First, I have to say I really liked the audio book. I loved the actress's voice, and I thought she did a great job with the characters. The quality of the audio book was excellent.

The book was OK! I loved the first two thirds. I really liked Pepper in particular - as a very tall woman myself, it's always lovely to read about tall women in romance! I also liked how I felt like I understood where the characters were coming from. Oftentimes in romance, when characters make choices, I'm not able to follow how or why those choices were made. Here, I could see the lives that lead these two women to the places they were at the start of the book. I understood why they made the initial choices they made.

However, the book fell apart for me in the final third. The main plot that brought these two women together seemed to get put on the back burner and be forgotten about. The characters also stopped growing, and the main themes were cast to the side. I would have loved to see the character growth carried through to the end of the book, but unfortunately it didn't seem to be.

For a lot of romance readers, this would be a fine book. But I ask more of my books, so it's a three star read for me.

Late Bloomer-a standalone

By Mazy Eddings- I read The Plus One and gave it 3⭐

Rating: 4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Publication: 4/16/24, Read 4/19/24

📙Format: e-book, 391 pgs. and audiobook 9:32

🗣️Narrator: Ellie Gossage-did both h's, dual POV. I believe the voice fit the characters and the reading style brought the story to life. The pacing was great and flowed easily with the story. The narration and the author were in sync, and they fit together perfectly. The audiobook's flow was pretty good. The narrator paused and announced every time a new chapter came. The book had a table of contents which helped me follow along with the e-book and audio.

🙏🏾Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Griffin, and Macmillan Audio for this ARC and ALC🩷 ! I voluntarily give an honest review and all opinions expressed are my own.

What to Expect:
✔️ Rom-Com
✔️ Adult Fic
✔️ Forced Proximity
✔️ Sapphic Romance/LGBTQ+
✔️Neurodivergent h/ADHD rep
✔️h chronic illness
✔️opposites attract
✔️grumpy/sunshine
✔️mental health issues


Summary: Opal Devlin (24) wins the lottery and is miserable because every time anyone asks her for something, she says yes. A Facebook ad for a flower farm in NC appeals to her for its isolation, and to build an art studio. When she arrives the farm is already occupied by Pepper Boden (26) who claims it belongs to her. Pepper is as prickly as Opal is bubbly but they agree to cohabitate, and bring the farm back from the brink of bankruptcy.

Review: I loved the representation in this book. From both main characters being LGBTQ+, heroines with autism and ADHD, and even a chronically ill heroine with migraines-I can relate! I loved the stories about Grandma Lou as it reminds me of my Grandma Lou as a child with her for the summer. I remember her balmy NC town with a watermelon patch, peppers, and tobacco out back. The other characters Pepper's friends and Opal sisters (Olivia and Ophelia) are so supportive versus Opal's ex Miles, Laney her fake BFF, and Trish. Opal and Pepper's love story is sweet because they are understanding of each other's flaws and all.

I will be entirely honest. I REALLY wanted to like this book. A slow-burn sapphic romance set on a flower farm? Sign me up.

Opal has had a bad run. She has an ex that's just not great. She works a dead-end job. She's a habitual people pleaser. But then her luck changes and she wins the lottery. On an impulse, she buys a flower farm in North Carolina. Cute premise, right?

But I had to DNF 10% in.
I simply could not STAND Opal's POV. She's not just a people-pleaser. She has no self-esteem. If I didn't know better, I would think she was an invertebrate due to her lack of backbone. Her inner monologue isn't quirky or cute. Opal is the friend who you want to grab by their shoulders and shake some sense into them. Because she's been broken up with her deadbeat ex for a while now. But she's STILL pining for him (and occasionally hooking up with him). She lets her co-worker (who might be sleeping with her ex btw) walk all over her.

Oh and you think that maybe once she wins the lottery, she gets some sense? HA! NO! We get treated to first the thought that she'll move to New York because "that's what artists do". I rolled my eyes so hard at that I would swear you could hear it. Thankfully, she realizes that's absurd. And her money wouldn't go too far. But then she buys a flower farm. Sight unseen. Off Facebook Marketplace.

Yeah, that's where I tapped out.

I will say that they writing style is nice. I wish I could have made it to Pepper's POV. But I simply couldn't take another moment in Opal's head.

I got the audiobook and Ellie Gossage is solely responsible for getting me as far as I did into this book. Her voice was just so smooth.

✨ Review ✨ Late Bloomer by Mazey Eddings; Narrated by Ellie Gossage

Thanks to Macmillan Audio, St. Martin's Griffin and #netgalley for the gifted advanced copy/ies of this book!

Honestly, Mazey Eddings just gets better and better with each book she writes! She's such a master of writing queer relationships and a range of mental health realities. In this book, Opal wins the lottery, and buys a flower farm to do her art and to get a fresh start. When she gets there, Pepper, who runs the farm, is shocked that her home and place of work has been sold out under her.

I'll leave the rest of the book for you to find out what happens, but it's really just a lovely book that handles Opal and Pepper's mental health and their strengths and weaknesses so beautifully. And all in the middle of a flower farm! 🌸 🌺 🌹 ❤️

I also loved Opal's relationship with her sisters and Pepper's found family and support network, and how seamlessly this group comes together to love and support them. There's just so much to love here.

🎧 I listened to most of this on audio and the narration was superb. There was enough variation in the voices for the two POVs and various characters to make it feel like it had multiple narrators.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (4.5 stars)
Genre: contemporary f/f romance; autism and ADHD representation
Setting: rural farm near Asheville, NC
Length: 9 hours 31 minutes
Reminds me of: Helena Greer's Christmas tree farm books
Pub Date: Apr 16 2024

Read this if you like:
⭕️ FLOWERS and painted shoes
⭕️ sapphic romances
⭕️ messy characters who are open with their mental health
⭕️ obscure body part cakes

⭐️⭐️⭐️ Liked it, fun while I was reading it
This contemporary sapphic romance tells the story of Katherine who wins the lottery and buys a flower farm. But, Pepper Boden is living at the farm and has a legitimate claim to the land. 

This dual POV story has grumpy/sunshine tropes, with forced proximity, neurodivergent representation, healing from grief & trauma, and cottagecore cozy vibes. It was fun, especially if you let go of the characters stupid decisions, that ultimately end up for the good. 

The narrator, Ellie Gossage, did a good job, I had no trouble understanding who was saying what, where, when, and with what expression/intension. 

Thank you to Macmillan Audio, NetGalley, and author Mazey Eddings for providing me with a digital ARC copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review. Late Bloomer is out April 16, 2024.

Omg this sapphic romance was everything it was funny, light, fluffy and truly amazing. I really felt like I was in Opal and Pepper’s head I related so much with the characters. I related so much with Pepper’s need for routine and Opal’s overthinking, want to get her life together. Opal gives golden retriever sunshine and Pepper gives grumpy black cat energy. I loved the forced proximity and the farm vibes. I loved how the characters helped each other. I loved the descriptive writing the way Pepper explained Opal like a blooming flower 🌺😭🥹. I loved the autism representation with Peppers character. The sexual tension in this book was so hot I felt the temperature of the room change 👀❤️‍🔥. This book was so good I ate it up.

Late Bloomer is a contemporary sapphic romance featuring two neurodivergent MCs. One wins the lottery and buys a flower farm from the other's swindling parent. They decide to both stay at the farm at least until they figure out what's gone on and what they should do about it.

Everything about the set up of this novel sounds great: sapphic leads, neurdivergence, flower farm, romance etc. Unfortunately the execution did not work very well for me.

I found the text constricting in a very odd way. I felt like there was a flattening of importance and all items, from major emotions to getting coffee in the morning, were given the same weight. It was exhausting. I also could not maintain my suspension of disbelief. The trade offs of one character having a freak out and then the other felt both random and extreme. I understand that people are complicated, but I couldn't follow these ups and downs as believable and the repetition didn't help. I liked the characters, but I suspect what I really like is the idea of the characters. The dialogue also read as unrealistic to me. I just couldn't get around all of it to enjoy myself.

To bring up a cliche, this is a 'show, don't tell' nightmare. Acres and acres of internal monologuing about the way their own brain works.

I also thought the narrator's performance was stilted. Throughout the experience, I could not decide if I thought the prose was hindering the performance or vice versa. In the end, I think it was both.

Mazey Eddings is one of my favorite authors so I was thrilled to receive advanced copies of her latest release! Just like her previous books, the mental health representation was one of my favorite parts of the book! This was a delightful opposites attract romance; I fell in love with both characters immediately, especially Opal who was sunshine personified and thought they had great chemistry! I also loved that it took place on a flower farm! Overall, it was hopeful, emotional and endearing!

Wow! I had read the summary for this book and was super interested in reading it, so I'm glad I got the chance to listen to the audio book. Thank you to Macmillan Audio and Net galley for an advanced copy of the audio book in exchange for an honest review.
Opal is a people-pleaser who seems to have the worst luck possible, in friends and relationships. When she suddenly hits the lottery for 500k, she decides to make a change for herself and buys a flower farm. The only problem? Someone already lives on the farm, and the farm itself is close to closing down. So much for a fresh start!
I really loved the dynamic between Pepper and Opal. They're beautifully fleshed out characters that I enjoyed learning about seperately and together. I could really relate to the themes of grief covered in the book, and really respect the representation both in neurodiversity and sexuality represented in this book. I'm used to reading a lot of WLW romance novels where one of the leads is in denial about her sexuality, so it was really refreshing that both women were open and confident about theirs, it left a lot of time for more unspoken feelings/yearning, which I'm a sucker for.
I really enjoyed every second of this book, and would love somehow to read a sequel to it one day, if not a story about Opal's sisters in a series-style. I really enjoyed all of these characters and was sad to part with them. Also, I loved the narrator! She gave each lead a voice that really suited them.

Thank you, NetGalley and Macmillian Audio for giving me access to this audiobook.

These two are so freaking lovable, together or separate. I loved every second of this! It is one I will buy.

The narrator did an excellent job of bringing our sunshine Opal and the gravely Pepper to life.


Amazon review has not been approved yet posted my profile.

The PERFECT Sapphic romance!

I often hate books that take place in North Carolina because they don't make sense geographically. I grew up in Asheville and was TERRIFIED when the book moved there after a lottery winning artist bought a flower farm from the estranged mother of the woman running the flower farm. The romance was perfect and lovely. I even listened to the book AFTER reading the whole thing, I enjoyed it that much.

I recommend giving this a chance. It is wonderful!

The narration is also great!

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillian Audio for the ARC.

3 ⭐️

It's okay.

There's nothing wrong with the book at all. The characters are fine, the romance is fine, and the subplot is fine, but unfortunately, there's nothing special about it either.

It also didn't help that I'm kinda tired of reading about sad people second-guessing/freaking out about any sign of positive affection in romance novels.

"Late Bloomer" by Mazey Eddings is a heartwarming tale of self-discovery and embracing one's own pace in life. A delightful read!

Late Bloomer by Mazey Eddings was an adorable sapphic romance about Opal who wins the lottery and buys an old flower farm off of Facebook Marketplace only to discover that Pepper is already living there. The neurodivergent representation in this book was really amazing. I felt like especially Opal's ADHD was written more authentically than most stories I have seen. This book had a lot of depth touching on mental health, anxiety, grief, and abuse whilst never straying from it's upbeat & happy vibes. Overall, it was a super fun read. My only complaint is that I would have like a little bit more time spent in the conclusion, but that could be partly because I didn't want to leave their story.

The audiobook did a fantastic job in giving both Opal and Pepper unique & recognizable voices, especially since the chapters often alternated narrators.

Thanks to Net Galley, Mazey Eddings, and Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to review this Advanced Audiobook!

I received a copy of this in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley.

Can I just start by saying the cover is SO cute!?
I've found there to be a shortage of well-written sapphic romances, so I was SO VERY excited to get the opportunity to read / listen to this.

The two MCs are ... just so amazing. Their characteristics and dynamics are fabulous.
The storybuilding here was brilliant. The side characters were also great!

To put it simply, I enjoyed everything about this book. Truly. And i cannot wait to read more by this author.

Thank you to @NetGalley for letting me listen to the advanced audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

I love the different representations of characters, ASD, nuerodivergant, and variety of sexual orentations. The main characters had unique backstories which was fantastic. However the plot was so slow without much happening other than different varieties of miscommunication. I wish there was more depth to the plot and overall more to the story.

What a delightful unexpected romance. Finding happiness in rubble of their lives. Both Opal and and Pepper were at points of their lives where they were lost and a little broken. Finding peace, love, and acceptance is a journey worth listening too.

It took me a bit more to get into this one compared to the rest of Mazey's books. I love love love the cover, but it ended up being the best part of the book for me. I did love the flowers, but I just struggled with the main couple.
I did find that the audiobook helped me to keep going in the story. Ellie Gossage did a wonderful job with the narration and I would absolutely listen to another book read by her.

<b><i>"Sometimes I hate myself, I hate my meekness and my boldness, my fear and my audacity to try. Sometimes the hate digs its roots in so deep it feels like it </i>is<i> me. I </i>hate<i> that hate. I have endless grace for everyone in the world but, none for myself."</i></b>

I felt this so much. So many people have struggled with loving themselves and this quote just really resonated with me. This is a story about two young women who struggle with feeling they deserve love. I truly fell in love with these characters, their lives, and their faults. Both FMC are so relatable, but each in different ways because they really are so opposite.
This book is a reminder to love yourself and that you deserve to be loved.💖

To be completely honest, I was a <i>little</i> skeptical of this book in the beginning. Opal was <i>so</i> naive, and I felt like buying the farm was totally unrealistic and not believable. This is just about the only negative thing I need to say about this, and really it makes sense once you get to know her character lol.

If you enjoy queer romance, close proximity, strangers to lovers, friends with benefits, flowers, gardening (this one got me), imperfect characters, neurodivergent characters, and just good people - this one is for you :)

Audiobook: Literally incredible. I listened at 1.75x speed. Ellie Gossage has done an impeccable job with this one. Both characters truly feel like they are independent of once another, I love the voices she has for Opal and Pepper. I have nothing negative to say about this one. 10⭐

Thank you to NetGalley for early access to this audiobook, read by Ellie Gossage, and published by MacMillan Audio

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillian Audio for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook!
While this book was not something I would typically read, I did enjoy it! The writing was good, and I liked the narrator. If you are someone who enjoys nice romance books/audiobooks, then this would be perfect!
Thank you again for the early access to Late Bloomer!