This was a nice little opposites attract romance. The setting was delightful, and the main characters were well drawn and likable. I thought the portrayal of two neurodivergent folks getting together was well done. Aspects of their personalities were explored in a non-judgemental way while still demonstrating how their neurodivergence affected their ability to form new relationships. The spice was nice too. It happened fairly soon in the book and continued throughout. Not the hottest I've read, but certainly was enjoyable.

Mazey Eddings did it again! I have thoroughly enjoyed every book of hers that I've read, and her debut LGBTQ romance was no different! Though there were themes of grief, emotional abuse, mental illness, etc, the author still was able to approach all of the struggles the characters faced in a easily digestible way which I appreciated. Opal and Pepper's story was a heartwarming tale of two lost souls finding each other and finding a way to connect with each other and let love in.

I adore a good sapphic romance, but I cannot handle miscommunications and bad decision-making. So LATE BLOOMER was a bit of a draw for me. Opal has a history of not standing up for herself and making a mess of her life. She's known for her impulsivity--best displayed when she wins the lottery and buys a farm, sight unseen. When she arrives, she finds Pepper living there. Unbeknownst to Pepper, her mom sold the flower farm, which belonged to Pepper's late grandmother, out from under her.

Now, here's where most logical people would turn to crazy things like lawyers and wills and deeds, right? But no, Pepper and Opal make the only rational decision: they will live together on said farm, in the same house, while they figure things out and Pepper determines a way to make the floral business profitable and buy out Opal.

As they do, the two yo-yo through emotions like no one's business. We're up, we're down, we're up again! I could not keep up. We're talking, we're hiding things, we're lying, we're being honest. Sure, Pepper has trust issues thanks to her con artist mom (exhibit A: sells farm where daughter is living), but does she have to dislike Opal simply because she's kind? As for Opal, girl, take your deed to a lawyer and stop all this insanity and pining. Because, of course, our girls are alternatively hating each other and wanting to take one another's pants off. There's no character development leading up to any of this.

Over the course of the story, Pepper and Opal did grow on me. (Though, please, just look through your documents when a relative passes away!) I enjoyed how neurodiverse friendly this tale was, and it covered autism and ADHD rather thoughtfully. It's bi-friendly and practically every character is queer in some way--hurrah! Eddings delves into themes of finding yourself, being worthy of love, and having what you deserve in life. This is a cute story, even if the characters are a little thin and the plot a bit frustrating at times.

"Fuck 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."

This book was absolutely covered in sweetness! I adore Opal and Pepper and was actually kicking my feet and giggling watching them fall for each other. I will say, the lottery and purchasing of the farm was a pretty chaotic plotline, but it didn't bother me that much considering I don't read for realism. I do wish there would have been more of the flower farm and flower activities in general included in the story. It's just personally my favorite trope so I love when we get lots of flower related things, and while there is some, it isn't until the end. Additionally, Pepper and Opal don't feel very fleshed out to me. What we do get of them I love so much but I wish there was more depth to me.

Overall, this is such a fun read! I did the audiobook specifically and enjoyed it so much. The narrator did an excellent job at both voices and making it feel immersive. I'm excited to continue reading more of Mazey's work!

i started this in march and read more than half of it then but couldn’t continue for some reason. i hadnt been enjoying any romance books at all so i thought maybe the problem was me being cynical lol but my audiobook hold came through on libby and i listened to the rest of it and i’m still not really vibing with it for some reason… i love mazey’s other works but this didn’t work for me sadly, will def read more of her works tho bc i love love love her other works!

2.5 stars

I want to preface this by saying I don't read contemporary romance, its not a genre i usually pick up or am usually interested in, but decided to pick up this book because its sapphic, and I figured if anything can get me to read contemporary romance it'll be a sapphic love story.
I was wrong.
No beef with the author or the book in general, but i was terribly bored. I wished i had like it more, characters are fine, story is fine, setting is fire. As a farming games enthusiast i thought it was perfect for me, but it was almost painful to get through, even now i have around 60 pages left and have no desire whatsoever to read them.
Opal isn't nearly as bad as I've read people make her out to be, she obviously has her issues, but isn't annoying or grating. She's had a myriad of issues her whole life, and is just trying to get by. The fact she wins the lottery and goes "yeah imma buy a farm" i feel that deep in my bones, i would do the same, plus seeing her slowly gaining a spine throughout the book? pretty nice
Pepper i feel deeply because i too am autistic, she's literally just trying and doing her best with the awful hand she was given, and seeing her be a little softer to herself towards the end of the book is so good, seeing her warm up and get the things she deserves is so heartwarming.
Side characters are okay, Diksha, grandma Lou and Trish are the one's I can actually remember and they provide enough to the story. Diksha always pulling though for Pepper makes me so emotional
The setting is perfect, it's literally every single farming/dating sim out there. Tired of city life, somehow gets a farm in the middle of nowhere and oops here's the quirky love interest which you will only conquer after doing some farm work, learning their interest, giving them a few gifts, winning a competition to favor them and suddenly you've won over the farmer's heart.
And yet somehow it still falls short
It might very much be because this is not my genre, but it was almost painful to read, I actively don't want to finish it and i Had to force myself to at least read enough so i can give my thoughts.
If you already read contemporary romance and you want a cute sapphic story, it's definitely for you.
If you don't already read contemporary romance, and your bigger genres are things like historical fantasy, the sapphics won't save it for you
2/5

In my mind, Mazey Eddings can do no wrong. There will never be a day I don’t read her books. This was such a sweet romance and as usual the character development and relationships were perfection! Mazey is great at creating those connections between you and the characters so that you are left wanting more. She’s done it again and I cannot wait for her next read!

Ugh this one was so freaking cute. It makes me sad I married a man. 🤣

I really enjoyed the plot and the setting to this one. It was giving cottage core vibes and I loved that.

As always I’ll be a miscommunication hater until the day I die. The 3rd act breakup can go die in a hole. Please I am so over this.

I loved the autism and adhd rep, I cannot comment on it though as I don’t know if it was done well.

Overall I really liked this one. If you want a lighthearted read with sapphic rep, give this one a try.

"Hope doesn't hurt you. People do."

i was so so lucky to get an arc of late bloomer from @netgalley and cannot thank the powers that be enough for pointing me in its direction! it's not something i would normally pick up, but don't let its summary fool you... because it's a gem in disguise. much like opal (ha! see what i did there).

opal, long-standing nice girl, wins the lottery. she's a never-say-no-girl, a i'll-give-you-another-chance girl, a tender-hearted-hopeless-romantic girl. she's an artist, full of hope, and wanting to make a difference in small but effective ways. she's probably you, she's definitely me, and i loved following along as she tried to figure out what to do with... too much money to even grasp.

she does what all artists dream of and buys a flower farm (obviously), without realizing it's failing (because of course it is), that comes with an angry pepper (not the kind that goes with salt). this of course leads into forced proximity hate to love that NOBODY!!!!! can get sick of. i was enthralled and i was so happy to be a part of their world 🌸🌷🌻🌹🌼

more importantly, it really touches on the "too-nice-girl" souls. it always seems to come across as an insult, when really, it's a super power. we hope for others to treat us with understanding and kindness because: "hope doesn't hurt you. people do." & that should never feel like too much to ask for, to not be hurt for trusting someone to be a bit more empathetic to life.

because sometimes we're an autistic florist who never understood what it could feel like to have someone love you unabashedly. sometimes we're a neurodivergent artist who wins the lottery and can finally take the time to understand what happens in our brain. more understanding creates more love, and more love can only be a good thing. i loved getting to know opal and pepper, and i loved watching them get to know each other.

most of all, i'm so happy to see @mazeyeddings thrive off such a special book. i enjoy a good authors note, but i love a passionate explanation of why a book being published can mean so much to them. you can really tell when an author puts their soul into their words, and mazey, i felt yours!!! i can't wait to find more to love by you.

Mazey Eddings is the queen of writing neurodivergent characters. She never fails. I loved the mental health yep and I feel like these characters rang very true.

What didn’t work as well for me here was the love story. I seemed a bit contrived. Also, the whole book is centered around the flowers but there seemed to be no resolution here.

Mazey will continue to be an auto read author for me, this one just fell a bit short.

Opal has never put herself first and is normally walked on by her so-called friends and ex. Until she wins $500k on a lottery ticket, she plans to buy a flower farm that she doesn’t realize has a messy history.
That’s how she meets Pepper and they make an agreement to work together on the farm. When a competition is brought up, the ladies decide to enter and chaos ensues.

I really enjoy Mazey’s writing so much. She makes her characters lift off the page and it’s so beautiful to witness. I think this may be her best book yet, and I can’t wait for more.

Late Bloomer is an incredibly charming and fun romance with lovely messages and representation.

Opal is stuck in a bit of a life slump, a dead-end job, a breakup with a manipulative and icky ex and friends who really only are there when they need things which only gets worse when Opal wins the lottery from a scratch ticket. This is her opportunity to start fresh and pursue her dream of selling custom painted shoes (love this so much as it was a hobby I did in high school). She's browsing for property in one of her favourite getaway towns and finds a flower farm listed on Facebook, buys it outright and moves there. Too good to be true?? Maybe...

Pepper is trying to keep a failing flower farm going after her Grandma passed and left the farm in a bit of a muddled state. One day a stranger shows up, carrying a large bag of white shoes and saying she actually owns the property now. Opal understands the frustration and confusion of the situation and agrees that Pepper can keep living on and working the flower farm to try and get the money to buy it back and in the meantime Opal will also stay and work on her shoes. So we begin our lovely "forced" proximity and follow along as these two figure out life stuff and grow closer as friends and eventually more. And this book gets quite spicy once it's going!

The story was absolutely lovely and fun. A fluffy romance with a happy ending!

I was excited to read this book.
Mazey Eddings novels have always been a hit for me, but unfortunately this book was not something I could get behind.

For starters, I love the premise of a girl (Opal) winning money from a scratch-off ticket and starting a new life on a flower farm and running into a dilemma where the other protagonist (Pepper) and her work together and they fall in love.
I liked reading about the synopsis, but the characters were one's I could not connect with.

Opal had no backbone what-so-ever and it aggravated me more than enough times to count.
The two seemed like they were plucked from a picture of sterotypical lesbians and were forced to fall in love. The chemistry they had (if you could call it that), was full of too many cheesy moments with way too much cringe that often fell bland.

I had so much hope for this book and it did not hit it's mark with me, but I still enjoy the idea behind the novel and the showcase of neurodivergent representation in a sapphic novel.

My heart is swooning ! This book was a fuzzy blanket wrapped around you in a stormy night. I felt so inspired! I want to draw, buy a house in the mountains and grow things.

This author is a big favorite of mine. Being a neurodivergent myself I feel so seen and validated after I have completed one of their books. This one is no different. I really related to both main characters but differently. Opal gets her voice and the power to be herself and take control of her life. Pepper finds a way to heal and trust letting herself love. The relationship that blooms with in these pages just makes me melt.

I have never annotated in a book before but I felt so inspired with this book. I have made notes, drawn pictures, watercolored flowers and just felt connected. I just want to curl up inside this book. Life is to short so buy the house and plant the garden!

Mazey Eddings can do no wrong. I have yet to read a book of hers I haven't loved and I'm not about to start here. This book was so refreshing and real and full of such tender hearted moments. There was growth and love and it was absolutely beautiful. I loved the relationship development between the characters and how they met in such wild circumstances. They strengthened each other up and where there for each other when they felt like they had no one. Absolutely beautiful. All the stars.

Infinite thanks for the early copy of this book, I loved every single minute of it

Love, love, love - Mazey Eddings fan for life over here! Very fun, cute romance - highly highly highly recommend.

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for providing me with an eARC of Late Bloomer in exchange for my honest review!

Having previously read Mazey Eddings's work, I'm glad to say that Late Bloomer is quite a charming and cozy rom-com in her bibliography. The first book I read from her was A Brush with Love, which I liked, but didn't love. I had stronger appreciation for my next Eddings book, The Plus One. And now, with Late Bloomer, we've got an opposites-attract romance that boasts plenty of heartfelt fluff and plenty of fiery spice to balance things out (it does take about halfway through the book for the spice to fully arrive, but it's paced out well enough so that it lands effectively). As a reader who suspects I'm on the spectrum, it's very easy for me to connect with the two likable MCs here, Opal and Pepper, as the narrative explores their neurodivergency in an authentic fashion, in a way that feels like real life. I did find myself thinking at times that this could have used some more plot meat to strengthen the narrative, though, and then I'll also say that the third-act conflict gets on my nerves a little. I suppose it unfolds realistically, given the circumstances and what the messy MCs are feeling at that time, but still, it comes off as a tropey part of the book. But hey, even with these minor gripes, I generally enjoyed this florally abundant rom-com. The insight that Eddings gives us into the writing process afterwards is a neat touch, too.

Overall, I'm officially rating Late Bloomer 3.75 out of 5 stars, which I'm rounding up to a flat 4 stars. I'll continue to look forward to more of Eddings's work.

I was given an ARC of this book and wow, it was such a beautiful, heartwarming book that made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me think, and most importantly…I felt seen.

Pepper is an autistic woman who is hyperfixated on her late Grandma Lou’s flower farm, adorably named Thistle and Bloom. She wants her quiet routine, and she wants to live on her farm in peace…if only she could find Lou’s will.

Opal is an artsy girl who is working a dead end job and feels like she has no future. She has severe ADHD and I understood all of her decisions, I understood why she acted the way she did.

When Opal accidentally wins the lottery and buys the farm Pepper lives on, sapphic chaos ensues. I appreciate that the author played with the useless lesbian trope but they aren’t actually useless lesbians. They’re two neurodivergent girls who communicate and interact with the world in VASTLY different ways.

I very much enjoyed the twist of the U-Haul Lesbian as well. Opal moves in before she’s even met Pepper! It also was a nice way to really highlight just how different neurodivergent people are, and how despite having similar issues, can struggle with communication on a immense level that has severe consequences they can’t stop running into.

I loved seeing myself in these two characters. I loved setting queer neurodivergent characters that use words like autism and ADHD, and the real implications not learning ways to work with your abilities instead of against them can cause you a million problems such as Opal’s brush with drugs and struggle with not becoming an alcoholic.

The book is realistic, but it’s still a joyful read. It’s a gay romcom with neurodivergent disaster gays. This book was basically written for me. If you’re a gay/queer neurodivergent who has been searching for a romcom that features you, you’ve come to the right place.

This queer romance was incredibly cute. Honestly, I thought the cover was adorable, so I went for it and I am glad I did. This story is about two neurodivergent women Pepper who has some serious impulse control issues due to her ADHD and Opal who is autistic.

Pepper, is an artist who wins a scratch off lottery ticket and immediately buys a flower farm off of FB marketplace. Upon arriving to her newfound property, Pepper she meets Opal, a flower farmer who has lived in the farm with her grandmother who had recently died. Awkwardness ensues immediately due to all the confusion and frustration as the property was sold without Opal’s knowledge. The two women try to make sense of the situation which includes the ownership of the property as well as the finances.

Despite their frustrations about the situation of the farm, the two women decide to live together until Opal can buy the farm from under Pepper or if a will is ever found. While living together their attraction becomes palpable which leads to some sexual frustration.
This definitely is a slow burn romance with a lot of spice. It is a very sweet book, but I did find myself being a little frustrated with Pepper’s impulsivity which I found to be a little over the top.

3⭐️

Opal is a people pleaser who gets so lost in others that she forgets herself. When she unexpectedly wins a small fortune from a scratch off lottery ticket, she finally decides to take her life into her own hands and buys a flower farm to work on her art. Unbeknownst to her, the seller from Facebook marketplace sells her an inhabited property.

Pepper lives and works at the Thistle & Bloom, and arrives home to a stranger unpacking her car at her hom and finds out that her mom, Trish, sold the flower farm out from under her after Grandma Lou’s passing. Opal and Pepper agree to live together, further complicating the situation, and find that they like each other more than either of them initially thought.

This book was cute and atmospheric and I loved the setting of the flower farm and the neuro-spicy representation in Pepper. The story line wasn’t my favorite and I found myself skipping ahead a lot. Opal’s personality was also kind of all over the place. Overall pretty cute!