First of all, thanks to NetGalley and the publisher (St. Martin’s Griffin) for the eARC of this book!

My thoughts:
This book was a cutesy, small town-(ish?) romance that I was super excited to review. I think the writing was nice and easy-to-read, and I think that the author was pretty good at directing where the story was going to go. I do think, though (this is a problem I have with most multi-pov books) is that I felt as though the author prioritized one character’s pov waaaay more than the other, and I found that that drew me away from reading it for a bit. Either way, this was a cute romance that I will definitely recommend to someone when it comes out!

(also excuse me this cover is GORGEOUS)

I’m not normally a romance reader, but the cover is so cute I couldn’t resist. This is a lovely, low-stakes little book that’s definitely one of the most consciously diverse things I’ve read in a long while. However, the initial concept is a bit hard to believe, and despite being in their mid-twenties, the characters seem significantly younger than that - which can be a bit uncomfortable at times. It can get quite preachy about loving yourself and knowing your worth, meaning there’s also a LOT of self hatred going on, which is generally kept at bay by really tight hugs. Despite these few snags, overall, Late Bloomer is a sweet story that is quick and easy to read, and a nice palate cleanser between less cute reads. Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!

A cute, sapphic romance with some spice AND a full cast of queer, diverse peoples. And a beautiful cover. What more could you need?
Our main characters are very realistic. One MC is autistic and the other is neurodivergent (I appreciated the conversation from Opal about how titles never felt right for her, not to mention going for official tests are expensive). Then Pepper and Opal both have trauma, and the author doesn’t water it down nor make it the character’s entire personality. Eddings’ writing is done in such a way that you can feel and understand (and possibly relate) to each one’s trauma making it so realistic.
We had a lot of character development but not as much plot as I kind of wanted. I wish there was a little more to the plot. I was excited to read about Opal’s journey to becoming the artist she dreamed of being. However, I feel as though it got pushed to the background once she got her shed set up. There seemed to be more of picking flowers and sexy scenes than her doing her artwork.
I am so happy that before the first chapter even started the author included a page for content warnings. All books that have potential trigger warnings should include a page like this in the beginning before a reader even starts their book. I LOVE how the author included a list of potential titles at the end of the book. Some of those were hilarious. Plus, the added insight on some of the flowers mentioned in the book was cool. It’s the little things like this that add the sprinkles on top to a book.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing a free copy of this novel. In no way does this shape or change my opinions of the story.

Lottery winnings, flower farming, two strangers who each have their own internal and external problems. Say no more. This book had me at flower farming. Our main characters are Opal, someone who thinks she always a screw up, and Pepper, who doesn't trust anyone. What blooms between them is so beautiful and I loved every second of this book. I personally have never related to a character more than I did Opal. I felt seen by her internal dialog and being scared to stand up for herself. I fell in love with them and their relationship from somewhat enemies to lovers. I wholeheartedly recommend this book. I'm so glad Kayla, from Booksandlala (one of my favorite booktubers) put this book on my radar. Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Griffin for allowing me to read in exchange for an honest review.

Shout out to Netgalley for the arc!!

SO swoony. I loved this books, it was super quick and has all of the best aspects of a rom com! I honestly can’t believe I’ve never read a book by this author before, I’m seriously obsessed with her writing style. I’ll definitely be devouring all future Eddings books. I needed a swoony sapphic book and this DELIVERED. I absolutely recommend y’all read this!

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers and Mazey Eddings for an ARC of this beautiful book in exchange for an honest review.

This is my favorite sapphic romance this year. As someone who is neurodivergent this book scratched my brain and hugged my heart in all of the best ways possible.

It was absolutely impossible not to fall in love with Opal and Pepper. As the story unfolded my dark depressed Grinch heart may have started to thaw out a little bit and more than a few times it made me laugh out loud.

For fans of romance, forced proximity and found family this is definitely not one to miss.

This was the first book I've read from this author and if you excuse me I have to go get my hands on anything attached to their name.

I am happy to report that this book does indeed live up to the beauty of its cover 🌸🌸🌸

Opal wins the lottery and in hopes of a new beginning for herself, unknowingly purchases Pepper's flower farm out from under her. When she appears at Thistle and Bloom and realizes it already has a dedicated inhabitant, the two of them decide to become temporary roommates and... well, you can probably guess what comes next.

This book is set up as Opal's story, but Pepper really steals the show. I loved Pepper's character, but Opal felt almost as inconsistent as her hair color - which, maybe that was Mazey's point as she tried to move on from her 'people pleaser' personality, but her character just wasn't resonating with me as much. This inconsistency made the narration confusing, because the POV didn't consistently switch back and forth from chapter to chapter, so I often didn't know until I saw the other character's name. It just meant I had to reread sections, which certainly wasn't a bad thing because Mazey's writing and metaphors are beautiful.

Overall, this was such a cute, heart-warming daydream of a book. It felt like a sapphic, neurodivergent version of Lovelight Farms, probably because they have such similar characteristics - a cute farm setting, a competition they need to win, a group of friends coming together to save the farm, and side characters waiting for their stories to be told. I am hopeful that Olivia and Ophelia will get their own books too!

Thank you to the publisher for kindly providing this eARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

It’s no secret I love Mazey Eddings’s writing and this book is no different.

This is a sapphic romance with two neurodivergent women who meet after Opal purchases a flower farm that Pepper is still living on. After some initial tension and animosity due to circumstances outside of themselves Opal and Pepper begin bonding and growing closer and closer until they finally kiss and things heat up from there.

This was such a lovey romance with found family, excellent neurodivergence representation and it handled the traumatic events/material well.

5 stars!

⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The cover alone had me rushing to read this book, and I am so glad it was a read now. Mazey Eddings did an amazing job with this sapphic read and I enjoyed it till the very end. The angst, the opposites-attract grumpy x sunshine trope, and the dialogue had me eating this up. It was really nice to see the neurodivergence rep here and done well compared to some other books I've read. This was so engaging, I finished it in one sitting. A great, heartwarming, touching, short read for anyone looking for a charming sapphic romance novel.

A wonderfully tender, funny, and sexy romance about two neurodiverse women who could not be more different. So steamy, so smart, so lovely. This romance will bloom in readers' hearts!

With neurodivergent rep by both characters, this sapphic opposites attract romance was really good. For Opal, there was a found family aspect to the story that I loved although she had a solid family as well. Pepper had some trust issues because of her childhood, so the two have some obstacles to overcome. Oh, also the fact that Opal bought the farm Pepper thought would be given to her when her grandma died… that didn’t help with the trust issues. Good story with great main and secondary characters.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review. Watch for Late Bloomer to come out April 16, 2024.

this was sweet and harmless. I loved the side characters and the rep. The pacing just felt very... off.
Pretty much everything on the back cover happens within the first chapter, and then you're staring down 400 pages of who knows what.
Also, the only thing I hate more than a third act conflict is a third act conflict that happens like four times and comes out of absolutely nowhere. I had to go back and reread sections because I couldn't understand why the characters were suddenly yelling at each other.
ALSO the characterization felt all over the place. We read from both MCs perspectives, and while their inner monologues read extremely similar, the way they describe each other felt so at odds with the personalities I had crafted based on their thoughts before they met each other.

Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars rounded up!

This is a very sweet, sapphic romance. It’s quite ridiculous and cheesy at times but so real and tender at others. One thing Eddings does really well is write about grief and heartache. The passages where Pepper is grieving the recent death of her grandmother almost always made me cry. It’s heartbreaking and raw and almost too real for this syrupy-sweet book.

Both Pepper and Opal are great neurodivergent representation- Pepper is autistic and has ADHD and Opal has self-diagnosed ADHD (which is so neurodivergent of her tbh) and are both generally a huge queer mess. All to say, I really enjoyed them as characters despite the fact that this book really doesn’t make much sense and if you’re a big cynic/hater like me, you have to suspend all disbelief in order to even go along with the story. Pepper and Opal are also basically the only two characters of any substance. The other characters are essentially plot devices that revolve around the main characters. Opal’s sisters particularly stuck out to me as flat- neither of them had a distinguishable personality and they lacked depth. That being said, it’s a great turn-your-brain-off book and those are much appreciated around here.

I will say that the climactic third-act breakup REALLY doesn’t make any sense to me. The fight they have is really unrealistic and took me out of the story a bit, because it did feel like making something out of nothing just for the plot’s sake. It also lasts like 2 seconds, so the tension isn’t drawn out much.

I can excuse outlandish, incredible rom-commy events but apparently I draw the line at stupid miscommunication?

Anyway, a good time was had so alls well that ends well and all that. Very cute!

Last thing- never once did Opal have just plain blonde hair and it bothers me that the cover depicts her with that instead of any other crazy color she sported!!!

I love Mazey so much as it is but this made my obsession with their work even more so. Opal and Pepper were amazing! The ANGST! This was such a raw and refreshing read, I cannot wait to read it again.

I received from Netgalley a digital advanced reader copy of Late Bloomer. Here are my honest thoughts.

The first 50% of Later Bloomer was perfection, witty and touching. I felt I could read about these characters forever. I was still happy to read their story and their happily ever after, but the story lost some momentum for me.

50% is also when the slow burn caught fire, and they entered into a physically intimate relationship. You know, while delusionally swearing that was all it would be. Like couples in romance do.

I'm kinda at a place where intimate scenes bore me. I have no issue with them, or people who love them, but I'm just more about the banter and getting to know one another these days. But I'm certainly not going to punish a romance that wasn't exactly advertised to be closed door for this.

FWIW, there are moments in those scenes that are interesting in terms of exploration of character, sex positivity, and body positivity -- including, ahem, hair. I absolutely think a lot of people are going to enjoy those scenes. (There's only a couple.)

The book also includes a neurodivergent heroine, maybe 2.

I think my (small) issue is that the characters seemed to lose their way and weren't the Olivia and Pepper *I* fell in love with. They seemed to lose a little of their spark and chemistry. Maybe it's because with the physical intimacy the story needed them to lose some of the original dynamic as Pepper began to trust Opal.

I still had a great time. Opal is pure heart. Pepper's personality really had a dash of pepper. The secondary characters were very likable. The various villains get their just deserts. We get two women in love surrounded by flowers and art.

I'd read more from the author. I'd actually enjoy a mystery from the author! Can our couple solve crimes?

First we saw an autism/adhd - opposites attract with Tilly in Technicolor and I LOVED it. Now we get it with Late Bloomer and I LOVED this one just as much.

Opal is stuck in her "feels like she's always making a mess of things" era - so when she wins 500k from scratch off lottery ticket, she realizes that this is her chance to start fresh & new. She finds an ad for a flower farm and buys it so she can have a calming & beautiful place to create her art.
In comes Pepper who just so happens to live at this flower farm and is struggling to keep the farm afloat.

I'm pretty sure Opal fell first and fell hard, but it didn't take long for Pepper to fall too. I loved being able to read their POV and get two very distinct voices. I loved their chemistry and I loved the relationships between Opal & Pepper and the background/side characters. Even the grandma, I felt like she was very much a real person in the story even though she didn't have her own voice.

Another amazing story from Mazey Eddings and another one that is getting a billion stars (goodreads is lame to max at 5).

HUGE. HUGE. HUGE. HUGE. HUGE thank you to NetGalley and St Martins Press for the widget & ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I've never read anything by Mazey Eddings before, but after seeing this beautiful cover and reading so many rave reviews, I knew I needed to give "Late Bloomer" a try! I'm glad I did, as the characters were relatable and I really enjoyed the blossoming romance and flower-related puns!
Even before she wins the lottery and is overwhelmed with people schmoozing her, hoping for a handout, Opal doesn't have any true friends outside of her loyal sisters. Fed up with being taken advantage of, Opal essentially flees to Asheville, North Carolina, home of the flower farm she impulsively purchased with her winnings. However, it turns out that someone is already residing at the farm: Pepper, whose grandmother almost single-handedly made Thistle and Bloom Farms what it is today. The two grudgingly come to a compromise over their living situation, and you can largely predict what transpires from that point on!
I liked this because even though romance books tend to follow a lot of the same patterns and formulas that can make them feel forced or boring, the characters in this felt real. I appreciated the representation of queer, neurodivergent characters, and I could especially relate to a lot of Opal's struggles. Having flowers as a focal point, with all the incredible symbolism, was an added bonus. Solid 4 stars from me!
Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Mazey Eddings, and NetGalley for this eARC!!

I liked all of Mazey Eddings books that I have read previously and this was no exception. Cute, steamy read and definitely fun plot. I would recommend!

This book was such a delight from start to finish! I fell in love with both Opal and Pepper, watching the way their own anxieties and fears twisted and turned, pulling them apart and putting them back together. The characters were so rich and unique and complicated. It was also so wonderful to see representation of neurodivergent characters as well as amazing representation of female same-sex pleasure and intimacy that felt fun, real, and very sexy!

I will read whatever Mazey Eddings writes!! She beautifully balances swoon, steam and all the feels to create relatable and FUN love stories. I absolutely loved these characters and their tension and tenderness. As always with her novels, the queer + mental health rep is incredibly meaningful. Thank you so much to SMP and Netgalley for my copy.