I know this book will find the right audience, I just happened to be the wrong one for it. I feel much older than I thought as their love story evolved. The tone of the book is aimed at younger generations. Not a YA, but just cracking the teens to 20s feels. The newness of love, finding self, finding your niche, it was hard for me to get into this book because those roads were long ago for me and I couldn't quite attach to their journey. And their journey? Was a bit tepid. Steamy scenes? Hot, but the development of their relationship as they sort through life separately and then together fell a bit... flat?

It is a cute read, a great performance by the narrator- enjoyed the nuanced voice changes for each character, and love a neurodivergent MC as I am 100% on that same brainwave. Bear in mind it's a younger love story and try it on for size for a sweet, light footed HEA.

This book admittedly let me down. I wanted to love it so much, and I was so so excited when I gained access to the audiobook. The narrator, Ellie Gossage, is incredible and does a fabulous job of alternating between all the different characters, so props to her! However, I had some serious issues with the book, and they didn’t get better as the story progressed.

The novel builds up this sense of sexual tension that is supposed to burn between Opal and Pepper, but it reads as no connection beyond the physical. I didn’t know why they were interested in each other besides sexual attraction, and that felt pretty flat. The characters didn’t really have anything in common barring their neurodivergence, self-loathing, and inability to communicate, and what am I supposed to do with that? Plus, these issues of communication continued throughout the book, and only fully resolved itself at around the 94% mark of the book, which feels FAR too late in the game to be learning to speak to each other honestly.

Moreover, the discussion of neurodivergence was really disappointing. I appreciated the author’s attempt to normalize and show the diversity of what neurodivergence looks like, and differentiating between the often-conflated ADHD and autism. But, as a few other reviews note, the constant framing of both characters as “walking disasters” (a direct quote from Opal, referring to herself) who cannot get their shit together or be successful, open, or loved, played into stereotypes implicitly that I found incredibly damaging. This is completely separate from the characterization of the protagonists beyond their neurodivergent characteristics: I found them to be gullible (Opal), far too closed off and borderline rude (Pepper), and pretty weak-willed for the majority of the story (kinda both of ‘em). I wanted more from both of their personalities, and didn’t get much growth beyond them just learning to say “I love you” to one another.

Overall, this was a bit of a letdown, and I give it 2.5⭐, rounded to 3 on Goodreads.

*Thank you again to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

I found the two characters to be really developed. Loved the representation. I hated the third act break up because it really wasn’t necessary at all. It just made both characters be extremely annoying for absolutely no reason.

Thanks to Saint Martin’s Press for providing me with an audio ARC for this book. I will not be posting a detailed review of this book until they address the petition from Readers for Accountability. Islamophobia should not be tolerated and they need to openly discuss safeguards that they have in place to protect marginalized voices.

https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/speak-up-st-martins-press

🌸🌻🌷🌸🌻🌷🌸🌻🌷🌸🌻🌷
♡ ᴀʀᴄ ᴀᴜᴅɪᴏ ʀᴇᴠɪᴇᴡ ♡
ʟᴀᴛᴇ ʙʟᴏᴏᴍᴇʀ
ᴍᴀᴢᴇʏ ᴇᴅᴅɪɴɢs
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🌶️

•sᴀᴘᴘʜɪᴄ ʀᴏᴍᴀɴᴄᴇ
•ɢʀᴜᴍᴘʏ x sᴜɴsʜɪɴᴇ
•ғᴏʀᴄᴇᴅ ᴘʀᴏxɪᴍɪᴛʏ
•sᴍᴀʟʟ ᴛᴏᴡɴ sʟᴏᴡ ʙᴜʀɴ

Happy release week to this beauty! Read / listen if you enjoy cheesy (yet funny) banter with lots of pop culture references and disability rep 👏🏼 The attraction was fantastic and the characters were very unique, along with the plot as it unfolded. It was a cozy hug in a book for sure, way more emotional than I was originally expecting.

Some of the character development felt off to me. How does a character instantly go from being a meek pushover to an outgoing alpha who says what she wants? Anyways, it was a cute listen that I still recommend.

🌸🌻🌷✨🌻🌷🌸🌻🌷🌸🌻🌷🌸

This is a lighthearted and enjoyable sapphic romance between two people who unexpectedly become roommates when they each believe they are the rightful owners of the same flower farm. They wind up as lovers while living together and working on a big project.

Both Opal and Pepper are characters that are easy to like for their own reasons, and the building of the romantic and sexual tension was well done so that I was ready for them to finally get together when they did.

If you're looking for a romance with a bit of drama but also a happily ever after (and are willing to suspend some disbelief about how two people might actually deal with a situation where they thought they owned the same house) then this book is a good one to pick up.

Thank you to SMP Romance and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy and to Macmillan Audio for the advanced listener copy. These opinions are my own.

I am so pleased that Mazey Eddings wrote a sapphic romance featuring two neurodivergent characters. Opal wins the lottery and decides to buy a flower farm to use as a studio for her art. But when she arrives, she finds that Pepper lives there and believes she owns her grandmother's farm.

I absolutely loved all the discussion of flowers and art. I love to garden and all the puns and growing really spoke to me. I was also a huge fan of the found family that Pepper has. It spoke so well to the kinds of safe spaces that queer people can create. I equally enjoyed Opal's sisters and would have loved to see more flashbacks of Pepper's grandmother. The secondary characters really stole the story for me.

But some parts of the book felt a bit too outlandish for me. I struggled with suspending disbelief from the initial lottery win through some of the various choices that followed. And the climax in particular really lost me.

Ellie Gossage narrated beautifully and captured the spirit of both main characters. I expect many people to love this book.

3.5 stars rounded up

When Opal wins the lottery all sorts of “friends” come back into her life out of nowhere. As a notorious people pleaser, Opal struggles with this new popularity and decides the best way to protect herself is through a fresh start. So she buys a flower farm on Facebook marketplace. When she arrives at the farms she’s surprised to find Pepper is already living there and claims to be the rightful owner. They strike a deal, Pepper can stay there while she tries to save the farm from bankruptcy and eventually buy the farm back from Opal, meanwhile Opal will also stay there and start her new show business. But how can they cohabitate when they seem to argue over every little thing?

I just love Mazey Eddings’ writing - her characters are always incredible and authentic. They are a bit chaotic and messy, but also so compassionate and caring at heart. Opal and Pepper are the perfect examples of this. This book features autism and ADHD representation and is done so beautifully. In so many ways, both Pepper and Opal are misunderstood, but as you get through their many layers, you find the sweetest characters and I wanted them to succeed in life from page one. I loved the premise of this - from Opal winning the lottery and chaotically buying a flower farm, to her teaming up with Pepper to save the farm, this was the grumpy and sunshine romance of my flower loving dreams. I want to visit Thistle and Bloom farm immediately - or at least buy a bouquet from them. This was the sweetest journey of two women healing from their past traumas and finding their paths in life and I loved that they were able to find those paths together.

I loved the audiobook narrated by Ellie Gossage. While she did a phenomenal job bringing the story to life, I do wish there had been 2 narrators to more clearly distinguish between Pepper and Opal’s points of view. There were a few times I got confused about who’s perspective I was listening to.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and St. Martin’s Press for the gifted copies.

I don't think I'm in my romance era anymore.

This had so much promise in the first few chapters, but then it started going downhill. The insta love was a bit much, the plot line of Opal's hair was unnecessary and distracting, their deal felt forced and an excuse, and the MULTIPLE third act break ups were insane. On the plus side, the audiobook narration was good.

The two characters, Opal (who wins the lottery and then buys a flower farm and moves to Asheville) and Pepper (granddaughter and current resident of said flower farm) were both pretty complete characters. Were they a little similar, yes, but in general I felt like they had distinct personality traits that felt real. Opal was a compulsive people pleaser, Pepper has deep-seated trust issues stemming from a trauma-filled childhood, and both of these things were reflected in the choices they made throughout the book. So that's one good thing.

Opal is compelled by... something... to bleach her hair fairly early into the story and she ends up over processing it and burning her hair causes some of it to come off in clumps in her hand. This becomes a thing throughout the rest of the book. Her commenting on her bad hair, trying to cover it up, more pieces coming off, her dying it again to salvage the look... why? Why is this important or relevant to the story? If it were a thing of like "Opal tries to assert control in her life but it goes awry and she's left with the consequences and struggles to make do with it and accept her situation" ok, but that's not really the character arc she's going on. If anything I would say that Opal needs to learn how to control more of her life. If it's a comment on her recklessness and impulsiveness, she just bought a flower farm that she saw on Facebook without seeing it first. We don't need another example of this. It just doesn't make sense and I don't think it served any purpose.

The deal that Opal and Pepper come to at around 50% of the book is their excuse to have sex despite their relationship still barely being developed. And while I really enjoyed how the sex scene played out (communication, vulnerability, acceptance), I still hated the fact that it felt like it was happening because that's what's supposed to happen in a romance novel. To all the romance authors out there: It is OK if it takes time to get to a sex scene, in fact it is better if it takes time because the payoff and connection between the characters are better. And yearning is an essential part to the sapphic experience!!! We need yearning in sapphic romances that lasts longer than two weeks.

I know we talk about how we hate the miscommunication trope, but this was too much. It was people purposefully misinterpreting the other person to hurt themselves. Pepper I understand because she has autism and her reasons behind her responses and actions to Opal made sense - even if some were also annoying - but Opal was just unhinged in her deliberate misunderstandings of Pepper. The final third act break up was so stupid and so forced that I actually said "shut up" out loud. It didn't need to be there! The drama was already there, you didn't have to do that on top of it.

I'm just so frustrated because I want to love these sapphic romances coming out, but they're falling victim to the romance blight. I have other sapphic romances on my tbr that I do want to read, but I'm hesitant to pick them up now.

TLDR; this was sweet, but very annoying.

Such a sweet and comfy romance that took so many tropes and made me them their own thing. This book felt fresh and unique in a genre that can get predictable. I felt like the audiobook made it feel more YA, but otherwise an excellent narration.
I know some people get annoyed with pop culture references but for me, this felt like just a little slice of life, with characters I could really connect to. I want more AUDHD representation so I’m so happy to read it when I do!
Thanks to net galley for the audio arc, full review to come.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this Audio ARC Copy!

I have been waiting so long for this book and I was not disappointed at all. It is an adorable Sapphic romance between two neuro-divergent girls with polar opposite personalities. It was so fun to watch the learn and grow tougher, and discover things about each other and themselves, all while running a flower farm.

This was a really sweet audiobook. I loved the story and the narration was a perfect fit.

Opposites Pepper and Opal's story ia a heartfelt one in which two very different neurodivergent women are forced together through the sale of Pepper's Grandma Lou's flower farm to Opal, a recent lottery winner who always sees the best in people, even as far as buying a flower farm off of facebook marketplace sight unseen.

Pepper, Opal, and all the supporting characters were written with care and humor and possess beauttiful and authentic emotions.

Pepper and Opal both struggle with .forever being identified through the patterns and behaviors that the world sees as flaws. Pepper comes across as rigid and closed off to the world and Opal is judged as impulsive and naive, and yet Mazey Eddings tells a story of two people coming together in their shared experience of trying to find their place in the world. This is going to be one of those audiobooks that I listen to again and again for its warm, comfortable vibes.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for providing me this free audiobook ALC..

🌹Late Bloomer by Mazey Eddings definitely rose to the occasion!

🌿I have to say Mazey’s first foray into sapphic romance was absolutely succulent! Her leads, Opal and Pepper make for a delightful odd couple as they unexpectedly become housemates when Opal buys Pepper’s ancestral home.

🌸Wanting to take her life into her own hands and distance herself from her toxic relationships Opal moves to her newly acquired flower farm and is surprised to find that someone has already put down roots there!

🌻Pepper is just trying to keep her grandmother’s flower farm blooming when she finds out that it’s not hers anymore! Thankfully the cute new owner is agreeable and they decide to share the space while they sort out their circumstances.

🌼Somehow these two go from housemates to bedmates as these two beautiful and unique people start to unfurl their petals and they discover the budding romance right before their eyes!

🪻I loved both of these characters and their unique personalities. As usual Mazey portrays neurodiverse individuals in a real and honest manner that helps bring Pepper and Opal to life. Their love story was also very easy to root for as they proved to be the sun and soil the other truly needed!

🎧I listened to the audiobook narrated by Ellie Gossage it was extremely pleased at how she managed to create unique, voicing and characteristics for both Opal and Pepper. Her voice work really captured the character emotions and brought this story to life.

🌷Late Bloomer by Mazey Eddings and narrated by Ellie Gossage is available now!

🌸Thanks to Macmillan Audio for my ALC. Opinions are my own.

#LateBloomer #MazeyEddings #EllieGossage

in this book, we get so many amazing things like a bisexual MC, neurodivergent MC, and sapphic romance! but unfortunately, this story just didn't hit home for me. there were a lot of moments that I found myself really enjoying the MCs and their stories but then we wouldn't get more to what it was that I had been enjoying. I kept waiting for something more to happen with the two MCs and it seems that most of the exciting aspects had been kept to the background. i also felt a disconnect between the MCs in their relationship, which could be my own disconnect from the story itself and its characters. I was al overall, this was a very fun and light sapphic romance to pick up and I'll be looking forward to what else Mazey Eddings releases in the future!

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this arc! I really love the concept of this story — people pleasing, stuck in a rut, Opal wins the lottery and decides to buy land in the country not knowing she bought land right from under our other protagonist Pepper, who is now scrambling for a place to stay. I think the characters were interesting and likable, however they fell flat and lacked dimension. Much of the dialogue was unrealistic and frankly a little cringey. I think this book had so much potential but just didn’t quite reach it. I would absolutely give Mazey Eddings another shot because the bones were good.

Late Bloomer was my first book by Mazey Eddings and I can see the appeal. This sapphic romcom was cute, fun and an enjoyable grumpy/sunshine read.

Opal is one of 3 sisters and all she wants is to be able to do is her art and to perhaps find love. But life has given her some hiccups and most of them have been in the form of some bad love interests. When she receives a scratch off ticket for a birthday gift, she ends up winning the lottery! Could her luck change? Is this her chance to make her dreams come true?

This story was fun from the get go. I liked Opal, even though she seemed quite naive and like a pushover. It made me a little frustrated with her, but it gave her room for growth. When she purchases a Flower Farm site unseen from Facebook Marketplace, I was aghast! Who even does that?! But when everything seems legit and Opal sets off to her start her dream of art and nature, I was excited for what was to come.

Enter Pepper. A grumpy young woman that is dealing with a death and the uncertainty of her future on the flower farm she assumes that was left to her. When Opal shows up at Bloom and Thistle, both of these women think they own the farm. But with Opal having a signed deed in hand, Pepper is even more grumpy than usual. Opal decides that they can live together in the cabin while they decide the next steps. Opal is always giving and she wants to make it so Pepper can buy back the farm she thinks she owns.

I really liked the two characters and the way they complimented one another. Eddings did a great job of having two very different women that needed similar things being thrown together for a fun forced proximity situation. There were some great side characters in Pepper's friends and I loved Opal's sisters. Since this was a grumpy/sunshine romance, we of course got some fun banter between the two women and also some great chemistry between the women once they allowed themselves to feel. I also enjoyed that giving the two something to work towards with a flower art competition gave them more reason to spend time together and therefore to grow closer.

I was lucky enough to get an early copy of the audiobook and loved the narration. The performance from Ellie Gossage was wonderful. She definitely captured the feel of the two different women and I never was confused whose chapter we were in with her different voices. Not only did she pull me in with Opal and Pepper's POVs, but also with the plethora of side characters she flawlessly performed.

If you're looking for a sapphic romcom that is sweet and full of charm, with great characters that are growing and figuring out who they are, with a peaceful setting on a farm, look no further. I'm glad I picked up this new to me author and had a good experience with the audio. An enjoyable listen all around.

"𝑭*𝒄𝒌 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒎𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆 𝒂 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒔𝒐 𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝒊𝒕 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍𝒔 𝒅𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒍𝒚 𝒃𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈. 𝑨 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒇𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒇𝒍𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒚 𝒅𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖'𝒓𝒆 𝒗𝒂𝒍𝒖𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒉𝒚. 𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒗𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒂𝒍𝒍”

Read this for:

🌷 a sapphic, cottagecore romance with amazing nuerodiverse representation
🌹 grumpy/sunshine, dual POV, forced proximity, found family, grief and healing
🌻 soft-hearted, sweet, extremely relatable, messy, and loveable characters who grow and develop

Opal wins the lottery! When everyone suddenly is REALLY interested in her (and her newly obtained cash), she decides to buy a flower farm in Asheville and follow her dreams! When she gets there, she finds Pepper, an angry (and gorgeous) woman who states that she is the rightful owner of the flower farm, has no idea about the sale, and isn’t going anywhere.

I had so much fun with this tender love story! It is blooming with heart, humor, and healing 🌼

Thank you NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Happy Pub Day to this gem of a book! I honestly loved this on audio so much! I can't wait to recommend it to my friends. Opal and Pepper were so cute together and this book was just very wholesome. Loved it!

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Summary:
This book is about a shoe-painting artist (why??) named Opal who impulsively spends the majority of her lottery winnings to buy a flower farm from Facebook Marketplace. She shows up and it turns out her irresponsible purchase from some rando turned out to be a scam (shocking!) and that someone lives there already who claims to be the rightful owner. They decide to live together while sorting out who is the rightful owner and of course, they fall in love.

My thoughts:
THIS BOOK BLOWS. Here’s why.

This started out cute and promising in the beginning chapters where everything is being set up. But then we get to the biggest chunk of the novel: Pepper and Opal’s boring interactions and their boring, boring repetitive sex. I was not convinced that these two had chemistry at all. They both felt very one-dimensional.

This book also utilizes dual POV for each chapter which didn’t feel necessary as it didn’t make me care about either characters more. Also in Opal’s own POV, she came across a certain way, but then from Pepper’s perspective, Opal was very different - so the character inconsistency did not make sense.

I need to mention this but the whole Opal is a shoe artist thing…? Like the kind of person who paints on shoes that you see sold on Etsy?? That alone did not make me take her seriously. She wanted to start a shoe-painting business (girl just go on etsy) which was barely mentioned and she didn’t seem to be making any real effort towards that. Also it doesn’t seem like she even got that dream fulfilled at the end…

Also if you’re gonna make her a shoe artist at least commit to the bit and bring up her shoe artistry more LMAO. I thought it was weird they emphasized that part of her character but never really dived that deep into it. They just used that as a point to be like “she’s artistic! she can help us win this flower competition thing!” like bro I’m not going to ask an etsy shoe artist who paints mediocre art on shoes to help me with anything creative. I’m an artist myself (not for shoes, thankfully) so this just really made me weirded out. It felt like someone trying to write about an artist who knows next to nothing about artists and just threw a dart at a board to choose what her speciality was.

I wanted to stop reading this book about halfway into it but I pushed on hoping that it would become more enjoyable at some point but spoilers: it doesn’t. I listened to this as an audiobook and fell asleep at one point while listening.

As for the sex scenes, if you can suspend your belief enough that a virgin is anywhere near good at oral sex and fingering, then you’ll enjoy it. Oh, and speaking of the sex scenes, there are a lot. I would say too many even. I couldn't care less about these characters and there was no build up or tension to the sex so every time they had sex I was just like, “here we go again. Come on, ladies, let’s wrap it up.” and I wanted to skip past it. Like, come on. Pepper has gone through a lot. She needs therapy, not constant sex from some situationship with a girl she barely knows who possibly holds power and ownership over the one thing in her life she cares about, the flower farm.

There are so many things in this book that bothered me and all I can say is that if this wasn’t in audiobook form, I would’ve DNF’d it immediately. When we got to them making a flower statue of Sappho, respectfully, I was ready to bow out. This book is cheesy in the worst way and the characters fall flat. I had high hopes for this but I’m sad to say, I don’t recommend picking this up.

Late Bloomer by Mazey Eddings simply has the cutest of all the cute covers!

This is a light and airy, opposites attract, sapphic romance, which gave off some new adult vibes (Opal is twenty-four and Pepper is twenty-six). There are steamy scenes (hello lavender!), amazing autistic and neurodivergent representation, plus a supportive cast of found family... but this story just lacked something for it to really stand out, elevating it just that little bit extra.

I loved the included information of how the title came to be and the meaning behind the many flowers mentioned throughout the novel. Both of these inclusions added some fun character and plot information, allowing a deeper connection with the story and the authors process!

Ellie Gossage did a phenomenal job narrating! With this being a dual perspective romance, it was amazing to have the unique voices throughout each and every chapter, no matter whose narrative it was! Gossage nailed two very distinct main voices, as well as a cast of other characters, always adding the right bit of emotion at just the right time! I have honestly checked multiple times just to confirm there was only one narrator - that's how good of a job Gossage did providing such different voices for Opal and Pepper!

I really think this is the perfect low conflict book to sit with in the shade of a weeping willow or to read amongst the blooms this summer!

Thank you NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, St. Martin's Griffin and Macmillan Audio for the complimentary copies to read and review.