3.75 stars.

This was a cute, light romance read with baby dragons, a very likeable main character, Saphira, and a sweet romance between Saphira and Aiden. The baby dragon, Sparky, was adorable, I liked that we saw the story from both Saphira’s and Aiden’s points of view. The writing was descriptive and I enjoyed the references to Indian pastries. A heartwarming read about friendship, family, and belonging.

Thanks to the publisher for this complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.

This was such a cute read! I recommend this book for anyone in the mood for a cozy contemporary romance with adorable baby dragons thrown in.
In this book, Saphira has always wanted a dragon. Unable to get one, she does the next best thing: she opens up a cafe that welcomes baby dragons (and their owners). However, baby dragons are quite mischievous (likened to toddlers with claws, sharp teeth, and the ability to breathe fire), and it’s hard to stay afloat while paying for damages constantly. Enter Aiden. He owns an especially mischievous baby dragon, Sparky. When Sparky takes a liking to Saphira, Aiden offers to pay her to train the baby dragon. As they spend time together, sparks start flying between Saphira and Aiden.
This was a cute, low stakes read. At times the story did get into discussions of different social classes and money issues, but it’s kept mostly lighthearted. At times the story almost got too cutesy, but it was still fun to read.
I’m looking forward to the next book in this series!

If the baby dragon cafe was a real place, I would absolutely want to be a regular there. Saphira’s space sounds beautiful and cosy and I want to eat all the bakery treats (though she’d be very unhappy to find I don’t drink either tea or coffee!).

Things I loved:
- This is a great example of slow-burn romance: there’s no instalove here, and the payoff is great
- It’s low spice - I know some people might be put off by that but I liked it and I thought it fit perfectly with the story too
- Sparky has a definite personality and I want a baby dragon of my own now please
- The setting feels fully believable - I could picture the cafe with its scents, the gardens, the village itself

Things I wasn’t quite as sold on:
- There wasn’t as much tension as I’d have liked. I realise that’s probably because of the cosy romance genre, but it felt a bit TOO safe and predictable at times
- The writing style didn’t really work for me. It felt clunky and repetitive (for instance the MMC smells of mint and it’s mentioned at least 6 times)
- Not enough fantasy - if the dragons had been swapped for fancy horses, very little would change

Final thoughts:
Ultimately I think the marketing let this one down. If you look at the Amazon page it says things like ‘cosy fantasy’ and ‘fantasy romance’, but most of the fantasy elements are very light, and it’s much more a romance with a dash of a fantasy setting. As a romance, it’s lovely and delivers exactly what you expect from the title: a feel-good, cosy story. If you want a quick, cute read that’ll probably have you smiling while you read, this is perfect, but I wanted more depth and more tension.

I'm 'off' contemporary romance at the mo but I couldn't resist this contemporary fantasy....WITH DRAGONS!

I loved Sparky, he made my life, this angle of plot was fabulous and it was a warm and cozy read!

I must admit I found it a bit too drawn out, no one wanted to admit to any attraction for a while and that was frustrating for me! Maybe because it's a 'it's not you, it's me' situation?

I loved this book! The Baby Dragon Café is all the coziness I needed in my life and more.
Two of my favourite things together in one book: coffee (café) and dragons (baby dragons)! Isn't that a recipe for success?

This is a cozy fantasy, but the author carefully weaves important topics between the dragon training, running a café and perhaps falling in love. Topics such as belonging and acceptance, to name a few, are dealt with in a cozy manner that will have you wanting to hug the book.

I loved both Saphira and Aiden. Lavinia is such a wonderful friend and colleague. This is found family at its best. No other cozy fantasy has had me this obsessed since reading Legends & Lattes! I am not exaggerating when I say I've recommended this book so many times only while reading it, now that I finished it you better know I'm going to be an ambassador.

5 reasons why you should read this:
1. It has baby dragons!!!
2. The slow burn romance is chef's kiss.
3. The coziness of this book has never been found in any other fantasy.
4. The found family is done so week, it's enough to leave you with a fuzzy feeling.
5. Important topics are handled that readers will be able to relate to.

If there's one cozy fantasy you need to read this year, let it be The Baby Dragon Café!

Many thanks to Avon Books UK for gifting me a proof of this copy and introducing me to these wonderful characters.

It's a cute and cozy romance book. I really enjoyed reading it. Aiden and saphira are epitome of grumpy x sunshine. I loved seeing aiden's growth throughout the book and how he warmed up to Sparky. Sparky is my fav cutest baby dragon ever!! All three of them make such a cute little family <33

This was a cute and cozy book. The writing was very simple and easy to follow. I rated this 3 stars due to the simple writing, but this can be a cute read for someone that needs a quick romantasy with low stakes.

Unfortunately I DNF’d this at 44%. I really tried my best to keep going and felt I gave it a good chance but I just wasn’t enjoying it.

I feel this book and storyline had really good premise and it sounded like a perfect cosy fantasy.

However I found the pace extremely slow and repetitive in a lot of areas. Descriptions were often repeated, character profiles were repeated and some dragon moments/ scenarios also repeated.

I felt that the writing style was a little more juvenile than I expected, in the sense that, if the book had the curse words and romance elements removed, it’s would be much more suited as a Middle Grade story and definitely not YA. Because of this, the romance and adult feelings the characters portrayed felt very out of place.

I did not feel very invested in any of the characters. Although I could sympathise with them and their losses, they just didn’t have an impact on me and because due to the slow pace and repetitiveness, it was easy to become frustrated and lose interest. I did however appreciated the Muslim representation in this story and found this very refreshing. I also got the impression that Aiden was perhaps neurodivergent? Suffering with socially anxiety and unable to gage social cues or meanings in human interaction. I appreciated this, though would have preferred the other characters have been more empathetic and supportive of his quirks and struggles, rather than berate him and labelling him ‘weird’ - adding to the stigma and unwarranted shame for being different. Perhaps his family and friends had some growth in this area, but as I did not finish the book I am unsure of this happened.

The world building was sweet and whimsy though and did achieve that cute cosy vibe. I also loved the fusion deserts/coffee described in the cafe -they sounded amazing and made me want to eat them for real life!

Overall it had very good potential, but I just felt it was poorly delivered

I tried so hard to love The Baby Dragon Cafe by A.T. Qureshi. I wanted to because the concept was brilliant. Who wouldnt want to read a cozy coffee shop fantasy about a cafe with dragons and a little bit of romance? However the book for me, fell flat. The writing felt disjointed and I was, frankly bored through a lot of it. It was kind of a slog to get through and that was really disappointing. All that being said the relationship between the main characters, Saphira and Aiden was well developed in a nice slow pace. There was minimal conflict which I liked but did kind of seem ridiculous in the grand scheme of things. The book definitely did not lack in the charm department but it could have used a little bit of excitement.

Classic cozy comfort fantasy. Writing is very character focused. The story has similar vibes to Legends and Lattes, but with very chaotic baby dragons.

This book is cozy, but that’s about it. There’s no substance at all and I didn’t care about any of the characters. The concept is good but the execution was poor.

Thank you for this ARC I really enjoyed the characters and the storyline. To be honest though, I didn’t care for the writing style.

Very cute read and the PR to hype the release up was very well done.

Perfect for fans of cosy fantasy such as A Tempest of Tea.

Thank you so much @avonbooksuk for the e-arc.

Saphira owns The Baby Dragon Cafe and after losing her grandmother and no other family, she works hard to keep The Baby Dragon Cafe running, but with money being tight and dragons setting things on fire, it's hard on her.

When Aiden, a local gardener from a Drakkon family comes into her café and asks if she'll help train his baby dragon and pay her, she agrees, as she's always wanted a baby dragon to look after and she wishes to call one her own one day.

Saphira is quite independent, strong and happy. While Aiden is introverted, anxious, and a bit grumpy. It shows both sides of a family, big and small, grief and loss and the feeling of belonging.

This was so cute and so cosy!! I really enjoyed it!! Sparky the little black baby dragon, with purple eyes, bringing Saphira and Aiden together 💜 and the gorgeous little place of Starshine Valley!

this book is three tropes stacked on top of each other, disguised in a trench coat as a cosy fantasy. it’s technically a cringy romance featuring dragons.

the start of this book was very intriguing. i was fascinated by the baby dragons, although the it was short lived. i soon became annoyed when i realised they were written with the personality of dogs (with a little extra accidental violence). i eye rolled every time “draggo” was mentioned.

the only major plot event in this book happens at the start, and involves the coffee machine. it’s resolved a few pages later (coincidentally, a rich guy came along).

the romance itself was strange. it was insta lust/love at its finest. there was no tension, longing or anything like that made it feel deserving.

the ending was really weird as well, everything seemed to have happened all at once. it was anticlimactic and honestly just boring.

literally nothing happens except some check box tropes and some insta love. i started it for the baby dragons and i finished it because i have a strong determination.

A cozy, magical story with sweet moments, but the repetitive narrative and slow pacing made it fall short for me. Charming, but not fully engaging.

Well this is just the cutest, coziest fantasy book I have read. It’s pretty low stakes and chilled out, the story flows and I loved the personality of Sparky! Saphira has worked herself to the bone to keep her cafe running despite the little baby dragons inevitably causing chaos 🙈 Aiden was just lovely to saph and I really enjoyed his family dynamic which to him in his eyes was more complicated than in reality. I’m really looking forward to the next book that’s for sure ☺️

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This was such a cute, cosy read and was just so sweet! I did really enjoy how easy it was to read and I adored Sparky. I just felt the pacing was off in regards to the romance. It felt really rushed and was moving too quickly for how short the book was. I appreacited that this touched on the subject of classism but there was nothing to follow it up so was left with thinking it was a little bit pointless.

I did like the brief description of food in this and I loved that Aiden was a man that could cook.

Perfect for fans of The Dream Harbour series by Laurie GIlmore.

A very enjoyable and fun book. I incredibly enjoyed the characters, the story and the writing.
I found the conversation between the two MC to be a bit stiff at times and not flowing well but I still had fun reading this.

A lovely, adorable, and very cosy read that is perfect for fans of The Pumpkin Spice Cafe, or even The Spellshop!

The vibes within this book are immaculate, and I found myself really enjoying getting to know all the characters. The relationship between Saphira and Aiden was simply lovely, Aamna Qureshi perfectly balanced the progression between them throughout the book and it left me very happy with the overall feeling and experience of reading this book.

Sparky was the star of the show, I love that he brought Aiden and Saphina together. And I also love that The Baby Dragon Cafe lived up to everything I wanted to be and more.

A beautifully woven tale and one that I can't wait to continue with future books.

Perfect for you if you enjoy the following tropes:

- grumpy x sunshine
- fake marriage
- cosy warm vibes
- baby dragons !!!!!
- small town feeling