loved both Opal and Pepper, I felt I identified a bit more with Opal. The chaotic way she approaches things and the way she releases stress by changing her hair were both so relatable and articulated feelings that I often experience in a way that makes me feel incredibly seen.

I do wish that there had been a bit more integration of Opal's sisters into the later part of the book. They seem to be a central part of Opal's world and they seem to have drifted off at the end. I'm not sure if it is because of the distance between the farm and where they live in the city or what. Am I hoping that there will be spin-off books for both of them, yes. But I am selfish.

The very last chapters of the book felt a little chaotic. I completely agree with Pepper that some of the villains in the book were exhibiting some serious stalker behaviour. Also, I'm not entirely sure how much time has passed in this book and it seems wild to me that someone hasn't talked to you in months and you think it's cool to just show up out of the blue.

I enjoyed the dynamics between Pepper and her friend group and like Opal's sisters I wished they had more time on the page. Especially since they seemed very invested in Pepper at the start of the book and then seemed to make no real appearances later on.

Overall, I found this an endearing love story between two agents of chaos and it truly shows Eddings for the mastermind that she is. If you enjoy sapphic romances this one will make you swoon.

Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Grief, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

I wasn’t going to write a review about this book, but I have to for my NetGalley account. So here goes…..

One word to describe this book: insufferable! I am not going to bash this book, but I could not wait to stop reading it. Storylines plucked from here and there, characters that were annoying, and the whole dynamic just didn’t make sense.

I did love the book cover, the beginning of the story, the setting, and some of the spicy scenes.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this copy of Late Bloomer.

Opal wins the lottery and buys a cabin/flower farm on Facebook Marketplace to restart her life and paint shoes. Little does she know when she gets there, Pepper is living on and managing the farm that her grandmother left behind after she passed. She has zero idea the farm has been sold by her estranged mother to Opal, and her whole life gets turned upside down.

Opal and Pepper (Pepper ANNE?! Stop right now, I can’t 😂) are adorable together and the story is a perfect grumpy sunshine pairing. Opal is so sweet and just wants to help Pepper, and Pepper just wants to be left alone in her failing business.

At one point they have some sort of hookup agreement that seemed unnecessary because it disappears faster than it arrives. The third act breakup comes SO late and is resolved so fast it could have also been removed, but that’s me personally despising the third act breakup in general.

Overall though, this was a really delightful novel, super cute, lots of flowers and fun.

Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Late Bloomer is a queer romance with an awesome premise. Unfortunately, I didn't feel the spark between the main characters, and was wanting more out of the conflict. I love the idea of this taking place on a flower farm, and sale forcing them to move in together, but I didn't think the romance held up. I gave this title three stars because I liked it and thought it was worth reading, but I wouldn't recommend it to a friend or read it again.

I tend to prefer queer romances over straight ones so I had high hopes for this one. Unfortunely, this fell really flat for me. One of my biggest bookish pet peeves is when a book is marketed as enemies to lovers but the characters just.... don't like each other when they meet. This book really suffered from this. The characters met each other thought "ugh, she's annoying" and then were immediately kissing and trying So Hard not to think about how much they liked each other. Enemies to lovers that have insta-love REALLY don't work for me and that really brought down my enjoyment of this by a lot. Otherwise, all the characters bugged me but I was still invested enough in the overall plot that I kept reading.

I received an ARC from St. Martin’s Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

“Late Bloomer” is a perfect example of don’t judge a book by its cover. I loved the cover and was sure this was going to be a great read. Unfortunately, that’s not how it turned out.

For a romance without a lot of plot it’s pretty critical that the characters make up for it and make you want to read. That isn’t what happened here. Both Opal and Pepper got on my nerves and I found them more irritating than anything else.

It starts out pretty badly. I was yelling at my phone by 10%. I can handle a lot of things but stupidity is not one of those things. Opal wins the lottery and decides to buy property, sight unseen, off of Facebook Marketplace. She has no one look at the paperwork, just writes a check and goes on about her day. My suspension of disbelief couldn’t handle that.

Opal is not a character I really sympathize with anyway. She’s a doormat to her friends and ex-boyfriend, like ridiculously so. It was so painful to hear her justify their awful behavior to herself and others. She has ADHD but it felt very stereotypical.

Pepper, while not quite as bad as Opal, wasn’t a favorite character either. She’s also neurodivergent and while it was quite so stereotypical, it also wasn’t fleshed out very well. Both felt more like caricature of people than actual humans. There was no depth, tension, or chemistry. It all felt forced and rather boring.

Also, the author used “she giggled” so many times. I’m sorry but grown women giggling all the time just sounds immature. Although, I guess that does track since I felt both Opal and Pepper were immature for their ages.

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

Thanks so much to netgalley and the publisher for the ARC! One of my favourite romances of all time, and a new go-to recommendation for customers looking for something lighthearted and tender!

I got 64% into this book and got distracted, but was convinced I’d get back to it. It’s been many, many months, and I have not gotten back to it. This wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t as engaging as I’d hoped, and the fact that putting it aside didn’t make me desperate to pick it back up says something to me about how much I was actually even enjoying the book.

The author skillfully builds tension, using witty dialogue and charming interactions to highlight the chemistry between the protagonists. As they navigate their personal struggles—be it career aspirations, family expectations, or past heartbreaks—their journey feels authentic and relatable.

4.5 stars! This book was so enjoyable. I loved both of the main characters and I love how Mazey is able to have such great neurodivergent representation in her stories. I really enjoyed the premise of this book, and getting to go on this journey with Pepper and Opal was so special. The tropes that came up in this book were also some of my favorite, especially the found family aspect of it. I have loved Mazey’s books and this was another one well done.

I love everything that Mazey Eddings writes. This book has fantastic dirty talk, found family, and forced proximity. The concept of it being at a flower farm was so cute.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review of Late Bloomers. Unfortunately I did not get to this before it was archived. I'm looking forward to checking it out at my local library!

Oh how I love this book! Mazey is one of my favorite authors and the cover drew me right in - it's absolutely stunning.

Like all of Mazey's books she has wonderful representation of neurodivergence - this one has both ADHD and autism rep. I find that it really resonated with me - it felt incredibly real and to me that includes perfectly imperfect characters. Mazey shows all facets of life with ADHD/autism - including the frustrating parts. And dang I was frustrated at times but I honestly think that's okay!

I loved Opal and Pepper - they were absolutely perfect for each other. The flower farm setting was romantic and fun and involved just a teeny bit of suspension of belief. That added to the swoony-ness of it! And the spice was spicing - seriously hot but also helped with growing the relationship.

Overall I adore this sapphic love story from Mazey!

3.5 Stars

Just like I didn’t get the family gardening gene, I did not get the butterflies of love for this book like so many did. It’s cute as all get out, I love the setting, and the neurodivergent rep is incredible. Unfortunately, there’s some really frustratingly naive choices made that really pulled me out of the story. There’s a point in life where you learn and change your behavior and make choices that reflect that, that doesn’t happen here. Opal and Pepper are adorable, the plot is fantastic, the sex scenes are actually so accurate (lesbian love scenes really aren’t always done well), but the communication is minimal and the work to go from casual to serious didn’t happen. You kind of just have to trust, but we aren’t given anything to go on. Yes, it’s cute and easy to read, but it just didn’t hit the mark for me.

This is one of my favorite sapphic romances this year! I hadn’t read Mazey Eddings since A Brush with Love two years ago and that’s a shame because I had forgotten how sweet, funny, and sexy her writing is!

I loved Opal and Pepper, both together and separately. They were both at crossroads and the last thing they needed was the complication of the other person in their life. But forced proximity was bound to work its magic! Their clashes sizzled off the page and there are a few scenes that have lived rent-free in my head for months. 😉🔥

If you haven’t had a chance to grab this romance since it pubbed in April, I encourage you to do it! Eddings’ bright, swoony story will bring all the feels.