This was a slow burn but once I got into it I fell inlove with the way the characters unfolded. It was so sweet to watch how the characters grew to love each other.

This was such a great book! I was drawn to this one by the cute illustrated cover. A great cover is usually the drawing factor for me! This is my first book by Mazey Eddings and it was written beautifully and I loved the storyline.
The characters were so cute and I loved the romance. The chemistry was great and I will definitely be checking out Mazey Eddings in the future! I recommend this book for anybody looking for a cute romance read!

Big thank you goes out to @netgalley, St. Martins Press and Mazey Eddings for giving me the opportunity to review this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion. 🙌🏼

We all dream of winning the lottery. What would we buy, what amazing things would we do? For Opal, the reality isn’t as great as she thought it would be. Once news gets out that she won the lottery, everyone – including the people she hasn’t talked to in ages – starts asking her to grab a coffee together or hang out. And even her best friend, Janey, is quickly showing her true colors (to be fair, only Opal thought they were best friends).
Opal’s life has been spiraling for a while. Opal has a history of saying yes to everyone, partly because she’s just kind, but also because she’s a terrible people-pleaser, and terrified of hurting someone or turning them down. To the point that for a long time she’s put her own wants to the side and forgotten who she wants to be.
Yet armed with this small fortune, Opal decides she’s going to get a fresh start. And start saying no to other people. When her sisters remind her that she loves nature and hated New York City the one time she visited, she begins looking for another place. Impulsively (as Opal does everything) she spends most of her money on a Flower Farm in Ashville, North Carolina. Falling in love with its beauty, she decides the flowers can take care of themselves, while she paints shoes and textiles, living her artist dream.
All of that very quickly goes out the window, when she discovers the farm comes with Pepper Boden, the grouchy but gorgeous woman who claims to be the real owner of Thistle and Blooms Farm. Faced with making someone unhappy, Opal finds a way to make it work, suggesting co-habiting until they figure the whole thing out. Opal and Pepper are the definition of opposites attract, and continually seem to argue, and get distracted. Yet, it starts becoming more and more difficult to argue with the attraction they feel for one another.
This sapphic romance is quirky, full of fun pop culture puns (albeit quite possibly ones that mostly millennials will understand), and adorable to the max. Opal and Pepper are fire together, and their journey to figuring out their own relationship and feelings coincides nicely with the story of the farm.
Part of what I love so much of this novel is all the LGBTQ+ and neurodivergent representation, which seems completely natural and normal. It is unapologetically upfront with everyone’s quirks, habits, and choices. Opal dyes her hair during any crisis, and she also battles with her own ADHD. There are many other examples, but I don’t want to list them because it’d spoil the book, so just trust me on this one.
One message is also loud and clear throughout – that we should always get to be who we want to be, and our friends should support that. Through so many scenes we process levels of hurt that have come not only from fake friends, relationships, family and others, but also from places of insecurity and the difficulty of being able to accept that we are who we are. We see characters learn to love themselves and others, while realizing the good relationships that we have.
I absolutely love Opal’s two sisters, and I wish we had seen more of her parents, as they also seemed great. Pepper’s friend group is fun, and a great addition to the story as well. As the story progresses, we also learn about her grandmother, as she deals with the grief of recently losing her.
Overall, this story touches on so many important themes, while being an absolutely adorable (yet spicy) romance. I can’t recommend it enough.

Late Bloomer follows Opal and Pepper. Opal recently won the lottery, and she decides to purchase a flower farm for a fresh start. When Opal shows up to her new home Thistle and Bloom, she finds that it is already occupied by Pepper. It turns out that Pepper's estranged Mother sold the farm to Opal, and now the two must navigate living together while trying to save Thistle and Bloom.

There is a lot to love about Late Bloomer- grumpy x sunshine, forced proximity, friends with benefits turned to lovers. In addition to these fun tropes, there is great representation. Pepper identifies as queer and autistic, and Opal as bisexual and nuerodivergent. Not to mention, this book was downright hilarious. This was my first experience with this author, and I truly enjoyed Mazey Edding's writing style. Her references always felt so natural to the characters and genuinely made me laugh out loud throughout the book.

However, these aspects were not enough for me to love this book. I really, really, REALLY wanted to love Late Bloomer, but after about two-thirds of the book I just lost interest. Both Pepper and Opal were characters I had an interesting relationship with. I found them both to be funny and genuine, however they had a constant "will they/won't they" dance where the two just refused to talk about their feelings. Instead, they got in their heads about what the other one thought about them. I'm not saying that this is not relatable, however it quickly became tired the more that it happened. I also thought that this book had far too much going on- I wish certain elements had been more elaborated on to create a more interesting and stable plot.

Overall, I enjoyed Late Bloomer but left disappointed as I was wanting more from it. I'll definitely read more by Mazey Eddings in the future, I just think that the plot and pacing of this one did not work for me. 2.5 stars.

This is a gem of a book. I loved everything from the characters to the plot. Five golden stars to you.

Oh my god this is now my favorite sapphic romance of all time 😭 2 bisexual main characters, autism and adhd rep, grumpy sunshine, close proximity AND a flower farm?? It’s just too perfect. 5 sparkling stars

This cover drew me in and the book was very cute. I liked how the character development played out and I really liked the relationship and the depths. This is a must read for the year if you want to feel good book.

Thank you for the ARC Netgalley!!!
this was a sweet wlw romance based around flowers. Pepper’s AND Opal’s names are queer and their backgrounds sad but they are cute. I did think their flower art was going to be something very different than it ended up being but it was still very cute!

I want to start by saying: I love Mazey Eddings. A Brush with Love is one of my favourite romance novels. I liked the other two books in that series and her YA novel, Tilly in Technicolor. So, no one is more surprised and disappointed than me that Late Bloomer just... wasn't for me.

It has the wittiness and the neurodivergent rep I've come to expect and enjoy with Mazey's books, but whatever I was supposed to feel between Pepper and Opal, I just didn't. Something was missing for me and to be honest, I was bored.

It made me think of something my teacher used to tell us about writing: "Show, don't tell". It felt like I was just supposed to buy this relationship because they SAID they liked/loved/wanted each other, but the physical chemistry and the emotional build-up was lacking. There was also a lot of inner turmoil that started to feel repetitive and a lot of little heart-to-heart speeches that were flowery and clichéd, and kept making me think: "People don't really talk like that".

That being said, you might like it if you're wanting to read something short and cozy with not a lot of conflict. I'm bummed this one fell flat for me, but I'll still look forward to what Mazey writes next.

I loved Mazey Eddings previous books, and was really looking forward to this one. First, the cover is divine, and the premise is very much needed in the world of romance books - a dual point of view queer romance with neurodivergent MCs and sapphic spice. The representation of autism, ADHD, and bisexuality is detailed and normalized. There are many fun and lighthearted moments, especially when Opal’s sisters and Pepper’s friends are included. The setting is described in such a natural flow with the rest of the story, you feel like you are right there with characters but not exactly sure how it happened - perfect!
However, the book fell flat for me. The plot meandered along and mostly consisted of the thoughts of Opal and Pepper, switching back and forth. I understand that perception and communication were difficult for these two characters, but the Opal in her own chapters and the Opal in Pepper’s chapters felt like 2 completely different characters. Never did Pepper get to know Opal enough to gradually change her perception of her. There were very few scenes of them getting to know each other, which made the lust and spice feel forced and unlikely. And there’s a lot of spice starting at about 50%. I don’t mind spice at all at any level. I just wish there were more scenes to expand the plot into other deep interactions. Finally, I couldn’t get past Opal’s portrayal as the messed up childish interloper who was trespassing on Pepper’s home and livelihood. She spent the whole book apologizing, trying to take up as little space as possible, and giving all her time and energy - and money - to trying to fix things for Pepper so she could keep her home. When actually, Opal legally owned all of it! She paid well for it and had the deed in hand. And this fact was barely acknowledged throughout the entire book. Pepper was angry and frustrated at Opal being there, when she should have been thanking her lucky stars Opal let her stay. Pepper’s autism should not be an excuse to treat someone poorly. It felt icky from the very beginning all the way to the end. There are many things to love about this romance, but I didn’t love it overall. However, Mazey Eddings is still a favorite of mine, and I’m excited to see what she writes next.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC to read and review. All opinions are my own.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC of Late Bloomer by Mazey Eddings. I liked this book a lot, liked the characters and their development. I don't want to reveal any spoilers but there was one part towards the end of the book that wasn't needed, but all in all the book was a fun read. 3.5 stars/5

I am very glad this book will be out in the world. Young, queer women should be able to read love stories for and about them. However, this book was not a personal favorite. Some of the secondary characters like Miles and Laney felt too much like caricatures and not enough like fully fleshed out people. I know they only really existed for Opal’s plot development, but i still wanted them to be more three dimensional than they were.

Hello, after sending that I would not give feedback, i was alerted that I could do so to an extent. I did read this book and thoroughly enjoyed it. I will be buying a physical copy when it comes out. However, until SMP takes accountability for their mishandling of recent events and responds properly to Readers for Accountability’s demands, i will be refraining from engaging in any public reviewing or marketing for this title to adhere to the guidelines of the SMP publicity boycott.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this.

my first from mazey eddings but not my last!
beautifully written obsessed with the characters and this love story

Rarely have I read a romance with wonderful characters, a beautiful and integral setting, and such an insignificant plot. If you need a strong plot with action driving the characters, don't read this book. If you're excited for sweet characters and adorable representation, definitely give this a read. Every character was charming and I never knew how much I wanted to live in a flower farm. However, none of the plot really mattered.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martins press for this ARC!

I adored Late Bloomer.
As an autistic queer person this was everything I've wanted from a romance novel and more!

Mazey Eddings is always a must read for me. I felt like this book had so much potential and I wanted to love it so much. It just sort of fell flat for me.

I love Mazey's writing style and her flair for representation. I just felt myself frustrated with both FMC's. I also felt like there was no "big event" so to speak. I will definitely rec this book as far as diversity goes for sure, but I definitely feel like there was a lot of missed potential.

I truly felt immersed into the flower farm - this was amazing, I felt as though I could almost smell, the flowers and see their vividness. The rest was just sort of bland and full of the same misunderstandings over and over. The story just felt as though it was carrying on because it had to.

This is a very low angst, low conflict story, definitely a fluffy comfort read - its very different from Mazey's other gripping stories to me.

Thank you to NetGalley and St.Martins Press (St.Martins Griffin) for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Very cute with good neurodivergent and autistic rep! Sapphic love that melted my heart. It’s a pretty easy read with it too high of stakes, just two girls falling in love. Honestly what more could I ask for?

I am once again at a loss of words. This book made me so happy for so many reasons. I devoured it. I cried over it. I laughed at it. I fell in love with it. I couldn't get enough of it.

This is everything I could have asked for in terms of neurodiverse and sapphic representation. It was fun and well-written and kept me wanting more. It's relatable and lovable. I will immediately be reading the rest of Mazey's books.

Thank you NetGalley for gifting me an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review and opinion.

I love Mazey Eddings’ witty writing style, so I was looking forward to reading her latest work. Late Bloomer is a sapphic romance with solid neurodivergent representation.
While I enjoyed her previous novels (and even gave Lizzie Blake 5 stars!), sadly this one was a bit of a miss for me.

This book took me way longer than usual to finish because I just wasn’t motivated to pick it back up. The storyline felt pretty surface level; it could’ve used more depth and character development. Because of this, I had a hard time differentiating between the two MC’s voices (the chapters switched between the two POVs).

Even though it didn’t really hit for me, I can see how other readers could love this low drama/low stakes read. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press/St. Martin’s Griffin for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.