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A review by nikkisbooknook
The Baby Dragon Café by A.T. Qureshi
4.0
Saphira has made her dream come true - she's opened her café, one specifically welcoming baby dragons and their owners. Due to the very temperamental nature of baby dragons they tend to set things alight, so Saphira gets a small stipend from the town to repair damages. But she's running herself and Lavinia ragged. They really need a break and then catastrophe happens. A baby dragon takes out their fancy coffee machine!
Aiden may be from a prominent dragon-owning family but he's much happier pottering around in gardens. After the death of his brother he inherited his dragon egg, which has now hatched. Sparky is cute as a button but Aiden finds himself struggling to bond with the baby. Saphira however, seems to be able to get the little menace to behave and Aiden persuades her to help him train Sparky - with a cash injection to her business.
Whilst Aiden, Saphira and Sparky are the main characters in the book, the secondary characters of Lavinia, Theo, Emmy and Ginny are all worthy characters. They help to move the story along and flesh out our MC's world and family. The story is most definitely low angst and no spice (only a bit of lip locking and everything else is essentially fade-to-black). This could be a contemporary romance as without the dragons everything else felt very real world and contemporaneous. However, I think that this would be a great introductory book into fantasy for older children/teenagers or anyone who is unsure if they would like a heavier fantasy storyline.
That said there are some big themes couched in cosy terms such as being seen as the outcast/other, not fitting in, grief and stress.
Saphira is like human sunshine and optimism. Aiden is cranky, principled and out of his depth. He's also deep in grief and can't quite work out his feelings over the death of his brother and trying to keep Sparky out of the family "business".
I was happy to see that there are going to be more books in the series featuring some of the secondary characters. My only real criticism is I would like to have seen more done with the possibility of Saphira's father and her mother's death. It would have added a bit more body to the story I think.
Aiden may be from a prominent dragon-owning family but he's much happier pottering around in gardens. After the death of his brother he inherited his dragon egg, which has now hatched. Sparky is cute as a button but Aiden finds himself struggling to bond with the baby. Saphira however, seems to be able to get the little menace to behave and Aiden persuades her to help him train Sparky - with a cash injection to her business.
Whilst Aiden, Saphira and Sparky are the main characters in the book, the secondary characters of Lavinia, Theo, Emmy and Ginny are all worthy characters. They help to move the story along and flesh out our MC's world and family. The story is most definitely low angst and no spice (only a bit of lip locking and everything else is essentially fade-to-black). This could be a contemporary romance as without the dragons everything else felt very real world and contemporaneous. However, I think that this would be a great introductory book into fantasy for older children/teenagers or anyone who is unsure if they would like a heavier fantasy storyline.
That said there are some big themes couched in cosy terms such as being seen as the outcast/other, not fitting in, grief and stress.
Saphira is like human sunshine and optimism. Aiden is cranky, principled and out of his depth. He's also deep in grief and can't quite work out his feelings over the death of his brother and trying to keep Sparky out of the family "business".
I was happy to see that there are going to be more books in the series featuring some of the secondary characters. My only real criticism is I would like to have seen more done with the possibility of Saphira's father and her mother's death. It would have added a bit more body to the story I think.