Hyacinths and Hydrangeas Review — Is It Worth Reading?

Verdict: A warm, wholesome college-basketball coming-of-age romance with a lead readers love watching grow up, held back by low stakes, a sweetness some readers find excessive, and a reader base made up almost entirely of series fans.

Best for: Readers who already know Autumn and Sydney from Sunflower, want a gentle closed-door story about a Black stud athlete finding her person, and care more about comfort and found family than conflict.

Heat level: ★★☆☆☆ (1.5/5 — fade to black; no romance.io entry, and intimacy is implied rather than shown)

Rating: ★★★★☆ (4.1/5 — a 4.60 Goodreads average from just 67 ratings, nearly all from readers already invested in the series)

Tropes: College sports romance, coming of age, first love, athlete and dancer, butch/femme, found family, sheltered heroine, healing from trauma, estranged parent, soulmates.

Hyacinths and Hydrangeas: Syd’s Story by Aricka Alexander is the first book of the self-published TLFS Spin-Off series, a contemporary lesbian romance and a sports romance set at a Southern university, where Sydney, the basketball prodigy everybody already knows, arrives after a gap year and falls for Jamie Wiser, a dancer whose sheltered childhood left her with no idea what being accepted feels like.

It holds a 4.60 average across 67 Goodreads ratings, sits at 4.6 stars on Amazon and 4.33 on StoryGraph, and every written review I could find is four or five stars. The catch is the size of that sample, and who is in it. Almost everyone writing about this book came to it from Alexander’s Love Flower series, so the score measures how series fans feel about the spin-off. That is worth knowing before you start.

What Is Hyacinths and Hydrangeas About?

Hyacinths and Hydrangeas is a college sports romance and a coming-of-age novel, and the second label matters more. Amazon gives it a reading age of 17–18, and I Heart SapphFic files it as young adult and new adult. That puts it between high school and adulthood: first year at university, first serious love, and a young woman working out how much of her past she has to carry. It also means a closed door and a gentle register.

Sydney is not short of anything most heroines lack — talent, confidence, a loving mother, a public profile. What she lacks is distance from her history, including a father the parent series cast as its antagonist. Jamie lacks almost everything Sydney takes for granted, starting with a family that wanted her, and she assumes the world will not be gentle with her. Readers describe the book as told from Syd’s perspective, and the author has said it follows her through her first year of college. That puts the reader inside the confident one, and Jamie is seen through her.

What Makes This Sapphic College Sports Romance Work

Syd’s growth: The most consistently praised thing in the reviews. Five separate readers single out watching Sydney grow up, and “growth” is the recurring word.
The warmth: Readers call it wholesome, cute and sweet. One reviewer compares it to being wrapped in a warm blanket, and another calls it a fairytale.
Family and friendship: Her mother’s love and her friendships get as much praise as the romance. Several readers say the relationships are the heart of the book, and one wants a whole novel about Jamie and her mother.
Representation: A Black butch/stud lead in a college-athlete romance written by a Black sapphic author is still rare. I Heart SapphFic tags the cast as Black and biracial, with lesbian and bi/pan identities.
Series payoff: For readers of Sunflower, this is the chance to see a child they met on the page become an adult, and reviewers treat that as the main reason to read it.

Book Synopsis

Sydney has spent a year away from the court on purpose. She has travelled and let herself be young, and now she is ready to start at South State University with one goal in view: a professional career with the Charlotte Does. The problem is that she is famous before she has played a college minute. People have been watching her since she was fifteen, and attention brings gossip, rumours and people who would like to see her fail.

Jamie Wiser is a sophomore and a dancer, and her life has been much smaller. She grew up sheltered and then lost that life at fifteen. Since then she has lived with her best friend Ariana and Ariana’s family, the closest thing to a home she has. She has learned to expect little and to ask for less. Sydney’s world of comfort and certainty is foreign to her, and so is being looked after by someone who wants nothing back.

Sydney falls quickly, and complications follow. Her past is not as settled as her public image suggests, Jamie’s history has left wounds of its own, and the noise that comes with Sydney’s name does not stop at the edge of campus. Both of them have to decide how much of what happened to them gets to shape what happens next. The question that drives the book is whether a girl who has always been wanted can teach a girl who never was to believe it.

My Review

What this book does best is let a character grow up, and I want to give it credit for that first. Sydney first appeared as a child in Alexander’s Love Flower series. The appeal of Hyacinths and Hydrangeas is watching her arrive at adulthood with her mother’s values and her own ambitions in place. Readers return to this again and again. Five of the eleven reviewers I found name her growth specifically, and none of them sound like they are being polite.

The second strength is the support system around her. Sydney’s mother, her friends and the families both leads have built or borrowed get as much attention as the romance. In a book about a heroine whose childhood took everything from her, the found-family element carries the emotional argument: Jamie is being shown what home can be, not only falling for a girl. One reader praised how the past shapes the present without running the story, which is a fair description of how Jamie’s history is handled.

Where it struggles is tension, and the reviews describe that mildly rather than angrily. Two independent readers find the book too sweet in places. One calls it “saccharine sweet”, and another says it runs a little too sweet at some points while still recommending it. The same two describe a story with low angst and no real twists. At least one reader found Sydney’s self-assurance tipping into bragging, then decided it was part of the charm. What I could not find is a written review below four stars. The four three-star Goodreads ratings, the single one-star and Amazon’s 2% at two stars come with no text, so the minority report is silence.

One expectation to reset: the cover, the blurb and the shelf placement suggest a sports romance, and basketball is Sydney’s ambition, but readers barely mention games, rivals or team drama. They talk about growing up, healing, love and family. This is a coming-of-age story with a basketball player in it. If the court is what drew you, calibrate. If a lot of sports detail is what worried you, relax.

My honest note: A comfort read built on a heroine readers already love, sweeter and lower-stakes than its trauma-and-gossip blurb implies. If you have read Sunflower, this is an easy yes. If you haven’t, start there, because nothing here is built for a cold reader.

Element	In Hyacinths and Hydrangeas
Central relationship	Sydney & Jamie Wiser — famous college basketball prodigy and sheltered sophomore dancer
Core tropes	College sports romance, coming of age, first love, butch/femme, found family, healing from trauma
Setting	South State University in the American South, Sydney’s first college year after a gap year
Heat level	1.5/5 — fade to black, intimacy implied
Series	TLFS Spin-Off book 1 of 2, a direct sequel to Sunflower; HEA for Syd and Jamie; book 2 is Ben’s story
Content notes	Past trauma, a heroine’s difficult childhood and loss of family home, an estranged father and past family harm, public gossip and scrutiny, implied sexual content

How Spicy Is Hyacinths and Hydrangeas?

Barely: a 1.5/5. romance.io has no entry for this book, and the Love Flower series page there lists no steam levels, so there is no band to cite. The evidence is elsewhere and it agrees. I Heart SapphFic tags it fade to black, with sex scenes mostly implied in euphemistic language. One Amazon reviewer sums it up in two words: no spice. Amazon’s reading age of 17–18 fits. Readers come for the tenderness, and no one mentions missing the heat.

The one thing to know in advance is that intimacy does happen, off the page, which is why it scores half a point above kisses-only. No reviewer flags anything explicit, and no reviewer reports a scene that feels out of place for the age range. If you want this register elsewhere, Say Yes to the Soccer Player and Say Yes to the Cheerleader both stay at kisses-only heat.

Who Should Read This Book?

You’ll likely love it if: you have read Sunflower and want to see Sydney grown up, you want a Black butch/stud lead in a college romance, you prefer warmth and found family to angst, and you are happy with a closed door.

You may want to skip it if: you have not read the parent series and dislike arriving mid-story, you need real conflict and twists, very sweet romance makes you restless, or you picked it up for on-court sports drama.

In short: a tender series payoff that rewards readers who already care and asks a lot of those who don’t.

What Readers Are Actually Saying (October 2026)

There is very little discourse to report, and that is the main finding. I found no trade reviews and no Editorial Reviews block on Amazon. I found no blog reviews either: I Heart SapphFic lists the book, and its tags are where the representation and heat details come from, but it does not review it. romance.io has no entry, a web search turned up no organic BookTok content tied to the title, and I could not reach Reddit during this sweep. There is no audiobook, although ten other Alexander titles have one. The 67 Goodreads ratings have built up slowly since June 2024 through Kindle Unlimited, with reviews still arriving in 2026, all from readers of the Love Flower books. The series is how this book finds readers, and the parent series is much bigger: Sunflower has 212 Goodreads ratings at 4.18, Marigold has 106 at 4.45 and Azaleas has 85 at 4.56.

One weighting note: the base is small. I count eleven distinct written reviewers once cross-posts between Goodreads, Amazon and StoryGraph are merged, and one of them wrote a single line. Two received advance copies and posted five-star reviews on release weekend. That is not an ARC-driven score, but it is an enthusiast-driven one, which is why the house rating sits half a point under Goodreads.

Why readers love it (according to the discourse): Sydney growing up, first and most often. Five readers name her growth, her pursuit of her goals, or how much she takes after her mother. Then the warmth: “wholesome” comes up more than once, alongside “cute” and “fairytale”, and one reviewer says the tenderness feels earned rather than saccharine. The relationships are the third theme — Sydney’s mother, her friends Lilly and Mattie, and the chosen families both leads lean on. One Amazon reviewer immediately asked for a book about Jamie and her mother. StoryGraph’s small mood sample calls it lighthearted, reflective and fast-paced.

What readers argue about and complain about: Sweetness, above everything, though only in a mild form. Two independent readers say it is too sweet in places, and both still rate it four stars. The second theme is low tension. The same readers describe a straightforward story with no real twists and little angst, which one treats as a flaw and the other as a feature. Third, and from a single reader, Sydney’s voice: confident enough to read as bragging until you settle into it. The one genuine split concerns Ben, Sydney’s father and the parent series’ antagonist. One reader was surprised Sydney forgave him after what he did to her family, but was glad it worked out. Nobody complains about the editing, the length, the pacing or the ending, and nobody writes a negative review.

The series question everyone should ask first: Is it a standalone? Not really. Alexander has called it a direct sequel to Sunflower, and every reviewer I found arrived through that book. The romance itself resolves: two readers describe a happy, settled ending for Syd and Jamie, and nobody reports a cliffhanger. The second spin-off, Nightshade: Ben’s Story (August 2024, 4.43 across 28 Goodreads ratings), follows Ben rather than continuing this couple, so you can stop here without loose threads. If you are new, read Sunflower first. It is the most-read and lowest-rated of the series titles with published figures, and readers rate each later book higher.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Hyacinths and Hydrangeas a standalone?

Not really. The author describes it as a direct sequel to Sunflower, book one of The Love Flower series, and every reviewer found came to it from that series. The romance itself resolves in this book.

How spicy is Hyacinths and Hydrangeas?

Very mild, about 1.5/5. I Heart SapphFic tags it fade to black, with intimacy mostly implied, and one Amazon reader says there is no spice. romance.io has no entry for it.

Does Hyacinths and Hydrangeas have a happy ending?

Yes. Readers describe a happy, settled ending for Sydney and Jamie, one calling it a fairytale, and no reviewer reports a cliffhanger. The next spin-off follows a different character.

Is Hyacinths and Hydrangeas young adult?

It sits between young adult and new adult. Amazon lists a reading age of 17–18, I Heart SapphFic files it as YA/new adult, and the story follows Sydney’s first year of college.

Is there an audiobook of Hyacinths and Hydrangeas?

Not as of October 2026. Several other Aricka Alexander books have audio editions, including Sunflower, but this one is available only on Kindle, including Kindle Unlimited, and in paperback.

If You Loved Hyacinths and Hydrangeas, Read These Next

For the same court in a more grown-up register, Inside the Paint is a tender, low-heat basketball romance with the same small but devoted readership. If the college-athlete setting and clean, gentle romance are the draw, Say Yes to the Soccer Player runs the same low-stakes campus formula with a star forward. And for coming of age at even lower heat, Say Yes to the Cheerleader moves the crush to senior year of high school.

For more in this register, browse our closed-door lesbian romance list, the sapphic sports romance guide, or the full Book Reviews collection.

The Bottom Line

Hyacinths and Hydrangeas sets out to give a character readers watched as a child a full, happy entry into adulthood, and it mostly does. Sydney’s growth is the most-praised thing in it, the family and friendships give the romance something solid to stand on, and the warmth is real. It is also low on tension, sweeter than some readers can take, and close to unreadable as a first book in the world. The praise comes from a small group of readers who already loved the series. If that is you, this is an easy, warm recommendation. If it isn’t, start with Sunflower and come back. Check Hyacinths and Hydrangeas on Amazon →

The Eikna Overall Ranking

On the Eikna scale, Hyacinths and Hydrangeas ranks as a warm indie sapphic coming-of-age series spin-off — tender and well loved by its readers, held back by low stakes and a dependence on the parent series, and best approached as Sydney’s story rather than as a sports romance.