This was a very light read; while there were stakes introduced, the characters generally did not have issues facing the obstacles and the happily-ever-after was easily won. In that sense, it's a "cozy" book. There was a bit of romance, though not explored in depth. There was a little bit of world-building, but it wasn't expansive. I think this is a decent "palate cleanser" book-- a quick read that doesn't have thorns and goes down easy.

This is a second book in a series, and I have not read the first, so I wasn't sure what I was getting into. Because of that, I did not expect the twist at all. Looking at the first book's synopsis, it probably would have been less surprising if I had read it first. I think the twist was fun, though, and not something very common to find in novels - in anime or manga, sure, but I can't think of many novels that use the premise.

Shapeshifting dragons are a favorite trope of mine, so I liked the dragon in this. The whole 'dragons produce gold and gems' thing was a little weird, though, and edged on body horror a bit. I liked some of the ideas behind it, like diamonds only coming from deep pain, but largely it just made my skin crawl.

By and large, this was a fun book, but for me it lacked teeth. It was a romp while I read it, but it's not going to stay with me.

This was such a cozy fun read! I really love the cover and I also loved the romance in this book! I would highly recommend!

This is not my first book from the author and I doubt it's going to be the last, again she did a wonderful job and I love the cozy fantasy vibe, it was just what I was needing to be honest, she always knows what to write

What a cozy, fun read! Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC. this book was the second in the series but the first I’ve read and it was overall such a solid read.

My only reason that I couldn’t give it 5 stars is because of the spelling and grammatical errors I saw throughout. Other than that, the story was compelling and the characters were likable!

As I loved the first book, I also enjoyed this!
Its perfect cozy fantasy that gets right into the action with a witty main character and magical story.
It was also great that it could be read as standalone but reading first book definitely gave some extra moments to think about during the story.

Jonara, a tinker's daughter who is used to traveling around with her father, is sacrificed to a dragon. But she doesn't get eaten, and instead gets to help the dragon regain his memories and his identity, while also fighting an evil villain.

Here's the thing: I feel mislead by this blurb and the presentation. To me, a cozy fantasy is low stakes, more everyday matters, like retiring to open a magical coffee shop. Gathering an army to help your dragon boyfriend defeat the evil sorcerer who wants to be king is like... the opposite of cozy.

That doesn't mean this book was bad, but I don't think it is accurate to call it cozy fantasy, and I also didn't feel it was really unique in the fantasy genre. I hadn't read the other books in the series, so I didn't know about the framing story that was revealed towards the end, but it definitely explained some of the happenings and fairytale tropes used. I have mixed feelings about this twist: Dragon's jokes were kind of forced and cringy, but I liked the tinker's backstory.

Overall, this was a funny, charming fairytale story. Not bad, but not particularly great either, just okay. And not what I'd describe as cozy fantasy.

Thank you Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

I loooved this book. With some minor editing blunders this is one of my book of the years. The steampunk vibes were a breath of fresh air and reminded me a lot of Marissa Meyers books. Some consistency between the beginning and end of the book could have been looked at as well.

I definitely would look into the rest of the books by this author.

I didn't realize this was book 2 in the series but in the end it didn't matter.
This was so cozy and magical. I didn't love how bossy the the FMC was but I chalked it up to the fact that she'd been sacrificed to a dragon so she was taking back power where she could.

I'm a sucker for a villain that isn't what they seemed so I enjoyed this one

I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as book 1, but I did still really like it. I think I could read many, many tales from the land of Lucitopia 💛.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

Review also posted on GoodReads under user Kaitlyn Ashley.

** on page one, where it says "Unfortunately for him. Being a..." it seems like it would flow better if it was a coma instead of separate sentences. "Unfortunately for him, being a...".

The Tinker’s Daughter is the second in this series by Josephine Angelini, but the first one I read, and I loved it. It starts with Jonara being sacrificed to the dragon of her current village and gets even better from there. When the dragon takes Janora and first starts shapeshifting into a man, I thought it might have Beauty and the Beast attributes because of the obvious curse, but that’s not it at all! The dragon has always been a dragon shifter; the curse is not his draconian nature but his forgetfulness of his human nature, and he’s not the only one affected. Entire towns of people are forgetting themselves, and that makes Janora’s quest (to escape the dragon) bigger (to save the dragon) and bigger (to win the war and break all the curses).

Janora is a pretty capable character and it’s fun to be in her head. Her story progressed nicely, as did her romance with Dragon. My only complaint is that there were times when she thought of her relationship with Dragon as if it were an older, established thing…when she’d known him less than three days.

Overall, this story was a great read that kept me on my toes.

DNF 16%

I loved the premise of The Tinker’s Daughter—young woman is sacrificed to a dragon but instead allies with it to take down an evil sorcerer? Sold!

But that’s where I stopped having a good time. The MC has extreme Not Like Other Girls syndrome and immediately starts ordering the dragon about. The plot (?) was also hard to track because the MC pivoted from one thought and one location to the next so fast I was worried about whiplash.

After making the dragon warm wash water so she can do laundry (the dragon that she was sacrificed to in the past 24 hours) she falls asleep naked only to wake up with a naked man groping her. A naked man she pretty much immediately assumes is the dragon. Who then turns back into a dragon and flies off with her. Which is when I gave up on the book.

I’m sure there is an audience out there for this book, but it definitely was not me.

Thank you to NetGallery for this awesome book! I love it! The world is so cozy. It's a fairytale. The Virgin Sacrifice trope is always good, especially with Dragons! It kind of reminds me of How to Train Your Dragon. The romance is relatively mild. It's non-explicit. I am obsessed with the plot twist and I'm definitely reading the rest of the series.

Thanks to Netgalley and Sungrazer Publishing for this ARC!

I enjoyed reading this cozy fantasy. It was a quick read with characters that were easy to empathize with and relate to. I liked Dragon in particular, probably because he often felt more like a cat than a dragon.

If you're looking for a slow-burn romance, this is not it. If you're looking for detailed world-building and exciting plots with twists and turns, this is not it either. But if you're looking for a quick, easy-to-read cozy fantasy with fairly likable characters, then this might just be the book for you.

Such a lovely cozy fantasy read! Perfect for cooler months where you just want a cup of tea and a lovely book! Love books that become gorgeous fairytales! And this was it!

I was surprised to discover that this is Book 2 in a series, though it doesn't end up mattering; it stands alone quite happily.

It's humourous, adventurous and romantic, and does well at all three. True, the romance is a bit rapid, but because both of the people involved are actually appealing, I forgive it. The female lead (and narrator) is the kind of competent, pragmatic young woman I particularly enjoy reading, and the male lead is good-hearted, brave, kind, generous and, when necessary, fierce in a good cause.

I did find that some of the minor characters, several of whom were introduced all at once, weren't easy to keep straight; repeating some of the key words from their introductions when they came back onstage would sort that out easily enough.

Its big weakness is that, whether because the author uses dictation software and doesn't check it properly or is just bad at spelling, it's full of basic homonym errors. Most prominent among these is, of course, "horde" for "hoard," since there's a dragon in it, and his hoard gets mentioned frequently; it is, at least, consistently spelled, which is something, even if it's always the incorrect version. We also get ringing for wringing, flair for flare, cantors for canters (which is one I've never seen before), enormity for enormousness (though we've probably lost that fight, which is unfortunate, because there's no other word that means exactly what enormity meant before everyone started confusing it with enormousness), you're for your, chord for cord (and chorded for corded), their for they're, anymore for any more (anymore only refers to time), apprising for appraising, beset for set, lest for unless, and birth for berth (as in "a wide berth").

Note that I had a pre-publication version via Netgalley, so if it goes past an editor who can spell between now and publication, these should all hopefully be fixed. Otherwise, there weren't too many copy editing issues; just commas after "of course" where there shouldn't have been (because it was just agreeing with the previous statement), and two queens calling each other "Your Highness" instead of "Your Majesty," plus a few sentences that would have benefited from a comma to signal the grammar more clearly.

The storytelling is strong, and hits the emotional beats well. The characters are appealing, the conflict is engaging, and the humour doesn't try too hard. It's a recommendation from me, and would be a higher-tier one (silver rather than bronze) if the author knew how to spell.

This book is sensational!!! Such a cool story and the characters are immaculate! I rated it 5 stars because it really is that good. I recommend everyone to read this book as fast as they can.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sungrazer Publishing for the e-ARC of The Tinker’s Daughter.

This is the second book in The Chronicles of Lucitopia but so far, it is the only one I’ve read, and I had no problems keeping up with the story. As far as I can tell from reading the descriptions of the four books on Goodreads, they mostly stand alone within a larger universe with a twist that can be spoiled for those interested by looking at the descriptions of the other books in the series. In The Tinker’s Daughter, Jonara, the protagonist, was offered as a sacrifice to a dragon. Instead, she recruited it to help her defeat the local tyrant Asphodel - and found a life-changing romance on the side.

The writing of The Tinker’s Daughter is casual and loose, easy to sink into but sometimes too casual. It’s distracting, but not egregious, and technically speaking, there’s an in-universe reason that this could happen, but it just feels slightly under-edited instead. There were also a few typos, which I also didn’t find to be too distracting. On a more serious note, there were a few mentions of accidental sexual touching in the first quarter of the book. It was a very weird inclusion, and very off putting as a basis for a romance.

Tinkers are one of my favorite character tropes, and I’m always happy to read a story centered around an independent woman with a dragon by her side. I think this story could have used some polishing, but it’s still cute and an easy read; I’d like to read the others in the series.

3.5/5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author Josephine Angelini, and the publisher for providing the early copy for me to review. All opinions expressed are my own.
This book was adorable! It was marketed as “cozy” fantasy but I’d consider it more “fairytale” fantasy as the stakes were higher than I prefer for a cozy read. I went into the book blind and had no idea it was part of a series so the plot twist was a bit surprising but it made sense. The FMC was hilarious and outspoken. She reminded me a bit of Evie from Assistant to the Villain and I adore them both. The Dragon was also so ridiculously cute! I was laughing and highlighting only a couple of pages in!

This book wasn’t a 4 course meal, It was dessert. Not a fancy dessert either. It was like a warm chocolate chip cookie or a slice of your favorite cake. It makes you smile and feel nostalgic. I love that feeling so it’s a 5 star read for me. It’s a perfect book to read between your heavy high stakes fantasy series, or to read on a relaxing weekend!

This was so much fun! More on the cozy side of fantasy rather than your usual high-stakes story.

Jonara, the tinker’s daughter, is told she’s won the lottery in her village! Assuming that she’s won a pig, she gladly accepts- only to learn that the prize for this lottery is actually being the Virgin sacrifice to a dragon.

But this dragon isn’t actually what he seems, and she learns that her dragon can’t even remember his own name, as it was stolen by the evil wizard Asphodel. It’s up to Jonara, Dragon, and their ragtag army to knock this magical foe down!

The Tinker’s Daughter is filled with laughs and adventure! Thank you to Netgalley and Sungrazer Publishing for this copy in exchange for my review!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me this e-ARC in exchange for a review.
Jonara, the tinker’s daughter, is “sacrificed” to a dragon by residents of her village afraid of his wrath. The dragon prefers fish to human flesh and joins Jonara in a quest to save Lucitopia from the clutches of the evil Asphodel.
This is a delightful cozy fantasy filled with humor and whimsy. I enjoyed my time in Lucitopia with the characters and would read more books in this series.