A review by lucyp21
The Baby Dragon Café by A.T. Qureshi

emotional lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.5

 I had heard quite a lot about this so I was pleased when it showed up on Kindle Unlimited. And I'm glad I read it, but I am also very glad I didn't spend any money on it. I do like low stakes romance novels with fantasy elements (in this case dragons) but the possible sources of conflict were just waved away and it really got to me. 

In this book Saphira owns a baby dragon cafe and is struggling with the repair costs and the fact that she can't own a baby dragon of her own because she doesn't come from one of the 'dragon' families. So when one of the sons of those families asks her for help training his own baby dragon (a last gift from his dead brother),she jumps at the chance. They fall in love and everything is perfect. 

Seriously, it's perfect. It turns out Aiden is reluctant to bond with the baby dragon because he's scared that he'll be forced

into dragon riding, something his family has done for generations

. One conversation with his parents and that conflict is all gone and sorted. Saphira's concern is about how she feels like an outsider because she doesn't come from one of the dragon families and to be fair to her, a lot of people apart from Aiden do care about that. But rather than dealing with that knowledge and her own insecurity,

she goes on a special ritual that she completes easily and now she's magically not an outsider anymore (and Aiden has a special golden card for her too)

. After this event, she's like 'oh I don't need strangers telling me whether or not I belong, since I have Aiden and Sparky and they accept me'. Ma'am, you having this revelation after the spoiler event is more than a little worthless, because you didn't deal with your own insecurity, or communicate with Aiden about how much it bothered you. You just

almost killed yourself climbing a mountain for something that according to you afterwards you didn't really need to do.

It would have been far more interesting if she had failed in it and then had to deal with her own feelings afterwards. 

I do like the build up of the romance, and the division between dragon families and those on the ouside, as well as how Saphira and Aiden deal with their grief differently. There is nothing majorly wrong with this book, it's just really not for me.