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The Dragon Next Door
Tollar’s got a stolen dragon egg, and that’s the least of her problems.
Tollar is a hero for hire who just wants to deliver a stolen dragon egg to its kin and get on with her next adventure. But when the dragon hatches, imprints on her, and refuses to leave, Tollar enlists her pyromancer best friend and neighbour, Beenala, to help keep the dragon alive. Tollar’s chaotic life exacerbates Beenala’s overwhelming anxiety, and being stuck at home leaves Tollar feeling stifled and unwanted. To make matters worse, in order to hide an entire dragon from local and foreign hostile factions, Tollar must risk exposing the truth behind her unprecedented power as an aquamancer and face being chased out of the only home she’s ever known.
When Draminedes, perhaps the worst spy in the world, lets slip that the people Tollar stole the dragon egg from are much worse than she thought, Tollar and Beenala realize their home is in danger. Now Tollar needs to stop making herself the outsider and Beenala needs to find some courage so they can team up with this unlikely ally to save everything they love, including each other.
This sapphic ace romantasy is complete with mutual pining and odd-couple energy and is full of marginalized characters out living their best lives and having adventures while being nurturing and supportive in their relationships, including bonds between humans and dragons.
Tollar is a hero for hire who just wants to deliver a stolen dragon egg to its kin and get on with her next adventure. But when the dragon hatches, imprints on her, and refuses to leave, Tollar enlists her pyromancer best friend and neighbour, Beenala, to help keep the dragon alive. Tollar’s chaotic life exacerbates Beenala’s overwhelming anxiety, and being stuck at home leaves Tollar feeling stifled and unwanted. To make matters worse, in order to hide an entire dragon from local and foreign hostile factions, Tollar must risk exposing the truth behind her unprecedented power as an aquamancer and face being chased out of the only home she’s ever known.
When Draminedes, perhaps the worst spy in the world, lets slip that the people Tollar stole the dragon egg from are much worse than she thought, Tollar and Beenala realize their home is in danger. Now Tollar needs to stop making herself the outsider and Beenala needs to find some courage so they can team up with this unlikely ally to save everything they love, including each other.
This sapphic ace romantasy is complete with mutual pining and odd-couple energy and is full of marginalized characters out living their best lives and having adventures while being nurturing and supportive in their relationships, including bonds between humans and dragons.
410 pages, Paperback
Published June 3, 2025
About the author
Vanessa Ricci-Thode
13 books71 followersVanessa is a Nebula Award-winning word sorceress who loves a good story. She’s a Halloween enthusiast and a bookish geek who loves dragons, dogs, astronomy, and travel. If she’s not hibernating, she can be found in her butterfly garden, achieving her final form as a garden witch. To learn more, visit her website thodestool.ca or follow her on social media @VRicciThode
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
June 30, 2025
Review originally on JamReads
The Dragon Next Door is a sapphic ace romantasy novel, written by Vanessa Ricci-Thode. A kinda cozy proposal, featuring a queer normative world with two strong female main characters involved in a slow-burn romance, an adorable dragon that we will see growing and a really interesting magic system, especially if we take in account how the limitations work, crafting a really enjoyable read.
Tollar just wanted to deliver a stolen dragon egg to its kin, jumping onto the next adventure; as she was planning to safe keep it in her long abandoned home, asking help from her neighbour and long-time friend, Beenala, who reluctantly accepted to use her pyromancer powers for it, was a good option. But things become even more difficult when the dragon hatches and refuses to leave them, forcing them to take care of Bale (that's her name), trying to hide her, a really difficult task when you take all in account, adding an element to chaos to the Beenala's life, as they realize they will need to deal with the threat of raiders to keep their community safe.
Ricci-Thode delivers by having two really well-fleshed main characters as part of a romance trope that I've always found quite cute: two friends that always felt something but never knew how to express it. It helps that Bee and Tollar are practically on opposite sides in many aspects of their personalities: while Bee is anxious and tries to be non-confrontational, lacking confidence, we have a Tollar that is sure of her power, but also is clearly dealing with a situation that is much bigger than what she can do. The forced proximity of having to raise Bale acts as the catalyzer for really sweet and heart-warming scenes, suiting perfectly with half of the vibes of the book. Both are strong women, but each one in their own way.
While the rest of the cast doesn't have as much exposure as our duo, most of them have enough scenes to also gain a place in our heart, making us really care for their resistance against the raiders.
There are some interesting world-building choices that really shine on this book: how the concept of ecosystems are applied, the communities that exist alongside the world and a magic system that is limited by the nature, where drawing more power might have consequences for the environment; in general, while it is a character driven novel, we are given a great setting for the story.
The pacing is relatively slower for my taste, but it suits well with the cozy elements; and you can feel how the pacing picks as long as we advance in the book.
The Dragon Next Door is a really enjoyable novel, a perfect choice if you are looking for a sapphic romantasy with a really natural progression, and a cast of well-fleshed characters that will steal your heart. A brilliant novel by Vanessa Ricci-Thode.
The Dragon Next Door is a sapphic ace romantasy novel, written by Vanessa Ricci-Thode. A kinda cozy proposal, featuring a queer normative world with two strong female main characters involved in a slow-burn romance, an adorable dragon that we will see growing and a really interesting magic system, especially if we take in account how the limitations work, crafting a really enjoyable read.
Tollar just wanted to deliver a stolen dragon egg to its kin, jumping onto the next adventure; as she was planning to safe keep it in her long abandoned home, asking help from her neighbour and long-time friend, Beenala, who reluctantly accepted to use her pyromancer powers for it, was a good option. But things become even more difficult when the dragon hatches and refuses to leave them, forcing them to take care of Bale (that's her name), trying to hide her, a really difficult task when you take all in account, adding an element to chaos to the Beenala's life, as they realize they will need to deal with the threat of raiders to keep their community safe.
Ricci-Thode delivers by having two really well-fleshed main characters as part of a romance trope that I've always found quite cute: two friends that always felt something but never knew how to express it. It helps that Bee and Tollar are practically on opposite sides in many aspects of their personalities: while Bee is anxious and tries to be non-confrontational, lacking confidence, we have a Tollar that is sure of her power, but also is clearly dealing with a situation that is much bigger than what she can do. The forced proximity of having to raise Bale acts as the catalyzer for really sweet and heart-warming scenes, suiting perfectly with half of the vibes of the book. Both are strong women, but each one in their own way.
While the rest of the cast doesn't have as much exposure as our duo, most of them have enough scenes to also gain a place in our heart, making us really care for their resistance against the raiders.
There are some interesting world-building choices that really shine on this book: how the concept of ecosystems are applied, the communities that exist alongside the world and a magic system that is limited by the nature, where drawing more power might have consequences for the environment; in general, while it is a character driven novel, we are given a great setting for the story.
The pacing is relatively slower for my taste, but it suits well with the cozy elements; and you can feel how the pacing picks as long as we advance in the book.
The Dragon Next Door is a really enjoyable novel, a perfect choice if you are looking for a sapphic romantasy with a really natural progression, and a cast of well-fleshed characters that will steal your heart. A brilliant novel by Vanessa Ricci-Thode.
Did Not Finish
April 20, 2025DNF at 58%. I really, really tried to finish this book—this is one of the first times I’ve DNF’ed a book. This book is just not the book for me; and while I believe it also has some problems, I can also acknowledge that this book might work well for other readers. I will not be giving a star rating as I just don't have all of the information about the book.
The book follows Tollar. She is hired with a band of fighters to defend a town against raiders; however, when she gets there, she realizes that the problem is beyond what they can handle and that the raiders are capturing dragons and dragon eggs. She can’t save them all, but she can save one egg; which she takes to her long-abandoned home for safekeeping. There, her neighbor and longtime crush Beenala reluctantly helps her care for the egg and ensuring dragon, Bale, as they deal with the threat of raiders and the peril of the other captured dragons and their riders.
I absolutely acknowledge that I should have loved this book. The relationship between Bee and Toll is sweet; I love the trope of childhood friends who have always kind of been in love but never figured out how to say it. I love the forced proximity of raising a dragon together, with all of the challenges that ensue. The scenes of Beenala and Tollar connecting are legitimately nice scenes, and when I can feel the characterization of both the strongest. I do legitimately like this aspect, even though I struggled with the rest of the book.
Unfortunately, I struggled to enjoy the writing of the book. I found myself so focused on logical inconsistency, aspects or repeated ideas that annoyed me, or how interesting scenes kept getting sidelined that I couldn’t enjoy the good parts of the book. I realized at 58% of the book that my notes were just a list of grievances and that I still had a few hours of reading left, and decided that finishing this book just wasn’t in the cards. I don’t want my review to just be mean when I can acknowledge that I am probably not the right reader for the book.
Here is a short list of the issues I had, so other readers can decide if the book is for them. As a note, I am reading an ARC of the book, so some of these things might be fixed with future rounds of editing.
• Tollar and Beenala are supposedly in their 30s, but I fully felt as though they were maybe 16 or 17. I struggled to identify the maturity or lived history that would indicate that they were older.
• I found both Tollar and Beenala really difficult to connect to. Beenala is really passive and nonconfrontational without enough insight into her internal monologue to make me understand anything about her; she’s present for many scenes but rarely says or does anything. Tollar is perfect in every way: the most powerful magic, the most perfect opinions despite her tragic backstory, maybe the occasional impulsive outburst but rarely with any consequences. I struggled to connect with her because it feels like she has neither flaws nor limitations. I don’t feel like I’m seeing her grow, nor am I unveiling hidden complexity to her actions.
• The flow of logic and action often felt disconnected. I often have to re-read scenes just to understand what’s happening, making the reading experience of a decently long book feel rather slow and stilted. A lot of scenes that I feel would be interesting don’t happen on-page. I felt myself defaulting to picking apart scenes as I read rather than being immersed in the story.
• The enemies/big bad and the people who don’t like Tollar don’t feel like threats because all of their decisions are characterized as dumb. The big bad sends a spy who doesn’t even speak the local language with no instruction or skills. An enemy in the guard who hates Tollar never gives any particular reason, but instead just kind of shouts every time Tollar opens her mouth.
• The book appears to be written for an adult audience but has a lot of PG-13-isms. Tollar ‘curses’ a lot, but substitutes the word ‘frog’ for F-bombs. The characters talk about sex but only in the vaguest sense, calling it ‘coupling’ and speaking so indirectly that I had to re-read the scene to figure out what they were trying to say. The characters are in their mid-thirties; they’re allowed to curse. They’re allowed to discuss adult themes.
Ultimately, I just feel it’s best for me to put the book down. Like I said, I think I’m a bit of the wrong reader for this book. If you’re looking for a sweet, charming ace sapphic story with a decently cute baby dragon, you might really love this! I think that if I could turn my brain off and just sink into the story, I’d probably like it a lot more, but I just struggled to get to that state with this book. I do also acknowledge that, by DNFing, I’m not seeing some of these ideas to their completion, and thus some of the parts of the book I struggled with could be explained or explored in the rest of the book.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
The book follows Tollar. She is hired with a band of fighters to defend a town against raiders; however, when she gets there, she realizes that the problem is beyond what they can handle and that the raiders are capturing dragons and dragon eggs. She can’t save them all, but she can save one egg; which she takes to her long-abandoned home for safekeeping. There, her neighbor and longtime crush Beenala reluctantly helps her care for the egg and ensuring dragon, Bale, as they deal with the threat of raiders and the peril of the other captured dragons and their riders.
I absolutely acknowledge that I should have loved this book. The relationship between Bee and Toll is sweet; I love the trope of childhood friends who have always kind of been in love but never figured out how to say it. I love the forced proximity of raising a dragon together, with all of the challenges that ensue. The scenes of Beenala and Tollar connecting are legitimately nice scenes, and when I can feel the characterization of both the strongest. I do legitimately like this aspect, even though I struggled with the rest of the book.
Unfortunately, I struggled to enjoy the writing of the book. I found myself so focused on logical inconsistency, aspects or repeated ideas that annoyed me, or how interesting scenes kept getting sidelined that I couldn’t enjoy the good parts of the book. I realized at 58% of the book that my notes were just a list of grievances and that I still had a few hours of reading left, and decided that finishing this book just wasn’t in the cards. I don’t want my review to just be mean when I can acknowledge that I am probably not the right reader for the book.
Here is a short list of the issues I had, so other readers can decide if the book is for them. As a note, I am reading an ARC of the book, so some of these things might be fixed with future rounds of editing.
• Tollar and Beenala are supposedly in their 30s, but I fully felt as though they were maybe 16 or 17. I struggled to identify the maturity or lived history that would indicate that they were older.
• I found both Tollar and Beenala really difficult to connect to. Beenala is really passive and nonconfrontational without enough insight into her internal monologue to make me understand anything about her; she’s present for many scenes but rarely says or does anything. Tollar is perfect in every way: the most powerful magic, the most perfect opinions despite her tragic backstory, maybe the occasional impulsive outburst but rarely with any consequences. I struggled to connect with her because it feels like she has neither flaws nor limitations. I don’t feel like I’m seeing her grow, nor am I unveiling hidden complexity to her actions.
• The flow of logic and action often felt disconnected. I often have to re-read scenes just to understand what’s happening, making the reading experience of a decently long book feel rather slow and stilted. A lot of scenes that I feel would be interesting don’t happen on-page. I felt myself defaulting to picking apart scenes as I read rather than being immersed in the story.
• The enemies/big bad and the people who don’t like Tollar don’t feel like threats because all of their decisions are characterized as dumb. The big bad sends a spy who doesn’t even speak the local language with no instruction or skills. An enemy in the guard who hates Tollar never gives any particular reason, but instead just kind of shouts every time Tollar opens her mouth.
• The book appears to be written for an adult audience but has a lot of PG-13-isms. Tollar ‘curses’ a lot, but substitutes the word ‘frog’ for F-bombs. The characters talk about sex but only in the vaguest sense, calling it ‘coupling’ and speaking so indirectly that I had to re-read the scene to figure out what they were trying to say. The characters are in their mid-thirties; they’re allowed to curse. They’re allowed to discuss adult themes.
Ultimately, I just feel it’s best for me to put the book down. Like I said, I think I’m a bit of the wrong reader for this book. If you’re looking for a sweet, charming ace sapphic story with a decently cute baby dragon, you might really love this! I think that if I could turn my brain off and just sink into the story, I’d probably like it a lot more, but I just struggled to get to that state with this book. I do also acknowledge that, by DNFing, I’m not seeing some of these ideas to their completion, and thus some of the parts of the book I struggled with could be explained or explored in the rest of the book.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
June 21, 2025
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
The first 40% of this novel hooked me. I was getting sweet cozy fantasy vibes of a sapphic couple raising their dragon child together. If the rest of the novel had continued in this lower stakes way, I think perhaps I would have liked it more. I liked Beenala's character. I think she showed anxiety and neurodiversity pretty well. Bale was adorable and I liked her relationship with her human moms.
When the central conflict was introduced, my interest dropped at a rapid pace for many reasons.
1. This read way more like a YA novel than an adult novel. The insistence of using "frog" instead of "f*ck" and the way that Bee and Tollar's inner monologues were written was very juvenile.
2. Tollar is insufferable because she is so strong. Her power is a huge Deus ex machina that saves the day way too much and she knows it. Her character was so stagnant and did not grow, partially because she's never been knocked down enough pegs.
3. Tollar and Beenala had such awful communication, which is oddly described as a "nurturing and supportive relationship." Even by the end, Tollar and Bee had not had a clear conversation about how their relationship was going to work. Tollar frequently brushes Bee's wants and needs to the side and ignores her anxiety just because Tollar herself doesn't have the same stressors as Bee. It felt wildly unhealthy tbh.
4. The writing became more and more clunky. I had to reread sentences and scenes to determine what was happening. "Passed" was used in place of "past" so. many. times. More editing was needed!
5. There was little to no explanation of why the big bad was doing what they were doing. They seemed to be evil just because it was convenient.
6. The last 80% had a confusing timeline with the battles, with the first happening with little buildup and ending as suddenly, with not enough clarity as to what was happening during the battle and what the battle strategies were. Then there was a preparing interlude, then another battle, after we were told there was a retreat? It was quite confusing.
7. That battle lasted up until the 98% mark, leaving too little time to wrap up the story and bring our heroes to a satisfying conclusion. It felt like there was a vague setup for a sequel, nevertheless, there should have been some more wrap up.
8. The flashbacks were repetitive (in that they rehashed things that we were already told about in enough detail) and entirely unnecessary. They felt more like interupptions than anything else.
9. Bale was precious at the beginning, and then she disappeared for more dragon training and and was gone for a majority of the tale until the last 15% or so. That absence really hurt her characterization!
Anyway, I will not be continuing the series if there are more. It was hard to finish this one in all honesty, which was sad because the beginning was so promising!
The first 40% of this novel hooked me. I was getting sweet cozy fantasy vibes of a sapphic couple raising their dragon child together. If the rest of the novel had continued in this lower stakes way, I think perhaps I would have liked it more. I liked Beenala's character. I think she showed anxiety and neurodiversity pretty well. Bale was adorable and I liked her relationship with her human moms.
When the central conflict was introduced, my interest dropped at a rapid pace for many reasons.
1. This read way more like a YA novel than an adult novel. The insistence of using "frog" instead of "f*ck" and the way that Bee and Tollar's inner monologues were written was very juvenile.
2. Tollar is insufferable because she is so strong. Her power is a huge Deus ex machina that saves the day way too much and she knows it. Her character was so stagnant and did not grow, partially because she's never been knocked down enough pegs.
3. Tollar and Beenala had such awful communication, which is oddly described as a "nurturing and supportive relationship." Even by the end, Tollar and Bee had not had a clear conversation about how their relationship was going to work. Tollar frequently brushes Bee's wants and needs to the side and ignores her anxiety just because Tollar herself doesn't have the same stressors as Bee. It felt wildly unhealthy tbh.
4. The writing became more and more clunky. I had to reread sentences and scenes to determine what was happening. "Passed" was used in place of "past" so. many. times. More editing was needed!
5. There was little to no explanation of why the big bad was doing what they were doing. They seemed to be evil just because it was convenient.
6. The last 80% had a confusing timeline with the battles, with the first happening with little buildup and ending as suddenly, with not enough clarity as to what was happening during the battle and what the battle strategies were. Then there was a preparing interlude, then another battle, after we were told there was a retreat? It was quite confusing.
7. That battle lasted up until the 98% mark, leaving too little time to wrap up the story and bring our heroes to a satisfying conclusion. It felt like there was a vague setup for a sequel, nevertheless, there should have been some more wrap up.
8. The flashbacks were repetitive (in that they rehashed things that we were already told about in enough detail) and entirely unnecessary. They felt more like interupptions than anything else.
9. Bale was precious at the beginning, and then she disappeared for more dragon training and and was gone for a majority of the tale until the last 15% or so. That absence really hurt her characterization!
Anyway, I will not be continuing the series if there are more. It was hard to finish this one in all honesty, which was sad because the beginning was so promising!
Read
July 4, 2025DNF’d at 11%. I wanted to like this (dragons!) but the writing just isn’t working for me.
August 29, 2025
Sapphic fantasy with dragons, what more can a person want?
The Dragon Next Door is a story of two very different women and the dragon. Toll is a powerful water mage spending her life travelling and helping people, but from time to time she goes back to her hometown, mostly to meet with her best friend Beenela. Beenela is her polar opposite, never left her farm, has trouble with changes in routine and is not ready for trouble that Toll will bring this time. Because she brings a dragon egg that quickly hatches into a dragoness Bale. From that moment the women have to learn how to take care of the dragon. That part of the book is very cosy fantasy style, but there's also a whole action plot that you have to be aware of. Because Toll took Bale's egg from a nearby port that has been taken by evil forces, the second half of the book deals with preparing the city for the invansion and there's a battle at the end. For me these parts of the book were not balanced enough. You can feel from a beginning that there will be some action but the way it switched was quite sudden. There were also parts that felt too long. Some parts of story were skipped while others (for me less important) stretched for far too long.
But overall I really enjoyed this story, the action scenes were great and the invansion made everything more interesting.
There's a romance plot between Toll and Bee but she's Bee is portrayed as asexual there's no spice. Only some very cute moments with them (and their dragon daughter).
If you're looking for a fun fantasy that deals some serious subjects (Toll has a lot of issues) then I can recommend The Dragon Next Door.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a digital copy of this book.
The Dragon Next Door is a story of two very different women and the dragon. Toll is a powerful water mage spending her life travelling and helping people, but from time to time she goes back to her hometown, mostly to meet with her best friend Beenela. Beenela is her polar opposite, never left her farm, has trouble with changes in routine and is not ready for trouble that Toll will bring this time. Because she brings a dragon egg that quickly hatches into a dragoness Bale. From that moment the women have to learn how to take care of the dragon. That part of the book is very cosy fantasy style, but there's also a whole action plot that you have to be aware of. Because Toll took Bale's egg from a nearby port that has been taken by evil forces, the second half of the book deals with preparing the city for the invansion and there's a battle at the end. For me these parts of the book were not balanced enough. You can feel from a beginning that there will be some action but the way it switched was quite sudden. There were also parts that felt too long. Some parts of story were skipped while others (for me less important) stretched for far too long.
But overall I really enjoyed this story, the action scenes were great and the invansion made everything more interesting.
There's a romance plot between Toll and Bee but she's Bee is portrayed as asexual there's no spice. Only some very cute moments with them (and their dragon daughter).
If you're looking for a fun fantasy that deals some serious subjects (Toll has a lot of issues) then I can recommend The Dragon Next Door.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a digital copy of this book.
June 13, 2025
A cute, cozy entry-level fantasy.
The Dragon Next Door is a queer-friendly cozy romantasy. The magic system is easy to comprehend, the characters are well-rounded, and the world-building is quite detailed. This book has adventure, friends to lovers, and an all-around warm hug type of vibe.
It did take me quite a while to take down this book. It's very wordy, almost to the point of being overwritten. While the author did a great job showing instead of telling, there is truth in the saying "less is more." My brain wandered off a bit during some of the repetitive descriptions of the settings and characters. The pacing is slow, and I found myself using it as a palette cleanser between my other books to keep from DNF-ing.
Overall it's a fun book for a cozy reader. I will be keeping an eye on this author.
Thank you to Net Gallery and Victory Editing for the ARC. All opinions are my own.
The Dragon Next Door is a queer-friendly cozy romantasy. The magic system is easy to comprehend, the characters are well-rounded, and the world-building is quite detailed. This book has adventure, friends to lovers, and an all-around warm hug type of vibe.
It did take me quite a while to take down this book. It's very wordy, almost to the point of being overwritten. While the author did a great job showing instead of telling, there is truth in the saying "less is more." My brain wandered off a bit during some of the repetitive descriptions of the settings and characters. The pacing is slow, and I found myself using it as a palette cleanser between my other books to keep from DNF-ing.
Overall it's a fun book for a cozy reader. I will be keeping an eye on this author.
Thank you to Net Gallery and Victory Editing for the ARC. All opinions are my own.
April 27, 2025
Just finished The Dragon Next Door By Vanessa Ricci-Thode and I love it.
No spoilers, but if you’re into cozy fantasy, two strong, females who have the best relationship and a great magic system with an epic adventure, then this is a book for you.
Found family
Soft slow-burn romance
Elemental magic
Epic adventure
A Dragon!
Characters who just make you feel warm and fuzzy!
Bale was my favourite character of them all and I love her chapters.
Honestly, it’s a great book! Definitely recommended for fans of heart warming fantasy with dragons!
My only criticism: I'm not a fan of the character names or the world names but that's just me 😁
Thank you to Vanessa Ricci-Thode, Netgally and Victoria Editing for the ARC xx
No spoilers, but if you’re into cozy fantasy, two strong, females who have the best relationship and a great magic system with an epic adventure, then this is a book for you.
Found family
Soft slow-burn romance
Elemental magic
Epic adventure
A Dragon!
Characters who just make you feel warm and fuzzy!
Bale was my favourite character of them all and I love her chapters.
Honestly, it’s a great book! Definitely recommended for fans of heart warming fantasy with dragons!
My only criticism: I'm not a fan of the character names or the world names but that's just me 😁
Thank you to Vanessa Ricci-Thode, Netgally and Victoria Editing for the ARC xx
June 26, 2025
The Dragon Next Door gets five stars just for the inclusion of my favourite guys, Dram and Croves. But if spies who kind of suck at their jobs and slutty murder himbos aren’t your thing, we also get childhood friends yearning for each other, the water equivalent of the fireborn women, and a baby dragon! This is undoubtedly the coolest book in the series, and as a stand-alone can be read without having read the other books in the Fireborn series—but fans of the Nebula Award winning Young Necromancer’s Guide to Ghosts will delight at the familiar faces.
May 16, 2025
Star Rating: 3.5 / 5 (rounded up for Goodreads). A copy of the book was provided to Sapphic Book Club in exchange for an honest review.
This book was a delight to read, a cozy queer escape I didn't know I needed at the time. Vanessa Ricci-Thode has crafted a standalone fantasy that, while connected to her other work in the same world, doesn't require knowledge of any other book to function. (Case in point: this is the first book of hers I've read, and I could follow everything pretty well).
A content warning is included before the novel proper.
The third-person prose feels "good enough," beyond an occasional awkward construction that sticks out here and there. (It must be said that I read an ARC, so I imagine additional editorial passes caught a lot of the standout issues). The narration closely adheres tightly to both characters' perspectives. Almost to a fault. Nothing passes through these words that didn't pass through Ricci-Thode's character's minds first, which results in a steady pace that never feels boring -- it's a cozy, relaxed read. The occasional blot of exposition surfaces right where it is needed -- whether its a point on how magic functions, how dragons are viewed by the locals, or the politics of this world.
The characters occasionally think out loud; in general, their thoughts move at the same pace as the reader, rather than a few lines ahead, with very little concealed. Clarity is gained from this approach, though sometimes it does feel like the prose is taking the "long way around". Still, with the limited, restrained density of exposition, this allows the reader to put together the setting and Ricci-Thode's character histories piece by piece, which is reasonably satisfying as the novel draws ownward.
And it is the plot and characters that shine as the novel develops, both aspects entwined together wonderfully, inextricably. Tollar is a warrior running away from her limited life on the farm -- and is forced back to the farm in order to care for the titular dragon (who is, of course, adorable). Beenala, on the other hand, would like nothing less than to be left to her farming, and doesn't appreciate being drawn into the dangerous life of a mercenary, much less the terrifying world of dragons. The pining between them, of course, burns with a vengeance. With the addition of the hilariously--though adorably--naive Draminedes, queer perspectives abound.
The world itself is also carefully crafted. While the magic might at first seem a basic implementation of Avatar: The Last Airbender's elemental system, nuances in its application help make it feel fully realized. Characters need to get creative with the use of their magic. The world also functions like an ecosystem, which I appreciated. Something has driven the Dragons on from the country where Tollar and Beenala live, and the ecosystem shifts in response to that, the balance between local predators and prey upended. And the setting is culturally reminiscent of a colonial Brazil, complete with dreadful colonizers intent on profiting off of the land's natural resources -- at the expense of everyone else, dragons included.
In sum, The Dragon Next Door is a well drawn, cozy fantasy that should appeal to any fans of slow-burn, pining ace sapphic romance set against a backdrop of an expertly-composed fantasy setting. If that's you, grab a copy now!
This book was a delight to read, a cozy queer escape I didn't know I needed at the time. Vanessa Ricci-Thode has crafted a standalone fantasy that, while connected to her other work in the same world, doesn't require knowledge of any other book to function. (Case in point: this is the first book of hers I've read, and I could follow everything pretty well).
A content warning is included before the novel proper.
The third-person prose feels "good enough," beyond an occasional awkward construction that sticks out here and there. (It must be said that I read an ARC, so I imagine additional editorial passes caught a lot of the standout issues). The narration closely adheres tightly to both characters' perspectives. Almost to a fault. Nothing passes through these words that didn't pass through Ricci-Thode's character's minds first, which results in a steady pace that never feels boring -- it's a cozy, relaxed read. The occasional blot of exposition surfaces right where it is needed -- whether its a point on how magic functions, how dragons are viewed by the locals, or the politics of this world.
The characters occasionally think out loud; in general, their thoughts move at the same pace as the reader, rather than a few lines ahead, with very little concealed. Clarity is gained from this approach, though sometimes it does feel like the prose is taking the "long way around". Still, with the limited, restrained density of exposition, this allows the reader to put together the setting and Ricci-Thode's character histories piece by piece, which is reasonably satisfying as the novel draws ownward.
And it is the plot and characters that shine as the novel develops, both aspects entwined together wonderfully, inextricably. Tollar is a warrior running away from her limited life on the farm -- and is forced back to the farm in order to care for the titular dragon (who is, of course, adorable). Beenala, on the other hand, would like nothing less than to be left to her farming, and doesn't appreciate being drawn into the dangerous life of a mercenary, much less the terrifying world of dragons. The pining between them, of course, burns with a vengeance. With the addition of the hilariously--though adorably--naive Draminedes, queer perspectives abound.
The world itself is also carefully crafted. While the magic might at first seem a basic implementation of Avatar: The Last Airbender's elemental system, nuances in its application help make it feel fully realized. Characters need to get creative with the use of their magic. The world also functions like an ecosystem, which I appreciated. Something has driven the Dragons on from the country where Tollar and Beenala live, and the ecosystem shifts in response to that, the balance between local predators and prey upended. And the setting is culturally reminiscent of a colonial Brazil, complete with dreadful colonizers intent on profiting off of the land's natural resources -- at the expense of everyone else, dragons included.
In sum, The Dragon Next Door is a well drawn, cozy fantasy that should appeal to any fans of slow-burn, pining ace sapphic romance set against a backdrop of an expertly-composed fantasy setting. If that's you, grab a copy now!
April 3, 2025
Thank you to the author and NetGalley for kindly giving me an ARC.
This was a really exciting fantasy about dragons, with an adorable f/f romance, and lots of political intrigue.
I absolutely loved the premise of this novel and it exceeded all my expectations! Bee and Tollar were really fascinating characters in their own right, and I loved how we learned more about their past and backstory as the novel progressed. I think the 'before' chapters were some of my favourites from the whole book. I also loved the chapter from Bale's POV. Bale is such an adorable character and it was so cool to see things from her perspective and how she perceives the dynamics between characters.
The world-building was great, I loved the emphasis on the different professions/life-styles of the characters, and how they worked together.
Overall, a really good queer fantasy! With dragons!
This was a really exciting fantasy about dragons, with an adorable f/f romance, and lots of political intrigue.
I absolutely loved the premise of this novel and it exceeded all my expectations! Bee and Tollar were really fascinating characters in their own right, and I loved how we learned more about their past and backstory as the novel progressed. I think the 'before' chapters were some of my favourites from the whole book. I also loved the chapter from Bale's POV. Bale is such an adorable character and it was so cool to see things from her perspective and how she perceives the dynamics between characters.
The world-building was great, I loved the emphasis on the different professions/life-styles of the characters, and how they worked together.
Overall, a really good queer fantasy! With dragons!
May 1, 2025
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started this book! It was well written and heartwarming with some very enjoyable characters.
Thinking of the characters in this cozy sapphic slow-burn… I had a hard time imagining them being more than teenagers, which felt really odd to me. That, I realize, might be the reason I did not 100% love this book. It’s was a 3.5 ⭐️ for me.
But if you’re looking for a plot-driven, cozy, queer, fantasy, with an adorable found family and dragons! This will suit you well.
Thinking of the characters in this cozy sapphic slow-burn… I had a hard time imagining them being more than teenagers, which felt really odd to me. That, I realize, might be the reason I did not 100% love this book. It’s was a 3.5 ⭐️ for me.
But if you’re looking for a plot-driven, cozy, queer, fantasy, with an adorable found family and dragons! This will suit you well.
December 31, 2025
A refreshingly unique setting, a colourful cast of three-dimensional characters, and a plot that keeps you hooked til the end. On top of it all, it’s so refreshing to have such well-written asexual representation. I bought it for the ace romance, but I stayed for the plot!
It’s hard to pick a favourite character, but I think Balipar has my whole heart and soul. I love them all, but an enby that gets to talk to dragons?! Hell yeah!
It’s a perfect standalone, but I enjoyed it so much I think I had better get the other books now, too!
It’s hard to pick a favourite character, but I think Balipar has my whole heart and soul. I love them all, but an enby that gets to talk to dragons?! Hell yeah!
It’s a perfect standalone, but I enjoyed it so much I think I had better get the other books now, too!
June 1, 2026
Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this book. I struggled through it with the names; so I ended up not recognising the names of characters/places and would omit them whilst reading - it didn't take away anything from the book itself!
Overall its a wonderfully magical fantasy, with f/f romance, and world building that sucks you right into the story alongside the characters. I'm excited to see what the next adventure would be..
Overall its a wonderfully magical fantasy, with f/f romance, and world building that sucks you right into the story alongside the characters. I'm excited to see what the next adventure would be..
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 4, 2025
Thanks to NetGalley for a ARC Copy
The story follows the young and curious main character, who lives in a quiet suburb until they stumble upon an extraordinary secret—there's a dragon living right next door. The discovery sparks a journey of friendship, personal growth, and uncovering hidden wonders, as the protagonist learns that there is much more to the world than meets the eye.
The story follows the young and curious main character, who lives in a quiet suburb until they stumble upon an extraordinary secret—there's a dragon living right next door. The discovery sparks a journey of friendship, personal growth, and uncovering hidden wonders, as the protagonist learns that there is much more to the world than meets the eye.
May 11, 2025
Very fun and easy read. Loved the world and the worldbuilding. I could relate to Beenela a lott. Wanting to help but also accepting what your limits are.
Also I need a Bale
Also I need a Bale
September 17, 2025
Really enjoyed this and looking forward to more!
December 5, 2025
Cute! I liked the world, magic system and characters but the pacing was all over the place and made the reading drag.
April 25, 2025
If you are looking for a cozy fantasy with the perfect queer representation this is it 🥹 I love found family and a slow burn romance but this and a dragon just such a cute story. I really enjoyed it
July 31, 2025
It's an interesting concept, that's for sure. An aquamancer and a pyromancer, one who always wants to travel, while the other prefers to stay in one place, and a dragon egg that Tollar rescues, that then hatches. Being dragon mothers is just the tip of the iceberg, and things quickly get more involved. But at the same time, there is the exploration of the relationship between Tollar and Beenala, both of them ace, and in a society where relationships are often quite open. Neither is without scars, especially Tollar, and for either to get somewhere, there is a measure of healing and understanding that is needed.
It took a bit to get invested in the story, but I definitely enjoyed my time with it. The first half is slower than the second, the story picking up pace as the extent of the threat to their livelihood becomes apparent, and they're forced to take action. The relationship is slow-burn, and while they reach a stable point by the end, I think that there is still work for them to do. The ace representation is done well, and there is plenty of other lgbtq+ rep as well, which I appreciate.
It took a bit to get invested in the story, but I definitely enjoyed my time with it. The first half is slower than the second, the story picking up pace as the extent of the threat to their livelihood becomes apparent, and they're forced to take action. The relationship is slow-burn, and while they reach a stable point by the end, I think that there is still work for them to do. The ace representation is done well, and there is plenty of other lgbtq+ rep as well, which I appreciate.
January 7, 2026
yep this is me still being cringe and extra, out here reviewing my own books. but if i've got to read it a bazillion times before it goes to print, it can count toward my goodreads challenge. also, this is the best book i've written (so far) and i love it so much and hope you'll love it too.
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