A review by librarymousereads
The Baby Dragon Bakery by A.T. Qureshi

4.0

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 a fun and 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.