Published By: Avon
Pages: 320
Released On: 12/02/2026
Emmy has an enemy, and his name is Luke. The good news? She rarely sees him. The bad news? When she does, she (and her pet dragons) are reminded just how handsome he is.
Besides, Emmy is too busy focusing on her dragon-fuelled business to have time for love. But when both she and Luke approach the same local investor for funding, she’s suddenly unable to avoid him. The kookie investor insists they must compete for the cash by working at the local failing baby dragon bookshop to prove their magical business knowledge.
Determined to win the funding, Emmy dives into the task. But making a very flammable bookshop fit for baby dragons is no small feat, and it seems these rivals may need to join forces. Could Luke and Emmy’s fiery animosity spark something more between them?
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Avon for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
I love this series – The Baby Dragon Café followed by The Baby Dragon Bakery – and now she’s thrown in a bookshop; what could be better?
I’d read quite a few hard-hitting thrillers before this and I was desperate for something fun and light and magical, which is exactly what this is.
What I love about this series, this book included, is how real it all seems. Because she’s got such a solid foundation in the setting and the characters, and they feel real, it means the fantasy elements just slot in so well, the magic is grounded in the reality of it all.
You can totally read this as a standalone, but characters and plot points from previous books do crop up and I think you’ll get a bit more out of it if you have that background already.
We’ve met the protagonists before in previous books but this really is their moment. Emmeline and Luke were fabulous individually and together, and I was willing them on from the start. I mean, you do want to bang their heads together; if they’d just sat down and had an honest chat in the first half then everything would have been sorted and they could have lived happily ever after, but I’m aware there’s no drama in a story like that.
It is a quintessential enemies-to-lovers story. It’s cosy, warming, funny, light-hearted, whimsical – just thoroughly enjoyable.
It’s a tough choice but I think this is my favourite of the three. All this time she has spent building this world and building the characters has paid off because they’re so strong in this book, so well rounded and developed. She has definitely found her footing with this book.
It is quick and easy to read and just zooms by.
My one tiny little issue – and it’s not an issue really, just an observation – is I found the reason behind Emmeline and Luke’s frostiness is really trivial, and I wonder if it had enough meat on it to really justify their reactions? Like I say, not an issue to ruin the reading or enjoyment of it, but something I did keep thinking about.
I recently saw this is the final book in the series, and I’m in two minds about this. I mean, I’m not sure how long it could have gone on for because it’s a small town with the same characters in all of them, so it might have got a bit tired if it went on too long, but on the other side, I want more!!
Books By Your Bedside 