This was cute. The setup was a bit strange and unrealistic (obviously winning hundreds of thousands of dollars in the lottery is not a daily occurrence) and the overall story was a little too cutesy and (pun intended) flowery for my personal taste, but I would totally recommend it to anyone looking for a queer romance that takes place on a very adorable flower farm.

The story was very cute. The characters were also very good. The pacing was alittle different but it was fine and worked with the characters

Late Bloomer-a standalone

By Mazy Eddings- I read The Plus One and gave it 3⭐

Rating: 4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Publication: 4/16/24, Read 4/19/24

📙Format: e-book, 391 pgs. and audiobook 9:32

🗣️Narrator: Ellie Gossage-did both h's, dual POV. I believe the voice fit the characters and the reading style brought the story to life. The pacing was great and flowed easily with the story. The narration and the author were in sync, and they fit together perfectly. The audiobook's flow was pretty good. The narrator paused and announced every time a new chapter came. The book had a table of contents which helped me follow along with the e-book and audio.

🙏🏾Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Griffin, and Macmillan Audio for this ARC and ALC🩷 ! I voluntarily give an honest review and all opinions expressed are my own.

What to Expect:
✔️ Rom-Com
✔️ Adult Fic
✔️ Forced Proximity
✔️ Sapphic Romance/LGBTQ+
✔️Neurodivergent h/ADHD rep
✔️h chronic illness
✔️opposites attract
✔️grumpy/sunshine
✔️mental health issues


Summary: Opal Devlin (24) wins the lottery and is miserable because every time anyone asks her for something, she says yes. A Facebook ad for a flower farm in NC appeals to her for its isolation, and to build an art studio. When she arrives the farm is already occupied by Pepper Boden (26) who claims it belongs to her. Pepper is as prickly as Opal is bubbly but they agree to cohabitate, and bring the farm back from the brink of bankruptcy.

Review: I loved the representation in this book. From both main characters being LGBTQ+, heroines with autism and ADHD, and even a chronically ill heroine with migraines-I can relate! I loved the stories about Grandma Lou as it reminds me of my Grandma Lou as a child with her for the summer. I remember her balmy NC town with a watermelon patch, peppers, and tobacco out back. The other characters Pepper's friends and Opal sisters (Olivia and Ophelia) are so supportive versus Opal's ex Miles, Laney her fake BFF, and Trish. Opal and Pepper's love story is sweet because they are understanding of each other's flaws and all.

✨ Review ✨ Late Bloomer by Mazey Eddings; Narrated by Ellie Gossage

Thanks to Macmillan Audio, St. Martin's Griffin and #netgalley for the gifted advanced copy/ies of this book!

Honestly, Mazey Eddings just gets better and better with each book she writes! She's such a master of writing queer relationships and a range of mental health realities. In this book, Opal wins the lottery, and buys a flower farm to do her art and to get a fresh start. When she gets there, Pepper, who runs the farm, is shocked that her home and place of work has been sold out under her.

I'll leave the rest of the book for you to find out what happens, but it's really just a lovely book that handles Opal and Pepper's mental health and their strengths and weaknesses so beautifully. And all in the middle of a flower farm! 🌸 🌺 🌹 ❤️

I also loved Opal's relationship with her sisters and Pepper's found family and support network, and how seamlessly this group comes together to love and support them. There's just so much to love here.

🎧 I listened to most of this on audio and the narration was superb. There was enough variation in the voices for the two POVs and various characters to make it feel like it had multiple narrators.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (4.5 stars)
Genre: contemporary f/f romance; autism and ADHD representation
Setting: rural farm near Asheville, NC
Length: 9 hours 31 minutes
Reminds me of: Helena Greer's Christmas tree farm books
Pub Date: Apr 16 2024

Read this if you like:
⭕️ FLOWERS and painted shoes
⭕️ sapphic romances
⭕️ messy characters who are open with their mental health
⭕️ obscure body part cakes

Hello,

this book ended up not being my cup of tea, and I would prefer not to review it, as I had to DNF it. I don't think I have anything to say that would have a positive impact on this.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book

🪻eARC Book Review🪻

“Because agreeing not to have feelings apparently doesn’t stop them from trying to take root.”

Late Bloomer by Mazey Eddings
Pub Date: April 16, 2024
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟💫(3.5/5)
Spice:🌶🌶️🌶️ (3/5)

Review:
Opal is a chaotic bisexual lost soul who wins the lotto. She immediately invests her winnings, sight unseen, into a flower farm called thistle and bloom. When she arrives at the farm Opal is met by the grounds keeper/the grand daughter of the former owner, Pepper, who is a grumpy autistic woman with some abandonment trauma. Instead of kicking pepper to the curb, Opal decides they can both live together in the cabin until they can figure out what to do.

Eventual the two decided the best way to cut the tension is to hook up with the agreement to not catch feelings. As one would expect it doesn’t quite workout. However, the constant miscommunication between autism and ADHD really clash heads over and over again in the story.

As someone with ADHD myself, this book was almost too chaotic for me to even follow. Opal and Pepper don’t seem to have quite that unique voice. I love a split perspective however I couldn’t keep the perspective separate because the voices sounded so similar. Both characters have trust, emotional dysregulation, and communication issues which made it difficult to differentiate the perspectives.

Overall, I enjoyed the story I was rooting for Opal and Pepper to figure out their communication issues. However, the phonetic energy of the plot kept me confused. I did love how they stood up for each other to those who have hurt them in the past.


If you like:
- Grumpy Sunshine
- Queer Love
- Enemies to Lovers
- Neurodivergence

QOTD: What is your favorite flower?

Thank you to Net Galley and St Martins Press/Griffin for proving me with an eARC of this novel.

Really there wasn’t much not to love here. Mazey Eddings does such a great job with banter and with building chemistry between here characters and she did not disappoint here at all. The love story that grew from these characters was incredibly sweet and heartwarming. They were messy and imperfect and that only made them both all the more endearing. The concept overall was really great and the whole book was just lovely and delightful. There was opposites attract, enemies to lovers, forced proximity, first time romance, and just so many great layers that made it hard to put down.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with this ARC in exchange for my honest review. Definitely worth the read!

This was a fun, quick read but the characters felt a little under developed and at times I felt the plot was rushed. Thanks to Netgalley for the advance copy.

Thoroughly enjoyable. It delivers on the premise and it's so nice to see the characters learn how to be together. Maybe a little out there at times (the lottery win!), but wonderful escapism.

Who doesn't want to win the lottery and buy a flower farm in Asheville? That's the dream! The setting alone makes this book a win, but the characters bring so so much into this. Not just our main characters, but also each and every side character we meet. I hope we get some more books in the world (maybe with Opal's sisters?). I Would read it in a heartbeat.

Here we meet two women, both at rough patches in their lives. Opal, ever the people pleaser, wins the lottery and uses the money to buy a flower farm in Ashville, NC. The only problem? Prickly Pepper, the current resident, has no idea her home and business has been sold out from under her. Will these two be able to find a resolution, or will one of them have to sacrifice their dreams?

This opposites attract, forced proximity sapphic romcom is fun, flirty, and fabulous! I love Mazey Eddings, and all of her books just check my boxes. Late Bloomer was no different. I adore the way she incorporated neurodivergent characters, especially as they each have their own experiences and aren't carbon copies of the other. The pining, the steam, the clever writing and humor. All of it. Just solid! Great book!!!
4.5 rounded up to 5 stars

Mazey Eddings is one of my favorite authors so I was thrilled to receive advanced copies of her latest release! Just like her previous books, the mental health representation was one of my favorite parts of the book! This was a delightful opposites attract romance; I fell in love with both characters immediately, especially Opal who was sunshine personified and thought they had great chemistry! I also loved that it took place on a flower farm! Overall, it was hopeful, emotional and endearing!

I loved the premise of this one and adored the friendships and tension between Pepper and Opal. However, I prefer a closed door romance. Or a little bit of spice. It was just too graphic for me so I chose to DNf around 50% in.

When I first saw the description of late bloomer I was really excited, and think the concept is really cute. In the first quarter of the book, the writing felt a bit juvenile, which made it hard to get through and I was a bit underwhelmed. While it did get better, it felt like we lacked maturity as well as definition for either character.

I found it hard to remember whose POV it was at times and had to go back to see who it was. The writing style didn’t really differentiate between them, even when they’re supposed to have polar opposite personalities. I’m also not a huge fan of miscommunication, and this book definitely has its period of them deliberately choosing not to communicate in heated moments.

All that aside, I genuinely did enjoy the story. It was easy to follow, and I really enjoyed the character development that occurred. The talk of mental health felt beautifully done, it wasn’t romanticized and the bad parts were allowed to stand as is. We don’t see neurodivergence allowed to just exist in books, without some type of fix being introduced. Pepper and Opal accepting each other with their quirks and all is one of the most enjoyable aspects of this book.

I could vividly imagine standing in the Thistle and Bloom, and am jealous I can’t. The author did a great job at helping visualize the farm and the cabin, and the overall area. And that cover is absolutely beautiful(and one of the reasons I requested it)

This book is one I would recommend to someone in a slump because it’s easy to follow and could be read in one day.

Thank you NetGalley for the arc!

Late Bloomer is an adorable sapphic rom com! It has a great mix of genuinely funny lighthearted moments and balances it out with tender emotional scenes where the characters explore topics like grief, mental heath, and addiction.

Opal is a recovering people pleaser which I very much resonated with and the idea of buying a flower farm to make art is literally the cutest premise in the world.
I loved getting to see the character development from Opal throughout the story and bother the FMCs growth and their development of feelings for each other felt realistic and genuine.

This was a very cute and fun read although it did feel a bit slow paced for my liking, and some of the dialogue came off as cringey at points.

Overall it was a fun cozy read that was perfect for sitting outside and reading in the spring!

This book was a wonderful love story filled with a range of emotions. The author does a great job of dealing with topics like loss, trauma, and mental illness in a way that takes care with each topic while keeping the reader engaged. I really appreciated the bisexual story line. It was great to read a book about a bisexual women whose gayness wasn’t being questioned as she dated a man then a women. The main charter Opal and her sisters are all proudly bisexual and everyone treats it as perfectly normal and ok (as they should). This kind of representation is important and it was done very well here. This book also have multiple spicy scenes that were well written. They were described well and gave a lot of emotion without going too far or getting raunchy. Over all wonderful book with great twist and turns but nothing so devastating that you almost stop reading the book.

What I enjoyed: neurodivergent romance. 20-something MC’s who are pursuing their passions & special interests (textile painting & flower farming). The settings (the most gorgeous flower farm, Asheville, the Grove Park.)

What I didn’t: MAN these characters were a disaster. They 100% did not have their sh together. Granted, that describes so many 20-somethings (including me back in the day), but I cannot count the number of times I said out loud “wow, that was dumb” or “wait, she believes that?!” It was wild how trusting Opal was. The romance was cute, but it didn’t wow me.

If you’re looking for a neurodivergent romance with moderate sapphic spice, that’s also a pretty feel-good book (despite moronic endeavors), this might be for you.

The PERFECT Sapphic romance!

I often hate books that take place in North Carolina because they don't make sense geographically. I grew up in Asheville and was TERRIFIED when the book moved there after a lottery winning artist bought a flower farm from the estranged mother of the woman running the flower farm. The romance was perfect and lovely. I even listened to the book AFTER reading the whole thing, I enjoyed it that much.

I recommend giving this a chance. It is wonderful!

Thank you to NetGalley, St Martin's Griffin, and St. Martin's Press for the eARC.

Late Bloomer by Mazey Eddings is a cute, fast-paced sapphic romance that is perfect for spring. I enjoyed the dual perspectives of Opal and Pepper to advance the story as well as the neurodivergent/autism representation. This is exactly what you would expect from a romance, and I enjoyed my time reading it (especially if you're looking for a lighter read). While I am not a fan of the miscommunication trope, Mazey Eddings resolved the conflicts/situations quickly enough that I was not too turned off by it. All in all, this is a good vacation read for when you just want to sit back, relax, and explore a flower farm while the protagonists figure out what they're going to do.

3.5 stars!

Late Bloomer by Mazey Eddings is my second novel by the author, although it’s my first adult one. I previously read Tilly in Technicolor, her debut YA novel, which I adored. Late Bloomer is a sapphic, open door, dual point of view romance with extra spice! I have to be honest, what really drew me to this one was the stunning cover. It looked like the perfect book for spring! It doesn’t get much more spring-y than a flower farm, right?! I did enjoy plenty about Late Bloomer, but it never quite reached the five-stars I gave Tilly.

What I enjoyed most about this one was the setting. I’m a sucker for a farm, orchard, or winery setting. Anywhere they work with the land or outdoors to grow and produce things. I can’t help but get sucked in to the magic of it all. It’s a perfect setting for romance!

I also loved the representation. Opal is neurodivergent and Pepper is autistic, and of course, this is a sapphic novel. Eddings is wonderful at capturing the beauty in all of our individual differences. And while I liked both the characters, and especially liked their backstories, I did find both of their voices too similar sometimes, having to stop and figure out who was speaking. They were very different characters—it is an opposites attract romance—but sometimes their words or actions didn’t seem to match the speaker’s personality.

I did also like most of the side characters, especially Opal’s sisters and Pepper’s friends, who could all probably have their own books.

Much of the conflict between our love interests arises from lack of communication, which is not a favorite trope of mine. If it’s done well, I don’t mind it so much, but I found myself wanting to yell at these two to just talk to each other already. It wasn’t long or drawn out, though, so that was good. It was understandable for Pepper’s character who is more reserved, having put up walls, but Opal is super outspoken, except when it’s most important apparently, which was frustrating.

Even with these little frustrations, I found myself rooting for these two to find their much-deserved happiness together. There are plenty of lighthearted—and romantic—moments, as well, which had me smiling!