Published: October 26, 2021
Publisher: World Tree Publishing
Series: A Miss Percy Guide #1
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 421 (Kindle Edition)
My Rating: 4.0/5.0
Synopsis:
Miss Mildred Percy inherits a dragon.
Ah, but we’ve already got ahead of ourselves…
Miss Mildred Percy is a spinster. She does not dance, she has long stopped dreaming, and she certainly does not have adventures. That is, until her great uncle has the audacity to leave her an inheritance, one that includes a dragon’s egg.
The egg – as eggs are wont to do – decides to hatch, and Miss Mildred Percy is suddenly thrust out of the role of “spinster and general wallflower” and into the unprecedented position of “spinster and keeper of dragons.”
But England has not seen a dragon since… well, ever. And now Mildred must contend with raising a dragon (that should not exist), kindling a romance (with a humble vicar), and embarking on an adventure she never thought could be hers for the taking.
Such a delightful read! I stumbled across this author on Twitter several months ago and loved the sound of Miss Percy’s Pocket Guide to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons. I then kept vigil, looking out for release date info… and then it was released right after my birthday!! I picked it up that day and well, I’m super behind on some of my non-ARC reviews so here we are.
Miss Mildred Percy is a spinster, residing in her younger sister’s household and generally keeping quietly to herself when not watching her nieces and nephew. She’s written off a life of grand adventure until a trunk full of bits and bobs from her great uncle arrives and it contains an egg. Of course, she doesn’t know it’s an egg at first, not until she drops it off with the nice vicar in town and it hatches on his desk! I believe with your astounding powers of deduction you might be able to guess what hatched from the egg – yes, a dragon. Thus begins Miss Percy’s adventure, proving that one doesn’t have to be young to radically change one’s life for the better and find love! Rather inspiring, actually.
Miss Percy, Mr. Wiggan the vicar, Ms. Babbinton (Mr. Wiggan’s housekeeper), and Fitz the dragon were all wonderful, lovable characters. I mean really, how could you not love a little, awkwardly angular little dragon? Mr. Wiggan is a wonderfully curious fellow and he surprisingly finds himself growing rather fond of Miss Percy. Ms. Babbinton is literally all that keeps Mr. Wiggan fed and well-kept and she makes excellent food, thus endearing her to both Miss Percy and Miss Percy’s niece and nephew. Miss Percy’s sister is quite a tyrant and I immediately felt terrible that she was stuck living with such a dreadful witch and counting herself lucky to be doing so! A book can hardly be complete without an antagonist and that comes in the form of one Reginald Hawthorne, whose father was the original owner of the egg but he lost it in a card game. Mr. Hawthorne finds himself strapped for cash and with a bit of information goes off to find where the egg ended up in hopes of being able to sell it. He’s an absolute shit, as is Miss Percy’s eldest niece who was quite taken with the handsome Mr. Hawthorne and aids his deception.
Overall, this was a really delightful story with the most relatable characters who you couldn’t help but to love and empathize with! Miss Percy was such a kind, caring lady but I seriously wished she would find some backbone and tell her sister what’s what. Much to my delight she finally did, but darn was it hard to suffer through her poor treatment! Dragons also make almost any story better, so obviously I loved Fitz – animal companions are my weakness. I enjoyed the slower pace of the story and the relatively low stakes plot (you know, aside from someone trying to kidnap the dragon). This was a good comfort read and I’ll be keeping my eye out for future books from Quenby Olson!
Powder & Page 
Happy to see you loving this one.
Lynn 😀
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