Erin's Reviews > Late Bloomer

Closer to 3.5 stars

I honestly might just make a bingo board of tropes/common occurrences within Sapphic romances because this is getting ridiculous. Late Bloomer was fine, but it is one in a series of Sapphic romances that feel almost like MadLibs (insert setting, character names, and lecture the author will give you). 

The page count already made me a bit suspicious because most romances, in my opinion, cannot sustain that page count without something unnecessary going on with the plot or writing. Here it was a bad case of telling and not showing of character traits. For example, Opal explains at the beginning of the book in excruciating detail about how much of a people pleaser she is, but the dialogue and her actions show that well. As the reader (and fellow people pleaser), it was frustrating to sit there and just think "okay we get it; move on please."

Besides that, we have a couple of other classic and irritating tropes that I find in Sapphic romances, such as *the author lectures the reader on a social issue*, *this fight is ridiculous*, and my absolute favorite *I don't think an editor read this* (e.g., hot chocolate and chestnut are two different hair colors).

Overall, this was fine. I can't comment on the authenticity of the neurodivergence representation of the novel, so I would read some own voices reviews for any feedback on that end.