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.