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!

This is what they mean when they say gay people deserve mediocre media!!! I mean that as such a compliment.

Late Bloomer is the epitome of a classic romcom but instead of a straight couple it’s SAPPHIC. It was cute, fun, quick to read, and based on an adorable but outlandish scenario which is all anyone can ask for in a romance. Such a perfect pallet cleanser.

This was a nice shake-up from my usual reading routine! Pepper and Opal, along with their cast of family, friends, and enemies made for a light-ish (gayyyy) romance. I also wanted to paste some of my favorites quotes from the novel that really made me laugh out loud and truly resonated with who I am as well:

“I trail behind her, trying my best to corral my runaway thoughts into horny jail.”

“as someone with little to no natural instinct on what’s socially acceptable in conversations, nothing feels like an overshare.”

“I was tempted to meet her on the lawn, walk across the dewy grass with the golden sun poised behind me à la Matthew Macfadyen sluttily strutting in Pride & Prejudice (2005).”

Also bonus points for mentioning Taylor Swift, Orlando Bloom, Harry Styles, and the absolute atrocity and ironic delight of the Twilight Series that I am very biased towards somehow. It made the novel feel very current but not inauthentic.

This was a very sweet (and sexy) story that spiced up my Labor Day. I loved the setting, found both Opal and Pepper to be endearing, and was glad to see them succeed. I found some subplot stuff tedious, but I loved the Taylor Swift moments (you can’t tell me the color maroon wasn’t used intentionally) and certainly hope we get Olivia’s and Ophelia’s stories eventually.

I had to sit a little while before I wrote this review. This book … just wow. I absolutely loved it and it solidified Mazey Eddings as one of my favorite authors.

As with her previous books, the author includes a lot of varied, and imho, extremely well done representation including but not limited to: ADHD, autism, migraine, and LGBTQIAP2-S+. Sometimes I just had to stop reading and just be grateful at how well done aspects of this book were. The author clearly and obviously chose all of the plot lines and language with thoughtfulness and care.

Okay, enough gushing without specifics. Opal and Pepper are our two main characters. Opal tries, she tries so hard and always seems to muck things up. She has had several extremely tough years. And then … she wins the lotto and buys a flower farm. She wants to start a business where she sells painted shoes (Opal is an artist who works in all mediums but loves painting designs on shoes. How cute is that?) There is a problem though, Pepper, our other MC, still lives on the farm because it belonged to her late great-aunt. Opal can’t even manage to use her lotto winnings without feeling like she is causing trouble. How will Opal and Pepper handle the mix up?

If I didn’t make it clear earlier, I absolutely loved these characters. Opal has ADHD and just wants to belong, find her spark, make some friends who maybe become a found family? oof. I feel that. Pepper has autism and hates her birthday (I hate my birthday too, Pepper!) Also, she suffers from migraines. Although I do wish we saw more migraine attacks, what we did see was very well done. Pepper’s migraines had some different symptoms than mine, but 100% of them occur with migraines. Accurate migraine portrayal is so rare in romances so I was thrilled with the representation here. Pepper also has a lack of dating history with no judgment from any character! That never ever happens in romances. (Or, if it does it is so rare.) It melted my heart and made me so overjoyed. So many books are increasingly judgmental about people without a typical dating history, it was amazing to read one with such unabashed acceptance.

To top it off, Opal and Pepper actually communicate. Does it take a while to figure out a communication style that works for them? Sure. But they figure it out! They apologize. They are just good humans. The way they learn to take care of each other just makes me smile thinking about it. Plus, Opal’s sisters and Pepper’s friends round out a fantastic cast.

Lastly, the way the author handles grief was incredible too, and this is where I suggest reviewing the content warnings provided in the book and recommend reading with care.

Oh and the book had some amazing pop culture references!

I just cannot say enough wonderful things about this gem of a book. I have no reservations giving this book five stars and cannot wait to own a physical copy when it releases.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an arc of this book which I voluntarily read and reviewed. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I think Mazey Eddings Late Bloomer might just be my favorite romance novel I've ever read, but I better go ahead and read it five more times in a row to be sure. As a neurodivergent queer artist from Appalachia who was raised by a narcissistic con artist mom, I kinda feel like this book was written specifically for me. I saw so much of myself in both Opal Devlin (total pushover, people pleaser, hyper-empath) and Pepper Boden (autism, sensory processing, a deep desire to always be in my warm, safe place), and even if I hadn't, I wouldn't have been able to help myself from rooting for them with my whole heart, Their chemistry knocked the breath out of me more than once, the way they learn to manage their own insecurities and brain chemistry so they can communicate with tenderness, their softness and sweetness with each other. I love romance where the characters have to overcome more than just life's obstacles to be together. I love romance where the characters become better people because of each other. Braver, stronger, more hopeful. I haven't even fully processed how much I love this story, but I haven't stopped thinking about it since I put it down.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Goodreads for the opportunity to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

✏️ Author: Mazey Eddings
📅 Pub Date: April 16, 2024
🌟 Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Yall. I'm a Mazey Eddings STAN. Like head over heels in love with her writing and let's be real, her too. When I saw she had a sapphic romance coming I was beyond thrilled! And thankfully, it did not disappoint.

Opal and Pepper are two neurodivergent grumpy/sunshine balls of goodness and I enjoyed every single page! Opal wins the lottery and buys an old flower farm sight unseen. The only problem is Pepper lives there. Her grandma died and thought she was sure the property was hers, she couldn't find the will. So, because Opal is such a squishy heart of goodness and didn't want to put Pepper out, she came up with the brilliant idea that for the time being they become roommates. What transpires is a beautiful, messy, quirky, oh so real love story that I loved so very much. Pepper doesn't trust anyone and Opal doesn't think she has anything of value to offer anyone. Obviously these things become a problem in their budding relationship, but they work through them in such a way that makes the whole story so real and believable.

I adored the flower references and the North Carolina countryside setting. And though my opinion counts for zero, I do believe Every Garden Needs A Ho would have been a delightful title! 🤣

This book. The cover. 😍 One of my absolute favorites of the year and one I'll buy to have on my shelf to read over and over and over again.

I received an advanced copy for free and am leaving this review voluntarily. Thank you to NetGalley, Mazey Eddings, and St. Martins Press. ❤️

Late Bloomer is a tender love story filled with Mazey Eddings signature humor!

Opal is a people pleaser to her core (and her own detriment). When she wins the lottery, she decides to take the money and get a fresh start. Opal uses all the money to buy a house set on a working flower farm. Pepper is truly living her worst life: avoiding her mother, grieving the loss of her grandmother, and trying to save the flower farm from financial ruin. To her utter dismay, she finds out her mother sold the farm (and her home) out from under her in exchange for some quick cash. Opal and Pepper work out a tentative agreement that allows them to (not-so) peacefully co-exist in the house until they can come up with a more permanent solution. In this enclosed space, they find themselves drawn to each other. But with heaps of baggage each, it's not clear if this relationship is meant to last or if eventually, it'll wither.

I loved this story so much and I cannot wait for more books by Eddings!

I read a LOT of romance novels. Upon some reflection, I realized that I have read very few LGBTQ romance and I am really making an effort to remedy that. I was immediately drawn in by the beautiful cover.

I found the premise and the plot very cute. I loved all of the secondary characters. Hoping to hear about the sisters in the future! I just had a very hard time connecting to Opal and Pepper. I don’t think they were unlikable, but they both just felt very juvenile to me and I could never quite understand what motivated them. I think that if they had been a little bit more fleshed out, this could have been the perfect story. This was my first book by this author and I will definitely be looking into more of her output.

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

It's not so much that this is a terrible book as it is that the writing feels... dated? I'm a millennial myself, but on the younger end. This book reads very millennial, with humor that would've felt poignant and funny 10+ years ago. I think had I been in the beginning of my romance reading journey, I would've really enjoyed this, especially as a neurodivergent woman myself. But as it is, it felt like both of the characters were just these naive, floaty, cookie cutter caricatures of an autistic girl. There was no reasoning as to why they would get together in the beginning- just the fact that they were in the same home. No long conversations, no heartbreaking moments bringing them together, just... proximity. Add in that the best friend of one of the girls went from hating and distrusting the love interest, to hugging and respecting her in the same conversation only a couple minutes later. None of it felt realistic or believable, and the portrayal of the mental illnesses felt surface level. Heck, the bisexual undiagnosed mentally ill girl dyed her hair in a bout of upset. It all just felt... predictable and secondhand.

That being said, I live in North Carolina and love the idea of a story set in Asheville. The writing wasn't bad in and of itself, so it gains another star for that. But overall, these characters and the storyline did not land with me, and while I see in her bio that the author is neurodivergent, the autistic and ADHD representation in this story felt honed-in, idealistic, and (in my opinion) did not give any dimension to these disorders outside of "quirky in a way that isn't too detrimental to real life".

Thank you to netgalley and Mazey Eddings for the ARC.