"The Baby Dragon Bakery", book 2 in the Baby Dragon series, follows Lavinia and Theo, best friends for life, who suddenly find themselves having feelings for each other. But when Lavinia gets rejected by Theo and starts dating someone new, will they be able to repair their friendship and find love along the way?

If you've read the first book, you basically know what you're getting into. Some things to be wary of before you pick up this series:
-It reads like teenage fanfic. This will not win awards for how it's written
-It features the miscommunication trope
-Lavinia is supposed to be such a smart character by has really one dimensional thinking. She's training to be a vet, but has this stupid idea that she absolutely has to be with her true love at age 24 because that's the age her parents met, and she makes a ridiculous deadline to have this happen
-The 3rd act breakup in this one was so dumb

That being said, I still really enjoyed this!
-It's a light, cozy read
-Features cute baby dragons (though not enough in my opinion! More dragons please!)
-Features a mmc who loves to bake and I think that's just the sweetest
-Perfect, fast paced romance
-Loved getting to see what the characters from book 1 were up to a few months later.

I can't wait for the next installment! I really think romance readers who want to delve into a light fantasy world will love this one.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I loved the baby dragon cafe, but this one was a huge miss for me. It felt like the romance was the entire plot, dragons played a much more important role in the other book. The romance was also just frustrating for me, felt very childish and too much miscommunication.

I love the concept of this book and the fantasy elements. Looking forward to other people getting a chance to read this and more from this author at a later date. Thank you to the author in the publisher for making this available.

A wonderful read!
This novel drew me in from the very first page and kept me hooked until the end. The characters were vibrant and relatable, the writing was engaging, and the story had just the right balance of heart and humor. Highly recommend!
Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

Utterly enchanting! The Baby Dragon Bakery, the second book in A. T. Qureshi’s The Baby Dragon Series, is a whimsical and cozy delight that had me smiling from start to finish. I haven’t read the first book yet, but that didn’t stop me from falling head-over-heels for this magical world filled with warmth, wonder, and the irresistible charm of a dragon-powered bakery. Qureshi has a gift for creating stories that feel like a soft blanket, comforting, gentle, and full of heart. The bakery setting is pure magic, and the characters (especially the adorable baby dragon!) are impossible not to love. The mix of fantastical elements with everyday kindness and community spirit makes this book a perfect feel-good escape.
Whether you’re a longtime fan or just discovering the series, The Baby Dragon Bakery is a treat, sweet, cozy, and brimming with magic. I’ll definitely be going back to read the first one! Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publishing house for this book.

This story was much more focused on the main couple. The story focuses on how Lavinia and Theo's relationship is evolving from friends to love interests and during this transition there's a lot of miscommunication that brings challenges along the way. That awkward transition from friends to love interests is funny, and the authors builds a good tension.

3 stars
This was cute and cosy just like the previous book! It’s low stakes and not that fantastical - in fact, I think it’s real world instead of second ? There’s a bit of developments that needs with the worldbuilding. But it’s fun for a few hours of mindlessness and really swoony!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Another insanely cute & cozy book, following up with the same vibes from The Baby Dragon Cafe, this is a book to pick up when you want to feel warm and fuzzy while reading!

I loved the flashbacks to the past, and the predictable growth of the MMC and MFC's relationship! It wasn't without it's dramas, but true love always prevails!

What I found interesting was the dragons weren't as heavily involved in this storyline as the last book, which I would love to see more dragon focused plot again in the next read!

This book is the perfect book to cozy up in front of the window while it's raining with a cup of coffee.
I love the low spice, it's a nice change of pace and it doesn't feel out of place!

This book was not for me, and that's ok. The writing style never truly clicked and this will be where I finish this series and don't continue with any future sequels.

Even though I didn't love it, if you're looking for an easy read with some fluff, dragons and light-hearted banter, it might be for you. You'll have a good idea if you read the first in the series if this is something that you'll enjoy!

The baby dragon cafe needs to be a real thing - all the food descriptions had me salivating!

I liked that there was a continuation in Saphira and Aidan's story alongside Lavinia and Theo's. Though the miscommunication and angst drove me crazy, it kept the friends to lovers trope very realistic.

A great addition to the series!

This was such a cute cozy book! It’s definitely a perfect friends to lovers romance with baby dragons! When I heard about this book from HCC, I just knew i needed to read it. The relationship between the main couple is amazing and finding love in your favourite person is exactly how my relationship with my partner went.
I cannot wait for this to come out to recommend to all the cozy readers who come in to the bookstore!

I read the first book based on a recommendation from my library so when I saw book 2 was available on NG, I applied immediately. This was SUCH a cute story!! I classify this as a sorbet of a romance. A little palate cleansing, low stakes, feel-good, sweet cute characters and sometimes you just need something like this. I loved the descriptions of the desserts (someone needs to make me a Ras malai tiramisu asap!) The characters are all very young (or I’m just too old) so every time Livinia mentioned her “deadline”, it reminded me of Charlotte Lucas in P&P. (SO much angst!)

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an e-ARC of this book!

Cute, cosy, heartwarming romance!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Baby Dragon Bakery is the second book in the Baby Dragon cafe series by Aamna Qureshi. This is a small town YA romance series with baby dragons, a delicious bakery and sweetheart characters set in Starshine valley.

Lavinia Williams (Saphira’s best friend) finally realises she has romantic feelings for Theo Noon, her childhood best friend. Lavinia is a hopeless romantic at heart and is longing for romance like her mother’s Beena and even the baby dragons knows she’s secretly in love with Theo. However Theo is dealing with his insecurities and low self-worth/esteem.

Lavinia and Theo’s romance has friendship, yearning and insecurities and will make you smile.

If you’re looking for escapism and a heartwarming romance story with a happy ending, sprinkle of magical baby dragons and a delicious mouth watering bakery then add this book to your TBR. The writing is quite simplistic and the story is predictable at times.

I really enjoyed the south asian fusion references to the desserts and food and the way the bakery was described was delicious.

Tropes
Small town
Dual POV
Best friends to lovers
Very low spice
Very light fantasy

This series has my whole heart loved the friends to lovers just wanting to keep reading wanting to know more about Theo and Lavinia, loved there vibe there passion.
Aamna Qureshi's writing is just amazing will definitely be reading more and more will be an auto buy author.
Just loved everything about it.

The Baby Dragon Bakery is a romance brimming with genuinely adorable best-friends-to-lovers moments, and exhausting miscommunication, with characters who feel frustratingly real - sometimes to the point of discomfort. Lavinia, 24, is convinced her romantic fate is sealed if she doesn’t find "the one" by December (cue the drama). Her internal panic and rigid deadline set off a cascade of questionable decisions and emotionally messy entanglements that carry through most of the book.

Lavinia’s dynamic with Theo, her best friend and crush, is a slow-burn of misread signals, deeply rooted insecurity, and self doubt, all of which make sense given the characters' backgrounds, but also drag out the plot and romance between them to a nearly maddening degree. I often found myself mentally yelling at Lavinia to connect the dots she's clearly capable of seeing (especially since she spots the exact same emotional cues in others but denies them when they come from Theo). Their friendship is absolute goals though, and my heart felt so full seeing Theo receive the kind of love and warmth from Lavinia's family that he never got from his own.

Calahan, who Lavinia sets her sights on to help her move on from her crush on Theo and meet her December deadline, is a standout in his own right. He's mature, steady, and thoughtful, handling the situation with Lavinia with dignity. He absolutely deserved so much better.

The pacing feels quite slow for most of the book, steadily building the tension, then ramps into full drama mode in the last 25%, with a flurry of breakups, reunions, and tantrums that land somewhere between emotionally raw and teen drama. If you’re looking for an angsty best friends to lovers romance with a side of delicious food descriptions and some serious emotional growing pains, this will definitely scratch the itch.

I love this cosy fantasy town!
I am not a huge fantasy reader but I really love this series so far, it is cute and cosy with light fantasy and I fell it has been the perfect stepping stone into the fantasy world for me.

The connection between the characters is unmissable, I love the tension and the build up and it has been nice getting to know these characters more as they were only side characters for the first book!

I cannot wait for more in this series.

Yearning is back, and The Baby Dragon Bakery nailed it.

“Deep down, she always knew things happened for the best, but that didn't stop the reality from hurting.”


I would like to start with how Aamna Qureshi’s writing never disappoints; the baby dragon world is comforting on another level. I love the desi fusion desserts, the cute baby dragons and the amazing bond between the characters.

This book tells the story of best friends Lavinia, a vet-in-the-making, and Theo, a junior baker. Going from friends to lovers is obviously a very hard task; there are so many variables, and even a small mistake can end up in huge losses. Aamna takes all of those problems and writes some of the best angst out there. The angst was actually insane, and it was literally making me close the book and open it again and again.

Characters
Lavinia – packing it up coded
I absolutely love Lavinia. I love how passionate she is about being a vet. Her commitment to her dreams, the baby dragon cafe and her friends and family is admirable.

Theo – You’re On Your Own, Kid coded
I love reading about the desi fusion desserts Theo makes, even though I end up feeling very hungry. I loved how the author showed that you can switch career paths if it doesn’t work for you; that was an important reminder for me.

Romance (guilty as sin coded)
OH. MY. GOD. The angst was insane; I had goosebumps while reading this book. The cute fluff moments were absolutely incredible, and I loved Lavinia and Theo’s friendship. The little tidbits of their past totally made the book even better. I loved when Theo visited Lavinia’s house; those scenes were some of the best scenes in the book. Beena and Theo’s relationship was very heartwarming.

Saphira and Aiden's scenes were also adorable, and it was fun to see them from someone else’s point of view. The third book is going to be about Emmaline and Luke, and I really cannot wait!!

If you want to read a very low-stakes romance fantasy novel, you should pick this up.

This book is a cozy fantasy, romance novel and is the second book. I read this in less than 24 hours it was so good! I loved reading how the friendship to love developed between the main characters. We get to follow how they navigate their friendship and how they misunderstand each others intentions, sometimes you get so frustrated with them. I really liked how Saphira and Aidan were still in the story it kept it on theme from the first one.
The characters and world is so well-developed I cannot wait to see whats next. I would highly recommend this book to any romance or fantasy lover. 5⭐️


📚I was able to read an advanced copy of title thanks to NetGalley, A. T. Qureshi and Avon Books UK📚
📚All reviews and opinions are entirely my own📚

I received an ARC of this ebook from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review. I loved reading about the baby dragons. That was definitely the redeeming factor of the book. I just could not get into the main characters. Lavinia seemed very immature. Her obsession with meeting her soul mate by age 24 was very weird. Theo was just kind of meh. The author also has a tendency to over explain things, which can seem tedious.