Oh Mazey Eddings, how I adore your writing! Eddings has blown it out of the park with her first sapphic novel, and I can only hope for more. She’s truly giving us the sapphic & autistic representation we all need!

Opal and Pepper were the most chaotic and lovable main characters we could’ve asked for—the development from friendship to sapphic yearning was phenomenal.

Late Bloomer is a cozy, cottage core esque sapphic romance with neurodivergent representation that everyone must read!

And might I add, the cover designer has masterfully created the best cover I’ve ever seen. I only hope to have this face out on my shelf forever …

This was a very cute romance. I liked our main characters and they were adorable together but the day after i finished it i didn't remember anything and i just never think about it

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my copy of this arc!

This book was so refreshing. It was such a different plot line and I really enjoyed it. I read the book in a few sittings and immediately felt like I connected with the characters.

Forced proximity is one of my favourite tropes and I felt like it was done excellently in this book. Both main characters got on excellently and you could see the growth of both, individually and together. It felt real and not pushed. I also really enjoyed the neurodivergent aspect as it is under-explored in literature!

A solid 4 star read!

Although i couldn't really connect with either Pepper or Opal, this was a really sweet book.
I liked the discussion about grief and family issues (I felt so much for Pepper, tho) that part was great.
My main issue was the romance. These two felt more like friends with benefits than an actual couple. It was more lust than love, and I wanted more of the latter.
Still, this was a sweet and fun book, and I truly enjoyed it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you for my earc of this book. I was so looking forward to this and wanted to love it, as I’ve really enjoyed her other books but I felt myself getting so frustrated with Opal and found the first 15% almost painful to read. The chemistry with the LI wasn’t there for me and it felt like “tell me” instead of “show me” with the romantic interactions and I therefore didn’t finish.

Late Bloomer was such a cute, fun, sapphic romance that I absolutely adored. The front cover if gorgeous *heart eyes*
The two protagonists of this novel, Opal and Pepper, find themselves in a forced proximity situation, an opposites attract romance that keeps things cheesy and wholesome in the best kinda way.
Honestly such a feel-good read and I'm always on the look out for a good sapphic/ queer romance story!

thank you to Headline via NetGalley for a digital arc

I can’t quite pin down why but I just didn’t love this. I found their relationship a little rushed, maybe more tell than show on their connection and I ended up just a little bored. I think the characters were good and you could see their individual growth. It felt like a book I could’ve loved but ultimately it just fell a little flat for me.

I did not finish this book.

The plot felt really forced and unnatural, but not in a fun way. I also found both main characters infuriating - neither were ever reasonable at any point.

I haven't posted this review as I feel others might enjoy. It was just not for me

I read Brush With Love, but this boo I enjoyed so much more. I loved the plot how Opal bought the flower farm which Pepper was living on and they both had to make the best out of a terrible situation.

This one is for the plant and flower girlies which I’m not because allergies. I found the characters, Opal and Pepper, to be super endearing and sweet and I loved how their neurodivergence was portrayed. The romance was super cute although maybe a little too quick but I liked it nonetheless. 3.75⭐️

3.75⭐️

This was a lovely and cosy read that has been on my tbr for a while and definitely didn’t disappoint! This is a sapphic romance with an interesting forced proximity trope. When Opal wins the lottery, she buys a farm on facebook, only to turn up and find out the farm already has a resident, Pepper, who is unaware of the sale. The two come to an agreement to live together for the next year and slowly fall in love. The neurodivergent rep was great and so was the character development of both Opal and Pepper. It is sometimes a little difficult to figure out/remember whose pov you’re reading but not too much of an issue. This was a fun, cosy queer romcom that was the right amount of steamy and charming, definitely worth the read!

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Thank you to Netgalley and Mazzy Eddings for an ARC of this book in return for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley UK and the publisher for sending me an e-ARC in exchange for a review.

4 ⭐

I think ME's storytelling is only improving. I have really enjoyed each of the books she has released in the past few years and Pepper and Opal's story was no different. I always really enjoy this author's approach to writing neurodivergent characters because it's always been really clear that it's authentic and well thought out, which makes it wonderfully relatable as a nd reader.

A wonderful part of the love story is how Pepper and Opal finally find people who understand them. Pepper has Grandma Lou and Diksha, and Opal is welcomed into that and is eventually able to reject the shitty friends who have been stringing her along.

It was fun, flirty and a really enjoyable read.

Late Bloomer succeeds in its writing with good neurodivergent representation and its use the sunshine versus grumpy trope. The vibes were cute and cosy, and the story was light and simple, which made for an easy read, allowing me to finish it in one day.
What stopped me from rating this higher was the fact that the jump from a no-strings-attached arrangement to declarations of love was slightly rushed and the characterisation of Opal did not feel consistent between the POVs.
I would recommend Late Bloomer to anyone who is looking for a low-stakes, cosy, wholesome, Sapphic romance and to someone who doesn't mind a few Taylor Swift references sprinkled throughout.

This is a cutesy girly lighthearted romance. Unfortunately it wasn’t for me. The writing was trying too hard considering it’s just a light romance. Long winded flowery descriptions. The romance was cute but that was it. I guess if you want a light quick read you might enjoy it but wasn’t for me.

Opal buys a flower farm, sight unseen, and when she gets there, she finds Pepper, who has been working on the farm for years, but Pepper’s mother has sold it without her knowing.

This story is wonderful and so very Mazey Eddings, but the beginning was really hard to read. Opal is a people pleaser - her vulnerability and gullibility made me really uncomfortable and I had to make myself read on. Persevere, people, because things quickly fall into place and it’s those trusting aspects of Opal’s character that enable her to try and give the flower farm a go and make space for Pepper.

It’s low angst, forced proximity, steamy and fun. There’s neurodiversity, bisexual representation, inexperience, communication and consent, and it all fits together so beautifully.

I’ve loved all of Mazey’s books, especially The Plus One. This has a different feel, but once again it’s an immersive world with such likeable and believable characters. Opal’s sisters are brilliant, they know her so well and there’s no major villain, although Pepper’s mother is a piece of work and Pepper is carrying some past trauma. There’s growth for both of them as they navigate a future on the farm and I was so invested in them getting together and making it work.

This book is aesthetically gorgeous. The cover, the flowers, the imagery, even the tenderness between Opal and Pepper feel so very lush. There’s few hard edges, hardly any masculinity - toxic or otherwise - and this feminine energy washes through the whole delicious romance. Great fun!

Thank you so much NetGalley, Headline and Mazey Eddings for the ARC. Opinions are my own.

This was a really cute and sweet sapphic small town romance and I really adore the cover!

It was the right level of lighthearted and dramatic and the characters felt believable. I much preferred Peppee to Opal,I think I’d find Opal annoying in real life but they worked well together.

Would recommend, it’s not setting the world on fire but it is a solid romance,

Oh my students are going to love this! Two string female leads, who support and challenge each other but are also comfortable being vulnerable too. Add in this swoon-worthy rom com setting and you have a truly enjoyable read.

This is officially my favourite Mazey Eddings book! What an amazing story - I’m obsessed!

I loved Opal and Pepper so much!! The way they were so open and vulnerable with each other was adorable.

I genuinely can’t recommend it enough! This is such a cute, fluffy read; conflict is minimal and when it did happen, Opal and Pepper tried her best to talk things through, which I really appreciate.

** Slight Spoiler Warnings**

I have mixed feelings about this one! I liked the set-up and the flower farm as a setting and it made for a unique forced cohabitation set-up. The romance was cute and the sex scenes were well written but my favourite part had to be the way both women's neurodivergence was represented. Eddings did a pretty good job of representing two different shades of a similar neurodivergence and the way those differences caused both synergy and friction in the relationship. Pepper and Opal were a very sweet couple but I'm just not sure I connected with them AS much as I could've and I think this comes down to the number one weakness of this book. The cringe. Particularly in the beginning, Opal was just.... a bit too cringe for me in the beginning, which kind of soured my entry into this story (though this does improve throughout the book).

It's kind of hard to review because I can acknowledge that Opal's naivety and impulsiveness could be put down to her (undiagnosed or treated) neurodivergence... but at the same time, it feels infantilising to assume that her dumbass behaviour is due solely due to this? and like if it IS the cause of her behaviour then like... it's a pretty good sign she probably does need to seek an actual diagnosis and some kind of treatment, since it's definitely not healthy adult behaviour to drop 300k on a FARM sight unseen. That level of impulsivity is dangerous yet this isn't reflected upon (which I wouldn't expect from a stock standard romance) but this book makes a point of being very focused on their mental health so like..... why not reflect more on this? ESPECIALLY when Opal admits that while the idea of her being ADHD or Autistic was floated by a councillor in high school, she never got an actual diagnosis because of how expensive the testing is. But like, she now has 100k left of her winnings that she could use a small chunk of to GET that diagnosis and some help. We see that Pepper has some great strategies to help her regulate so it would've been cool for Opal to see that and be positively influenced by it and seek some assistance. I am NOT saying she needed medicating but even just seeing her learning coping strategies so that she can live a less chaotic life would have been nice.

Especially since I think it would have been really powerful commentary about how the world is pretty much set up to disadvantage neurodivergent people and that proper help requires HUGE amounts of money which makes it inaccessible to most - particularly in the US. Opal's self-worth is shattered due to a lifetime of thinking she ruins everything and no one likes her etc all because she's trying to win a game that's rigged against her.

So yeah while I did love the way the neurodivergence was represented and wound through the story, I do think there was a bit of a missed opportunity here.

But all in all, this is a cute, heartfelt romance that has a lot of originality and I think it's a really fantastic example of the richness and freshness that can be injected into a genre when we uplift diverse stories. This makes for a nice change in a genre like romance which is currently overflowing with TikTok books telling the same three stories over and over again.

Thank you to Netgally and Headline Eternal for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

Late Bloomer is a cute romance, there's a lot I liked about it. The cover is beautiful, the autistic and neurodivergent representation was wonderfully done and I liked how the writer explored the grief plotline.

I think it needed more plot and more depth overall though, the plot meanders around and doesn't have a clear direction. Even after finishing the book I still don't know <i>why</i> Pepper and Opal liked each other. They just sort of fall together by circumstance and are attracted to each other, I don't feel like they got to know each other and I don't really know them either.