neurodiverse sapphic grumpy-sunshine? done.

As contemporary romance has started to branch out, authors like Eddings have been my favorites, especially showing how two people with variations of neurodiversity are front and center in how they view and act in the world while still giving them the dimensions of real, fleshed-out characters. I hope that this genre continues to expand in its diversity as time goes on! Keep them coming - our students could benefit from seeing this type of material in a lighter genre than the tragic-suffering-queer literature books..

If you love low-stakes, summer-love-trapped-in-amber sorts of stories with minimal conflict you’ll love this, but it wasn’t the book for me. I found myself bored more often than not.

I had high hopes for this one too, such an amazing premise. In the end it was just a fun small town setting and two interesting characters without a story.

Opal, an out and proud bisexual woman and chronic people pleaser, plus total manic chaos pixie demon with bubblegum-pink hair, has just broken up with her loser musician boyfriend when she finds out she’s won the lottery. Now good-hearted, gullible Opal (gullible in sometimes unbelievable ways), who’s always going out of her way to help others and getting nothing in return, has won the lottery, and suddenly all her old friends are back in her life and needy.

Seeking refuge, she decides on impulse to buy a flower farm in Asheville, North Carolina that she saw advertised on Facebook Marketplace. Everything seems both legit and sketchy. Turns out there’s someone already living there, a grumpy, lonely flower farmer named Pepper grieving the loss of the late grandmother who’d raised her when her con artist mother skipped out on her at 17.

The two agree to an uneasy truce, then soon can’t deny their growing attraction and pursue a roommates-with-benefits situation, but it’s quite clear that each has caught feelings from the start.

What I loved: Excellent sapphic representation. I loved how Pepper’s a later in life virgin and no micro-label quite felt quite right for her so she settled on “queer,” which is how I feel about my sexuality sometimes. Opal’s a total disaster bi with a heart of gold, a force of nature with a wacky plan to paint shoes as a business. The two have chemistry, though after they get together their personalities really started to blend together.

Also mental health rep. Pepper’s autistic and is direct and straightforward in her social interactions, often missing simple cues and needing to self isolate. Opal suspects she has a mix of autism and ADHD but getting a diagnosis felt invasive, but she presents in a different way than Pepper, with impulse control problems and a youth spent hard partying on booze and sex to numb out her pain. I related to the way Opal describes her neurodivergent identity.

The sex scenes were steamy and sensual and raised the heat in this story.

I just ultimately found the story boring and them kind of boring together. I found it hard to track the source of their disagreements and their misunderstandings were so over the top they got to be annoying. I guess that’s the autistic element playing out but their moods really turned on a dime. Their personalities became their mental health identities without much more depth or complexity to them as the story progressed.

Case in point: In one scene Opal gets furious because Pepper’s asking for her help with a flower competition and Opal thinks she’s talking about her sexual experience and she thinks Pepper is implying biphobia. Even I was with Pepper on that one on being like huh? Where’d that come from? The dialogue was sometimes unclear on who was saying what.

They resolved their misunderstandings so quickly that the triggers seemed stupid and over the top in retrospect.

There were some lovely moments in this but it just didn’t quite come together for me as a compelling enough story.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Now, this isn’t my typical genre of book I like to read, but I’ve been feeling the love lately; so I decided to request this and it was granted! So, I dived in instantly, and I was not disappointed. This is also my first Mazzy Eddings book!

Oh, and thank you to NetGalley, Mazzy Eddings, and MacMillan Publishers for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book, like I said (so much so I devoured it in a day). This books vibe and feeling was very cozy and cute and it’s exactly what I need to enjoy romance books. The relationship between Opal and Pepper had its very cute moments, its very very VERY sexy moments (this is actually one of the spiciest romance books I’ve ever read, yes I know it’s “tame” in comparison to others leave me be lmao), and its upsetting moments. The portrayal of neurodivergency and how hard it is to have a relationship when both parties are affected by it was shown extremely well, so props to Mazzy Eddings for that! And I loved the epilogue so much, and I’m glad the story and the future of the characters wrapped up in a nice, cozy way.

Will I read another Mazzy Eddings book? Yeah, probably if its wlw romance. So if you like soft, cozy, and somewhat spicy sapphic romance novels, then I encourage you to pick up Late Bloomers, out in April of 2024!

I loved reading the character development in this book. The growth that Opal and Pepper go through individually was inspiring. I loved seeing them both stand up to their "bullies" and know their worth.

this is a really cute sapphic romance! it's lighthearted, fun, and simple. opal, down on her luck, wins the lottery. what does she decide to do? buy a flower farm in the appalachians and move there! hell yeah! however, the deal is sketchy, and there's already someone else living there — pepper. the two girls have little in common, but have to figure out their living situation as well as who actually owns the farm.

it's fun, and ooooo girl it's spicy. and i love the autistic and neurodivergent representation! autistic lesbians stay winning! it's a low stakes, fun, and flirty novel. but the characters are a bit underdeveloped. sometimes i'd be confused on who was speaking. like, whose chapter is it??? the voices of pepper and opal and everyone else are just... too similar. the meme-y jokes and humor are somewhat funny, but they will age poorly.


thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review!

I had never read any Mazey Eddings, but this will not be my last! I truly enjoyed this book. At the beginning, I felt myself truly invested in Opal and wanted to protect her and her winnings so I absolutely loved her sisters! This book was amazing and I loved the author’s writing style. I began reading it late at night and that was a mistake because I stayed up very late with it, not wanting to stop reading! I devoured this book and I loved the queer love story. I’m not a slow burn fan, but the way Eddings writes is absolutely wonderful and keeps you interested. I loved this book so much and the cover is just ::chef’s kiss::!

Jenifer Prince’s artwork for the cover was the best part of this book. I was really excited for a neurodivergent queer women romance, but just could not get into this one. The characters were distractingly underdeveloped and indistinct and the writing style felt immature and flat.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Griffin for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The story was cute, however I will admit, I did get somewhat bored in the middle. I lost interest in the story for a bit, which was disappointing cause I felt like it had more potential. Opal and Pepper were cute, but I didn't feel the connection to its biggest potential.

I thought this story was amazing! it’s one of my favorite tropes as well (gave the enemies to lovers trope) I’ve been on a fantasy kick and this was a light easy read! I loved the slow burn in the relationship and how Opal was learning the feelings of being attracted to Pepper in a romantic way

Despite having Lizzie Blake's Best Mistake on my shelves, this is my first read of Eddings' and I loved it. Not only is this gay as heck, but it is just beautiful. Some of the lines dug into me like thorns and made me bleed a little-some that were just a little too close to home, but in a good way. You know? LIke, in an I'm seen and understood way? Not even in an "I'm lonely and wish I had this for myself" kind of way-just a settled "someone gets it" kind of way. I love when a book can do that.

Needless to say, I'm excited to get to Mazey's other works to see if the character building (which is something I LOVE in books) is just as good. As a reader with aphantasia, the character work is what matters to me. The rest-the setting and the visuals-not so much. Even with the detailed explanation of the farm and flowers...well, it was lost on me. But what wasn't was the love and the sense of home that Pepper had there. The sense of new beginnings that Opal longed for there. The feeling of the place read as loudly as the visuals would for another reader.

It was beautiful...and horny. Let's not forget horny.

I first requested this from NetGalley because this is one of the prettiest covers I have ever seen. I then realized it was written by Mazey Eddings and got even more excited because I have loooovvveeed every book of hers that I have read. I picked up The Plus One earlier this year, cried and giddily kicked my feet through it in about a day and then spent the next three days reading A Brush With Love and Lizzie Blake’s Best Mistake and loved those too. Late Bloomer was just as good (if not even better honestly)! I just loved these characters and this story and the fact that it was set on a flower farm?!!!!?!! I loved this sooo much and I am really hoping that Opal’s sisters also get books because I need more!!

Cute and sweet (but definitely spicy, too!), I was rooting for Opal and Pepper the entire way through. I love the setting of a flower farm, and the representations of both Opal's and Pepper's neurodiversity and how it affected how they moved through the world was so well-handled, with both of them feeling very real.

I'm also a huge sucker for the "I'll never stand up for myself, but say a bad thing about my partner and your ass is grass" trope, especially when used as a moment when the other person realizes feelings (in either direction), and I loved that we got multiple excellent examples of it here. Also no third-act breakup! Thank you for tensions coming from other things.

Small quibbles with a few threads that could have been tighter or handled better (mostly around the flower sculpture judging), but all in all, a great read.

This book was so very sweet. The way neurodivergence is presented in Mazey Eddings’s books is always so important and her exploration of grief in this really made me feel for Pepper. I love how they found each other through their own struggles. It’s just a warm hug of a book.

This book, cover and characters were beautiful. I really enjoyed reading it! I did not find any parts to be slow. I felt like I could flow through it and not get lost.

oh what a sugary sweet (and surprisingly spicy 👀) story! I always love books where two characters start out at odds before they learn to see the world through the other persons eyes. It's always satisfying and never disappoints. I would say the story feels fairly generic in its tropes and the roles the characters play, but it doesn't remove any enjoyment from the fun, lighthearted story.

There's great chemistry between Opal and Pepper, they're funny and swoony in equal measure. I love the way the characters communicate, and how there was more to their story than "can we or can't we be together". It felt pretty well rounded and added a lot more depth to their story than I expected.

Usually pop culture references are my biggest pet peeve in contemporary stories (it's always the romance books that pile them on) but I found the references in this book felt very accurate to my own age range, so I may have been more than a little biased in enjoying them.

All in all this is a great easy read, and even though it felt a bit typical at times I thoroughly enjoyed following these characters as they fell in love. thank you to netgalley for the e-arc!

Thank you St. Martin’s Press for this book in exchange for my honest review.

WHAT I LOVED:
1. Mazey put the meaning of different flowers at the back of the book.
2. The Anatomy of a Title section was hilarious!
3. Heck, the entire book had me laughing out loud like an utter geek!
4. The sex scenes were hot!
5. I could relate to the insecurities of the main characters…so much had my eyes watering and my heart squeezing. 🥹
6. The story is well-rounded and ended well.

Overall rating: 4/5

4.5 stars

Opal Devlin was going through life without a plan. She had gone to school to train to be an artist, but was unsure of how to make a career out of art. She was currently making minimum wage at an ice cream shop as an inflatable ice cream cone. When she won a big payoff on a scratch-off lottery ticket, she was ecstatic. The possibilities were endless. One day while scrolling through social media, Opal saw a listing for a farm near Asheville on Facebook Marketplace. She immediately called the number and made an appointment to meet with the person about the listing. The farm, Thistle and Bloom, sounded perfect for what Opal wanted. She gave the woman a check for $300,000.00 and bought the farm sight unseen. Opal was thrilled. She packed her belongings and headed to Asheville to see her new property. She would start a business painting one-of-a-kind shoes.

Pepper had a difficult childhood. She and her mother moved frequently to avoid the people her mother scammed. Pepper had been diagnosed as autistic and the numerous changes caused by the moves made life especially hard for her. When Pepper was seventeen, she was dropped off at her grandmother's farm. Her mother said she would be back soon with a great new apartment as a permanent place for them to live. Pepper had never been to the farm before or met her grandmother. Fortunately, her grandmother was a wonderful, loving person who was happy to have Pepper in her life when her mother failed to return. Grandmother Lou was the only relative Pepper knew other than her mother. Pepper found the place that made her soul sing at the Thistle and Bloom. She was very good with the plants and loved being among them. When Grandmother Lou died, Pepper learned the farm was in financial straits. She needed to come up with a good plan in order to get the farm back in the black. While she was trying to figure out what she could do to bring in more money, a young woman arrived at the farm and told Pepper she was the new owner of the farm.

I loved this book. I loved Pepper and Opal. You got to know each of the main characters in depth, as they told the story from their points of view. Personality wise, they were as opposite as could be. Pepper was weary of strangers and closed off. Opal was out-going and friendly. This caused many of their initial clashes. As time went on, they began to learn how the other saw the world and made adjustments so they could determine a plan to work out their problem with the farm. Overtime, they began to see each other as more and it was enjoyable to watch them fall. There was a spicy element to the story for those who are interested in that information. The secondary characters are lovely as well. I would enjoy being around them all. This is the third Mazey Eddings book I have read and I loved each one.

I received an e-ARC for Late Bloomer and want to thank Mazey Eddings, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley for the opportunity to voluntarily read and give an honest review of this book. Late Bloomer will be published on April 16, 2024.

I enjoyed this book, especially the portrayal of neurodiversity. The plot of basically that this queermo wins the lottery and buys a flower farm on a whim, but there’s this other queermo already living there. I didn’t absolutely love this book, maybe because the premise felt so contrived, but I enjoyed it. I think other fans of sapphic romance will like it, too. Partial recommend.

I've never read a F/F romance before but this was a great way to start!! Forced proximity? Enemies to lovers? Autism representation? LQBTQ+? YES. (also the title defs should've been "Every Garden Needs a Ho")
This is an incredibly sweet romance where a woman named Pepper suffers a devastating loss and is left to run the flower farm, Thistle & Bloom by herself. Until people-pleasing Opal wins the lottery and buys it, wanting to start fresh and work on her art. This is all done without Pepper's knowledge or consent. Pepper and Opal start butting heads while co-existing until feelings or lack of start getting in the way. It's a beautiful story of 2 people realizing that they're worthy and deserving of love.
I do think it could've been shorter, I felt there were some parts that were just filler. Overall, I really enjoyed this book & I'm grateful I got it as an ARC!!

Such a good palate cleanser of a book! This was such a great change from a lot of the heavier books I’ve been ready recently. I really enjoyed this lgbtq+ romcom, books like this are exactly what the community needs! Such a wonder and adorable read.

There were so many up and downs, big emotions (from me), and parts that had me laughing out loud. And all of that played and was written beautifully.

Also, that cover! The colors, the illustrations, ugh just beautiful!