First: There are still 5 days to enter the giveaway for Conjure Island!

I have been eagerly awaiting the next book of Stephanie Burgis’s Regency Dragons series, so of course I accepted when she asked if I wanted a copy of the e-ARC, I accepted, even though I’d already preordered it. If you love romantic stories of dragons being rescued, eccentric families, and headstrong heroines, then you just might be interested as well!

Claws & Contrivances.
Regency Dragons Book 2
by Stephanie Burgis

Published July 10, 2023.

ISBN 979-8399369549

Review e-ARC kindly received from the author.

When their parents died in a tragic carriage accident after losing all their money, Rose Tregarth and her two sisters (one older, one younger) were all split up and sent to different relatives. In Scales and Sensibility, we saw how her older sister Elinor was sent to live with wealthy but cold cousins who treated her more like a servant. Rose has wound up on the other end of the spectrum – all the way in Wales with a large, loving family who insists on calling her their niece rather than a distant relative. The only problem is that their house, Gogodd Abbey, is falling down around them. Her aunt and uncle – an author and dragon scholar, respectively, don’t have enough to repair the house and support their own three children, let alone provide a dowry or even new clothes for Rose.

Rose, though, is less worried about the clothes than about keeping things together. She was never considered the practical one at home, but she seems to be the most practical one here, and what she lacks in funds, she makes up for in determination. So when she finds a stray dragon in the pantry, she’s instantly set on returning it to its owner before her uncle can be accused of theft, ruining his reputation in the community. Only there’s an embarrassing incident with a carriage and the ditch and a good-looking young man she’s sure she’ll never see again – until he turns up at her uncle’s place as the dragon expert Cornelius Aubrey whose visit they’ve been expecting. Soon Rose finds herself drawn closer to the scholar by a web of lies she feels forced to spin in order to protect the tiny dragons who seem to be coming to her for safety. And since he’s as entranced by the dragons as she is, without realizing it, Rose has found one of the few things that will pull Mr. Aubrey’s attention away from his books.

This is of course a charming and heartwarming romance. The characters and ruined abbey could have felt pulled from the rack, yet they’re brought to life and used here to delightful effect. The villain might be a bit one-sided, but the orphaned niece he’s using to fund his nefarious endeavors had an Indian mother, demonstrating a precarious social position that’s even more fraught than Rose’s. Meanwhile, Rose’s cousin Georgie is allowed to be her beautiful Regency-era butch self, while the family’s penchant for dramatic readings at social gatherings is hilarious in itself, while bringing in more eccentric characters and the power of community. The dragons here are much like Anne McCaffrey’s fire lizards, each portrayed with a distinct personality and effect on the happenings of the book. And back to Mr. Aubrey – I do love a hero who doesn’t need to be an alpha or rescue the heroine, but who is able to point out that while she’s busy saving everyone else, she does need to watch out for her own needs as well.

Though I rarely reread books anymore, I often find myself returning to Burgis’s books, and I already want to reread this after the first book, to make sure I pick up anything I forgot from my first read.