I support the Readers for Accountability boycott of St. Martin's Press (and imprints).  I will be withholding reviews while the boycott continues. #SpeakUpSMP

Oh this is such a tender book and I really enjoyed it. I have liked all of Mazey's books for different reasons but something they all have in common is the extremely well done neurodivergent rep. Then this is a sapphic book about a chaos demon (affectionate) winning the lottery and impulse buying a flower farm without seeing it, only to discover the woman who sold it didn't tell her estranged daughter who lives there and runs it that she sold it? Drama, tension, self-realization, chemistry, first times, art, agriculture, forced proximity, queer and biological families, etc etc etc. Opal has a complicated balance of being hopeful and extending grace to others while simultaneously being hard and down on herself. Pepper (whose middle name, Anne, is mentioned once without any actual reference or acknowledgement of the Pepper Ann cartoon from the late 90s, which was a shame in my opinion) embodies the name of her late grandma's flower farm, Thistle and Bloom, as she begins withdrawn and prickly but blossoms as she comes to care for Opal and open up. I really appreciated that Pepper was new to sex and the way Opal viewed it as a perfectly normal version of human experience, as well as an opportunity to learn together. The spicy scenes were hot but also usually tender and emotional. Overall, not my fave of Mazey's books but an excellent showing and it gets extra points for being sapphic and for its gorgeous cover. 

Reread2025: I love this book. Pepper and Opal are both so relatable for different reasons, and I love Mazey Eddings for writing beautiful neurodiverse characters, and people who love all parts of them. I read this last year when the "I think I'm maybe neurodiverse" bug had started to niggle down into my brain, and over a year into it this felt like even better timing. Opal's decision to not pursue formal testing (because it's expensive and not always accessible) and settle on "neurodiverse" instead a more specific lable was a lightbulb moment for me since I did the same thing with "queer". I too, cannot afford the diagnosis process and have been really stuck on the fact that I display and experience so many traits, but didn't know for sure. If anything, the experiences of both these characters made it even more clear to me that I am indeed neurodiverse and have masked heavily ever since I learned what was considered "normal" to society, without even realizing that's what I was doing. So thank you, Mazey, for what is not only a beautiful sapphic love story about first times and figuring out life, but for the comfort your words have brought me. 
Opal wins the lottery and feels stuck in life so she impulsively buys a flower farm without seeing it, to go live there and be an artist like she's always wanted. But when she arrives, she finds Pepper, the daughter of the woman who sold the farm surreptitiously. They decide to both stay while Pepper earns the money over the season to start buying Opal out and giving her more time to figure out where she'll go instead. Though they clash at the start, they grow closer and eventually start hooking up while also preparing for a floral art display competition. Their story is soft, tender, emotional, and woven through is Mazey's signature wit and sense of humor. I recently bought myself a copy of this one (and then reread the ebook because I am who I am) and know I'll read it again in the future.