A fun, well-rounded, cute romance with spice. I enjoyed the banter and the emotional depth of the story!

Mazey Eddings books always have the perfect mix of romance, comfort and good mental health rep and Late Bloomer did as well. This is a low angst romance where main character Opal wins the lottery and buys a failing flower farm to get away from everyone trying to use her to get some of her lottery money. She meets Pepper who works on the farm and they have a not so great first meeting because Pepper is supposed to be the owner of the farm. Despite the dislike between them they start living together on the farm and have to learn to work with each other which leads to an attraction and benefits situation.

I liked how low angst this because sometimes it what I need. I loved how opposites the characters were, grumpy sunshine ish is my jam, I’ve seen this in other reviews but I did also find it hard especially in the beginning to tell the different characters and their povs apart. The chemistry was working and the spicy scenes were done well. Also I’m glad for the neurodivergent and autistic rep and the realness to this romance. Overall a nice comfort read with a beautiful and real romance.

Read for:
- Sapphic romance
- Opposites attract
- Flower farm plot
- Mental health rep

Thank you SMP for this arc for an honest review.

Mild spoilers below

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Characters – 6/10
Flaws through the inner dialogue were good and realistic to me. I liked the secondary characters, but they weren’t super memorable. I also felt like the mother seemed like a likeable character at first through Opal’s eyes, and then not at all through Penny’s eyes at the end. They are different characters, yes, but I felt like there should have been something at least a little unlikeable about the mother in the beginning in order for the last scene with her to really land.

Atmosphere – 7/10
Described the settings & characters decently.

Writing – 6.5/10
Sometimes I felt like the inner dialogue was heavier than it should be, even though I did think the inner dialogue helped round out the characters.

Plot – 5.5/10
I felt like the pacing was slow in the beginning and middle, and then too fast at the end. It took too long for the decision to do the competition.

Intrigue – 5.5/10
The book didn’t grab my attention as much as I would have liked. I wanted to see how it would end, but I much preferred to pick up other books before this one.

Logic – 5.5/10
Some of the fights between the characters didn’t seem to make sense or came out of nowhere.

Enjoyment – 5.5/10
I liked it, but I wouldn’t recommend it heartily. Just as something people may want to read as a light read to pass some time.

I really enjoyed this book! Opl was such a fun character and it was so great to explore her in the moments of humor and the moments of grief. The spice was fun and I would recommend this book!

Thanks to NetGalley & St. Martin's Press for the early copy in exchange for an honest review. Sadly, I DNF'ed at 25% of the way through.

I thought it was a weirdly depressing meet-up between the love interests. The mom illegally sold the grandmother's flower farm and the recently-turned-rich girl runs away from all her "friends" who want her money. It was pretty dark.

Even then, Pepper & Opal barely got along despite the central romance. I was happy to have the neurodivergent rep but they kept overexplaining everything and telling instead of just showing it was driving me nuts.

Maybe it got better later on but I wasn't feeling it.

I loved Opal and Pepper’s dynamic! I wish there was a bit more diversity but it didn’t take away from the story. It was super cute and I loved the flower house, I could picture it in vivid detail. I wish there was more on the relationships with friends and family but overall a really solid sapphic romance!

Thanks to Netgalley for access to this E-ARC! This was so cute! Loved the characters & the romance. Also this cover is gorgeous! Definitely recommend.

I adored this one! I found some of my own traits in both of the characters, and loved that the story dealt with more than just romance; mental illness, grief, and found family. It was a quick read, and I still think about this one after finishing it a couple weeks ago. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

I liked this but I didn’t love it, which is a bummer because I really like Mazey Eddings’ stuff. The voices of Piper and Opal were kind of hard to differentiate sometimes, and I felt like the pacing was a little all over the place. I did really love the setting and the mental health representation was great, as per always with Eddings. I also appreciated the little nod to Lizzie Blake. And a beautiful cover!!

Mazey Eddings just gets better and better. I loved LATE BLOOMER with my whole heart, from the punny title (and Mazey's delightful backmatter about title selection and flowers) to reading as Pepper and Opal learned to advocate for themselves and let someone else care for them. There really is something to be said for watching as neurodivergents discover that they aren't a burden, that they deserve more than the way they've been treated, that they're capable of so much more than people have given them credit for. It's wholesome and lovely and refreshing.
Mazey handles the topics of grief, manipulative non-friends, and narcissistic mothers with aplomb - allowing her characters the time to process and find a way through the hurt. But for as important as those topics are, they don't overshadow the central romance, rather adding dimension to it. From forced proximity to a slow burn roommates with benefits (but definitely no feelings allowed), each new trope gave Pepper and Opal space to work through things, while offering gentle support and acceptance as well as they could. The sex scenes were a delight, equally steamy and communicative. I could go on, but suffice to say, I'd really like to move to the Thistle and Bloom and spend all my days surrounded by flowers.

A Brush with Love was one of the books that got me back into reading, so when I saw this beautiful, Sapphic cover I was very excited. Then it was opposites attract and feminine and adorable and everything I wanted. This could be my favorite romance book of the month, or even the year.

Everyone dreams of winning the lottery but nobody realizes how stressful it can be! Opal was down on her luck, overachiever and people pleasure when she got a scratch ticket and she had won! She takes this opportunity to get a fresh start, try something new and follow her passions to be an artist. She bought a beautiful flower farm and along the way she found love. This book is very well written Pepper and Opal are the cutest and throw in the flower farm it is a wonderful story!

TLDR: I'd recommend this to people who want a chill, funny, fan-fiction type read with low stakes and queer people having fun and being silly. Otherwise, you are NOT gonna be happy with this!

I was super excited to get an ARC for this. I've been in a litfic era for a minute, and I was excited to read something contemporary and fun. This definitely fits the bill! It's funny, flirty, and a fairly quick read. If you're tired of every single Sapphic book being SUPER angsty and sad, this is a welcome departure. I will say, and I don't mean this in a mean way-- it reads like good fan fiction. It has that quality where the events are super convenient, and a lot of stuff falls back on tropes. Again, I actually really enjoy that about this book! I like how it doesn't put pressure on itself to be something other than a sweet, ~spicy~ romance. I will say though, because it did fall back on tropes, I would have liked to see the characters developed a little more. Their voices felt a little homogenous to me. That was the main reason this was a 4 star read for me.

I'll definitely be interested in seeing what this author publishes in the future!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an advanced copy!

Ooh, this was a fun one. First: look at that cover! If you’re into fun grumpy/sunshine romances with a quirky premise and two neurodivergent love interests, Late Bloomer is definitely the book for you.

Both Opal and Pepper are very likeable and relatable — they’re also both neurodivergent, which was a pleasant surprise; Pepper is explicitly autistic and it was great to see an autistic woman as a leading lady of a romcom, and well-written representation too. I feel like a lot of people can relate to both of the main characters in different ways.

One thing I didn’t like so much about this book was that the humour was so … 2023 chronically online (derogatory), and it definitely feels like it will be dated, and a lot of the comedy didn’t land with me.

This was a lighthearted and fun sapphic book, and definitely very cute.

I received this as an ARC copy from NetGalley.

This was one of the “fluffier” books I have read in a long time, and I don’t mean that to be a bad thing! As someone who reads a lot of dark romance it is nice to have a palette cleanser of sorts - meaning - it was lighthearted, minimal conflict, and overall the HEA you’d expect from a romance book.

I related so much with Opal in that she tends to be a people pleaser, overthinks literally everything, but also tends to be a little flighty and overreacts to certain things. She is truly a sunshine in this book and while sometimes the optimistic characters can get on my nerves (call me a pessimist I know) she wasn’t so overalls sunshiny that it wasn’t realistic.

Pepper was less relatable to me, but nevertheless she was a great character and paired perfectly to opal for the grumpy-meets-sunshine trope. I really liked that the author included characters that weren’t neurotypical. Sometimes this can come across as a weird if the author hasn’t done research on the conditions, but this author clearly had knowledge on the subject matter.

The plot, while far fetched, was cute (I mean look at the cover, of course it’s cute) and it was an overall fun reading experience. If you’re looking for an easy, lighthearted, rom-com, forced-roommate, comfort type read book of sorts (with a little spice even) then you have came to the right place!

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.

Readers who enjoy low-stakes, introspective, meager-plot-mostly-vibes stories will likely enjoy Late Bloomer.

As a queer, neurodivergent person, I wanted to love this book. And what's more, I love introspection and depth in romance novels! But the inner monologues and constant explanations of everything, including the details of neurodivergence, was way, way, way too much. I thought writers were meant to describe, not explain. The one benefit of the explanations... I guess... is to help neurotypical readers understand better what goes through ND's heads. I just don't think it was well executed. Though, there were indeed little moments of inner monologue that landed well, those moments when the character let her thoughts run away from her, like a bit of stream of consciousness writing. If the explanatory passages were removed and these raw moments retained, the novel would be much improved.

That said, I deeply appreciate the neurodivergent rep, and all the other aspects of humanity represented in this novel. It's not a bad story, not by any means. The romance arc parts of the book were great, and for the most part everything is very well written and characterizations create a good amount of sympathy. For me though it was a drag to read, so many scenes I wondered what they were for, and I generally love stories that are a little slow.

The first few chapters were particularly a drag, and had this not been an ARC I would have DNFd within the first few. Too many aspects were cliche (third act...sigh...) and just uninteresting. The overall structure and composition of the ending felt far more natural and much less over-produced than the beginning. I want to read a novel that reads like the last 30% of Late Bloomer.

rep: autistic mc, neurodiverse mc, bi mcs
tropes: grumpy x sunshine, forced proximity

first, let’s start with the obvious, the cover is absolutely stunning.


now for the book itself, wow! i cannot express how much i adored pepper and opal. their dynamics, their backstories, their personalities, everything about them was very well thought out. i also found the side characters to be very likable which is an important part of the reading process for me. with this book being dual pov, it was easy for me to tell the main characters point of views apart — which i sometimes struggle with if the main characters are too much alike.

moving forward to the writing. i found some parts near the beginning to be quite slow but it didn’t take away from my overall enjoyment of the book. i did enjoy the plot/premise of this book. i found it original and interesting. i loved the taylor swift reference and the constant nods to different flowers.

overall i would definitely recommend this swoon-worthy, giggling-and-kicking-your-feet, spicy, cozy romance.

thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the opportunity to review an advance copy of this book.

I really like this author, Mazey Eddings, and have enjoyed her past books a lot. She writes her characters with so much personality! This one is no exception - Olive, an undiagnosed but self-proclaimed neurodivergent woman, screams so much chaos off the page that it was almost too much for me, especially at the first third of the book. So. Much. Chaos. But I know people like this, and she was such a loveable misfit it really grew on me.

I felt that the other MC, Pepper, did not give as much of a clear picture to me. She's autistic, which meant that her perspective was much quieter and more thoughtful, but was difficult to compare next to the stream of chaos from Olive. I wonder if the dual narrators doesn't work as well here, due to that - there's some overshadowing happening.

The story and the romance were sweet, with enough of a story to pull it all together. I could have used more of a slow burn here - I wasn't sure that someone with zero sexual experience would jump into a friends with benefits situation!!. There was thoughtful self-awareness and emotions coming from the characters. I would have liked to see the villains be a bit more present or fleshed out - I think there was a missed opportunity for sabatoge, for example. But I think the real conflict of the story was internal to both MCs, which also works.

I also love the beautiful cover but they don't "look" like the characters to me - particularly Olive - where is the green or pink hair?

ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS STORY!!! I have loved everything that Mazey Eddings has written, but this one shot right up to the top of the list as my favourite.
I loved the characters and how they grew throughout the entire book to find themselves and be the best for themselves. The neurodivergent representation was well done, and I liked that while it was an important part of the characters, it was not the main focus, and that they learned to excel past things that held them back.
Quick and easy read. Would 100% recommend to anyone who asks.

This book was so good!! I found myself laughing out loud and wanting to tell the people around me what was happening in the story. This was a cozy, cute read with some very unexpected but some very well done spice 😍 I am so happy I had the chance to read it! I will be thinking about this book for a long time. Pepper and Opal forever 🥹🥹