DNF

I tried so hard to get into this. Whilst I loved the idea behind the book I really struggled with the writing style, I didn't connect to the characters and it didn't live up to my hopes for it.

Thank you to the publisher to the chance to read this book in advance.

I might come back to it in the future but at the moment it's not doing it for me

This was just a lovely book to read. The whole experience was just great. The cosyness of the setting and the story was just great.

What a cute little read this is! One of my faves of the year so far! I love Saphira and her connection to Aiden. Sparky sounds a cutie too, when he's not up to his little mischievous ways!

I really liked how this book flowed, it has enough cute without being overpowering. I like how everyone likes Saphira - love her name too! I like how Saphira has built up the cafe from scratch, her determination and independence is a breath of fresh air and nice to see.

The dragon café sounds a nice place to visit, albeit a charred table leg here and there! I'm excited to see it's the first in a series and will keep an eye out for updates on the next book!

"I want Sparky to stay this little forever, he’s such a cutie. ” - Saphira

The minute I got an email about an upcoming cosy fantasy book coming in early 2025 I knew I had to read it. And I'm so glad I got the chance to!

This is the perfect book for all cosy fantasy lovers looking for something for a chill night at home. Get a drink, some cake and put some calming music on and a fire on your tv and curl up with this amazing book!

From page one I was hooked, the blurb doesn't do this book justice.

While this is a Fantasy book I liked that it had a lot of Contemporary elements to it. I also really liked that it wasn't a life or death Fantasy book. Lots of times a book has the word Dragon in the title and you think, this book is going to be full of adventure, fighting, and fire breathing animals. So it was really nice when I started reading this and everything was relaxed and the worst thing that happened was a baby dragon setting fire to a chair in Saphira's café. No one is at risk of dying, the world isn't about to end, there isn't a villain coming to enslave everyone. No, people are just living their lives and taking their baby dragons for coffee and cake.

Speaking of which, the idea of a café that served not only humans but baby dragons is so freaking cute! I love that Saphira decided to open one and take that risk when others made their shops dragon free. It made her more lovable and kind hearted, while also showing off how spirited and determined she is. When things went wrong, a coffee machine breaking, a lamp smashing or some form of seating being set on fire, she didn't let it panic her. And when she realised she needed to make more money if she was going to keep her café afloat she immediately started problem solving and working out how to keep her café.

This is still a Fantasy book and with that comes a brand new world to discover. Even though there isn't a world-threatening event occurring, we still get that necessary character backstory and worldbuilding, but we get it little and often. We aren't overwhelmed in the first couple of chapters with a huge info dump which I liked.

I loved the characters we meet in this book, Saphira and Aiden were great main characters, each bringing a little bit of magic and adventure to the book. I loved watching them become friends and figuring out how to work together to best help Sparky.
The connection between them both was really wonderful to explore and I loved watching them grow closer. Seeing them bond with not only Sparky but each other, and when people questioned it I loved that they stood up for each other and didn't take any nonsense.

I loved Aiden's family and wish we could have seen more of them. His sister especially, she seemed interesting and I would love to see more of her in the future.

I fell in love with Sparky from the first second he was on the page. This little dragon causes so much mischief and laughter. I love that Sparky was the main reason we got our romance in this book. He is the reason Saphira and Aiden meet and become friends, and maybe something more.

The writing and pacing were amazing, I got sucked into the story so quickly and hours passed without me realising. Words came to life and I was able to imagine myself right alongside Saphira and Aiden as they trained with Sparky.

I wasn't expecting this book to have any spice in it. There isn't much but I was gutted it had any at all. It wouldn’t have taken anything from the story if it had been a closed door, and that would have meant I could have shared this with my younger siblings who I think would love this book.

Overall I really, really enjoyed this book and I'm thrilled I got to be a part of The Baby Dragon Club, and I can't wait for the next book!

This book was cute! The idea of a baby dragon and a magical café had so much potential, and there were definitely some fun, cozy moments. The writing had charm, but I felt like the story could have used a little more depth—some parts dragged, and I wanted more connection to the characters. Still, it’s a sweet read, especially for younger audiences or anyone who loves whimsical, light fantasy. Not a favorite, but not bad either! Big thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

Deffo not a bad book - but I did find that the pacing was really odd, especially towards the end. It felt a little like the author realized she had to finish off the subplots, so that all felt incredibly rushed. It is supposed to be cozy and low stakes, and it delivered on that! The romance was light, and you were rooting for them to just shut up and kiss each other. Would recommend if you're looking for something light and easy, minimal spice, and enjoyable characters. NOT a book for you if you want high fantasy, adventure, etc. It's like your normal rom-com read, but with dragons :)

The Baby Dragon Café **is a cosy urban fantasy that leans heavily into vibes over plot. While it has the charm of a warm café setting and cute dragon elements, it struggles with underdeveloped worldbuilding, repetitive writing, and a lack of depth in both plot and characters.

The writing itself was a bit rough, with a lot of telling rather than showing and quite a bit of info-dumping. There was also an odd amount of repetition—things that had already been explained just a chapter before would be reiterated, even though they weren’t necessary. It made the pacing feel slow at times, despite the book being quite short.

Plot-wise, this is a very low-stakes story. While that can work well in a cosy fantasy, there wasn’t much driving the narrative forward. There were hints of potentially interesting subplots—like illegal dragon racing and the different dragon breeds—but they were barely explored. Instead, the focus remained on the café setting, which was admittedly quite cute. The interactions with customers and the descriptions of coffee, baked goods, and café life were some of the strongest parts of the book, adding to the cosy atmosphere.

The dragon and fantasy elements were fun, but they really needed more depth. There were little snippets of worldbuilding, like how insurance works with baby dragons, which were interesting, but so many questions were left unanswered. A bit more explanation would have helped create a more immersive world.

With such a minimal plot, you’d expect the book to focus on strong character development, but that wasn’t really the case. The characters remained fairly surface-level, and the romance was pure insta-lust with little development. The third-act conflict felt particularly weak—it had no real build-up and was resolved almost instantly, making it feel unnecessary.

Overall, The Baby Dragon Café had some cute and cosy elements, but it lacked depth in both worldbuilding and character development. If you’re looking for something light and fluffy with a comforting atmosphere, it might be enjoyable but don’t expect a particularly engaging or well-developed fantasy.

A fun, cosy read that was just what I needed! Who knew I needed a rom-com x dragons read in my life! I do wish it was all a little more developed - maybe this is one of the cases where the book is trying to do a little too much? I still enjoyed it and would recommend it though!

The perfect cosy fantasy read. I was sent an ARC fit this book and had a wonderful time reading and being completely jealous that I do not own a baby dragon. Following Saphira who is trying to keep her baby dragon cafe afloat and grumpy Aidan who wants nothing more than to not be around his dragon forms a beautiful blossoming love story between the main characters. I loved reading this and am so looking forward to the next book in the series.

*DNF (for now)
First of all, thanks to the publisher to the chance to read this book in advance.
The general idea behind this story is absolutely amazing, and immediately charmed me to want to read this book just for the curiosity to see how the story would be developed.
A baby dragon cafè is for sure one of those inner dreams every fantasy reader has, despite the impossibility of it, and it's so well described you can imagine to walk into it and see all those "babies" around you.
Unfortunately the writing style didn't appeal me enough to go on reading after the initial chapters. I don't mind cozy fantasy books but maybe it's too much for me...?
That's why I decided, not being invested in the story, to stop.
I'll try again in the future but for the moment it's a no.

Thank you NetGalley for sending me an arc copy of this book! It was so cute and cozy! It was a good read to follow up another certain dragon book that just got released… I loved how attentive and patient Aiden was with Saphira. I wish we got to see a bit more of the cafe in the end but I understand it wasn’t the main focus of the book. The author did a great job setting up for an interconnected standalone series

Between the insta-love, the out of place modern elements, and the bland prose, I can tell that this won't be for me. I am setting this aside at 8%.

A very generic cute fantasy romance, that has little developed fantasy when it came to the dragons. They could've been switched with dogs and little would change in the plot.

This book is cute and sweet. It's an easy read and maybe a good intro to fantasy. I did find it quite slow and predictable, though.

I don't think I'll be reading the next in the series when it comes out. It just didn't capture my attention. The only reason I finished reading it was little Sparky. He saved this book.

Thank you NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

This was definitely as cute as I thought it was going to be. Lighthearted and very cozy. The dialogue made me roll my eyes a few times but that's okay. I just loved the baby dragons. Best part of the book!

This was such a cosy, cute little rom-com, I really enjoyed it!
I think these books will just be one of THOSE books that find you at the right moment in time for me.
I lost my nan around the same time I was reading this book, so I found some comfort in the way Saphira spoke fondly of her grandmother and the way she processed her grief.

2.5 stars rounded up to 3.

I was so excited by the concept of this book but sadly it just didn’t deliver in the way that I had hoped. There were several very interesting ideas but the book felt like an early draft which needed a lot of editing. I liked the main character Saphira and would have liked to have learnt more about her heritage and family, but the secondary characters all felt rather two-dimensional. It didn’t feel like there was any chemistry between Saphira and the love-interest Aiden, I couldn’t connect with their relationship at all. The central theme of this book is about the division between the families who have dragons (the ‘Drakkon families’) and those without, so Saphira who does not come from one of these families and has no experience with dragons being paid by someone from one of the most powerful Drakkon families to train his baby dragon seemed ridiculous and completely unbelievable.

The book was a bit confused in what it wanted to be – it very much reads as a contemporary cosy romance, but then illegal dragon racing will occasionally be mentioned, but never in any detail and it seemed completely at odds with the rest of the story.

I can see what the author was trying to do, and I think it had the potential to be a much better book but the characters needed a lot more fleshing out and the writing needed a huge amount of editing.

Sadly I am not invested enough in the world to read the future books in the series, but if you’re looking for a cosy read similar in tone to the Pumpkin Spice Café with added baby dragons you may be able to overlook the issues I had with it.

Very enjoyable story! The whimsy of a coffee shop full of baby dragons is so enticing, and somewhere I would want to hang out. The descriptions are so well written that it is easy and enjoyable to imagine. This is a very slow burn romance, yet it suits the characters perfectly.

This was just so eh. If i didn’t receive an arc, I probably would’ve DNFed. I enjoyed the cute baby dragon aspect but there wasn’t as much of that as I was expecting based off the title. The main character owns a cafe where baby dragons can hangout with their owners but that was definitely not the overall plot of the story. Maybe I would’ve felt differently if it was titled something else? Not sure. The romance felt very weird and forced to me. Very insta-lovey. There were some tropes in this that I just didn’t feel needed to be there. Everything was more told versus shown. I was just cringing a lot while reading. I’m giving it 2 stars at least because the baby dragon elements were cute and I liked the overall cast of characters but overall there was just little to no plot.

I love a cute and cozy fantasy but specially with the grumpy x sunshine trope.

Loved it and will definitely recommend