Rating: 🙂/3
Source: #netgalley
Review: This book had me confused. The book synopsis is about a couple who use the guise of baby dragon training as a meet cute opportunity, but this book is actually about friends to lovers trope and very little about the dragons. My biggest struggle with this book was the pacing - not enough happens so parts just drag out or became repetitive. The voice started off a little young but got better.
Format: 👩🏻‍💻
Published on Goodreads 8/8/2025

The Baby Dragon Bakery is a charming, cozy romance complete with cute little dragons. I loved the dual POV with Lavinia and Theo. The friends to lovers romance was sweet too. You can tell the bond between the two runs deep.

Perfect for romance readers who want a cozy read with light fantasy.

I picked up this book because the blurb really spoke to me and sounding like such a charming read. Ultimately this book was not the best fit for me as I was hoping for a bit more fantasy and the writing style wasn’t in alignment with my tastes. It was a DNF for me.

That being said, I do think there are many that would love this book. This review is more in alignment with my personal taste than the quality of the book.

This whole series is absolutely delightful, and The Baby Dragon Bakery is no exception. Who doesn't want a bakery and a baby dragon? This is a wonderful cozy fantasy romance. I will recommend it alongside the Tomes & Tea series. I love it!!!

This is a cozy, cute romance-what more could you ask for than baby dragons and a best-friends-to-lovers storyline?
Lavinia is off to university to train as a magical animal vet, while Theo, her best friend, is a talented baker.

I loved returning to Starshine Valley, with its delightful cast of characters-each unique in their own way—and, of course, all the magical creatures. Although the story focuses on Lavinia and Theo, we still get to reconnect with beloved characters from the first book.

The friendship between Theo and Lavinia is absolutely heartwarming, and the slow burn of their romance was so satisfying. I also found myself craving all the delicious food and coffee they were making-those descriptions were mouthwatering!

The pacing felt quick (I finished it in just two days), and the story was light, fun, and thoroughly entertaining. It's the perfect palette cleanser if you're in between heavier reads.

Overall, this was a fun and charming book- thoroughly enjoyed it!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper 360 publishing for my
ARC copy and my honest review.

Expected Publication date: October 13, 2025.

I am so grateful to have been given the opportunity to read this early! I'm a big fan of the first one and can definitely say I am a big fan of this book also! 😍 It's just so sweet and feel good, and is the type of series you'll want to read time and again just to recapture that feeling.

*****AMAZING****

*****FOUR Stars*****

I am obsessed with this series and I cannot wait for The Baby Dragon Bookshop to come out.

I love the baby dragons and the love story brewing.

💋Review: The Baby Dragon Bakery

🍭Rate: 5 Stars!!!

🥧Praise: The baby dragons are back!! I was so glad to be given the opportunity to read the second book early! I wanted to see my baby dragons and all my favorite characters again! Lavina and Theo already had my heart in book one and I was so excited they were the main center point of book 2!

🍹 This is a definite and awesome friends to lover's book! Lavina is a sweet vet student and wants Theo! He is a sweetheart baker and likes the way his life is playing out. There is a lot of unrequited feelings and will they or won't they situations! Definitely reminds me of a Shakespeare romantic comedy! (If I was a fairy in Shakespeare's world I definitely would have added some potion to get them to say how they really felt and what they really want to communicate LOL!) But in an good way! This book 100% has five stars because everything you want in a warm and toasty read is in this book!

🎉Family dynamics, sweet emotional layering, baby dragons and more baby dragons! Did I forget to mention the cute baby dragons?! Romance that has such a slow burn you want to take your time dancing through each scene to appreciate the moves it took for the characters to get where they had to be!

☕Bravo!!!!

This book is like a warm cinnamon roll with feelings, set in a world where baby dragons nap on countertops and your biggest problem is whether your longtime best friend loves you back or just really likes your baking. Lavinia is a magical animal vet student who decides she’s going to fall in love by a deadline because obviously that’s how emotions work, and Theo is her quiet, sweet, pastry wizard bestie who bakes like he’s pouring his heart into every cupcake but has the emotional communication skills of a piece of burnt toast. It’s friends to lovers with all the yearning and miscommunication you could want, plus a side of bakery chaos, sparkly magic, and emotional damage that gets unpacked one soft look at a time. The dual POV lets you live inside both of their gloriously messy heads, and even though the third act breakup had me yelling into a croissant, the payoff is so soft and worth it. It’s low spice, big heart, and full of cozy vibes with just enough fantasy to make it whimsical without being overwhelming. If you want to feel like you’re sipping something warm while watching two people realize they’ve been in love the whole time, this book will absolutely ruin you in the gentlest way possible. Im SUCH a sucker for bakery cozy romance books.

Super cozy and I highly recommend those looking for a cozy cafe romance with a little less spice to it. Memorable characters. Despite not reading the first in this series, I still was able to pick up on and understand all of the characters and dynamics. A great read!

Like the first one, this was just an okay, cutesy fantasy read. It has charm and whimsy, but nothing really sticks with you once it’s over. The story follows a cozy setting where dragons and magic are part of daily life, although the dragons don’t have as much of a part in this second book. While the premise is sweet, the book suffers from a lot of repetition and not much depth, making it feel more like fluff than substance. Still, a light read if you’re in the mood for something simple and magical.

I really liked «Baby dragon cafe» - it was charming, cosy, with pleasant dynamics between the characters and a wonderful atmosphere in the café with the little dragon. I was eagerly awaiting the sequel, but unfortunately, the second book did not live up to my expectations. But «Baby dragon bakery» was a bit disappointing. The plot turned out to be too predictable. I was very disappointed by the moment when Lavinia kissed Theo while in a relationship with Callahan - it's kind of a red flag for me. The idea is still charming, the world atmospheric, but this time the story didn't grab me like the first one did. Unfortunatelly, because it had potential.

This is an interconnected standalone fantasy series with a lot of romance and coziness infused. It’s absolutely cozy. However, the first book will always have my heart. I was a little bit disappointed with this second one.

I, personally, when, I see there is a second book in a series, I usually get very excited because my hope and assumption is that it will be either a continuation or more in depth storyline of the first book I read in the series so I was really hoping for Aiden and Sephira’s relationship to continue to take a front seat and for Sparky to continue to take a front seat because I bonded with those characters so much in this world
There was all of one paragraph dedicated to them, which was simply recapping what happened in the last book, so this book is very much not about Sparky. It’s a completely different book. It just happened to take place in the same world. Please know that going into this or else you’re likely going to be very disappointed because I was sad.

I don’t want this to affect my review because I feel like it’s not completely fair for my expectations impact the book because the quality of the book itself is decent. I gave it a four stars for the following reasons:
-Friends to lovers romance done well
-the tension banter and dialogue was lovely
-the writing style and execution was really lovely
-I was really excited to dip into the baby dragon world again and I did get that

What prevented a 5 star rating:
-I was so sad to not be able to dig more into Sparky and Sophia and Aiden and their world because I felt like the last book ended and a happy note but there was so much more to the story and I had fallen in love with this family and I didn’t care all too much for her employee she’s sweet, but it’s not something that I wondered more as a reader about whether or not the character had stuff going on she was not developed enough for me to be more interested and want to learn more about the character in the first book and so when the second book came along, I was hoping that it would be the same characters being at the front so that’s what was the most disappointing
-I definitely related to Lavina, which I believe is the main character’s name her and Theo have a little bit of a miscommunication tension, and I found the main character to be both relatable and funny
-there were at least three chapters that just went into incredible death on the family events because the main character lives with her family so they were just eating meals together and while this will appeal to a wide audience, this is what I actively avoid in books. I want a fantasy I want fun baby dragons if I want something where I’m reading about a family eating I will likely pick up a very different book. I had to skip past some pages because it just went on and on with her family and I know this is a weird me personal thing, but I was slightly annoyed that it was so drilled in because I did not care about the employee in the first place let alone her family matters that is not something that I was interested in.

I’m struggling to rate this lower than five stars because the book does have a good structure of rising action, falling action and good character development and good world building and all of the things that I look for when I’m trying to give an honest review, but this is a very personal critique of what my expectations were for the book so I’m taking one star off just because I was so sad because and in the past I have taken a star off when I don’t like the ending of a book so I think this is fair but yeah, I’m a little bummed. I still really enjoyed this book and I am curious to see what the next one is but I’m hoping it’s not just gonna be about Genevieve.

I really liked the cover of this book and I am so honored that I got approved for an arc because I love the first book so much. Thank you so much for the opportunity to share honest feedback voluntarily.

I liked this book, it was better than book one. However, this book reads very YA, the characters seemed much younger than 24. This is a personal preference, but reading new slang like girlie, and other words took me out of the story, but contributed to me thinking the characters were younger than 24. The book was cyclical, and did much more telling than showing with the characters. I don't love the miscommunication trope, but the tension between the characters was good. I found it repeating a lot of book one, I wasn't sure if that was intentional as if this was a standalone. My condolences to the author for the trauma math caused them.

This is really shaping up to be a fun series. It had me laughing and kicking my feet at several points! Big thank you to the publisher and author for this e-arc!

Could this be my favorite book of the year? Despite it not being the genre, I normally read AND not reading the first book (oops!) this might be my favorite book of the year. It gave me ALL the feels! The angst! The drama! The longing! The banter and slowburniness of it all!! WOW! The friends-to-lovers trope was done perfectly! It really popped and had me kicking my feet the whole time. Did I finish this beauty at 4am?! HECK YES! I adored the characters and world! The trying not to love my best friend so I'm going to distract myself with this man and hide my feelings forever? On point!

The only thing I didn't like about this book? The third act break up. It hurt. It was too long and yet, in the book, it was only a day or two. The ignoring each other because you're doing what's best for your friend is so dumb! (Only in the context of you're soulmates stop this!) It was a doing best for you mixed with a misunderstanding that lead to heartbreak and then love again.

The third book is going to be a Baby Dragon Bookstore, and I cannot wait! I'm already obsessed. I really hope it's going to be the characters I want!

DNF @22%. Unfortunately this book just wasn’t for me. The writing felt too young and a bit tough to get through. Great concept, just didn’t love the execution!

I wanted to love this book so much, but it fell flat for me. I loved Lavinia and Theo’s relationship, but by the time they had admitted feelings for each other, I was emotionally checked out. I had a hard time connecting with Lavinia, and while I liked the fantasy aspect, I found myself wishing for more fantasy.

I feel like this book is perfect for younger readers, and definitely more geared towards contemporary romance fans, as the fantasy aspect is very minimal. This book is definitely a phenomenal beach or late night read, and it’s very cute and cozy!

DNF -
I really wanted to love The Baby Dragon Bakery. The blurb sounded super fun and my vibe. But unfortunately, the miscommunication trope is one that just doesn’t work for me and this book had a lot of it. I ended up getting annoyed with almost every character and just couldn’t stick with it. That said, I’m giving it 2 stars because the writing was solid, and I can definitely see other readers enjoying it. It just wasn’t a match for me. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

Book one was a fun enough read. I didn’t completely fall in love with it, but the concept was cute, the dragons had personality, and it leaned into that cozy fantasy escape I sometimes want. It was one of those books that I didn’t mind spending time with, even if it didn’t totally stick with me after.

Book two, though, felt like it lost a bit of whatever charm the first book had. The bakery felt more like a side note than a real setting, and the new dragon barely got any attention—which felt like a missed opportunity. I kept waiting for that same spark of whimsy or heart, but it never quite showed up.

I also really struggled to connect with the main characters this time. They read more YA than adult to me, and not in a way that worked. There wasn’t a ton of emotional depth, and the conversations felt surface-level. I thought there was going to be something more with Theo and his parents, but nothing really came of it. And Lavinia’s whole internal deadline didn’t help—it just made everything feel rushed.

That said, I do still like the idea of this world. I’m holding out some hope that The Baby Dragon Bookshop can recapture some of the cozy magic that pulled me in the first time around.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

Amazing book loved the characters and plot. I couldn't stop reading I stayed up all night. I loved the book so much thank you for the arc.