Damsels and Dinosaurs

by Wren Jones

The Fletcher family honey business teeters on the brink of bankruptcy as shipments from their eccentric matriarch's farm grow scarce. But Poppy refuses to let her family become destitute and she will do anything to get to the bottom of the mystery. However, on her aunt’s strange island, Poppy finds more questions than answers. The bees defy expectations, the farm is full of ancient creatures, and her aunt’s secrets run deeper than she originally suspected.

Meanwhile, her imminent arranged marriage to the heir of a prominent tea company, Giuseppe, jeopardizes her investigation. Their meddling families are relentless in making the marriage a swift reality – even if that means sending Giuseppe and Poppy’s grumpy ex, Athena, to retrieve her.

Athena knows the reunion will be awkward, and getting the stubborn Poppy to do anything will be difficult, but she can’t resist the promise of the island. If she can win over Poppy’s mysterious aunt, she might finally get the opportunity to pursue her dreams.

Giuseppe just wants to draw, drink tea, and avoid all the drama. But he supposes he must go along too. It is his future wife, after all.

On an island where the scandals are bigger than the dinosaurs, a group of Regency aristocrats search for their second chances and rewrite history as we know it.

Genres: Fantasy, Lesbian, Romance, Cozy, Queer, Historical Fiction, LGBT

312 pages, Paperback

First published June 13, 2025

About the author

Wren Jones lives in the Sonoran Desert with her family and two cats. Like most writers, she has been a storyteller for a long time. After her daughter was born, true crime felt a little too true, and darker fiction felt a little too dark. She started reading cozy mysteries, and after a while, she realized a little dose of fantasy and bi-rep was what she was missing. She figured what better time to research, write, and launch a novel that she’d been procrastinating on than while working full-time and raising a tiny human, so here we are.

Reviews

[Georgie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Man I love queer women and dinosaurs and a good cosy fantasy.

But it’s a very generous 3⭐️— there were lots of little subplots that didn’t really go anywhere to benefit the story and the actual purpose of the dinosaurs is still completely unknown? (They’re dinosaurs, wow enough, maybe? I just thought they would have a purpose in farming? Using Trikes for ground plowing or Ankys for smashing logs or boulders, for example?)

The author’s favourite technique is also using “Whether it was -option 1- or -option 2- Poppy/Athena was unsure” which gave off the impression that both Athena and Poppy were just completely clueless damsels or the author didn’t really know her characters enough to make a decision.

And the amount of typos in this book was a little distracting. The odd mistake in a book feels like a hidden Easter egg but there were multiple occasions when the pronoun used was he/him instead of she/her that I actually thought I was missing something or that Poppy or Athena were genderfluid and I don’t think they’re meant to be…?

The concept was cute and cosy but it just felt like there was too much trying to go on that it ended up feeling like something was missing.

[Piper James · Rating 5 out of 5]

A joyous romp

This book delivered on absolutely everything the cover and blurb promised. Adorable dinosaurs, a honey empire at risk, and poor Aunt Rose who just wants to be left alone.

Athena and Poppy were adorable and I would love to see Seppi and Willa happy too

[Alexandra Vlaming · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jurassic Park, but make it cozy 💁🏼‍♀️

Damsels & Dinosaurs is so much fun!! Set in the regency period (or close to it), we follow Poppy as she travels to her family’s jungle covered island, seeking to solve a mystery and have a little adventure. There she is followed by her former flame, Athena, and her betrothed, and hijinks ensue. This was so fun to read, it has a sweet love story, self discovery, humor, massive bees, and DINOSAURS.

[Stephanie Hackl · Rating 1 out of 5]

Please. Go back and edit this story again, I beg you. The amount of grammatical errors that I encountered reached such a level that I started highlighting them halfway through my read; the list has over 20 entries now that I’ve finished.
Aside from the poor writing - I feel like this is still just an idea with promise, not a completed story. The pirates just… gave up and left? As did the grandfather? Those choices seem even more unbelievable than the dinosaurs. The characters lacked development, the plot lacked detail, and I just wanted it to be over, truthfully.

[Hayley · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an interesting premise, though it felt a little wishy washy with the world building. It was also too long imo, I did find my eyes glazing over towards the last third.

Poppy and Athena were fine characters, tho I did sometimes find them too similar at times.

The dinosaurs were super cute though.

[Kortni · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐️

[SaucceyySarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well if you ever wanted a cozy Jurassic Park with adventurous stem women, well here it is

Themes:
• mysterious Island
• Cozy and adventurous
• Women in STEM
• sapphic
• cute ass dinos and giant bees 🐝 🦕

It was super cute, very cozy adventurous read. I especially liked the characters how they could be so silly with each other but also just worked together so well, I guess I would describe the group as like the mystery team (from scooby doo lol, Reggie as scooby???? Hahaha ). I honestly also wish I lived in this world with some cozy Dino’s to snuggle up too. But anyways the story was really calming, goofy, and it had an excellent mystery

[Lindsay · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hard to review a book when you don’t know what the plot was bc maybe there wasn’t one? I was super excited to read it so extra disappointing that every time I picked it up I was left with “wth is going on?!”

[Timothy Grubbs · Rating 4 out of 5]

A regency era historical fantasy…with dinosaurs…

Damsels and Dinosaurs by Wren Jones is an unusual mashup genre novel.

It’s decent but could have had more dinosaurs…

Poppy is a young aspiring writer who finds herself distracted by the failing family business (bee farms naturally). Paying a visit to a remote island to get to the bottom of why all the farms are failing, she seeks out a distant aunt and cousin that are still successfully easing bees and cultivating honey…

What she finds is far grander and could be more lucrative…

With friends, fiancées, would be in laws, pirates, and others, Poppy learns about the local “dinsoaurs” being raised on the island…and starts to think of ways to monetize it…

It was cute and a fun little concept…though I would have liked to see it go a little farther in its execution…

[Marta Gutiérrez · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think it aims to be a cozy science fantasy (I say fantasy instead of fiction because it seems more like magic than actual sci-fi, don't expect any space traveling), but it falls short on cozy, the romance often feels out of context and dull, and the cute dinosaurs are just a very small anecdote that don't really fill your expectations when reading the summary.

I expected this cute world with tiny dinosaurs, but the only thing that is described enough to actually make you think it's that cute is a bee (Simon).

I got excited when the romance started peeking too but it felt forced and out of context, with no moments that actually lead to it.

[Lucía A · Rating 1 out of 5]

Me da pena en verdad ponerle una nota tan baja, porque tenía potencial, pero ha sido muy aburrido...

[Krista Tocker · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

I found the story to be a bit dry for the majority of the book, with nothing grasping my attention. That alone would have allowed for a 3 star, but the amount of typos in this book was baffling, and unfortunately I found them to be a distraction with each one that I noticed.

I do like a happy ending though. And Reggie was a cutie!

[Michael Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seldom can a simple concept pitch hit me to my core in a way the 5-words of “Cozy Bridgerton Meets Jurassic Park” did … and to be clear we’ve not even watched a full season of Bridgerton and I fully believe that similar to Jaws there is a single Jurassic Park worth watching. But that juxtaposition just worked for me - especially written by Wren Jones who has reliably hit that cozy sweet spot for me better than just about any other author recently.

At the center of the story are ‘Damsels’ Poppy and Athena - two smart and ambitious women living in a society structured and determined to repress their intelligence and dreams. Oh - and they are former lovers as well!

The story takes them from Regency London to a fictional island off the coast of Spain with a tropical environment, where the ‘Dinosaurs’ part of the story kicks in. And trust me - while there are stakes involved, it is mostly cute, cozy and adorable.

Wren Jones has a knack for bringing secondary characters to life in a way that has you seeing potential plot lines for them around every corner. This happens again here as every location we visit is filled with living and interesting characters.

Damsels and Dinosaurs doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, but it does leave plenty of possible threads to pull on in later books if she chooses to revisit this world - and I really hope she will!

[Starry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was so excited to finally get this book, and I had so much fun with it. I think tbh the concept of “Jurassic park but cozy” is THE idea ever of all time. This was the year of the dinosaur for me, and this was a great one to finish up on. First of all, I had a very lovely interaction with the author on Instagram, she is delightful and a very talented lady. Second, there were so many things I loved! I don’t normally give a super thorough review, but I figured it might be helpful since the author is new and this book has a smaller audience. First of all, I love the setting. The imagery for the setting felt so vibrant, and I felt like I was really there. The mini dinosaurs were so whimsical, and I love how many species were present. I also did love that it was gay, perfect no notes. I wanted it to be a five, but I had enough critiques that it was a four, but still wonderful. My first bit of feedback is there were a lot of spelling errors, and enough misspellings of “she” to “he” that at times I got confused. I also think Athena and Poppy were very similar characters at times, and there didn’t always feel like there were notable differences between the two of them. The only difference really was that one liked science and the other liked journalism. I also wish there was more development of their relationship, and a bit more depth. But, these are all things that came secondary to the fact that I did love this book and I cannot WAIT to see what else this author comes out with, I am so excited to see what she can do. I would absolutely recommend this book to other dinosaur and cozy fantasy enjoyers :))

[Cat5 · Rating 3 out of 5]

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Damsels and Dinosaurs by Wren Jones
Damsels and Dinosaurs
by Wren Jones (Goodreads Author)
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This book is so hard to get into. The book feels like a sequel... like it starts the middle of the story and you are supposed to already know the characters and care about them. Not much happens until the last 50 or so pages, the rest is basically random quests the MCs go on, the purpose of which soon gets dropped or forgotten. For example, they are sent to get mysterious algae growing on the back of a dinosaur. Successful, they give the sample to the aunt. You'd think this would be a launching point for a sub-plot about the dinosaurs, but the algae is not talked about again.

The main mystery/quest, which is the reason they are on this island, is about the family bees producing less honey. It is also often forgotten throughout the book, and then a character thinks about the bee conundrum or talks about honey to remind us of the original purpose for travel and the main mystery of the story. The characters really don't do anything about this major quest until the very last chapter, and then solves it almost immediately. The real mystery is why this solution wasn't needed already, considering the number of full size herbivore dinosaurs on the island.

It's a quick, somewhat entertaining read. The main storylines are neatly resolved at the end, but it would be nice to have the back stories of all the characters: how Poppy and Athena met and fell in love (with a side of Seppi), as well as mysterious Aunt Rose and her equally mysterious daughter Willa.

The book is kind of open-ended, so there is a possibility for sequels. Maybe these back stories will be told then.

[Sydney Wilder · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jurassic Park meets Bridgerton in this adorable sapphic cozy fantasy! The premise alone has me rushing to get this book, and it did not disappoint. I felt so immersed in this beautiful island full of magically resurrected dinosaurs that I wanted to visit, and the scorned-exes-to-lovers between Poppy and Athena was adorable. I also really loved Seppi. I’m glad the fake-engagement MMC wasn’t just a throwaway unlikable character.

Definitely has the same vibes as the Emily Wilde and Lady Trent series. It’s a quick read too!

[Katie Gordert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jurassic Bridgerton is the best way to explain this book. The images this book produces had me giggling. This was a cute cozy adventure book with female characters as leads in a timeframe when that was “eccentric”. I adored this book and it was a great little read that doesn’t really fit with my usual reading but I mean the cover had a dinosaur with a large pink hat how could you not want to read it.

[Drianne · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is... not good. It is a premise in search of a book. So like, by all means, if you too are like HOORAY REGENCY JURASSIC PARK go ahead and read it, but know that the entire time, it's basically just that. The characters have no substance, there is no plot as such, the romance is boring (even for a lesbian book), and nothing in it is explained or makes sense.

But there are indeed DINOSAURS on an ISLAND in the REGENCY.

[Rebecca Bourne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Your next cozy read is here! For fans of Legends and Lattes or A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking, this book is a must! Two girls have to find out why the bees aren't producing as much honey. When they get to the island, they find that the grumpy old lady that lives there has dinosaurs. It may sound threatening, but she uses the triceratops' horns to hold her yarn while she knits. I cannot recommend this enough and have not read anything like it.

[Robin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I‘ve read self published books that never had an official proofreader ever hear of them with less grammatical errors. Much less to mention the ability to misgender one of the two main characters multiple times! How does that happen? Honestly if someone told me this was written by AI I‘d believe them in a heartbeat.
The book had an interesting idea but it was a mess with half thought out ideas and no grammar checks.

[Cat5 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is so hard to get into. The book feels like a sequel... like it starts the middle of the story and you are supposed to already know the characters and care about them. Not much happens until the last 50 or so pages, the rest is basically random quests the MCs go on, the purpose of which soon gets dropped or forgotten. For example, they are sent to get mysterious algae growing on the back of a dinosaur. Successful, they give the sample to the aunt. You'd think this would be a launching point for a sub-plot about the dinosaurs, but the algae is not talked about again.

The main mystery/quest, which is the reason they are on this island, is about the family bees producing less honey. It is also often forgotten throughout the book, and then a character thinks about the bee conundrum or talks about honey to remind us of the original purpose for travel and the main mystery of the story. The characters really don't do anything about this major quest until the very last chapter, and then solves it almost immediately. The real mystery is why this solution wasn't needed already, considering the number of full size herbivore dinosaurs on the island.

It's a quick, somewhat entertaining read. The main storylines are neatly resolved at the end, but it would be nice to have the back stories of all the characters: how Poppy and Athena met and fell in love (with a side of Seppi), as well as mysterious Aunt Rose and her equally mysterious daughter Willa.

The book is kind of open-ended, so there is a possibility for sequels. Maybe these back stories will be told then.

[Fiona Alderman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute and lighthearted story, loveable characters and a very fun premise. I really enjoyed reading this book and it sounds like there might be a sequel at some point.

There were a few grammatical errors throughout the book, Athena’s pronouns changed to he on more than one occasion, but nothing than detracts from the overall enjoyment of this book

[Darby Stubblefield · Rating 3 out of 5]

THIS SLOW BURN ROMANCE IS GENTLE AND HEARTWARMING, AND THE COZY TONE MAKES IT AN EASY RELAXING READ. WHILE THE DINOSAUR ELEMENT IS FUN IT IS NOT THOROUGHLY EXPLORED, ITS MORE OF A BACKGROUND FLAVOR THAN AN ACTIVE PART OF THE WORLD. IT KIND OF LEAVES YOU WANTING TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THE DINOSAURS AND LESS ABOUT THE ROMANCE. WHAT’S THE POINT IF YOU ARE NOT GOING TO GIVE ALL OF THE DETAILS. I ALSO WANTED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE BEE’S. I FEEL LIKE THERE WAS ALOT MORE TO BE DISCOVERED. AND AS A SIDE NOTE I DIDN’T READ WHAT THIS BOOK WAS ABOUT BEFORE I PURCHASED IT, THE ROMANCE FEATURED IN THIS BOOK IS FEMALE TO FEMALE ORIENTED.

[Jess Reads Too Much · Rating 1 out of 5]

Fantastic idea, poor execution. Unfortunately, this could have used a lot more editing and development. The two main characters felt much too similar in voice, and I think the plot and setting had a lot of wonderful potential that we never explored.
I think that if this book had gone through several more drafts, it could have been something very special.

[Drew Osburn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very fun story, like Jane Austen meets Jurassic Park. I loved the characters and the concept but this book needed another pass from both a developmental editor and a proofreader to let it reach its full potential

[Danielle S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun, cute, sweet little story. I enjoyed the regency period and the romance. Though, it really could have benefited from another round of edits. There were quite a few errors that took me out of the story. 🍋

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had to DNF this one. Too many typos and the plot wasn’t going anywhere. I made it to page 153 out of 281, so much further than I usually get before DNF. I’ll chalk that up to really wanting to like the book. Even though I didn’t.

[E.K. K. O'Connor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed this, it was slow but interesting. Spelling mistakes and repeatedly misgenderd a character (as opposed to them being gender fluid). If it wasn't for the random wrong words, incorrect phrases and misgendering, it would have been a 4*

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the cozy vibes mixed with fun adventuring! It really IS Jurassic Park meets Bridgerton and I absolutely neeeeed a Reggie of my own 🥹🥹

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jurassic Park but put a romance spin on it. Who needs the new Jurassic Park movie when you have this? (No but seriously I loved this and I went in with high expectations!)