The Baby Dragon Cafe
A.T. Qureshi || Publication Date - 16.01.2025
Baby dragons, a cafe, and a cozy feel good read for everyone!
Fiction | Fantasy | Romance
Affiliate Link - https://bookshop.org/a/110173/9780008727666
As much as Saphira adores her cafe, she is constantly faced with the financial burden of letting babies that can breathe fire into her business. Unfortunately time, and savings are running out to continue replacing damaged chairs... and very, very expensive coffee machines. Thankfully, from what seems like a chance meeting, Saphira is introduced to Aiden. A grumpy local heart-throb, with his own baby dragon in serious need of training.
Can she help Aiden with his baby dragon problem? And can Saphira manage to keep her treasured cafe afloat?
The Review (may contain spoilers)
Firstly I would like to acknowledge and thank the Publisher and NetGalley for giving me an early eARC of this novel.
As much as I loved the premise for this book, and was enjoying the world which was briefly explored throughout 'The Baby Dragon Cafe', I didn't think too much of it. I believe the main reason this novel wasn't a hit for me was the writing. It's very matter of fact, which to me doesn't flow well and creates an impression that the editors didn't bother to restructure sentences to make them read more naturally. An example is quoted below:
This style also follows into the conversations between characters in the book. I have found, personally, that I can have issues keeping track of who is saying what in written conversations. I don't think I'll ever have to worry about that in this novel, because each dialogue line is followed, or started, with the character that spoke, or, will speak it. To me this feels like the other end of the spectrum where I don't need my hand held completely reading a book. I'm a big girl, I can figure it out... It did get a little better as the story went on, but by that point I was already annoyed.
I enjoyed the world more than the characters. Saphira is kind of boring. There's nothing particularly interesting or over the top about her, which can be refreshing when everyone in a romance book is a bombshell. Aiden, on the other hand, has as much personality as wet cardboard. I'm not a huge fan of the 'Instalove' trope, and that was where this novel kicked off. It doesn't feel genuine (to me) when characters are instantly infatuated with each other, I like my characters to suffer. 😊 There's also the weird dynamic that Aiden is from a prestigious family of 'Dragon Riders', and then Saphira's impromptu employer. Saphira notices that his actions are kind of weird, and props to her because yeah... it kind of is. But who cares when he's hot right? 😩
Overall Thoughts
In my honest opinion, I felt like this should have been a novella. There's a lot of writing here which is repetitive and unnecessary padding out scenes. The 3rd act drama appeared to have taken place 100 pages into a 320 page novel. Not to mention the ending of the novel was rushed and out of place.
I agree with the sentiment that if you're a fan of books like 'Pumpkin Spice Cafe', 'Legends and Lattes' or even 'Magic, Lies, and Deadly Pies', this will hit the same spot. It was cozy, it was very easy to read, and didn't take a lot of thought to enjoy the story being told. I would also forward this book onto readers who enjoy Fantasy, but don't want to be overwhelmed with the nuance of the genre, and Romance readers who don't like a lot of spice in their reading.
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