I’m glad I can finally post this review since SMP got themselves together. I thought this book, just like all Mazey Eddings books, was really well done. It was cute, sweet, and the cover is beautiful! These were fun and quirky characters. I loved the representation.

Mazey Eddings' Late Bloomer is a witty, heartwarming exploration of personal growth, identity, and love. This contemporary romance takes a thoughtful look at what it means to bloom on your own time, especially when life doesn’t quite go according to plan. As I've come to expect from her, Eddings delivers a story full of charm, humor, and emotional depth.

This was one of my most-anticipated releases of the year, but I'm sad to say it just didn't work for me. I normally am someone who, as a reader, actually really enjoys reading about characters who make different decisions than i would in their situation and who mess up (because it makes them seem all the more human!), but in this book, the main characters' poor decision-making really stressed me out. i also unfortunately didn't feel bought into the romance-- it felt pretty surface-level and just lacked a certain spark or romantic tension to keep me invested. i did really appreciate the rep in this book (both MCs are neurodivergent), and i thought the flower farm setting was very fun.

REVIEW FOR LATE BLOOMER 💐

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars

Thank you to @netgalley and @smpromance for the gifted digital copy! All thoughts are my own-

Happy #pubday to Late Bloomer! I loved this story so much. It really just made me want to quit my job and move to a flower farm 🫠 this story was sweet and full of whole heart experiences (both good and bad). This took me a little longer to read as it was heavier at times and really hit me in the feels, but it helped me savor it.

There were a couple situations with miscommunication I didn’t love, which is why it wasn’t a 5⭐️ for me. But I did feel like the epilogue put a nice bow on everything and I cannot wait to see what other stories may come from the side characters!

What a sweet, emotional sapphic delight! I loved following Opal and Pepper through the garden of their lives as they discovered a lot about themselves and grew together and as individuals. The cast of friends were delightful, and I felt very seen with the neurodivergent rep.

I really wanted to love this book. I loved the last Maisie editing book I read, and I tend to really like sapphic romance novels. I had a really hard time getting into this book. I think maybe the plot felt a little outlandish. It took me a long time because I kept picking up and putting back down this book. I’m glad overall that I finished it, but I don’t think it was for me.

This was an excellent "vibes" or "environment" book. The world really wrapped me up into it but it was a little slower paced than I typically prefer. However, the story was incredibly flushed out, along with the characters, and the setting of the book.

This was a cute and sweet romantic comedy but unfortunately it didn't really work for me. The gorgeous cover and promise of sapphic enemies to lovers with forced proximity dragged me in, but the author doesn't do enough work to build the characters or their chemistry with each other. I wanted angst and tension and instead I felt like things progressed too quickly physically without the emotions to back them up for long term. I can't imagine these characters make it in a long-term relationship.

I also don't think there was enough conflict to add any more depth to the story. I think this book could have used more time and editing to be fleshed out more fully into a stronger idea with some additions before publication. I've liked some of this author's previous works so I know this could be a lot better than what it is!!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC.

This was okay. Felt like inhad promise but it really felt flat for me. Thsbk you for the opportunity to read this! 2 full stars

I’m such a Mazey Eddings fan, and loved this opposites attract, sapphic romance! The flower farm, the great cast of characters, and the swoony story. I ate it right up

I paired the book and audio and loved them both, great narration, and highly recommend.

*many thanks to SMP, Macmillan audio and Netgalley for the gifted copy for review

This was a really enjoyable book! It has one of my favorite tropes, grumpy/sunshine, and I thought the farm setting was great. It definitely stands out from the other romance books I have read. Can't wait to pick up another book by Mazey Eddings.

Thank you to the publisher, author and Net Galley for an advanced copy of this book.

I absolutely loved the premise of this book, however it didn't quite live up to my expectations. I did enjoy the grumpy/sunshine trope in it and I enjoyed the neurodivergent rep, however I think the book overall will be pretty forgettable for me, which is why i rated it 3.5 stars on StoryGraph (3 stars on NetGalley).

Ah! This book had me giggling and kicking my feet the whole time!

We meet Opal who lives her life by the seat of her pants and makes decisions without thinking of their consequences. She wins the lottery and makes the impulsive decision to buy a flower farm to live out her dream of painting shoes. Only one problem: the farm has an owner. Pepper’s grandmother has owned the Thistle and Bloom flower shop her entire life, and is struggling to make ends meet when her grandmother unexpectedly passes away and leaves the mess of finances to Pepper. When Opal blows into Pepper’s life, the two are about as different as they come. Opal is determined to prove that she doesn’t always make a mess of things and Pepper is determined to keep her only home she’s ever known.

The autism representation. The bi representation. The small business representation. Toxic relationships. Learning how to navigate emotions with strangers. This book had so many different aspects that all made me smile.
Sunshine-y Opal was so relatable as someone who has felt off in adulthood, but never knew why.

This book is also 4.5 stars, but NetGalley doesn't allow for half stars.

I love Mazey and this book was no different!

Late Bloomer was just the book I was looking for. Opal and Pepper are perfect for each other and them maintaining a lower farm together is such a cute idea!

[arc review]
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review.
Late Bloomer releases April 16, 2024

<i>“And that’s my problem. I’m so hungry to connect with someone—anyone—I settle for crumbs and pretend like they’re a full meal.”</I>

Opal has just won the lottery from a scratch-off ticket, and promptly spends $310K of her $500K winnings on a five-acre farm in Asheville, <I>“for the vibes.”</I>

Thanks to her Facebook Marketplace find, she now has the perfect place to live out her dreams and put her fine art degree to good use, all while escaping the influx of people she seemingly can’t say no to.
Only, when she arrives at the farm, she’s greeted by Pepper, a woman who still lives and works on the grounds of her late grandmother’s farm with no knowledge that it was sold.

Most of my time spent reading this consisted of me yelling at Opal to grow a fucking backbone.

On <u>day one</u>, Opal is extremely lenient, agreeing to let Pepper buy back the farm over time and offering to become roommates with her. As the legal owner of the farm, Opal is not obligated to be so accommodating — it’s her investment into her dream of being an artist, yet she’s already giving it up for someone who is so brash and unwelcoming? ON DAY ONE?
I get that Pepper has memories tied to the farm and is grieving Lou, but she has no right to tell Opal not to step into a spare bedroom when Opal is the owner.

Despite the characters being in their mid/late 20s, I couldn’t picture them as anything other than YA.
Their characterizations were inconsistent throughout, and there wasn’t much more to them outside of their neurodivergent traits.

The lead up to them having “emotion-free” sex was so forced and unnatural. I wish they had started working on their competition piece for the festival together beforehand as a way to build up some believable chemistry.
Additionally, for Pepper to be autistic and have sensory issues, it was unrealistic that every instance of them having sex with lots of physical touch always amounted to a pleasant experience, especially given the fact that she was a virgin with no prior experience.

Lastly, the cover art is misleading when Opal starts the book with pink hair, ends it with green hair, and has lavender hair years later in the epilogue.

Late Bloomer has a lot of promise-a beautiful cover, a great setting, and a sapphic romance setup that is unique and fun. Unfortunately, the setting ends up doing a lot of the heavy lifting, while the romance becomes an insta-lovey mess between two women who refuse to communicate and are just so wildly immature for two adults who live alone and are trying to run a business. Also, and this is probably a me issue, but it felt too escapist. One of the MCs has big dreams of living on this flower farm and becoming a shoe artist. Yes, she wants to paint shoes forever. And it's all sweet and fun but she felt like way too much of quirky stereotype.

My point is, I didn't hate this. The setting is great, the romance is sweet, but there are too many little things that make this sort of messy. I will def recommend it sapphic rom com readers, but it's not something our small library needs to add to our collection.

#ReadMoreQueerLit hosted by @eloise_bradbooks on StoryGraph

I would rate this 4.5 out of 5.

I want to thank NetGalley and Wednesday Books for a copy of this book.

Brief Summary: Opal has had a turn of luck and will finally pull the pieces of her life together and pursue her dream of being an artist. While doing some late-night internet surfing, Opal decides that the Thistle and Bloom flower farm is the perfect destination to make all her hopes come to life. Pepper, the current resident of the farm however has other ideas—many, many ideas in fact, but none of them involve Opal. Forced to work together Opal and Pepper begin to learn a great deal about themselves and each other and what they find might be 1000 yellow daiseys worth of joy.

Thoughts: Eddings is an excellent writer. The way that she can elicit such emotion from her characters makes them jump off the page. While I loved both Opal and Pepper, I felt I identified a bit more with Opal. The chaotic way she approaches things and the way she releases stress by changing her hair were both so relatable and articulated feelings that I often experience in a way that makes me feel incredibly seen.

I do wish that there had been a bit more integration of Opal's sisters into the later part of the book. They seem to be a central part of Opal's world and they seem to have drifted off at the end. I'm not sure if it is because of the distance between the farm and where they live in the city or what. Am I hoping that there will be spin-off books for both of them, yes. But I am selfish.

The very last chapters of the book felt a little chaotic. I completely agree with Pepper that some of the villains in the book were exhibiting some serious stalker behaviour. Also, I'm not entirely sure how much time has passed in this book and it seems wild to me that someone hasn't talked to you in months and you think it's cool to just show up out of the blue.

I enjoyed the dynamics between Pepper and her friend group and like Opal's sisters I wished they had more time on the page. Especially since they seemed very invested in Pepper at the start of the book and then seemed to make no real appearances later on.

Overall, I found this an endearing love story between two agents of chaos and it truly shows Eddings for the mastermind that she is. If you enjoy sapphic romances this one will make you swoon.

Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Grief, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

I wasn’t going to write a review about this book, but I have to for my NetGalley account. So here goes…..

One word to describe this book: insufferable! I am not going to bash this book, but I could not wait to stop reading it. Storylines plucked from here and there, characters that were annoying, and the whole dynamic just didn’t make sense.

I did love the book cover, the beginning of the story, the setting, and some of the spicy scenes.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this copy of Late Bloomer.

Opal wins the lottery and buys a cabin/flower farm on Facebook Marketplace to restart her life and paint shoes. Little does she know when she gets there, Pepper is living on and managing the farm that her grandmother left behind after she passed. She has zero idea the farm has been sold by her estranged mother to Opal, and her whole life gets turned upside down.

Opal and Pepper (Pepper ANNE?! Stop right now, I can’t 😂) are adorable together and the story is a perfect grumpy sunshine pairing. Opal is so sweet and just wants to help Pepper, and Pepper just wants to be left alone in her failing business.

At one point they have some sort of hookup agreement that seemed unnecessary because it disappears faster than it arrives. The third act breakup comes SO late and is resolved so fast it could have also been removed, but that’s me personally despising the third act breakup in general.

Overall though, this was a really delightful novel, super cute, lots of flowers and fun.

Thank you @netgalley and @stmartinspress for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Late Bloomer is a queer romance with an awesome premise. Unfortunately, I didn't feel the spark between the main characters, and was wanting more out of the conflict. I love the idea of this taking place on a flower farm, and sale forcing them to move in together, but I didn't think the romance held up. I gave this title three stars because I liked it and thought it was worth reading, but I wouldn't recommend it to a friend or read it again.