This book has the absolute best premise - what's better than a sapphic romance set on a flower farm? I also loved that both the main characters were neurodivergent and that it was clearly stated that they were; there was no guessing or hey maybe they are neurodivergent. I hate when authors side step around declaring a character is neurodivergent and just says they are "quirky" or "different" so this was a nice change.

I feel like Opal and Pepper clicked so well together as a couple, and there was a good balance of spice and sweet. I can relate a ton to both characters being neurodivergent myself, but also I could really understand Pepper's journey through grief as I am experiencing the same thing. Also, what is more relatable than Opal's chaotic hair journey?

The cover was also a 10/10 for me, it's so beautiful! And the author's note at the end really made me love Mazey Eddings (the endless list of flower puns for the title made me giggle) so I'm intrigued to read the author's other books.

i'm a cold hearted bitch who feels nothing. this shit is ridiculous... you've known this bitch what? 10 hours? and ur fantasizing about her? why do writers make these characters so fucking horny? and for what? ur life is supposedly dragged out beneath ur feet, ur ar rock mfn BOTTOM and ur wanting to fuck the figurehead of disaster? make it make sense 😖

i made a total mistake in requesting this. the romance genre is a joke. i hate them all yet get suckered into cute sounding plots when, in reality, the writing is atrocious and weird, little to differentiation in narrative voice between characters, and situations are so contrived and bizarre. i CAN'T.

'preciate u netgally & st. martin's griffin for the arc in exchange for an honest review 😌

Every book by Mazey Eddings is an insta-read and and insta-buy for me. Without a doubt my favorite author and every novel she publishes gets better and better. So it's no surprise that I loved this one.
A Sapphic love story between a painter who wins the lottery and an overall wearing flower farm owner who insists that the farm is rightfully hers.
They decide to live together while they work out how to handle their difficult situation.
It turns out flowers aren't the only thing blooming on Thistle And Bloom Farms.
If you're looking for a cutesy, carefree love story between two stubborn women then I can't recommend this book more to you!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Griffin for allowing me to read and ARC of this sweet, spicy delightful book!

Full of some of the most delicious tropes, forced proximity, a slight "one bed" moment, grumpy/sunshine, enemies to friends to lovers etc this book is a sweet sapphic delight. But don't worry, there is SPICE A PLENTY.

This book also has great autistic and adhd neurodivergent representation and also deals with some trauma from a narcacistic parent.

I highly reccomend this book to anyone interested in wlw stories, especially if you like art/flowers or neurospicy rep. It's also explicit and doesn't fade to black. A delightful, easy read I highly reccomend!

I haven’t read many or any sapphic romances (that I can think of). But this book was a delight to read! This book follows Opal Devlin and Pepper Boden. Their worlds collide when Opal buys Thistle and Bloom Farms with the money she won from the lottery.

Opal is such a sweet character. She’s a people pleaser who was unfortunately taken advantage of by almost everyone around her. Even with all of that going on she still manages to be a ray of sunshine!

Pepper is grumpier than Opal. She’s recently lost her grandmother, who raised her after her mother abandoned her. I loved the banter between them and seeing how their romance developed. It was very heartwarming! I also enjoyed how she put her so called “friends” in their place at the end! I also loved the neurodivergent rep in this book! This book was an amazing and enjoyable read!

Thanks to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for the opportunity to read this ARC!

Great story, really nice prose, wonderful banter. This has a beautiful romance and is well worth picking up if you like sapphic romance. Mazey Eddings’ a comfort read for me, and I really hope to see more books from her with this kind of representation!

DNF at 67%. loved the idea of this and really wanted this to be my next “I’m so hooked I can’t put this down” kind of book but it just fell a little flat for me. As a neurodivergent woman I related with both characters more than most books but I just didn’t feel connected to them. The beginning of the book was good I read almost half the book in one sitting but then it just became slow and my lack of character attachment made me lose interest.

I think I have complicated feelings about this one. There are absolutely parts of the book I adored and am grateful for. There's a chunk where Pepper sits in her grief and it is beautiful and a great reminder for me in the moment I'm having in my personal life. I needed that representation. But I also didn't super duper believe in these two people as a couple. All I saw was a ton of reasons they shouldn't work, but I didn't feel like we got enough reasons they SHOULD work together. Individually, I really liked each character and was happy for their growth and personal journies, but I'm not sold on them as a happily ever after.

Late Bloomer has all of the best parts of Mazey Eddings' writing--deeply loving characters who want to be deeply loved in return, strong neurodiverse representation, and so much humor.

Opal isn't sure exactly what she's doing in life, but she knows that filling in as an inflatable ice cream cone for her dead-end job isn't it. She has an ex-boyfriend--who is awful--but still keeps her on a string. She has a best friend--who is awful--who only wants whatever Opal can give her. And Opal gives, and gives, and gives, the ultimate people pleaser who wants someone to love her regardless. When Laney, the awful best friend, gifts her a winning scratch-off, she takes the money and buys a flower farm off Facebook Marketplace (yes, it's a risk!). It's a place where she can make art and have something of her own.

When she arrives, though, she finds Pepper inhabiting the farm. Pepper is nursing her grief over the loss of the only person who truly loved her, Grandma Lou. She knows everything about flowers but little about the farm's financial reality, which is not doing well. Opal showing up, having legally bought the farm from her awful mom, Trish, is just another blow.

The book follows Opal and Pepper's path to try and find financial stability for the farm. But, more importantly, it follows both in their attempts to take big risks. For Opal, it's standing up for herself and pursuing her art, all while wanting to be everything for Pepper. For Pepper, it's learning to articulate what she wants, even with her autism and a rough upbringing. Those backgrounds do lead to miscommunication, which is never a fan favorite, but in a way, I think it feels honest and reflective of what the two are trying to overcome.

As I said at the jump, the book is full of humor which made me love the Philadelphia trio of books, but there is just as much heart. If you loved that series, I think you'll enjoy this book just as much. I'm curious to see if we'll have another trifecta of books heading our way, as Opal has two entertaining sisters whom we are briefly introduced to in this one.

For those who love Eddings' previous series, you'll see a brief cameo for Lizzie's bakery, which is always fun. I love it when authors have their characters exist in the same universe.

* Thank you to St. Martin's Press/St. Martin's Griffin and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review! *

I found this book to be really engaging and I loved the premise. I'm a sucker for queer romance so this story was right up my alley. I am looking forward to reading other books by the author.

I devoured this book so quickly! I enjoyed it and have not read anything like it before! I enjoyed the characters and everything else about this book!

Yet another Mazey Eddings book I couldn't put down! What an absolutely lovely sapphic romance (with such a unique and fun premise). There are characters that made me laugh out loud (Opal really is a true gem, such a sweet little Victorian ghost child), and also a little teary. Opal, Pepper, their friends, and the southern flower farm shenanigans had me wishing I could stay in their world just a little longer.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book. It was so cute and there were so many swoon worthy moments. I was really looking for a FF romance to tick all my boxes and this was pretty darn close. I thought Opal and Peppers chemistry was amazing, and the will-they-won't-they in the beginning had me foaming at the mouth. The spice was also done right, not too much but just enough to have you wanting more. My only note was that at times it felt a little slow at times. But the rest of the story made up for it. Deffo pick this one up when you can!!

While there’s so much to love about this story, the stunning cover (yes, I judge books by their cover), the autistic and neurodivergent rep, sunshine versus grumpy MC, and the beautiful writing, I didn’t love it as much as I expected to beforehand. This doesn’t mean I think the book is bad. On the contrary, even. It’s just that I’m looking for different things in a story.

Sometimes, I need a comfort read, but I know by now that a comfort read for me doesn’t mean a low angsty, low conflict romance with a HEA. And that’s exactly what Late Bloomer is. I was constantly waiting for more angst and more conflict, not necessarily between Opal and Pepper (I’m known for my hate for unnecessary third-act break-ups); inner conflict would have been great, too. But I didn’t get any, at least not as much as I wanted to, and I felt a little bored while reading.

So, if you’re looking for a low angst, low conflict story in your next comfort read, this one is for you. I’m going to pick up a story with more friction and tension (hopefully). So bye!

I enjoyed the developing relationship between the two main characters. I also enjoyed the growth both of them went through in the book. The description of the world in the book are amazing.

DNF at 15%. I really wanted to like this book but I found the writing amateurish and clunky. Plus I didn't much care for the characters. I might try again in the future, but I don't think I'm vibing with this one.

DNF at 12%.

Am I supposed to be charmed that Opal is beaten down by circumstances, hopeless and helpless, and that her only "friends" are people who take advantage of her for sex and money? Is it supposed to be funny that she is swindled out of her big windfall by a con artist?

It isn't OK that the meet cute is set up by our two MCs being cheated out of their savings and livelihood, respectively. Opal buying the farm from Trisha sight unseen is just too stupid for words. It is what writers call an "idiot plot", from Wikipedia, "a plot which is kept in motion solely by virtue of the fact that everybody involved is an idiot".

So I can't do this any more. I don't like these characters, I don't like this story, and I don't like this author.

2.5⭐

When one of your most anticipated reads of the year falls flat... Ugh!

Listen. LISTEN. The premise of this books sounded SO promising. I was so excited for a neurodivergent sapphic love story that takes place on a FLOWER FARM (hello!!!), but this was so... forced? Cliché. Bland! The phrases "she giggled" and "she rolled her eyes" were used SO many times I wanted to rip my hair out. There were so many issues with the writing, the pacing, and the characters. Opal and Pepper's love story is based off of little to nothing. The only thing the have in common is that they are both neurodivergent! The opposites attract narrative did land. The grumpy/sunshine trope missed the marked entirely. The chemistry just wasn't there for me. The conversations surrounding sensory issues should have been fleshed out more, in my opinion. There definitely needed to be more talk about how touches during s3x can sometimes feel wrong, off, too much, and just downright overwhelming.

I also really disliked the way Eddings painted us neurodivergent people as "disasters." The characterization of Opal was that of a "walking tornado" (I'm paraphrasing) and she's described as someone who bounds into people's lives and messes things up. Made me super uncomfy. I'm so tired of the narrative that every person with ADHD is a "mess" when it comes to taking care of their spaces, their appearance, their well-being. It's getting old.

Now I don't want to be remiss and not mention what I DID enjoy about this book. There are a few of saving graces! The descriptions of grief were really well done. I also did enjoy that Pepper and Opal do not try to change one other. There is a coherent understanding between these two that autism and ADHD are very difficult to navigate. It's also understood that communication isn't always easy when you don't have a neurotypical brain.

I really wish this book was better. I'm hoping that since this is an ARC, maybe some of the things I disliked will be revisited and edited. Fingers crossed the finished copy is a bit better.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press (St. Martin's Griffin) for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Late Bloomer is a sweet, sometimes funny, sometimes sensual story of two young women who are both at moments of upheaval in their lives, evaluating what to keep and figuring out how to let go-- and is absolutely full of flowers. When they find and choose each other, everything changes. I loved this book for its portrayal of sisterhood, sapphic love, nerodivergence, and grief. I only wish I could see photos of the flower show.

This book has a cute story line and I love that Pepper is an autistic woman. The beginning really pulled me in I loved opal’s personality. After opal first gets to the farm and starts interacting with Pepper I struggled to get through the book because it felt very YA for me. I almost did not finish but I had to know if they won the floral competition and I wanted to see if they ended up being more than friends with benefits. This is probably a good book for most people just for my personal preference once again it felt YA and i didn’t connect with it.