The Baby Dragon Café

For this low-conflict, slow-burning cozy romance, Qureshi (If I Loved You Less) imagines a contemporary world inhabited by magical creatures where high-status humans raise dragons from infancy to one day become their riders. Saphira Margala has achieved her dream of opening a café that allows customers to bring in their baby dragons, but running a business is proving more difficult than she anticipated given the little critters’ predilections for hyperactivity, mischief, and bursts of flame. Enter wealthy landscaper Aiden Sterling, whose baby dragon Sparky, a gift from his late brother, is in dire need of training, a gig that could solve Saphira’s financial woes. As reclusive Aiden and gregarious Saphira become unlikely coparents of the lively dragon, they experience the first flushes of mutual attraction. But in a society where owning dragons is a sign of wealth and privilege, Aiden feels burdened by familial obligations and Saphira feels like an unwelcome outsider. The worldbuilding is somewhat underdeveloped, and Qureshi’s gentle, Hallmark Channel-esque storytelling sees most narrative land mines get easily defused, but as pure fluff this hits the spot. Readers seeking a soft and sweet love story will be pleased. (July)