The Baby Dragon Bakery

This is an interconnected standalone fantasy series with a lot of romance and coziness infused. It’s absolutely cozy. However, the first book will always have my heart. I was a little bit disappointed with this second one.

I, personally, when, I see there is a second book in a series, I usually get very excited because my hope and assumption is that it will be either a continuation or more in depth storyline of the first book I read in the series so I was really hoping for Aiden and Sephira’s relationship to continue to take a front seat and for Sparky to continue to take a front seat because I bonded with those characters so much in this world
There was all of one paragraph dedicated to them, which was simply recapping what show more happened in the last book, so this book is very much not about Sparky. It’s a completely different book. It just happened to take place in the same world. Please know that going into this or else you’re likely going to be very disappointed because I was sad.

I don’t want this to affect my review because I feel like it’s not completely fair for my expectations impact the book because the quality of the book itself is decent. I gave it a four stars for the following reasons:
-Friends to lovers romance done well
-the tension banter and dialogue was lovely
-the writing style and execution was really lovely
-I was really excited to dip into the baby dragon world again and I did get that

What prevented a 5 star rating:
-I was so sad to not be able to dig more into Sparky and Sophia and Aiden and their world because I felt like the last book ended and a happy note but there was so much more to the story and I had fallen in love with this family and I didn’t care all too much for her employee she’s sweet, but it’s not something that I wondered more as a reader about whether or not the character had stuff going on she was not developed enough for me to be more interested and want to learn more about the character in the first book and so when the second book came along, I was hoping that it would be the same characters being at the front so that’s what was the most disappointing
-I definitely related to Lavina, which I believe is the main character’s name her and Theo have a little bit of a miscommunication tension, and I found the main character to be both relatable and funny
-there were at least three chapters that just went into incredible death on the family events because the main character lives with her family so they were just eating meals together and while this will appeal to a wide audience, this is what I actively avoid in books. I want a fantasy I want fun baby dragons if I want something where I’m reading about a family eating I will likely pick up a very different book. I had to skip past some pages because it just went on and on with her family and I know this is a weird me personal thing, but I was slightly annoyed that it was so drilled in because I did not care about the employee in the first place let alone her family matters that is not something that I was interested in.

I’m struggling to rate this lower than five stars because the book does have a good structure of rising action, falling action and good character development and good world building and all of the things that I look for when I’m trying to give an honest review, but this is a very personal critique of what my expectations were for the book so I’m taking one star off just because I was so sad because and in the past I have taken a star off when I don’t like the ending of a book so I think this is fair but yeah, I’m a little bummed. I still really enjoyed this book and I am curious to see what the next one is but I’m hoping it’s not just gonna be about Genevieve.

I really liked the cover of this book and I am so honored that I got approved for an arc because I love the first book so much. Thank you so much for the opportunity to share honest feedback voluntarily. show less

3.3 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

She was in love with her best friend. And everyone knew but him.

The Baby Dragon Bakery was an extremely soft and cozy smalltown read with some fantasy elements. I jumped into the series here and had no problems, there is a big supporting cast, with the couple from the first and obvious future couples but they add to the smalltown setting and make you feel at home more than lost. This second in the series stared Lavinia and Theo, two midtwenties who have been friends since childhood. Getting point-of-views from each, readers can see that both have started to develop romantic feelings for the other but are scared to tell in case show more that ruins their friendship.

And that was how Lavinia found herself enlisting the help of her best friend (who she had feelings for) to help her get with someone else (to get over aforementioned feelings). Which wouldn’t be complicated. Or messy. And that wasn’t a bad idea. Not at all.

Readers get to see them going through those quarter life growing pains, Lavinia is in her second year of veterinary school while working part-time and living at home while Theo is starting to think he wants to use his business degree and make baking his hobby again, instead of his job. They're figuring themselves out while still dealing with some childhood issues. Theo's parents were extremely cold, leading him to never feel good enough and his angst keeping him apart from Lavinia, he thinks she's too good for him and while Lavinia had loving parents that has lead to her putting pressure on herself to copy the formula of their love. Lavinia is the same age her parents were when they fell in love, so she's determined it must happen now. Not knowing Theo's feelings or wanting to ruin their friendship, this causes her to date someone else, which works because it forces Theo to expose his feelings.

He stroked her cheekbone with the curve of his thumb, his pulse quickening.

As I mentioned, this had cozy, soft vibes, Theo's issues with his parents and how it makes him feel is the lowest it gets in the smalltown of Starshine Valley. It started to feel a bit dragged out with Theo not feeling good enough and Lavinia purposefully, what it felt like anyway, not seeing that Theo did in fact have romantic feelings for her. We do get a little flashback to an emotional moment in their childhood friendship for some depth building blocks in their relationship but this was mostly kept in the sweet friendship romance vibe, with a quick dash of spice opendoor scene (bonus Ghost movie like moment!).

If he had her, he didn’t need anything else.

The fantasy elements are almost purely the baby dragons that appear here and there in scenes, not the stars but add a dash if looking for that element. After feeling like they were dragging their feet, their declarations of love felt kind of rushed to lead to a clunky feeling ending where we rehash Theo's not feeling good enough issues once more and then suddenly plop down the happily ever after. This was a cozy and sweet new adult (the characters had big thirties is old vibes) that had a fantasy smalltown setting that was a delight to spend some time in and the little tease between two characters who seem lined up to become enemies-to-lovers will have me checking out the next in the series. show less

Lavinia is working to becoming a vet and pining for her life-long friend, Theo, who's clueless and turns her down at a friend's engagement party.

Baby Dragon Bakery is friends-to-lovers, a little grumpy-sunshine, and oh-so-cute and cozy in this small-town. Was definitely a good sequel to The Baby Dragon Cafe which should be read before this book.

The third book in the Baby Dragon series, The Baby Dragon Bookshop is available 12 February 2026!

Not for me. I found Lavinia insufferable with her timeline to be just like her mom (is she 14 or 24?!). And both of them (Theo and Lavinia) annoyed me with their poor communication. These people are supposed to be best friends for 20 years and they can’t talk to each other?!

It could have been shorter. The same problem repeated over and over without any advancement. Not as cute as the first.