I love friends to lovers and I enjoyed The Baby Dragon Cafe so this was a no brainer want to read!

I loved Lavinia and absolutely adored Theo but the miscommunication - or lack of communication - dragged out a bit (poor Cal). I really loved the juxtaposition of their families and how their family members either helped or hindered their personal growth. Some parts of the characters internal thoughts were repetitive but overall this is a cute, quick, cozy romance read with light fantasy elements thanks to the animals. If you enjoyed The Baby Dragon Cafe you'll love this one too!

Thank you Harper 360 for the opportunity to read this eARC!

This book was so cute! A great fun cozy fantasy, to kick back and enjoy a nice slice of life type book. I loved the.baby dragons, the storyline was well done and the characters were great! I would recommend this book to everyone who wants a fun read!

Lavinia and Theo’s story. Overall a good read, but for some reason I think I would have enjoyed the friends to lovers story more if I was younger than 60. Just saying.

This was a super cute, fun read. I loved the baby animals! I adored Theo and Levina as individual characters, but the miscommunication set up for their relationship was a bit overdone for me. I was a sucker for the fall farm piggyback ride though, and their childhood friendship.🧡

Although I could have done without the third act break up into a quick and fast turn around with a large amount of mis/lack of communication, I still had a fun cozy time reading this. Less baby dragons than the first book, which I didn’t love. Overall, 3.5 stars opposed to the 5 stars I gave Baby Dragon Cafe.

"Will it be a recipe for romance? Or a friendship up in flames?

Lavinia has it all. A loving family (complete with adorable pet baby dragon). A place at university training to be a magical animal vet. And a part-time job at the enchanting Baby Dragon Cafe. The only thing she doesn't have is her one true love: Theo.

Theo is the local baker and her best friend. On paper, they're perfect: he's funny, she's witty. He's sweet, and she's a little salty. That's why they've been friends for as long as they can remember. They've never been without one another - and it's clear to everyone that they're meant to be.

Everyone except Theo. Because when Lavinia finally makes her move, he pulls away.

Lavinia is devastated. Has this friendship gone up in smoke? Or will Theo finally realise that he wants them to be more than friends?

The perfect dual POV, friends-to-lovers cozy fantasy, with HEA guaranteed!"

I think I could only read this knowing that I was guaranteed an HEA. The blurb is too traumatizing otherwise!

I absolutely loved the first one and was seriously excited when I found out that there was a second one focused on Lavinia and Theo. However, this book absolutely did not do it for me. I can’t tell you how many times I rolled my eyes, groaned, tsked, or got easily distracted by other things as I was reading this book. Lavinia and Theo just needed to talk to each other sooner, major eye roll. Theo stop running away and Lavinia stop trying to force relationships. Your relationship isn’t going to look like your parents, you can’t make a falling in love deadline by trying to match your parents love story. Even when they did get together they both pretty much acted like they wanted the relationship to fail, again TALK TO EACH OTHER PEOPLE!!!! I seriously considered DNFing this book because of how annoyed I was at the stupidity of Theo and Lavinia. There was only about 10 pages where I wasn’t annoyed while reading the book. While I like AT Qureshi’s writing style, this book just didn’t entertain me as much as the first book in the series did.

Book 1 of this series (The Baby Dragon Cafe) was entertaining, different, and a very cute escape from reality. It had baby dragons with sass for crying out loud, and 2 characters at its heart that were charming, you were rooting for them. It was a cozy love story.

Book 2 lost a little bit of that charm. It still held the escapism, but I'm not entirely sure what happened with The Baby Dragon Bakery. Maybe it was the fact that the "bakery" is in the cafe and not its own stand alone establishment, or the fact that there was no real story around the new dragon we were introduced to, but some of the whimsical elements that made me look over the repetitive writing in book 1 wasn't in book 2. There was also little to no connection to the main characters for me.

These characters felt more YA than adult, no one was having conversations. They are supposed to be a little younger than Saphira and Aiden from book 1, but it seemed like a decade rather than a few years. I thought there might be a good story with Theo and his parents, but there was no growth there (for either party), and Lavinia was putting a whole lot of pressure on a self imposed timeline.

I'm not going to give up, I hope for The Baby Dragon Bookshop!

Thank you to the publisher/netgalley for this ARC.

A cozy, fluffy romance with two friends who have feelings for each other but don’t admit it, to each other but really even themselves. The characters are full of personality and the baby dragons and fantastical creatures add a fun element to the otherwise relatively grounded world. If you enjoy fantasy and cozy romances, this is the book for you. While it is technically a second book in a series, it is enough of its own story that it can be read on its own.

Thank you to Harper Collins for providing an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review and feedback.

Very cozy easy read! I want to thank NetGalley for this arc copy, absolutely ecstatic I was able to get a copy! I enjoyed my time with this book but did struggle some with fmc's internal thoughts/feelings (personally I think I may bit 'too old' for this plot/storyline) and it just felt very young/repetitive at times. I do think I went into this with wrong expectations as well, I had been expecting a lot more about the dragons and it was more based on fmc's internal expectations and goals. Still... I really enjoyed my time with this cozy book and am so excited to read the next one about a bookshop!

I loved the setting of this romcom--it was beautiful and well-developed--and the main characters were overall cute. Unfortunately, I didn't quite vibe with the fact that miscommunication was the sole reason for their problems (despite them being established from the start as best friends who talked about anything and everything), not to mention how easily Lavinia started having butterflies for another guy. I know she was trying to force an arbitrary deadline for having her own great romance, but it didn't sit well with me. Readers who don't mind the miscommunication trope will likely find it a fun and enjoyable read, though, set in a gorgeous world.

I loved the idea of this book- a cafe with cozy dragons! I have to admit- I didn't know what else to expect. I had a hard time connecting with Lavinia's character. She was very in her head about everything and wouldn't even talk to Theo, who was supposed to be her best friend. Their relationship felt very juvenile to me to the very end. I loved the concept of fusion bakery items Theo made and the glimpses into being a mythical creature vet, but this book was not the cozy escape I was looking for.

(1.5 rounded up to 2)

I do appreciate a cozy Fantasy, but I have to say this one was not for me. The one redeeming factor was the descriptions of the delicious treats made for the cafe, but that was about it. I found the story to be repetitive and difficult to get through, and the fantastical setting to be not as fantastical with all sorts of modern elements added in (like cell phones.) The dragons were cute, but rather secondary and could have been replaced with any other animal. It did read like more of a contemporary romance, and I am not a fan of contemporary romance, so that was definitely a factor in why I did not enjoy it. And overall I do feel like there was no depth to the story that spoke to me.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for the Arc!

This was a nice continuation of the original book in this series. I enjoyed revisiting this world and found the setting to be just as cozy as I remembered. The romance was really slow to build but was enjoyable enough.

Tropes:
friends to lovers
slow burn
cozy fantasy

Overview:
positive: I’m not a fan of third person POV, i don’t feel the connection to the characters but i will say this was written in a way that i could empathize with the main characters. It was super cute and cozy, the setting and description was very well executed for the timeline that it takes place.

negative: i don’t like the whole “ practice kiss” between the two main characters while one of them ( while it does say not exclusive ) but in a serious type of relationship. It feels like cheating and i couldn’t get passed it. The FMC i felt was very repetitive and annoying at some parts about her standards she set for herself and it seemed to get old as the book went on.

i would recommend it if you’re looking for a YA cozy read for the fall but the whole cheating part of it took my interest away

I’m going to say this first and get it out of the way. I will not and never will be ok with cheating in a book. Labeling it as a “practice kiss” between two best friends who obviously have feelings for each other when our MFC is literally dating another man. NOT OK, PERIOD.

I was literally having so much fun with this book and then that scene happened right before the 50% mark and it was an immediate turn off. From that point forward I could care less about either character and was so fuming that I just wanted the book to be over. I feel like I wasted so much time getting into these characters and stories for them to act like children.

Also I’m honestly surprised more reviewers aren’t mentioning it. Then I doubted myself because no one else said a darn thing. Went back and re-read and that scene did indeed happen. So I guess as of right now it’s just me that has a problem with it.

Overall, because of that I cannot recommend this book and I wish the author would’ve left this series as a standalone. Lastly Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for the ARC!

This was an incredibly charming cozy romance book. I absolutely loved the setting, a charm town where you can have chimeras, phoenixes and dragons? The few glimpses at the baby dragons were an awesome cute touch. It was greatly appreciated to have those fantasy elements be in the background but still giving it some magic.

This friends to lovers story was a bit surprising to me. Mostly because I liked both characters individually and you could tell that them as best friends was a beautiful connection. It wasn’t until I saw the hints of chemistry that you see where is going. Lavinia wanting to find the love of her life at 24 while also going to vet school was interesting. She definitely likes to set goals for herself but I appreciated a lot how she knew what she wanted all the time. As for Theo, his backstory was surprising. He showed great personality and you never would’ve guessed his family history. It was sad but it gave him something else to the character. I liked how they finally get together and how it wasn’t quite that easy. Loved the ending of this book, it was the cozy read I needed.

3.5
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins for the ARC.

I absolutely consumed this book in less than 24 hours.
Again, I love a dual POV story. I feel it just gives the reader a great way to know how the story feels from all angles.
While I enjoyed Baby Dragon Cafe this book was more my style.

I love a good friends to lovers trope and this one had the perfect amount of longing and angst in it.

I, however, could have done without some of the repetitiveness. I understood Lavinia's "need" to be settled by a certain age but it was mentioned so much it got annoying.

I look forward to the next installment of this series. It's nice to read a low problematic easy read every once in a while.

This is my honest review in exchange for a free copy of this book.

Super cozy and magical! Lavinia and Theo have been best friends since they were very young, and are now at an age where they are trying to figure out which way their romantic lives are going to go. The baked goods in this story sound incredible and made me crave sweets. It is heavy on the miscommunication trope, but the sweet world building does make up for that being somewhat irritating at times.

This is an awesome cute book. I love the story and the plot. I love dragons so I knew this book was going to be for me.