The Baby Dragon Café is a charming and cosy romantasy set to release on January 16th, 2025. Thank you to Harper Collins Publishing and NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book to review!

Saphira has always dreamed of owning a baby dragon, so when she opens a café for dragon owners and their pets, she’s thrilled. However, running the café proves more challenging than expected, with baby dragons causing expensive damage to appliances and furniture.

Aiden, who owns a baby dragon named Sparky, isn’t particularly interested in spending time with him. To help keep the café afloat, he offers Saphira a deal: he’ll pay her to train Sparky. As Saphira bonds with the mischievous dragon, she finds herself falling in love with him—and maybe even with Aiden, too. But Aiden’s prickly attitude makes things complicated, and Saphira must figure out how to help Sparky without getting too close to Aiden.

I was drawn to this book because of its title—who doesn’t love baby dragons? As soon as I started reading, I instantly fell for Sparky. His relationship with Saphira was heartwarming, and I loved watching their bond grow.

The slow-burn romance between Saphira and Aiden was well done, and I appreciated that it wasn’t rushed. There’s no spice here, and I think that’s exactly what this story needed—its strength lies in the characters and their growth, not in dramatic moments.

Overall, The Baby Dragon Café is a feel-good, cosy read that I thoroughly enjoyed. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a heartwarming, magical escape.

Tropes:
•Sunshine x Grumpy
• Small town
• Pretend we’re married
• No spice

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What a exciting start to a new series! It's the ultimate cute fantasy with the most adorable baby dragons. Sparky is the best dragon ever with his spark and cheekiness. The romance for the humans is slow build but I love the grumpy sunshine. Bring on the rest of the series I am well and truly ready.

Unfortunately I really struggled to like this book and in the end decided to stop reading at 55% (chapter 15).

I really wanted to like this story as the premise sounded interesting and fun, and in many ways it was a very cute story with a lot of potential, however the writing is what made me give up on it.

The writing is quite childish, and I had to constantly remind myself throughout that I wasn’t reading a middle-grade. There was a lot of over explaining - with so much showing, but then also telling us straight after, as if we as readers aren’t capable of comprehending the story without having every thought and feeling being laid out for us in every possible way. But then just as often as that happened, there was a lot of just telling - without any showing.

The fact that throughout this type of juvenile writing there were randomly steamy thoughts thrown in, and I was brought out of the story every single time.
The blood roaring in Saphiras ears and weak knees from a kiss on the cheek was just slightly unbelievable, and the fact that they seemed to fall in love at first sight wasn’t exactly ideal.

While this was a short book, I got to 55% and only realised when reading a line about how they’d only known each other for a few short months, that I had thought all of the story up to that point had taken place over only about 2 weeks, as that is how it was explained - along with the fact that nothing had actually happened in that time other than Sparky no longer biting Aidan regularly thanks to Saphira training him. The ‘incident’ at the 50% mark was made out to be a huge deal with Aidan crying (again) over something that was literally nothing. And I realised I was just hate reading at that point and had to stop before I was left with no option but to leave an even more negative review.

On a positive note, Sparky was adorable, and some of the banter was very cute and funny, which is what kept me reading for as long as I did. I wish I had been able to handle the writing style better as I would have liked to know how this ended.

Firstly thank you netgalley and Harper Collins for gifting me this arc for an honest review.

The baby dragon cafe is a wonderful cosy fantasy that takes place in Starville Valley.

Saphira always wanted to own a cafe where people can enjoy cakes and coffee as well as brining their baby dragons into the cafe without getting scolded about it, but with the baby dragons sometimes causing distractions and ruining stuff she doesn't know how to keep up with the small damages.

Aiden has never wanted to join his families legacy and loves to keep to himself and do gardening but that's not the case when his brother has passed away and now has a baby dragon of his own who he wants to keep safe from the legacy.

I really enjoyed the aspect of where this was going but I only got through 50% and I felt like it was dragging along and it wasn't really wowing me, the main fmc was getting on my nerves as she couldn't carely see what was happening and how the main mmc didn't want to be near his baby dragon cause of a reason. I loved how the mmc fell first but was being snubbed by his baby dragon cause he wanted all the attention.

Very cute romantasy with a touch of fantasy added in! Sparky is such fun and provides a lot of entertainment. The idea of trying to manage a baby dragon cafe sounds such a combination of delight mixed with the constant threat of impending disaster; I know I wouldn’t want to be footing the bills!

The growing relationship between Saphira and Aiden is enjoyable to follow for the most part although there are a few situations that lead the book to fall a little flat. For example many of what appear to be major obstacles seem to be easily overcome, and end up being non-events.

Overall the book was light fun and entertaining, It also sets itself up nicely as a series with several side characters providing their own stories to be explored. Thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins for providing an advanced copy in exchange for a review. Now where can we get some dragon roasted coffee?

🐉☕️ Chaos, Coffee, and the Cutest Dragons EVER! ☕️🐉

I was lucky enough to get an ARC of "The Baby Dragon Café" and let me tell you, it was worth the wait! ✨ Saphira's life at the dragon café is a whirlwind of burnt furniture and the most adorable baby dragons imaginable! ✨ But when grumpy gardener Aiden brings in his own dragon, Sparky (who's seriously as cute as a little puppy!), things get REALLY interesting. 😍 Aiden's convinced Sparky is a lost cause, but Saphira's magic touch (and maybe a little bit of magic) helps Sparky learn to control his fire and become a beloved member of the café.

Their bickering is 🔥🔥🔥 but watching them work together to train Sparky is the sweetest thing ever! 🥰 This book will melt your heart!

I NEED a spin-off about Sparky! He deserves his own book! ⭐️

Overall: A must-read for anyone who loves dragons, coffee, and heartwarming stories.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐½

A book about baby dragons and coffee… I thought I was going to love it and the book didn’t disappoint. The Baby Dragon Cafe is an easy read filled with some of my favourite tropes and adorable characters. A sweet slow burn romance with just a hint of spice, this book gives lots of warm and fuzzies. I really enjoyed The Baby Dragon Cafe and can’t wait to explore more of the town in future books. I’d love my own little baby dragon Sparky!

“How do you not like coffee?! I don’t trust people who don’t like coffee.”

DNF at Chapter 3.
I was really rooting for this book as it's a cosy fantasy by a BIPOC author. Unfortunately, the fantasy aspect fell really short in terms of execution. The world building was half cooked as I was confused by the setting and time period the story was supposed to set in. I was also not fond with how the FMC viewed the MMC during their first few interactions.

The Baby Dragon Cafe is a truly sweet, romantic story of a Cafe owner who loves baby dragons but cannot have one of her own and a member of a Drakkon family with a baby dragon he has no idea how to train.

Lighthearted, sweet, easy to read and a relaxed 320 pages.

For those who love cozy fantasy. I really enjoyed reading this one and look forward to The Baby Dragon Bakery.

Tropes:
- Grumpy vs Sunshine
- Fake marriage
- One bed

Thank you to HarperCollins Australia via NetGalley for the opportunity to read the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Imagine a modern world where instead of pet dogs, most people have dragons! This cozy, slice-of-life, romance story features Aiden, who needs help training his baby dragon, and Saphira, who owns a cafe catered for baby dragons, as they embark upon the perfect partnership.

This is a slow burn, closed door romance that will have you smiling over the sweetest gestures. Qureshi offers us the perfect balance of work life and romance for adults, while maintaining that sweet spark of fantasy.

The slice-of-life element shows Aiden and Sephira working together to conquer some real grievances and embrace the challenges of accepting your true essence for yourself and not for the opinions of others.

The banter and friendship between not only the main couple, but between their friends and family was realistic and amazingly enjoyable. Especially Sparky (Aiden’s baby dragon) with his mischievous and adorable behaviour throughout the book.

Having a desi lead within Saphira was a delight to read, as she embraces her departed grandmother in her everyday life and around the cafe. She is also a ball of sunshine and strives every second to make her cafe into a success.

Aiden is an introvert who would rather spend his time gardening than raise his dead twin’s baby dragon. But throughout the story, Aiden slowly becomes comfortable enough in training his dragon and caring for Saphira that he starts to open up and expresses himself more.

However, there was a few moments towards the last 20% that made Aiden seem very uncharacteristic literally overnight… for example, using pet names and kissing in public all of a sudden. Fortunately, it does mellow back into more of a smooth character development plot by the end.

Despite this small hiccup, the story was beautifully written, with well executed main and side characters, realistic feelings and has a homely feel from start to finish.

This can be read as a standalone story, but keep an eye out for the future instalments in this amazingly cozy world that Qureshi has brought to life.

I so wanted to love this book, and I was so excited to have received an ARC copy since it boasted similar vibes to legends and lattes and the like…

Unfortunately, I’m just disappointed. It wasn’t what I hoped it would be at all, and I found myself bored with the romance and the plot a lot of the time. The writing itself is very basic and to me not sophisticated at all, which cool I understand it’s a cosy fantasy but I wouldn’t say I’m overly impressed.

I didn’t resonate to any of the characters… maybe with the exception of Sparky.

I kind of wish the focus was more on The Baby Dragon Cafe, and less on Saphira spending her time trying to convince Aidan to love the dragon.

I did not realize I wouldn’t be able to download this to my kindle. I definitely should have checked before I requested it but I won’t be reading this on my phone. I’ll maybe try and source a copy from the library after release! Sorry about that
Only out 3 star because you have to leave a star rating!

This book was an enjoyable read for the lovers of cosy romantasy. Loved everything about it and will definitely be purchasing a copy upon release

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review!
This was a super cute / cozy book, this is a perfect fun and much needed pallette cleanser after getting yourself into a reading slump.

When you’re looking for a light but entertaining book to get you peeking back up again!

The Baby Dragon Café was a really cute fantasy romance with a cosy vibe. I loved the concept of a café for baby dragons!! How adorable. I found that the story was overall quite light-hearted and easy to read/follow, and the main characters kept me mostly engaged.

But, I did find that the storyline/plot was a bit predictable; and that the romance, whilst sweet, was lacking a bit. I'm not sure exactly what, but it just read a bit plain to me! While this has been labelled as a fantasy romance, I definitely think that it was more so a romance with light fantasy elements for the plot. I did rate this a 3-star but it definitely feels more like a 3.5, but not quite there for a 4-star rating.

Overall, it was an easy, cosy, sweet romantic read. I think that cosy romance/fantasy fans would enjoy this best!

✨🫶🏼ARC Review🫶🏼✨
🐉☕️The Baby Dragon Cafe☕️🐉

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Release Date: 16 Jan 2025

If you love small town, cozy romantasy stories then this one is for you!
Meet Saphira, who fulfils her lifelong dream of opening a cafe welcome to baby dragons and their owners, but all isn’t perfect with untrained dragons about.

And then there’s Aiden, the local recluse gardener with an unruly dragon named Sparky. He gets the idea for Saphira to train Sparky and in return she can use the funds to keep her cafe afloat.

I really loved this book - the world building made me really wish dragons were real! The progression of Saphira and Aiden’s relationship wasn’t rushed at all and the bond that was formed with Sparky was such a highlight.
No spice, but honestly the book doesn’t need it

Tropes:
Grumpy x Sunshine 😡☀️
No spice 🍭
Small town 🍂
Pretending to be married 💍

Thankyou Netgalley and Harper Collins AU for this eARC in exchange for an honest review 🩷✨

Thank you infinitely to NetGalley and HarperCollins for providing this eARC in exchange for an honest review!!

Words truly cannot capture the warmth that this beautiful story filled my heart with!!

I absolutely ADORED Saphira, Sparky and Aiden, they all are such gorgeously written characters!!

This is the cozy fantasy of my dreams, and to know that this is just the first in a series? I am BEYOND EXCITED!!

I highly recommend checking out this wonderful book!!