EVERY GARDEN NEEDS A HOE

When I tell you I was dying laughing listening to the acknowledgments at the end of this book. I will forever be referring to this book as every garden needs a hoe.

This was a real surprise delight for me. I have liked Maisy eddings previous books but I always had small issues with them. This is her first sapphic book and all my expectations were met and then some.

This is a sapphic neurodivergent semi enemies to lovers. We have opal who is a chronic people pleaser. She is neurodivergent and bi/pan and when she wins the lottery she impulsively buys a flower farm and ditches her crappy abusive friends. Except when she gets to the flower farm does she bought from the nice old lady, she discovers that someone is already living there and doesn't know that it's been sold.

Insert Pepper. Pepper is autistic and sapphic, I can't actually remember if she is lesbian or bi but she's super duper queer. Pepper was dropped off by her abusive narcissistic mother at the flower farm when she was 16 or 17 or younger I don't remember anyway to live with her great aunt / grandma. I'm so sorry it's been a week since I've read this and apparently the small details have floated away from my mind. Anyway so she sent to live at this farm with a relative and her mom essentially abandons her. When the relative dies, pepper is under the assumption that she has to turn the flower from around and make a profit but that she is still living there. Unbeknownst to her, her mom has gone out from under her and sold the flower farm for an exorbitant money to Opal.

The two of them clash at the beginning but I wouldn't really qualify this as enemies to lovers more like enemies of circumstance. They don't actually dislike each other but it's hard to like the person that just bought your home out from under you or like the person who is living in your brand new startup life respectively. I really liked the slow growth of Pepper and Opals friendship that turned into more. I liked that both of them had their own baggage to deal with and that it wasn't skewed and one character's growth development. Both of them had things to deal with and they do.

As someone with a toxic mom, I really felt for Pepper and how hard it is to be the child of someone who generous toxic as hell and manipulative.

I saw a couple people talk about how the title is a little misleading because both of the characters know they're queer but personally I still really loved it. You know one of the characters has more experience than the other and they're both really blooming into their own identities as queer neurodivergent individuals with power. I mean learning and taking hold of your own strength is something that a lot of people have to work towards and both of these women have to do that in this book and I really liked that. I'm here for that.

DNF by first chapter…Opal is super annoying and can’t deal with her people pleasing tendencies. I usually love this author’s writing style but this doesn’t work for me.

ugh she was NOT for me. i really wanted to like this but it was just not my cup of tea. this felt so YA, but its def not. the characters were so annoying and i felt like the story dragged. i feel so bad that i didn't like it but i just couldn't get this over with fast enough.

i think you would like this if you enjoy YA, whiny characters, and not much a satisfying plot.

i will say there is great rep in this book, but overall it fell flat..
thank you netgally for the e-arc.

Read if you like:
💐 All the flowers
🏳️‍🌈 Books that the author describes as “so gay!”
👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩 Queer Love
🏡 Property Drama
🌶️ Spice
🧠 Nuerospicy Characters

This book was really cute and the audio narration was well done where with the dual pov it was so easy to track between the two characters.

I really enjoyed how Mazey wrote this queer romance and as someone that loves flowers it was so atmospheric with the setting on a flower farm.

There was plenty of drama with the plot that made it a fun read!

Other than the spice, it felt like very much like a YA type of storyline and plot with both MC’s having some lacking of experiences in life and being thrust into “the real world” in this story.

So if those vibes described are up your ally I would strongly recommend taking a chance on Mazey’s fifth published novel!

Thanks so much to the publisher for my ARC in exchange for my honest review!

unfortunately this was a let down. i found myself uninterested while reading and waiting for the book to be over. some of the dialogue and pop culture references were cringey and end up dating the book. there were a handful of scenes i enjoyed, and definitely some cute moments, but overall i found it to be meh.

thanks to netgalley and st. martin’s griffin for an arc in exchange for my honest review!

This book was such a fun, floral, and flirty romance! It combined light romance with darker themes of grief and self-discovery.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin’s press for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

⭐️: 4.5
🌶️: 4

As a self proclaimed “disliker of smut,” I loved this spicy, fun, cheesy, romantic book! I typically find spicy scenes so awkward and cringey, but these were so well done. The chemistry between the main characters was so good and believable!! It helped that we got to go back and forth between the two points of view in different chapters, so we got to hear the inner monologue of both characters.

This wasn’t just a sexy romance. There was a lot of fluff, but this also dealt with a lot of serious issues as well. This book tackled grief, figuring out self identity, autism and neurodivergence (diagnosed and undiagnosed), a rocky relationship with alcohol, and a neglectful relationship.

The setting of this book was so perfect for spring. The beautiful descriptions of the flower farm had me smiling as I felt like I could see the acres of flowers and feel the sunshine on my face.


Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest rating and review.

Loved this sapphic romance! Within the first chapter Opal had me laughing hysterically with her chaotic energy. There was one line it the book that hit me the hardest: “why does my compassion stretch to strangers, but stop at my own front door?” WOW. What a powerful and relatable line. This is one that I feel everybody can relate to because we are our own harshest critics.

I'm giving LATE BLOOMER 2.5 stars rounded up to 3 stars.

What I liked about this book was the slow burn romance between Pepper and Opal, the forced proximity trope was well executed. I personally sympathized with Opal's neurodivergent journey and struggles with self-worth. The author did a great job of representing the challenges both characters went through. But it took a while for me to get into the story because of the pacing and it felt too silly at times. The "villains" were cartoonishly bad to the main characters, I wish they had been better written or not involved at all. I don't think this book is bad, but I wanted something more to happen in the plot.

A cute, fluffy read if you need it, but I can't wholeheartedly recommend.

This managed to be super sweet and have plenty of steam. I love the pull they had to each other. Opal was an adorable disaster and Pepper was just so endearing too.
I found myself relating for them in many ways and rooting for them so hard. They both deserved so much love and happiness. And I loved the epilogue, perfection.

« As we walk back to our home, I grab her hand. She holds my heart. And nothing is perfect but everything is right, and that’s all that matters. »

I was given an ARC copy of this book and my opinions are my own.

Ugh, I l loved this so much. I love the flower farm! I didn’t love that they would both run when things got hard (one of them has to stay!) and that they were BOTH insecure, but they came together in the end!

Not great but not awful. A pretty run of the mill contemporary romance. Great sapphic and neurodivergent representation. The general plot is very Hallmark-y and really sweet.
It meets the usual cringe threshold for this type of book and I try to be forgiving of it as it’s just to be expected but I really have a hard time with it.
If you’re looking for a cute and lighthearted story this one is if you.

Such a great book! I lovely, cozy read. The plot is farfetched at times but not in a distracting way! I loved the representation shown in this one! We can always count on Mazey Eddings for a good time!

This book wasn't bad but it wasn't amazing. I couldn't connect to the characters, and I found Opal to be a little immature at times.

I can always count on Mazey Eddings to churn my emotions with wonderfully complex characters and a story that has heart and spice! Opal and Pepper are intense and confused about where their lives are taking them, something that is complicated by circumstance as well as their growing feelings. My heart broke for them both when life knocked them down, but my heart was lifted by their resilience, their grittiness, and their love. They are a couple of feisty and smart women who kept me up at night, reading long into the night!

I am so in love with Mazey Eddings books! She never misses!!!

Opal was so lovable, creative and relatable. Her neurodivergent tendencies were the story of my life and I loved her outlook on life. I felt very connected to Opal and thought she was a wonderful MC.

Pepper was the autistic lesbian flower farmer of my dreams. I loved getting her POV during the story as well. The way she perceived and processed things was written so accurately and lovely.

The plot itself was adorable, such a classic tale of misunderstandings and such. I loved every minute of this lovely story.

While the premise might seem far-fetched, it’s perfectly believable when you get to know these characters! And while the story moves back and forth between Opal’s and Pepper’s perspectives, each feels different and unique, immersing the reader into their worlds and making the story feel that much more believable.

A cute read with a good sex scene or two. Love the flower farm, although the plot around the flower competition felt like an afterthought.

I really wanted to like this one more than I did. I mean, the cover alone deserves all the stars, right? Gorgeous! If I was one to just choose a book by it's cover (I am, it's totally me) I would absolutely choose this book based solely on the cover. But the story sounds cute too, right? The overall story was good but soooooooo rushed, especially the end and the third act "breakup". So little support from the friend/family group who quite literally disappeared from a large event they were all at. Where'd they go? Why don't friends ever intervene when lovers have a miscommunication situation? ESPECIALLY neurodiverse lovers? Like, if you know your friend has a hard time reading social situations why would you not be there for them when they misconstrue something in a major social situation? Idk, the big fight just completely took me out of the story. And the spice throughout was fun but not-believable. Idk. Overall, I enjoyed it but I don't know that I'd recommend it really. Tough one for me.

A sapphic romance set on a flower farm in Asheville; this book is just as cute and cozy as you would expect it to be!

I really enjoyed this book. While at times it felt a little drawn out, the beautify setting made it so that I didn’t mind, and I enjoyed every chapter. The characters were well flushed out and diverse, with plenty of queer and neurodivergent rep. This book was also spicier than I expected, but not overly so - it struck a great balance.

While I enjoyed the characters, I did find one of the MC’s character arch to be a little confusing - it felt like the first few chapters were setting her up to be one way, and then around a quarter of the way through her personality totally changes.