One week. One magical flower farm. One last chance for romance…
Jiya Din needs a break. Being a middle school teacher is her dream, but the reality is exhausting. So when her best friend offers her tulip farm (and twin baby dragons) for a week, Jiya jumps at the opportunity.
Until she finds out she won’t be alone at the Baby Dragon Tulip Farm: Farhan Hayward will be there too. The same Farhan Hayward who is her brother’s best friend, and also Jiya’s childhood crush.
Looking after his colleague’s flower farm and baby dragons is far from Farhan’s dream holiday, but when he finds out his best friend’s little sister will be there, he’s persuaded. It’s been years since they’ve seen each other, but on this flower farm, will love finally blossom between them?
Aamna Qureshi is a Pakistani, Muslim American who adores words. She is an award-winning and USA Today, Amazon, and Times bestselling author who grew up on Long Island, New York, in a very loud household, surrounded by English (for school), Urdu (for conversation), and Punjabi (for emotion). Much of her childhood was spent being grounded for reading past her bed-time, writing stories in the backs of her notebooks, and being scolded by teachers for passing chapters under the tables. Through her writing, she wishes to inspire a love for the beautiful country and rich culture that informed much of her identity.
When she's not writing, she loves to travel to new places where she can explore different cultures or to Pakistan where she can revitalize her roots. She also loves baking complicated desserts, drinking fancy teas and coffees, watching sappy rom-coms, and going for walks about the estate (her backyard). She currently lives in New York. Look for her on IG @aamna_qureshi and Twitter @aamnaqureshi_ and at her website aamnaqureshi.com.
Sweet and cosy but unfortunately somewhat forgettable.
While this series exists of interconnected standalone books, I do not think this novella can be read without having read at least the first book. For a cosy fantasy with almost no plot, there was a surprising amount of character-related information dumping that distracted me somewhat from the story. And, for a book with barely any plot and only having 94 (small) pages, there were quite a few twists and turns.
Plus, a severe lack of tulips for a story set on a tulip farm written for Dutch-reading readers…!
Only one bed but add baby dragons did make me laugh.
Still, a nice palate cleanser and hooray for another book read this year.
A very small 3.5 stars rounded up for vibes.
This book was a gift-with-purchase during the ‘week of the English book’ in The Netherlands and Belgium and was exclusively written for this event.
Blijkbaar is de Engelse boekenweek geschenk een ding? In vergelijking met het Nederlandse boekenweekgeschenk van dit jaar prefereer ik die wel boven dit boek. Dit is in feite gewoon een liefdesverhaaltje tussen twee mensen. Het enige “fantasy” aan deze “cozy fantasy” was dat de huisdieren baby draken waren die alleen maar sliepen en voor de rest niks toevoegde aan het verhaal. Overigens deden de baby draken me ook alleen maar denken aan honden. Af en toe nog wel een glimlach gehad waardoor ik dit boekje nog wel oké vond. Maar goed waar klagen we ook over het is een gratis boek!
Cute and cosy but truly a novella in the sense that it almost reads like a reality tv series. Its a tiny book with many dramatic feelings. A romance and cozy fantasy squeezed in 94 pages.
I liked this one better than the first book in the series lol, there was clearly more editing done to it
At the end it did feel really rushed, though, so the pacing could've used some more work, and the 'conflict' that had been building up the whole time was just... Resolved like it was never there :|
Which, I mean, it was quite a weak conflict to begin with, but the confrontation and resolution were so... Dull.
No screaming matches, just a few strong words, an explanation, and pretty much an 'oh okay, I guess it's fine then' 🤣
This was entertaining at first but then EVERY interaction became “I want to say something” OH NO WE GET INTERRUPTED. I swear to god every single interaction they were interrupted. And why were we making moves on page 10 guys. We have a 100 pages to figure this out. This was not a good book at all, it was entertaining enough but I wouldn’t spend my money on it. I got this for free when I bought something at the bookstore.
Ik zou willen dat ik het een hogere rating kon geven maar het was het gewoon echt niet 😭. Het voelde echt alsof het verhaal gepropt was in de 94 pagina’s, wat ik bij andere novella’s niet heb. De schrijfstijl was ook erg overdreven cringe voor mijn idee, en waar ik me aan irriteerde was kleine details zoals de pizza waar de helft mét vlees voor hem en zonder vlees voor haar. Waarom? 🥲
“Week van het Engelse boek” gratis special. Niet mijn genre noch interesse, mezelf de uitdaging gegeven het toch eens door te nemen. Snel uitgelezen, niks interessants aan, je kan de woorden draak/draken weglaten en het verhaal blijft hetzelfde, toch wens ik de auteur veel geluk toe. Er is betere fictie. Ok, dag.