A Witch and Her Dragon is a wonderfully cosy romantasy.

The focus on Alina and Raelans relationship without any other major plot points allowed the book to have an intimate feel.

I loved the dynamic between Raelan and the dragon inside him which created the perfect yearning for Alina which we get to experience fully with the dual POV!

I also loved the world building, I felt fully immersed into the story between the wind tunnel in the palace, the streets of Wysteria and the stained glass windows of Coven Crest Academy!

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I can't wait to find out what's going on with the Minotaur groundskeeper in the next book!

A Witch and Her Dragon is a cute cozy fantasy romance, featuring a princess heading to a magic academy to develop her magic skills and her assigned personal guard who happens to be a dragon shifter… and her mate!

If you love cozy fantasy with romance and a bit of spice, this may be the book for you!

This was such a sweet, cozy romance. I enjoyed all of the characters, the writing and the spice was good. It was fast paced and an easy read, I did think it was a little predictable at times but that didn’t take anything away from it. I will definitely be keeping my eyes out for the sequel.

Thank you to Netgalley, Emberly Wyndham for the ARC

Having frost magic is great and all, but for 18 year-old Princess Alina Ravenscroft it's a bit of a challenge: in order to properly control her magic, it would be really awesome if she could pretty please attend Coven Crest Academy. Her grandfather, the King, agrees - but of course there's one condition. She is to be escorted by a personal guard. The absolute last thing Alina wants, is to stand out and be different from her peers. A knight at her back doesn't exactly scream "blending in". Doesn't matter that he's tall, broody and handsome; Sir Raelan Ashcroft is a nuisance! 
Well, the feeling's mutual. Sort of. Raelan has spent the better part of the past 3 years avoiding Alina however he can. Not because she isn't lovely, or anything, but because Raelan... is not like other boys. The young man is a secret dragon shifter. And there's nothing more painful for a shifter than to be close to the one thing he can't ever have: his fated mate.

Emberly Wyndham, you had me at Fated Mates. I love this trope so much, and this book hits all the marks. There's so much angst, there's physicality (strong physical reactions), and tons of possessiveness. Yes, Raelan is a dragon hoarding his treasure, but Alina can't stop herself from acting on her own jealousy, either. She's already a feisty character, and it comes out in spades when another female character so much as breathes in Raelan's direction. The sexual tension is delicious.

A story on Fated Mates tends to be very character- and romance driven, and A Witch and her Dragon is no exception. There is an action plotline more towards the end of the book which doesn't give us all the answers, but it is a catalyst that moves the overall story forward.

Character-forward storytelling is absolutely good, as long as the characters are strong - with solid backstories, personalities, motivations and interactions. Raelan and Alina are both fleshed out well. The dual PoV style helps immensely when a book is character-forward, and Wyndham's choice to go with a present tense helps me to be with these characters in the moment. Both voices are very distinct: Alina a rebellious, at times naive princess left in the dark, Raelan a powerful creature holding back his base instincts. But both of them have enough in common - particularly their spunk and assertiveness - that they are a wonderful match. The mates trope can be viewed as forced, but it's not the case here.

The romantic build-up takes time, but that makes sense with this trope; mate love language is all about claiming the other physically and the push-and-pull that comes with the "feral urges but humanoid brains" territory. So it's very lusty in the beginning, and the book is pretty spicy, but there are enough moments in there that convince me the love story works. One of the most romantic earlier scenes (I thought) isn't even a love scene: Outside in the pouring rain, Alina confronts Raelan about needing just a little bit more space. They way she stands up for herself. The way he takes it to heart. The way neither cares about the rain. It just shows immediately how passionate these characters are and how good of a fit they will be. As I keep reading, it's clear both main characters are so gentle and understanding at heart, and that bleeds through every interaction they have, no matter how tense. They're mates, but a strong pairing regardless.

Raelan and Alina aren't the only strong characters: Alina's grandfather is fantastic, and Alina has 3 roommates at the academy; Lyra, Poppy and Maeve are also witches with different abilities and personalities, and they'll all have their own standalone books in this series, though I do hope there's a continuation regarding the action plotline as it feels unresolved at this time.

The second book will feature Lyra and her match-up with a gentle monster character of her own. I'm not normally into monster romance (shifters are an exception) but The Witch and Her Dragon is so cozy, I want more of that and will keep reading forthcoming novels. Cozy as a descriptor gets thrown around a lot. Novels will add a coffee shop and presto! Cozy label achieved! For me, that's not enough. Thankfully, Wyndham knows cozy. Yes, there is a Wandering Cup café. OK. But in her scenes, the author takes care to describe the setting in a way that transports me there. One thing that I really appreciated - maybe it's because I'm a photographer - is her description of the lighting in a particular moment. There are also mentions of colors, seasonal descriptions, food items, scents - YES it's cinnamon but it is by far the coziest smell, you won't convince me otherwise. The witches have naturally colorful hair. Blue, purple. What a fun detail! All I need is a blanket to curl up under!

What I hope for in the books to follow, is more worldbuilding. We get a tasty appetizer, and now I'm left with a delicious aftertaste and growling stomach. So I hope there'll be more focus on the fantasy where applicable. The world of Wysteria with shifters and witches and other creatures has such a cute vibe, but I want to go a little deeper. The Shadowfall Court of witches was mentioned briefly. Interest peaked! I also want to know more about the school and the technicalities of the magic system. Lastly, witches in this world have spirit companions: Alina and her roommates all have their own animals with them at school. I wish we had more interactions there (Alina's spirit companion can talk). All in all though, for now it's enough to feel the atmosphere Wyndham was going for and to come back for more.

The Witch and Her Dragon is a strong start to what I'm sure will be a comfort read book series for many people.

Thank you NetGalley and Emberly Wyndham for generously providing me with a copy of this book; all opinions expressed are honest, voluntary and 100% my own.

This is a very cute, plate-cleansing type of book. It is heavy on the romance and light on the magic. It's an academia setting but medium on the academia. The focus is absolutely on the witch and her dragon, as the title suggests. It is dual POV which certainly worked in its favor. The writing is good and kept me interested.

The good parts are all there! It's missing a little bit of oomph for me. I'd like a little more of the fantasy elements. For example, the familiars seem pretty fun, but they don't get much description or reason for being; they are just there.

Loved the dragon shifter and wanted MORE!

This was such a cosy romantasy read!! I really liked this one, I found Alina so charming and her relationship with Raelen’s relationship was 🫰🏼.

The forbidden romance was just delicious and I loved the whimsical world building (even though I’d have liked a little bit more as I was surprised at some of the creatures that popped up!!).

It was super fast paced and an easy read, it felt a little predictable at times but I think this is a reflection of the romantasy genre at the moment. Defiantly give this a go if you love dragons and fated mates with a side of spice and adventure.

If you love a romantasy with witches, dragons, forbidden love and a bit of spice then this is for you! Alina, a young witch princess, who is the first of the royal family to be accepted and attend the Coven Crest Academy. Her Grandfather, the King, appoints his best knight to attend the Academy with her, as her personal guard. Alina is desperate to fit in and make friends, but doesn't want to be treated like royalty. She starts to resent the Knights presence as his being around makes it obvious to others that she is different. Alina soon realises that Raelan is becoming more than just her guard. I really enjoyed the story line and the authors style of writing, however I would have liked there to of been more character and world building personally, as my imagination isn't very good! I'd like to know more about the characters past, present and future, so I would be interested in reading the other books in the series to find out more! I am very grateful to have been chosen to recieve an advanced reader copy of this book from the publisher, and I am leaving this honest review, under no obligation.

Rating was 3.5 stars.

This was a cute, cozy, and easy fantasy read. While I did enjoy it, I would’ve liked to see a little more world building. You know off the bat that there are witches and dragon shifters in this world, but you learn randomly that there are also minotaurs and orcs and likely other creatures that we never find out about. We see these spirit companions, but they’re never really explained, and they can communicate with their witch somehow. I didn’t know until late in the story that the companion wasn’t actually talking out loud, but perhaps on some sort of spirit or mental level.

I liked the progression of Alina and Raelen’s relationship. Raelen is doing everything he can to avoid his pull to Alina, while Alina feels drawn to Raelen without knowing why. It’s so satisfying when they start to give into that pull.

I still have a big unanswered question from the major conflict in the story, so I would’ve liked to have seen some resolution there. It seemed like it was set up to be answered, but then was just forgotten about. Perhaps in the next book, we’ll see the answer.

"A Witch and Her Dragon" is a dual point of view, first person, romantasy following Princess Alina as she attends her college years at magic school. Her grandfather's only stipulation is that she bring a guard with her, Raelan, a dragon shifter who has kept a dangerous secret for years...that princess Alina is actually his dragon mate.

I can see this book being popular on kindle unlimited or in a romantasy box subscription. It follows very generic tropes, such as fated mates, forbidden lovers, etc. While it was a fast paced read, ultimately it was pretty unoriginal and predictable. The dragon shifter can't be with his one true mate due to her being a princess, chaos ensues, you can guess the ending. The world building was very surface level and again, generic. How can you tell the witches from the normal humans? They have fun colored hair (sky blue, lavender, dark purple) and a magical animal companion. Unfortunately although animal companions are such a cool trope, they were thrown in here just because, barely got an explanation, and didn't play a part in the plot at all. There was also the stereotypical bad guy you could see coming from a mile away, and no real explanation to why they had it out for our 2 main characters (what a plothole!). Another thing that was a little strange was that these characters acted like teenagers (the princess was 18 but acted much younger) and the book read like YA but had quite a few spicy scenes (I'd categorize this at New Adult (NA)). But it was really off-putting to read a book that has the fast pacing and younger acting characters like a YA novel but with many spicy scenes(if you're looking for spiciness rating, it's about the same as fourth wing). Also the amount of times this author uses the phrase "home in on"... I thought I was going to put the book down just for that! She uses this phrase no less than 20 times.

So ultimately this book was not a favorite of mine, but it wasn't bad, just super similar to a million other romantasies. I was able to read it in 2 days and would be good if you're looking for something light and fluffy.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Victory Editing for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A witch and her dragon is about a young princess who starts her journey learning how to control her magic at a school but has to bring a knight with her as a guard and he happens to be a dragon shifter. I really wanted to like this book however I felt like there was so much focus on Raelan having to keep his inner dragon in check and how much it was making him suffer that it was hard to enjoy the rest. I usually like dual pov romance novels but i feel like this one didn’t really need his pov. While I didn’t like these things about the book I did enjoy the world-building, it was easy to follow and visualize, and I did like the side characters. I really appreciate the chance to be able to read this before it’s published, I just feel like maybe this book just wasn’t for me like I had hoped. Thank you.

My first read by Emberly Wyndham, and I’m sure it won’t be my last, I’m already looking forward to the next book in the quartet. Coven Crest Academy has a whole host of interesting characters to get acquainted with, we start off with magical princess Alina Ravensceoft and her dragon shifter bodyguard, Raelan Ashvale, not that anyone knows he’s a dragon shifter (not even the princess). A super slow burn, forbidden (maybe), supernatural romance, with a body guard who would rather be anywhere but at the princess’s side, but who would most definitely lay down his life for her. Turns out he might be the very reason she’s in danger. Entertaining, sweet and sexy all at the same time. I really enjoyed my time at Coven Crest Academy. I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley. This is my honest review.

A Witch and Her Dragon is a fantasy romance story, and as its name suggests, it's about Alina, a princess and witch, and Raelan, a knight but above all a shapeshifter, a dragon. Through the twists of fate, they end up united beyond a working relationship. Honestly, I didn't know what to expect from this novel. At first, the synopsis caught my attention and I thought, "Why not give it a chance?" Then I discovered it was spicy and I was afraid of what I would find. But it was a pleasant surprise. When I started reading the story from the beginning, it captivated me, to the point that it took me 24 hours to finish it! A light but fun novel, ideal for when you find yourself with a reading block (yes, my last reading left me so upset that I needed something that wouldn't make me cry).

I must emphasize that I loved that the characters did communicate at all, that Alina literally learned Raelan's secret halfway through the book, because here we love it when the characters communicate and tell each other they love each other (even though they can't be together).

But if there was one thing I missed, it was the explanation of who and why they loved Raelan. Then I saw that this is the first book, so I suppose that will be revealed in the sequel. I'm eagerly awaiting the continuation of the book. 100% recommended.

Thanks to Emberly Wyndham, the publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC.

A fast-paced cozy spicy romantasy that got me hooked from page 1. Set in a magical academy and it has fated mates, he falls first and harder, forced proximity, dragon shifter x witch, princess x knight, and the perfect amount of spice *chef’s kiss*. It has everything I, and anyone, want in a book.
The longing, the yearning, the tension, the banter and the chemistry between Alina and Raelan are to die for. I also loved the magical academy setting, the found family with her 3 girl friends and their unique fun personality, and ofc their spirit companions were a cute addition🥹.

The story is about Alina, a princess, who dreams to set her own path and enrolls at Coven Crest Academy for witches to master her magic, but she’s only allowed to attend if she had a knight by her side. Raelan, a knight, is a secret dragon shifter who’s been keeping another secret for 3 years and that is Alina is his fated mate, and now he’s forced to accompany Alina to her dream academy. So as both Alina and Raelan are forced to spend time together, things changes and it gets harder for Raelan to hide his feelings, the tension gets stronger each day and the powerful connection between them is harder to ignore.


All in all, I truly loved the book and I’m thankful for Netgalley for providing me the ARC🙏💕.

ARC review. A Witch and her Dragon, due for release on 3rd June. I was disappointed with this book, it was 254 pages long and already grammatical errors by page 8, the lady in waiting was referred as Mr instead of Ms as an example, I noted quite a few errors that I would have thought seeing as this was being put out in to the public domain it would have been edited to a good standard. I really don’t enjoy to have to correct the words on the page as I read. Secondly, not a great deal happened apart from the fated mates story, there was a kidnapping but the captured kidnapper wasn’t referred to again nor who paid for the kidnap/exchange. There wasn’t much detail about the magic learnt by the young witches at the Coven Crest Academy. It just lacked detail for me unfortunately#magic#dragonshifter #witches

We've all thought about it: What if the princess doesn't fall in love with the prince, but with the dragon? When I saw this book, the title and the synopsis I just had to read it. I requested a review copy through Netgalley and luckily the author granted me a request copy and last week it was finally time to dive in!

This was exactly what I had hoped and expected. From the very first chapter I was sucked in and I kept enjoying the book until the end. That's firstly because the author has a very pleasant and easy to read writing style. It never feels simple, but it's not complicated or flowery either. The chapters are also relatively short, which makes it easy to read just one more chapter.

I personally love that, despite the mate bond being present, the author takes the time for the characters to build a connection. There is certainly some insta-love involved, when it comes to the dragon, but it takes quite some time before they act upon their feelings. I especially liked all those small moments where they were jealous or longing for something, but not entirely sure if they were even allowed to be jealous or longing for it.

I also enjoyed the setting. I can imagine that we'll get a lot more stories set in this universe! And I really hope so! I quite liked the school, I liked the descriptions of the classes and the way the teachers talked about magic. I also liked the friendship between the girls. They are all clearly very different personalities and yet it makes so much sense that they become instant friends! I can't wait to get to know the other girls better. I hope they will each get their own novel!

A sweet and spicy story of a princess witch and her dragon guard finding their way into one another's arms.

Yuki??!!!!!! Does the author know im obsessed with Sakura Cardcaptor??!!!!
This is a cozy, fast read about a witch that just wants to find her path away from being the princess and a guard with a secret.
The guard is a dragon but nobody but his mother and the king know but the secret…
The secret is that he has to guard his mate(which no one but his mom know about) and his dragon keeps fighting him to come out and see his mate!

Spicy, cozy, dripping with delicious fantasy magic. A Witch And Her Dragon provides everything you could want: forced proximity; fated mates; magical academy; he-falls-first; close-knit friendships; and an MMC who could not give more “touch-her-and-die” vibes if he even tried to.

Alina is a young witch training up her frost magic at a magic academy, determined to prove her worth on her own merit and make lifelong friendships. Raelan is her ravishing knight/secret dragon-shifter sworn to protect her, from everything and everyone one - including himself. The chemistry, the tension, the YEARNING: get ready for some fiery action in this mystery filled novel.

The overall cast of characters was very well developed, and you come to have a deeper understanding of even those who only pop up for a scene or two. Sure, this might be a spicy little Romantasy book, but there is a ton of world building, lore and open endings established in this first instalment and I’d love to continue reading on with future additions to the series. Yes, on the surface this is a tale about two magical beings lusting after one another, but dig a bit deeper and you’ll see that it’s the themes of friendships, family and devotion that bind this book together. The writing is well paced and the scenes well balanced, making for a smooth and well-seasoned read. The magic system was intriguing and I’d love to see some more focus on her studies at the academy as she comes further in tune with her powers.

Thank you to Emberly Wyndham and the publishing/NetGalley team for allowing me the opportunity to give an advance review of this book. If a relatable witch and an irresistibly devoted dragon-shifter sound like your cup of tea, then I’d definitely recommend taking this 4/5 star rating for a twirl ✨

A witch and her dragon by Emberly Wyndham.
🐉🧙‍♀️

It's my first ARC and thank you netgalley!

If you like :

cozy fantasy
Forced proximity
Forbidden romance
Magic academy
Witch, shifter and animals familiars

This book is for you !

It was a really good reading, I enjoyed the story between Alina and her love interest The romance was very cute and FMC passionnate. The Coven Academy looks like the perfect place to be and I love when "He falls first" and I defenetly read the next book ♥️

Thank you, NetGalley, for the chance to read this ARC!

This was a cute, entertaining story! A witchy royal New Adult romance 🙌🏻

Princess Alina wants to attend the nearby academy to learn how to harness her magic and branch out from under her grandfather's, the king's, loving but limiting gaze. He agrees, but only if one of his knights Raelin accompanies her as a guard.

Raelin is a dragon shifter, keeping his dragon at bay in order to provide for his mother and sister's. He's grateful for his arrangement with the king, but still feels unsure how long this will go on since the princess is his fated mate. When the king orders him to accompany the princess to the academy, he's apprehensive.

This is a great fit for anyone who is looking for a quick, cute, magical read!