Review – Miss Percy’s Pocket Guide to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons (Miss Percy Guide, Book 1) by Quenby Olson (3/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Length: 405 pages
Publisher:‎ World Tree Publishing
Release Date: May 12, 2022
ASIN: B0B14PTLJ4
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Miss Percy Guide
Source: Borrowed ebook from Kindle Unlimited
Rating: 3/5 stars

“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.”

Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the Miss Percy Guide. I borrowed this on ebook through Kindle Unlimited.

Thoughts: This was an okay read; it is a cute premise and I enjoyed some of the characters, but the story moves very slowly and the writing is a bit too flowery and over the top for me. My biggest struggle was the writing style; it just didn’t flow well, and I really struggled to read this book at points.

After taking care of her ailing father, Miss Mildred Percy is a mid-40’s spinster living off of the charity of her sister and their family. She is basically a live-in maid/nanny for them and has very little to call her own. Then she receives a letter that she has inherited something from her great uncle. When it shows up, it is not money but a strange collection of things including an amazingly beautiful rock…which is not a rock but a dragon egg. Mildred enlists the help of the nearby vicar to hide these artifacts, which leads to her and the vicar growing fond of each other. However, when the egg hatches, chaos ensues, and Mildred finds herself on an unexpected adventure.

I like the idea behind this story and enjoyed the cozy vibes that it is trying to pull off. However, a lot of this missed the mark for me. I honestly just did not like Mildred all that much; she was too timid and too passive for me. Yes, that does change some over the course of the story, but progress is slow. The “bad guys” were also stereotypical bad guys, almost comically so. There are some nice side characters, for example I loved the vicar’s housekeeper. I was also disappointed that the dragon wasn’t given more personality. Fitz, the dragon, was vaguely cat-like but I would have love to see a big personality for him.

The story moves incredibly slow and you really feel that. There is a lot of hemming and hawing by Mildred on what to do at times, and I found that frustrating. My biggest frustration was the writing style; it was just hard for me to read. The writing is over the top flowery (trying to mimic Jane Austen but funnier?) with long asides put in parenthesis at the end of sentences. I really had to work and focus to read this and ended up re-reading parts numerous times because it didn’t flow well. I think I was hoping that this was going to be more like Brennan’s “The Memoirs of Lady Trent” and this just wasn’t as humorous, complex, or adventurous as that.

My Summary (3/5): Overall I like the premise of this book but wasn’t a huge fan of the plot, pacing, characters, or writing style. I did finish it, and Mildred did start to grow on me towards the end of the book, but it was too little too late. I do appreciate the cozy vibes this is trying to give as well. I just found the writing style too flowery, there wasn’t enough plot, the story moved slowly, and the characters just weren’t that intriguing. I don’t plan on continuing the series.