Well that was adorable! What a sweet, cozy story. I loved getting more and more attached to Aloysia and Hollis, as well as Littlewick and the rest of the crew. The world was great too, and I'd absolutely read more from it!

Cat Dragon sounds amazing on paper - witches, cute magical creatures, and a cozy village setting. The idea of a half-cat, half-dragon companion is adorable. The writing is way too complicated and hard to follow. I had to reread sections just to understand what was happening. The characters feel flat, and even the cat dragon doesn't get much personality despite being in the title. This book just wasn't for me.

DNFd at 15%. I am pretty bummed, I thought it had a good premise at the beginning, but quickly went downhill into a mess of random side characters, side plots and confusion. Was a cute idea but didn’t appreciate the execution.

2.5

I’ve tried for weeks to get into this book because I wanted so much to love it. It has so many of the elements that usually speak to me—witches, spells, magical gardening, quirky fantasy vibes, and of course, cat dragons. The title alone had me excited.
Unfortunately, something about it just isn’t clicking. I kept picking it up, telling myself this time would be different, but after the fifth or sixth try—when I found myself reaching for literally anything else to read—I had to admit it’s just not working for me right now.

The writing style is one of the hardest parts. The language is dense and often overly complex, which made it really tough to follow what was going on.

Action scenes especially felt unclear, and I ended up rereading sections just trying to make sense of them.
I loved Crow as a character, and Littlewick—who’s a kitten and a dragon—is obviously adorable. But for being the namesake of the book, he doesn’t stand out much. His personality didn’t feel distinct, and I kept hoping he’d play a bigger role.

But I’m marking this as a partial DNF around 38%. I’m not closing the door completely—I might come back to it later. But for now, it’s a two-star read. I hate that it turned out this way, especially for a book called Cat Dragon!!! I wish I could love it as much as I thought I would.

I want a cat dragon! In a world of witches (“witches help”), Aloysa is a witch who just wants enough power to help. And to get a familiar. But all the times she has tried have not yielded her own cat dragon. Until one day it does... but that doesn’t go quite right. Neither does anything else. And she’s falling for her best friend’s brother. And she has to help the Guardians. Or she loses her wand forever. I thought this was so cute and original. I want more!

Cat Dragon was such a little cozy and adventurous book and I absolutely loved it! All the characters were so lovable and I enjoyed the way they all worked together through their magical quest. Littlewick the cat dragon was so cute and I loved him as Aloysia's familiar. Crow was also an animal favorite and I loved that he talked. From the talking prattling pumpkins to the epic quest to save Tangleroot, this was such a fun, magical and cozy read! I think readers will love this one and it's definitely the perfect Autumn read!

Cat Dragon is a cozy fantasy filled with magical charm—talking pumpkins, quirky creatures, and the enchanting village of Tangleroot Valley. On paper, it has all the elements I usually love in a lighthearted fantasy. Unfortunately, the execution made it hard to enjoy.

The biggest challenge for me was the writing style. The author uses a lot of uncommon and overly complex language, which made the story difficult to follow. I often found myself rereading sections, especially during action scenes, just to understand what was going on. The plot moves quickly but without much clarity or connection between events, leaving me feeling lost more than once.

While the whimsical worldbuilding was fun in theory, I struggled to stay invested. There’s definitely a cozy, magical tone throughout, but I needed more structure and clearer storytelling to fully engage.

This book just wasn’t for me. Readers who enjoy dense prose and eccentric fantasy worlds may find something to love here, but I had a hard time connecting with the story.

This was such a beautiful and whimsical story! I really had fun reading this cozy novel. It made me feel lighthearted, adventurous and emotional. It had mysterious vibes as well. This also gave me some laughs! It is a medium paced read that includes a witch and a cat dragon. The main characters in this book were strongly devoloped in the story. This has a diverse cast of characters, all lovable! Even the minor characters stood out to me. This also comes with a romantacy and magic! The world building of Tangleroot Valley was cozy and charming. This story came with vivid imagery, a clear thesis and was stylistically unique. This novel is plot driven, as the story follows a witch that struggles to bond with her cat dragon. This book came with everything that I love in a fantasy! The pacing was a little slow at the beginning, but it picked up and I couldn’t put this book down!

“Cat Dragon” is a novel that revolves around a witch in training, named Aloysia. In this cozy story, bonding with your own cat dragon is very important in becoming a witch. Aloysia struggles to bond with her cat dragon. This story starts taking us on a journey with Aloysia and her best friends’ brother named Hollis! They start heading for the mountains and come across dangers, adorable creatures and unexpected feelings for one another. I give this cozy novel a 4 out of 5 stars!

I think fans of Harry Potter and anyone that loves magical worlds would really enjoy reading this book! There are not any content warnings, as this is a very clean book.

Thank you to NetGalley, author Samantha Birch and Harper 360 | One More Chapter for this digital ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

This book is expected to be published on September 2, 2025! The publication date may change.

This was beautiful, cozy and made me smile. I loved our main character, but the star was her familiar. Their relationship made me chuckle at times. I thought the magical oops were fun and I loved the setting. Every element in this story was a touch whimsical. I had great fun with this.

"Cat Dragon" follows the story of a witch named Aloysia, who along with her arch enemy, a talking crow, and her cat dragon companions, embarks on a journey to find 3 magical items that are needed for a cure to save her valley's guardian.

Let's start with the positives! Who doesn't love a quest and magical animal companions? As Aloyshia and her best friends brother, Hollis, traverse the lands, they come across some delightful friends along the way who join their quest. Each friend had a solid backstory and all characters were very well developed. I enjoyed seeing how their relationships with each other blossomed. We've also got the enemies to lovers trope for those who love that. I was also very intrigued by the magic! I loved seeing the prattling pumpkins and wished they could have had more of a role in the story. And of course, the star of the show, Littlewick, a cute, magical cat dragon! If you're a sucker for adorable baby animal companions, this book is for you!

However, I feel like this book needs another round of editing. The pacing was very off - especially near the end I felt like too much time was spent in the last 20% of the book. The "final battle" part was way too long, and very verbose(lots of description) and I was struggling to get past it. Another issue I had was with some of the verbiage. For the first 1/3 of the book, there were a LOT of very uncommonly used words that I've never heard of before. It felt like the author took a thesaurus and tried to find the most complex word to insert that no one's ever heard of before. I constantly was looking up the meanings on my kindle, and feel like this would have been even more detrimental to my enjoyment if I had been reading the physical book, as I wouldn't have looked up the words. I see other review mention this exact thing, so I'm glad it's not just me. That did (fortunately?) go away as the book progressed. Another issue with this book is that a lot of parts seemed to go from one thought/scene to the next with no transition which left me very confused quite often. For instance, Hollis and Aloysia have a conversation about how they're hungry and need a snack from the kitchen and the very next line she's asleep in his lap. I'm like "What happened? Did they get the snack? What did I miss?". This odd transition happens constantly throughout the book and could have used more editing for sure! I wanted more of the prattling pumpkins, (as they seem to have no purpose in the plot, and could have been completely omitted), because they were such a fun idea! I also felt the ending was super abrupt! There are a few loose ends I think that needed to be tied up.

All that being said, I actually enjoyed the magic, the world, the friends, the animal companions, etc. I think with a bit more editing it could have been a solid 4 stars, but I'd give it a 3.5/5 at this current state. I'd definitely recommend if you're a cozy fantasy reader that loves cute, slightly romantic reads with no spice. This would be great if you loved "The Teller of Small Fortunes" and "The Spellshop".

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Harper 360 for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review

A cozy cottagecore fantasy with magical animal friends and found family is what we all need right now.

3.5 stars
I’m honestly a bit torn on this one. Cat Dragon seemed like it would be the perfect read for me—an adorable cover, a magical world, and comparisons to The Spellshop. All the ingredients were there. And yet, I struggled to stay fully engaged.

The book is labeled as a romance, but I would hesitate to call it one. While there is a romantic thread, it’s extremely subtle—more of a background note than a true subplot. Readers picking this up expecting a central love story might be disappointed. At its core, this is a quest narrative focused on Wick’s journey and personal growth.

There are some genuinely cool and creative action scenes throughout, but the pacing and clarity sometimes tripped me up. I occasionally found myself re-reading passages just to figure out what was happening. The worldbuilding had promise, and the overarching plot was solid, but the execution didn’t quite live up to its potential.

That said, I wouldn’t call it a bad book—just one that didn’t quite land for me. If you're in it more for whimsical adventure than romance, and you don't mind a little narrative disorientation, you might still enjoy what Cat Dragon has to offer. It has a great premise, and I’d be curious to see what the author does next.

Thank you NetGalley and Harper 360 for a copy for this arc in exchange for a review.

Cute. YA. Cozy fantasy. Its definetly a cozy adventure. Nice read when you just want something to curl up on the couch with.

If you were wanting to get into the Halloween spirit a little bit early then I would suggest reading an arc of Cat Dragon. If you are wondering about the title our wonderful creature in question is half cat and half dragon. I for one think that this is the most cutest combination ever. I honestly thought that this was the most creative work of fiction that I have read up to date so I'm pretty happy that I took the time to read this book.
Our main character is a young witch named Aloysia who is in a deliema of not being matched up with a cat yet. However one day herbluck changes when she encounters a cat dragon like mentioned before is a strange yet exciting combination. Soon afterwards she embarks on a life changing journey.

Maybe this book just wasn't for me. I do really like cozy fantasy, but it can easily cross the line from whimsical to ridiculous and, unfortunately, I think this one lands more on ridiculous. The humor definitely wasn't for me.

I had so many questions about the world. I never had a sense of physical space. Sometimes rooms would be described and then stuff would happen in those rooms and the space would feel either larger or smaller than what it had been described as. This actually also was an issue with the world itself. Because of the time they sent walking verses on a train verses flying, I really couldn't tell you how large the world was. It feels small. To add to this, the author uses multiple real life languages, so the village that seems to be based on an English village really isn't that far away from a village that speaks Norwegian. This size issue even extends to the cat dragons. I feel like Littlewick changed sizes to be smaller at some point. Adult cat dragons can carry at least three adults, but are said to be the size of a lion and that just doesn't feel like its possible, especially since the wing joint would take up space as well. It's not even just size that feels vague in this world. How many people are witches? I couldn't tell you.

I also had a lot of trouble following action scenes. It was all way too much at once while not anchoring what was happening in the space.

I didn't really connect to any of the characters. There is one whose whole thing seems to be "animals and quirkiness" and I really didn't like her. I liked Lan the best out of the humans and Crow was my favorite character overall. I didn't even really connect to Littlewick, who is a kitten that is also a dragon. Unfortunately, his whole personality was "baby." I would have liked to see individuality there. He's kind of just there a lot of the time. For a book called Cat Dragon, the cat dragon really isn't even close to the star of the show.

I hope other people like the book, even if I didn't. There's a lot of stuff that can be super subjective, but especially humor, so if you're super interested, you should still check it out.

Cat Dragon by Samantha Birch is an utterly enchanting cozy fantasy full of warmth, magic, and the softest dragon you’ll ever meet. The tone is gentle, comforting, and hopeful—making it a perfect read for anyone who loves character-driven stories with a whimsical twist.

The book follows a quietly brave main character who ends up caring for a creature that’s part dragon, part cat—curious, fiercely loyal, and hilariously temperamental. Their bond is the heart of the book, and it’s written with such tenderness that I couldn’t stop smiling.

Birch’s prose is clean and immersive, her worldbuilding subtle but effective. This isn’t a high-stakes fantasy—it’s a story about healing, courage, and friendship in unexpected forms. Some might find the pace a bit slower, but for me, it was exactly what a cozy fantasy should be.

Perfect for fans of The House in the Cerulean Sea, The Tea Dragon Society, or anyone looking for a sweet escape with a magical creature you’ll wish you could adopt.

3.5 stars/rounded up

Cat Dragon is a cute YA cozy fantasy read about Aloysia who is a witch that lives in Tangleroot Valley. Witches bond with their cat dragon starting from the time they turn 8, but Aloysia still has not been able to find her match. Some things happen with their Guardian and she is thrown into a quest with her best friend’s brother.

This is a cozy adventure read that includes animal companions with a sprinkle of romance. The romance and plot are fun and cute and I did enjoy those. Loved that plot twist at the end as well. I thought I had it figured out but nope.

Parts of this story include more difficult vocabulary and other languages thrown in that disrupt the flow a little. I prefer a more easy read with my cozy fantasies but that is just my preference.

Overall I recommend this for those who love
🍂 Cozy fantasies
🍂 Adventure plots with twists
🍂 Best friend’s brother cute romance
🍂 No spice
🍂 Sentient plants
🍂 Animal companions
🍂 More adventure and plot with a sprinkle of romance.

Thank you to Harper 360 for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

4/5 ⭐️

Cute, cozy read. I feel like it took a little long to get to the actual point and that the author brought up the Prattling Pumpkins way more than needed seeing as how they had no purpose to the story. Overall I would recommend if you want something comfy to read especially in the fall.

I am super interested in the story and am really enjoying the book!

However i'm a person who can picture things in her head, so very detailed descriptions are hard for me to follow (Similar to how I tried to read the Hobbit). So I think this book just isn't for me!

But from what I read I think the premise is great and hope this does well because it's super cute!

The premise of Cat Dragon is sound, and indeed clever. I was intrigued by the magic system and the world in which the story was set, and what’s not to love about a cat dragon! The romance was sweet, and I think properly subdued for a novel of this style. However, I struggled to follow the story at large. The plot felt a bit scattered at times, and the characters didn’t meld in a way that satisfied. I liked getting to travel to different places, which helped create an expansiveness to the setting, but didn’t feel any one was fleshed out as well as it could have been. And I wish the story had been more cat dragon-focused, as the title implied. But overall, a cozy read that I think many readers will be endeared to.