An incredibly stunning story of two people with such chaotic chemistry. This book is beyond perfect and I cannot wait for more from Mazey Eddings!

title: Late Bloomer

author: Mazey Eddings

publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

publication date: April 16, 2024

pages: 400

peppers: 3 (on this scale)

warnings: talk of drug use, mean parents, death of a grandparent (before the book)

summary: When Opal, who can't stop herself from helping others even when it's to her detriment, wins big on a scratch-off ticket, she decides to get a fresh start by buying, sight unseen, a flower farm she sees on a Facebook Marketplace ad. What could possibly go wrong? She arrives to find the farm's resident Pepper, who knew nothing of the sale and has no other place to go.

tropes:

enemies-to-lovers
mean mom
scam victim
over-giver
one bed
entering a competition
what I liked: these neurodiverse characters both have a hard time expressing what they want/feel, but they learn together in sweet ways. I like the fun friend group.

what I didn’t like: I found the mom too selfish to be believable.

overall rating: 5 (of 5 stars)

The writing at first seemed a little too similar to young-adult novel style writing, but as I got into the story I ended up just absolutely adoring the characters, the setting, and the overall plot. I thoroughly enjoyed this and will be recommending it to people. I absolutely adored the couple’s energy, tension, and chemistry. Towards the end I not only found myself wanting the story to continue on (in a good way), but also found that my eyes were tearing up a little bit. And the neurodivergent representation in this felt very natural and connected to me personally. I just really loved this story, even if I was a little tough on it at first.

I liked the beginning of this story, but the middle and end kind of fell flat for me. Opal's personality also felt inconsistent to me.

Thank you Netgalley and St. Martins Press for the e-arc in exchange for my honest review. Not sure how but this is my favorite Mazey Eddings book. I loved the Easter eggs of her previous books. I loved the characters the story everything was perfectly written. The steam was some of the best yet. I have pre-ordered it and cannot wait to hug it and tab my favorites.

Highly recommend

I picked this one up on a whim because of the gorgeous cover and couldn't put it down. "Late Bloomer" is a gorgeous and sweet sapphic contemporary romance featuring neurodivergent, bi main characters who have a lot to work through as they grow into their best selves together. I fell hard for both these characters and was rooting for their love to bloom!

One of the things I especially loved about this book is that both Opal and Pepper actually work on their careers--Opal feels like a genuine working artist, and the flower farm is not just backdrop, but an actual functioning farm! And the author's note at the end goes into wonderful detail about the symbolic meaning of the flowers featured in the book, which was an unexpected treat!

Anyway, I absolutely adored this book and will be (figuratively) shoving it at anyone who so much as says the words "romance novel."

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc! Opinions are my own.

This is a delight as usual for Mazey's books, while also being an emotional read! I loved these two characters and their personal journeys.

I was kindly provided an ARC copy of Late Bloomer by Netgalley and St. Martins Press, so thank you to them both for the chance to read this book in exchange for my honest review.
Late Bloomer is a spicy sapphic fluffy romance (with grumpy sunshine trope) about Opal and Pepper. Opal is drifting aimlessly in life in a dead end job with a horrible ex-boyfriend and one selfish friend. While her two sisters offer her love and support Opal needs a change in her life. Winning $500,000.00 on a scratch off ticket gives her the opportunity to make that change and after seeing a listing online she decides to buy a flower farm to pursue her art in peace.
Pepper is the granddaughter of the previous owner of the flower farm and entirely displeased to find her home and business are now effectively owned by a stranger. Having been raised by her grandmother on the farm and abandoned/manipulated by her mother at every opportunity, Pepper has difficulty trusting anyone, especially a newcomer to the farm.
Both women strike a tentative agreement to work together to save the farm and find themselves falling in love.
While I thought the third act dramatics were unnecessary and honestly almost a space filler I thought this was a very cute sweet love story. I enjoyed both Opal and Pepper. I appreciated that both women are open about being neurodivergent and how it affects them emotionally and physically. Another aspect that I enjoyed about this book is how it spends time describing the grieving process that Pepper has to go through because of her grandmothers passing. Im glad the author spent time developing that part of the story as there are times when books can treat the death of a loved one as just a minor plot point as compared to an actual process that we all have to go through.
I really enjoyed this book and will recommend it online closer to the release date in April. I also enjoyed A Brush With Love by Mazey Eddings so I will continue to look for more books by this author in the future.

Late Bloomers is easy to get lost in and exactly what I needed! When the grumpy, crotchety Pepper comes on page I realize I'm a bit of a narcissist because she is me...and I LOVE Pepper lol. This was a great opposites attract, grumpy/sunshine, sapphic story with wonderful mental health rep. The autistic rep was just *chefs kiss* and even more special to me was the self diagnosed neurodivergence represented.
4.5 ⭐
Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for this lovely arc.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgally for this ARC. I really enjoyed this read!
I breezed through the book, it is very fast paced and easy to get lost in. If you love Sapphic, summer time, lively sisters, and flowers you will love this book!
Our two main characters are thrown together on a flower farm as strangers that have to live together and try to save a financially disastrous business.
There is autistic representation, neurodivergent characters, loss of a loved one, and first time love presented here.

When I saw this was "read now" on Netgalley, I really took it to heart and started reading it that evening...and I have no regrets. Mazey Eddings has been an autoread author for me for a long while now - they way she writes neurodivergence has really healed something deep within my brain. I was so so excited to see that this book is sapphic and it lived up to everything I've come to expect from Mazey's writing!

Opal and Pepper's relationship isn't perfect - it's the story of two neurodivergent people getting to know each other and figuring out how to communicate and how to show up for the other person. Their relationship felt incredibly realistic which honestly is something I love to see in books. Just because it isn't immediately easy, doesn't mean that the relationship is any less valid or swoony. There are so many quotes and sections that I highlighted because they are just SO GOOD

I found myself relating so much to Opal - her ADHD, willingness to do anything for her friends (even when they aren't very good friends), crassness, really just all of her! I loved Pepper too but wasn't relating to her much until she talked about her queerness and labels, which felt very similar to my own experience/feelings.

Read this for:
- Grumpy/Sunshine
- Neurodivergence (ADHD & Autism)
- Opposites attract
- "Let's bang it out to get it out of our systems"
- Truly lovely and supportive friend group
- unapologetic queerness

Can't wait to see what's next from Mazey - this one doesn't come out until April 2024 so thankfully I'll have plenty of time to reread it before it comes out! Also this book has easter eggs for both Tilly in Technicolor and Lizzie Blake's Best Mistake! I also feel like the Princess Bride reference in this book is just for me (it's definitely not).

thank you to Netgalley and SMP for the eARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own and I am leaving this review voluntarily

Don't you just adore love stories?. This was so swoonworthy and sweet. I seriously loved our two main girls and their love story. This was absolutely amazing, and Mazey can do no wrong. Her writing just pulls you into the story and does not let go. Absolutely stunning read. I highly recommend this one as well as Lizzie Blake's Best Mistake.

I love the grumpy x sunshine relationship and this book does it perfectly. Opal and Pepper had my heart from the beginning.

Mazey Eddings has done it again! 5 big stars for this gorgeous book. Pepper and Opal will charm you with their ups and downs, and the joy and heartache that happens when humans are busy human-ing. Mazey is skilled at creating and treating neurodiverse characters with tenderness and depth. She has quickly become an auto buy author for me, just go get this one!!

This is a cute sapphic romance. Seeing Opal and Pepper's relationship grow was so satisfying. They have great opposites attract slow burn romance! .Character's voices were really distinct and were really fun to read from the perspective of. All the plot points really rang true and I felt connected to them both. I need more sapphic romance in my life like this book!


ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

first, i can't go without addressing the double (triple?) entendre in the title, in the setting of this book (a flower farm), and in our protagonists opal and pepper because all of it made me so seen.

second, i don't want to say too much about the plot because this comes out in april 2024, but i do want to focus in on what i admire in eddings as a writer, that being her characterization of imperfect couplings, which is more apparent here than ever with pepper's experiences as an autistic queer woman. eddings outright lays out the fact that autistic people communicate differently than neurotypical people, one example being not dealing in small talk and getting straight to the point. opal learns this early on and actively does her part to ease pepper's mind, but she is not perfect, which doesn't seem like such a big deal, but it is. it makes all the difference.

Late Bloomer was one of my most anticipated releases of 2024, so I was HYPED when I saw it was read now. It's not just that Mazey Eddings has cemented herself as one of my favourite authors, but also that this is her first sapphic book, it's autistic x neurodivergent, and the synopsis just sounded AMAZING.

There's never a better way for me to recharge than with a book, and I needed a break, so I started reading this before bed, and then I just... inhaled the whole thing. Yes, I went to sleep too late, but who even cares, right?

I had SUCH a good time with this! It's the most lighthearted Mazey Eddings book so far, I would argue, and it's so sweet and so funny. I loved both Opal and Pepper, but especially Opal stole my heart. I could easily picture her as the star of a sitcom or something similar.