Late Bloomer by Mazey Eddings
⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

This book took me forever to finish, for no good reason really. This was a cute romance about Opal, an artist, and Pepper, caretaker of a struggling flower farm. Whem Opal wins the lottery (!) she takes the chance to get away from her toxic relationships with a former best friend and boyfriend, andbuys Pepper’s flower farm on a whim. When she gets to the farm, she finds out that Pepper knew nothing of the sale and believes the farm should really belong to her. Eventually, the two decide to work together to reach their goals and feelings start to develop.
Both Pepper and Opal have some trauma from people that have mistreated them and that makes beginning a relationship difficult. I had some difficulty with the immaturity of Opal’s character. At first, I assumed she was still in high school, but both characters are supposed to be in their early twenties. I mostly just did not relate to either main character.
Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the advanced copy, which I read in exchange for an honest review.

This sapphic opposites attract contemporary romance is a fun, light read with an eclectic cast of neurodiverse and queer characters. Opal, a self-sabotaging people pleaser, wins half a million bucks on a lottery scratch card and impulsively buys a flower farm sight unseen. There’s just one problem - someone’s already living there. Pepper is the great-niece of the last owner of the farm and she’s not keen on moving out.

You know what this means, romance readers.

There 👏 was 👏 only 👏 one 👏 failing 👏 flower 👏 farm 👏

The novel largely avoids the pitfalls that tend to bother me in contemporary romance, specifically the third act misunderstanding that could be solved with one conversation but for some reason isn’t. In this, they actually just have the conversation. Revolutionary.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 rounded up to 4.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s press for the eARC and Macmillan Audio for an ALC of this title in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you to me for pre-ordering the book to get a beautiful art inlay (*soon*).

Favorite line: My love for you exists because you exist.

NGL. My heart skipped a beat when I heard that line while listening to the audiobook.

Late Bloomer is a sapphic romance featuring two neurodiverse leads. Opal gets the chance of a lifetime when she wins the lottery. Due to her chaotic nature, it’s no surprise that she impulsively spends it by buying a flower farm in Asheville, NC off of Facebook Marketplace.

When she arrives at the Thistle and Bloom, she is met by a feral flower farmer - who happens to be the recently deceased owner’s pseudo-grandchild, Pepper. And also the perfect grump to Opal’s sunshine.

In an unlikely forced proximity situation, they work together toward a common goal but also end up finding themselves in each other.

Mazey Eddings is one of my favorite contemporary romance authors. Her characters are always charming and endearing, her banter is fresh and funny, and the spicy is always just enough.

This book checked all of the boxes for me, but somehow didn’t capture me the way I would have expected. It took me a really long time to finish reading/listening. The audiobook was well done, which is probably what kept me engaged enough to finish it. The narrator was able to give each character a distinct voice, and I was impressed.

It could also just have been the time of year I read this. I’m end of year teacher dead inside, and maybe I needed something that didn’t feel raw or vulnerable.

TW: parental abandonment, gaslighting by friends and lovers, death of a loved one off page

Could not finish. Too many parenthetical thoughts and characters with similar names.

I really wanted to like it but I just couldn’t.

DNFed at 22%

This was not the book for me, I liked it at first. I was drawn in by how crappy her life seemed to me. I mean she had a shitty ex, she wore an ice cream cone and then it started to go down hill for me.

If I have to read “she giggled” once more my eyes were going to roll out of my head. The things I enjoyed about the character at first quickly became her downfall. Both Pepper and Opal seemed robotic and their dialogue seemed choppy and forced at times. Which makes me sad because this book and the idea of the flower farm and the sapphic romance really appealed to me.

EARC provided by St. Martin’s Press.

In Mazey Eddings’ sapphic opposites-attract romance Late Bloomer, artist Opal Devlin buys a flower farm after winning the lottery and ends up cohabitating with flower farmer Pepper Smith, who claims she owns the farm and is reluctant to leave without a fight.

Late Bloomer, written in the dual-POV of Opal and Pepper, begins somewhat melancholy but lightens up with a nice balance between the humor, steam, angst, and emotional drama once Opal moves to the farm and starts interacting with Pepper and her friends. Eddings brilliantly characterizes her diverse, complex, fallible, messy characters through her vibrant description and details of their appearance, personalities, and funny, emotional, sweet, steamy, sexy, and intimate interactions. In addition to her lovely development of Pepper and Oval’s relationship, I enjoyed her descriptions of farming the Thistle and Down and Opal’s artistic endeavors.

Opal quits her thankless dead-end job after her lottery win. But instead of solving her problems, it complicates her life because people come to her wanting a handout once they discover she’s flush with cash. Unfortunately, Opal cannot say no, even when they are undeserving of her time or kindness. Out of self-protection and to escape her lousy ex-boyfriend and co-worker/best friend, who both thoroughly abused her tender heart, Opal invests almost all her winnings into buying a failing flower farm in Asheville, North Carolina. She hopes to use the property’s cabin to start her painting business while the farm’s flowers live out their plant destiny.

However, the farm where she thought she’d find isolation and self-preservation is already occupied by the angry and grieving Pepper Smith, who claims she’s the rightful owner of Thistle and Bloom Farms. Further, she won’t be moving out. Opal suggests they both stay at the farm, and Pepper reluctantly agrees. Their unexpected co-summer of co-habitation is not without its issues, as Opal and Pepper strongly disagree over just about everything. Can Pepper and Olive follow their dreams while planting roots together on the farm despite being so different? Or will their intense attraction, deepening desire, and emotional attachment continue clashing with their inability to agree on anything and bring all their dreams crashing to the ground along with the farm?

Despite the circumstances, Pepper and Opal are attracted and drawn to each other from their first meeting. However, they each decide to ignore it for all they are worth, not that they have much look. Their attraction is intense and fiery. I love Eddings’ development of Opal and Pepper’s relationship through sweet, sexy, steamy, funny, snarky banter, intimate interactions, and love scenes that reveal and evolve their characters and further the novel’s plot. Eddings beautifully writes and describes their kisses, looks, intimacies, and love scenes with vivid details. They’re incredibly sensual and steamy.

Though they are opposites in many ways, Opal and Pepper provide each other with the emotional balance and support they have longed for and needed for so long. Aside from the apparent property ownership dispute, much of their bickering and conflicts come from communication breakdowns and the inability to get outside their heads, as well as emotional issues, personality, and functionality to listen and understand each other’s viewpoint and express their own clearly. While love is always complicated in this way, it seems to be even more frustrating for Opal and Pepper because of Pepper’s autism, the emotional trauma from her childhood, trust issues, and grief. That’s a lot of emotion for anyone, but it must be even more overwhelming for Pepper. Likewise, Opal is so tender-hearted, empathetic, sweet, kind, and generous that she gets emotionally overwhelmed.

I love Opal and Pepper for both their good qualities and their flaws. Eddings characterizations make it difficult for you not to. Because she’s autistic, Pepper needs control, hates change, and her routine is sacred. She’s always ready to fight. Thistle and Bloom–her safe place where she’s been happiest—is vital to her. An artist and painter, Opal is a free spirit, who so hungers for connection that she sacrifices herself in relationships. She’s searching for where she belongs and can freely express herself and her artistic nature. Opal fits nicely with Pepper’s BFF and friends—essentially her family, who are non-toxic and don’t take advantage of Opal’s sweet and generous nature.

Late Bloomer is a sweet, funny, sexy, emotional, steamy, hilarious, and fast-paced romance perfect for fans of opposites attract, grumpy x sunshine, forced proximity, neurodivergent, sapphic, farm/nature-set romances. It explores self-discovery, self-esteem, self-confidence, self-love, belonging, following your dreams, finding happiness, first love, artistic expression, toxic parents, toxic friendships/relationships, grief, and loss.

3.5 stars

Content Warnings: Grief after the loss of a loved one, complicated relationships with alcohol, and parental neglect/abandonment.

St. Martin’s Griffin provided an advanced review copy via Netgalley.

This was a very sweet and romantic lgbtq book. I love to see the representation in this book! I loved every second of reading this.

Unfortunately, I wanted to like this so much more than I actually did. I ended up DNFing it around 50% because I was just so...bored, and, frankly, annoyed at the main characters. I've read and loved Mazey Eddings' writing in the past (The Plus One was one of my favorite reads of 2023), but I couldn't gel with this one. I found Opal to be insufferable - every chapter in her POV was a drag to get through. I found her to be extremely childish and impulsive to the point of being obnoxious. All of the books' central conflicts could have been resolved if she had just...thought for a second. I liked Pepper, but there was absolutely no tension to their dynamic. They were disgruntled acquaintances for a very short amount of time and then immediately became lovers. I just didn't buy their relationship, nor could I bring myself to care about the resolution.

I might try picking this up again another time, but it just wasn't for me.

Late Bloomer is a delightful saphhic romcom about Opal, a somewhat reckless, manic and lost in life artist aka the best disaster bisexual you can imagine and Pepper, a flower farmer whose own mother just sold her recently deceased grandma's farm right out from under her to brand new lottery winner Opal. Because Pepper has been unable to locate her grandma's will, her mother (and I'm using mother here in the derogatory mommy-dearest way) under North Carolina law as next of kin, the owner of the only stable and happy home Pepper has ever had.

When Opal arrives on the farm she's greeted by a confused and immediately hostile Pepper though she knows Opal isn't at fault here. Finding out her farm has been sold is the least of Pepper's worries as the farm is failing anyway. The two begrudingly agree to share the small cabin on the farm and slowly start to grow on each other. Opal agrees to help Pepper create a living flower display for a local competition hoping the cash prize and free advertising of magazine spread for the winner will infuse the farm with new cash flow and help save it. As you might imagine, sexual tension and romance ensue.

I loved Opal and Pepper as characters, but I think Pepper might be my favorite. Both women are just on opposite spectrums of neurodivergence and it makes their relationship so interesting to follow. The pacing on this one was a little off for me...I was hoping for a bit more of the enemies time before getting to the lovers part, but overall, it's a light, enjoyable read.

I thought this was a super cute and romantic read. I really enjoyed the development of the characters and their relationship. I found the beginning to be a little slow or hard to read, probably because I don't relate to main character as much. I'd never be so trusting when it came to purchasing a property off Facebook lol but overall I thought this was wonderful, and surprisingly emotional! <3

This book didn’t completely work for me, it was cute but the Mc both were very exasperating, I understand both had their issues but it was a little too much for me, how insecure they were, because even though they were supposed to be so different, with one being a people’s pleaser and the other one having trust issues, they read quite similar. I am a little tired of reading about these women being so attracted to each other but pushing away *because reasons*.
And the fact that Pepper mom’s was this so terrible wad too much, it was just so obvious to justify the trauma and for them to meet.

I received this book as an ARC in return for an honest review.

Opal and Pepper are complete opposites who are forced together by fate to live with each other and work on a farm. The quirky banter between the two characters was phenomenal and the character building by the two characters growing with each other was some of the best I’ve read this year. You just can’t beat a grumpy Sunshine with forced proximity, it makes for some wonderful connections between characters.

This gave me the feeling of being wrapped up with a cup of cocoa and watching a hilarious holiday romcom. There is neurodivergent representation as well as the obvious sapphic love story. I highly recommend this book.

3.5 Stars

I received a free ARC from Netgalley.

“You really think people wouldn’t get a life-size rendering of Jeff motherfucking Goldblum?”

This book had so many great one-liners! A fun and fluffy book about some quirky, neurodiverse ladies. Lots of adorkable moments mixed with some spice. Totally relate to the obliviousness in both characters.

"...little marks like violet petals along my skin to show how much she owns me." 🔥

Picture this: a flower farm where the blooms aren't the only things stealing the show—there's romance in the air, and it's blooming big time! Late Bloomer by the amazing Mazey Eddings is a book that follows the story of Opal, who suddenly wins the lottery and decides to buy a flower farm, but she doesn't know that living there is Pepper, who refuses to leave the farm because it's the only home she has ever known. They agree to live together, but what they don't expect is that flowers will not be the only thing blooming...

Opal and Pepper aren't your average rom-com leads—they're beautifully flawed, wonderfully quirky, and totally relatable, especially in their portrayal of neurodivergence. They have their fears, they see the world differently and express their emotions in a way that makes harder for them to built a relationship. But oh how beautifully developed everything is in this book, and that makes the story even more perfect.

Late Blommer's romance is the kind of romance that makes you believe in love again. You'll find yourself rooting for this pair and feeling butterflies in your stomach. Also, the spicy scenes in this books are just *chef kiss*. Everything in this romance is built around the personalities of each character, and the romance grows as they grow too.

And let's not forget about the families—oh boy, do they add some drama! The family dynamics in this book are relatable. Yes, this book holds some very toxic family relationships, and they are a way of showing that the family tree can be cut too. But this book reminds us that even in the midst of chaos, there's always room for love and support, and that one can also choose a new family to hold you in the hardest moments.

I will always say: give me sapphic books for the rest of my life and I shall be the happiest.

This book was so cute! I loved the neurodivergent representation, with Opal having ADHD and Pepper being autistic. I appreciated how they had individual struggles and had to work to care for each other in the ways that they needed. Watching their characters grow and develop in their relationships was so nice. I'd definitely read more from this author!

“You deserve a life so peaceful it feels deliciously boring.”

Mazey’s ability to capture the beauty and struggles of neurodiversity is unfounded.

From the whimsical nature that is Opal to the guarded walls surrounding Pepper, these two shouldn’t work, but thankfully for us—they do!

I honestly loved how at different points in the story, both Opal and Pepper felt lost—as though their entire lives were being uprooted without their permission. But together they were able to find a new normal, make new goals, and come together in a way that strengthened not only each other, but one another’s dreams.

Hearing about the experience Mazey has had since announcing this book has chilled me to my core. I’m grateful she’s writing books that show every day people. People with daily struggles, neurospicy struggles. People who aren’t always the easiest to get along with if we aren’t willing to hear them out or get to know them. I love that she writes about all forms of sexuality as though it’s NORMAL, because it is and deserves to be included in beautiful stories without it having to be nit-picked or highlighted as anything outside of the norm.

If you haven’t picked up a Mazey book yet, do yourself a favor and get them all. She has adult romcoms, new adult romance, and even a young adult story that’s easily one of my favorites. I promise it’s worth it to grab them all.

Also, the narrators did a phenomenal job with LATE BLOOMER. I was sucked into this flower-filled world right alongside Opal and Pepper, and I didn't want to be anywhere else.

Tropes:
- Sapphic romance
- Bi representation
- Forced proximity
- Opposites attract
- Grumpy/sunshine
- Autism representation
- Neurodiverse representation
- Grief + healing
- Found family

I will not be reviewing this title as I am participating in the St. Martin's press boycott. Will come back to this and post a full review when the publisher takes accountability and addresses readers concerns. More information at @readersforaccountability on Instagram.

I love Mazey Eddings, so this was an obvious choice for me. Opal is a people pleaser who wins the lottery. Her no good ex boyfriend and crappy "best friend" immediately start sniffing around for her winnings, so Opal does what anyone would do and buys a flower farm, sight unseen, off of facebook marketplace. She plans to use it as a studio for her art. When she gets there she finds that it is occupied by Pepper, the estranged daughter of the woman who sold her the farm. The farm has been the only home she's known, but she doesn't have the capital to buy it back from Opal. The only hope she has is to win a flower art competition, but she can't do it without Opal's help. The two butt heads, but also bond over their neurodivergence, and sparks fly.

Things I loved: Sapphic representation, neurodivergent representation, gorgeous setting, surprisingly spicy, found families, character growth.
Things I didn't love: Opal's character seemed to kind of change depending on POV, and her character arc didn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press | St. Martin's Griffin and NetGalley for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a perfect sapphic romcom.
I loved the characters and I love their growth.
It was cute, sweet, and surprisingly steamy!!

Mazey always does justice to the relationship anxiety that comes with being neurodivergent, and I just love it. She has yet to fail me.

Opal has a problem. She has a hard time saying no. This becomes an even bigger problem when she wins the lotto. She knows she can’t say no so she needs to find a way to spend the money. She buys a flower farm, sight unseen. Not gonna lie this concerned me, but I digress. Anyway, she arrives at the farm to find Pepper who claims she’s the rightful owner of the farm. We have some forced proximity, opposites attract and a whole lot of love in this one. They were a couple to root for !
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Thank you #griffin and #NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review