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.