#book: late bloomer

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

[oidheadh-con-culainn]

romance novels love to tell you a character is a late bloomer because they don't meet the love of their life until they're twenty-four

[nedlittle]

it's that time of the year again! i read a whopping 135 books in 2024 and have collected the worst of the worst for your entertainment ft. homophobia, taylor swift, girlboss baba yaga, and mary shelley's nipples. i hope you enjoy these reviews to make up for the suffering i endured to write them.

a lethal lady by nekesa afia ⭐

A Lethal Lady exists in a series of nondescript beige rooms because there is no effort put into making them anything else. Your reader should not have to imagine scenery themselves because you cannot be bothered to craft any description apart from vague adjectives, which do nothing if they exist without context!

the good women of fudi by liu hong ⭐

It's like Liu Hong sat down and Googled "gay books" and read the first one that came up, then Googled "lesbian books" and did the exact same thing. And then she thought, What if I did that but worse?

the witch and the tsar by oleysa salnikova gilmore ⭐

We can't even have hags anymore. Because of woke. At least Marya Morevna is bisexual.

mary and the birth of frankenstein by anne eekhout (tr. laura watkinson) ⭐

If I were sent back to 1816, I could identify Mary Shelley by her nipples alone. I could pick her nipples out of a police lineup. Her nipples are going to haunt me for the rest of my life. Her nipples are more myself than my own.

a fatal crossing by tom hindle ⭐.25

The timeline spans five days but feels like five years. The chapters are relatively short, but the action is so repetitive that it becomes cyclical, dragging on like Hector's corpse around the walls of Troy.

five wives by joan thomas ⭐.25

The Governor General's Award is not a serious award, lmao. We have approximately five recognizable Canadian writers, so much of our publishing is just slop, so we have to reward everyone who can string two sentences together.

dear sylvia, love jane by erin hall ⭐.5

It's like oh wow queer found family! community! a spunky underdog protagonist! And then a woman is murdered off-page by her husband who is then iced on-page by the mob. And then we go back to found family.

late bloomer by mazey eddings ⭐.75

You could scroll gay Twitter for 30 minutes and have the same experience as reading this book.

the formidable miss cassidy by meihan boey ⭐⭐

The characters and dialogue were too twee for my tastes, and Miss Cassidy herself is Mary Poppins if she were a whimsigoth Tumblr witch.

maude horton's glorious revenge by lizzie pook ⭐⭐

The whole book lends itself to being read with only half of one's brain engaged; neither engaging nor forgettable, it's the sort of thing that vanishes entirely from your psyche the moment after you mark it as read.

[chloemokthequeen]

The book is finally out!

Here's a line:

Amidst her chant, she mumbles under her breath some noises that sound like self-directed arguments where she can find no answers to as she spirals into a dark pit of trepidation and angst. Her anxieties have never been clinically diagnosed but are plain to see. Her chronic compulsions have blistered her palms and fingers; they are almost always wrinkly from endless washing. In thirty minutes, her chore is complete and she meticulously hangs her clothes piece by piece, flatly on a rack to dry under the sun.

Read it here: https://online.fliphtml5.com/edwlz/fqkb/

Kindle:

[homerjacksons]

- Late Bloomer by Mazey Eddings

[bookshelvesandtealeaves]

✨ BOOK REVIEW ✨

Late Bloomer by Mazey Eddings

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[instagram]

This book was such a messy, beautiful, wild ride. I loved every moment of it.

Our main characters are somehow so similar and yet absolute polar opposites. They balance each other out so well. The constant ebb and flow between them was intoxicating, exhilarating.

I loved how artistic and free and emotion-driven this whole book was. The flower farm, the artist, the beautiful Sappho flower display, all of it felt so vibrant and full of life and love and passion.

But this book isn’t without its faults and it definitely won’t be for everyone. While I enjoyed the chaos, at times it felt like the characters were suddenly completely different people, acting completely differently to how they had a few chapters prior. This, on occasion, added to the charm, but I did get a bit of character whiplash, especially with Opal.

I also think this book could have really done with a tighter edit, but I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt on that front as I originally read an unedited proof.

[catis15]

My Opinions/Reviews on Saphic Books:

- Bright Falls Trilogy

- All of them are cute and heartwarming and giggle worthy and shit

- It's cool seeing each of the friend groups POVs and they're all pretty relatable in my opinion

- Pretty good representation of various family relationships especially with mothers

- the various relationships are actually really well written but the stories are still very much focused on the romance, they're not sidelined persey but they're not the main focus of that's what your looking for it's very much about the couple

- I like the variety in body types through the series, there's different heights, weights, yada yada and it's nice to see and they're all appreciated

- There aren't any POC MCs but there are side characters, also lots of gender and lgbtqia+ identity representation NB characters, ace characters, lots of queer couples, I think there may be a polycule mentioned but I'm not entirely sure

- Smut? Yes there is, how much varies between book but I'd argue there's more every book with Iris's book having the most; Id also argue it gets intenser as the series continues but it's all pretty mid (not in the it's bad writing way in the I've read far worse but I've also read some relatively pg 13)

DELILAH GREEN

- I love Delilah sm she can fucking step on me and Id ask her to do it again

- It's a sorta an asshole to everyone but you between her and Claire but not in the typical way? Like it's there but it's not written the way a lot of that trope usually is, idk I just really like how these books are written I think the author does a fantastic job

- Delilah seeing Claire for who she is and like just how much emotion she has is just yes, and also Claire seeing Delilah as like a sweet person and not just an asshole is nice too

- Because I know it bothers some people, Claire is a mother and the kid is talked about, I don't mind parent tropes but ik some people just don't enjoy reading them, I thought Ruby was sweet though and Claire seeing how Delilah interacts with her is also really cute

- Delilah also providing that safe and comforting space for artwork for Ruby is also really sweet and seeing Delilah kinda give Ruby what she herself didn't have is wholesome ASF and Claire just appreciates it and shit idk it's cute

- Hating On The Straight White Man TM (because he is gross to Astrid)

- Delilah is a photographer and Claire runs a bookstore

ASTRID PARKER

- It's cool getting to see Astrid's POV compared to how Delilah (her sister) views her

- Mommy Issues TM and in my opinion it catches some of the subtleties of growing up with a toxic parent really well

- Jordans ex comes along so warning for that, ok some people don't really like that

- Also handles like not missing your ex but feeling like YOU failed because the relationship failed

- again the subtleties of so much is just so well written

- Jordan is very stereotypical lesbian and I'm here for it

- her truck is named adora, her cat is named catra (if I'm remembering correctly), she wears random button ups, got that half saved short hair going (funnily enough I myself had both Astrid and Jordans haircuts at various points in my life lmao), she's a carpenter sorta, she's got an attitude, is into taro, like I love her sm 😂 she's so me fr 😭

- enemies to lovers

- Astrid's a bitch and Jordan pretends not to be into it

- they fuck in a pantry

- it's funny

IRIS KELLY

- iris doesn't do kids and marriages and her more or less traditional family is giving her shit for it

- Stevie has anxiety and handles it the same way I handle mine so that was relatable

- handles the shit that goes along with having anxiety really well so props to the author once again

- fake dating tm

- They're basically giving each other 'classes' because they think they're bad at things; but in reality it's just them being comfortable with stuff they're actually pretty good at; Stevie helps Iris be more comfortable with everyday romance and Iris helps Stevie be more comfortable with adult fun time intimacy outside of committed long term relationships

- but at the same time in queer Shakespeare and it's beautiful

- Home Field Advantage

- will add later

- The Song of the Huntress

- Just bought it and haven't read it yet

- The Priory of the Orange Tree

- Just bought it haven't read it

- Late Bloomer

- a few chapters in

- th author notes are funny and enjoyable

- good representation of things like people pleasing, autism, trust issues due to family trauma, bad relationships that you stay in for the comfort, toxic friends

- They're some pretty heavy themes but their handled in an easy to swallow way

- while these are very present themes the main focus is still the romance, but they're handled a bit more in depth than say the Bright Falls Trilogy

[justbackgroundnoise]

Currently reading Late Bloomer by Mazy Eddings and wow, this passage really cut deep.

[maureen-corpse]

Okay, to be fair, I have never been to Charlotte proper, but I feel like it’s weird for a fictional character who has by all accounts lived in Charlotte all her life and seemingly traveled to other places in the great state of North Carolina to identify a southern accent as particularly notable. What do you mean this person you’re talking to has a southern accent. You’re in North Carolina. What kind of accent do YOU have.

[remindmetoreed]

for one of the book clubs im in, this is our next read and im so excited! shoutout to the library for coming in clutch because i really didn't want to drop $20 on a new book this week

[just-a-girl-who-likes-sharks]

June 2024 books 🩷

I couldn’t read as much this month because of all my many assignments and exams, but since I passed all of my classes, I can spend the whole summer reading when I get home from work!

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

[zombeesknees]

in the cute sapphic romance i'm currently reading, one of the gals cites The Mummy as her Bi Awakening on the very first page. i'm so glad millennials are flooding the romance market.

[bookcoversonly]

Title: Late Bloomer | Author: Mazey Eddings | Publisher: Griffin (2024)

[prose-mortem]

Book Review: Late Bloomer

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Late Bloomer was such a cute book! It satisfied all of my cottagecore, sapphic fantasies from the special interest in flowers to the sprawling farm in Asheville. It was an adorable comfort read straight out of Taylor Swift's folklore music album. One of the characters buys the other character greenhouses… What is more classic than that?

I loved Opal and Pepper's story. I deeply enjoyed the character development alongside the romance. For example, I thought (at first) that Opal was going to be a major pick-me with all the people-pleasing tendencies, but I was completely wrong. As the plot progresses, we see what a strong, smart, and loyal person she is to the people she loves. That was a refreshing arc! Both characters are neurodiverse (though Opal isn't sure what label fits her exactly), which was very relatable to an autistic person like me.

If there is a cozy, comforting (sapphic) version of Gilmore Girls, then this is it. Every detail was spot-on from autistic sensory issues to shoe art to niche special interests. (I loved Opal's fleeting special interest in the Victorian era. I felt seen.) The epilogue was so perfect! I wish I lived in Opal's and Pepper's world! If you like sapphic romance, this will pander directly to your most iconic and cottagecore princess fantasies!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers at St. Martin's Griffin for my e-arc! I hope Mazey Eddings keeps writing sapphic romances, because I will most definitely be reading them all.

[homerjacksons]

Advent calendar 2024 - December 1