The Baby Dragon Bookshop by A.T. Qureshi. the third book in The Baby Dragon series, was my 21st read of the year. I’ve been enjoying this series as a cute and cosy, easy read.
Read my review of:
Book 2: The Baby Dragon Bakery
A summary attempt
This book follows Emeline, cousin to the MMC from the first book, and her sworn enemy who owns a rival coffee company, featuring chimera roasted coffee, directly competing with her dragon roasted coffee. When they are both seeking investments from a matriarch from one of the wealthy families in the area, she decides to pit them against each other, asking them to each create a proposal for a cafe within her brother’s bookshop business, the winner will also secure her investment.
The only problem is that her sworn enemy happens to be extremely attractive and able to completely see through Emmeline’s facade of togetherness. She slept with Luke back in college to get revenge on him for her baby sister, an act the grownup Emmy sort of regrets because there was a genuine connection before she went through with her plan. For his part, Luke tries to throw himself into the competition at first, flirting with Emmy to throw her off balance, which completely back-fires and he catches feelings again very quickly. He decides to see if he can win her over and see where their relationship could go, which Emmy tries to fight, not trusting that his attention is genuine. This gets harder the more Luke notices her and tries to take care of her, something that she doesn’t get much of as the eldest daughter and eldest cousin in a big family.
Can she set aside her grudge and let someone look after her? What does this mean for the competition?
My thoughts
I liked how feisty Emmy was and that Luke doesn’t get just lie down and take it, without crossing the line and being too harsh back. I have the same gripe as I did with book 2 in that I think the book held onto the ‘conflict’/ barrier to their relationship for a smidge too long. However, I did like a lot of the relatable elements to both of their stories: that feeling of not achieving as much as you thought you would by a certain age, of getting left behind by friends, of the burden eldest siblings sometimes face.
These stories are short and not meant to be too deep but I think they pack enough plot/ character journey in for what they are. The imagery in the series is stunning though and I love the baby dragon shenanigans.
Antonia Bernardin 