Quenby OlsonCritiques

This book was charming and the writing style was humorous, but it was a little slow moving for my preference.

Miss Mildred Percy is a spinster aunt who has spent years living with her married sister and caring for her sister’s children. She inherits a trunk full of an odd collection of books and rocks and papers. The local vicar offers to help her sort through some of it, and so it is at the vicarage that one of the stones hatches and a most curious creature emerges…

This is written in a style prone to lengthy parenthetical digressions mid-sentence, and Your Mileage May Vary as to whether this is humorous or tedious. I found it amusing, for the most part, and only occasionally exhausting. I plan on reading the sequel at some point.

Seventeen years she’d lived beneath this roof, and yet she still felt as if she were a guest, a transient creature shunted up into the smallest available room, cursed to continually reside in some betwixt and between realm where she was neither family nor servant. Like a fairy world from a book of children’s tales. Only without the fairies. Or the magic.

½

Miss Percy’s Travel Guide to Welsh Moors and Feral Dragons -Q.Olson
Audible performance by Zara Ramm
3 stars

Dragons, plural.

More eggs crack and the adventure continues. I began to wonder if Miss Percy and Co. would ever get a lucky break. They do occasionally, but it doesn’t last. However, onward and upward. There are new characters both good and evil. There’s just a touch of magical intervention, a lot of humor, and a deepening acknowledgement of the romance between Miss Percy and the Vicar.

It’s all good fun and there’s more to come. There will be another book.

Miss Percy’s Pocket Guide to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons - Q.Olson
Audio performance by Zara Ramm
4 stars

Sylvia Townsend Warner wrote about the plight of the genteel spinster sister in her 1926 Lolly Willows. Aunt Lolly spent years as the unpaid nanny and governess to her nieces and nephews. In late middle age she was fed up and moved to a country estate where she became a witch. Lolly’s a bit frightening and although the story made a feminist statement, it was depressing. What Lolly really needed was a dragon.

Miss Percy also has the bleak spinster existence. She’s spent 17 years as an unpaid governess in her younger sister’s home. She is severely downtrodden and does little to defend herself. Fortunately, her life takes an upward, adventurous turn when she receives an odd inheritance from an eccentric uncle. A dragon egg that quickly becomes a baby dragon. She is also fortunate in her new friends, the Vicar Mr. Wiggans and his housekeeper.(So much better than Lolly’s pact with the devil.) Her life will never be the same. It will be so much better.

This was a fun book. I loved that it was read by Zara Ramm who has always done such a great job with Jodi Taylor’s St. Mary’s series. She had exactly the right tone for this book. It was exactly the light entertainment the I needed between more serious books.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the adventures of Miss Percy and Fitz. It was perfect reading for winding down before bedtime. I liked watching Miss Percy evolve from a withdrawn woman into a fiesty adventurer. Mr. Wiggan and Mrs. Babbinton were the perfect companions and I very much look forwarding to reading the next chapter of their adventures.

One of my favorite recent trends in speculative fiction is the popularization of so-called "cozy fantasy". These are fantasy stories that have low(er) stakes, often quaint settings, and overall just make you feel warm and fuzzy inside. Publishing sensation Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree is currently the poster-child for this sub-genre (and was one of my favorite reads of 2022!).

If you are interested in cozy fantasy, you absolutely cannot miss reading Miss Percy. This follows a 40-something year old spinster in Victorian England in Mildred who doesn't have a bad life but doesn't have a very exciting life either. She lives with her opinionated and stuck-up sister and brother-in-law and their three children. She spends her days essentially as a live-in nanny and caretaker but doesn't have a life of her own. That is until she receives an inheritance from a great uncle who has recently passed away. Initially Mildren thinks these are just a collection of old books and trinkets, until one of the "rocks" she hatches into a baby dragon. From here, the book deals with the very real (and often funny question) - what do you do if a dragon is immediately thrust upon you?

I have heard it said that there are two types of cozy fantasy - hearth fantasy and backpack fantasy. This definitely falls under the "hearth" variety because the Mildred doesn't travel, nor does she go on epic quests. Instead this is a smaller scale story of a single community and the internal politics of a family. (Although the end of this book does imply that book two will have a bit more "backpacking" travel and adventuring!).

Olson's characterization of Mildred particularly shines throughout the book. In fantasy it is uncommon to have a middle aged protagonist driving the narrative. As fantasy readers, we are often given young protagonists, starry eyed and ready for adventure. Mildred is different. While she is not an unhappy woman, she is initially realistic about the world and her station in it (as a woman, as a spinster, as a sister, and as an aunt). At her age, she doesn't get the adventure nor the epic love story. That is the for the young and fiction novels. My favorite aspect of this book was watching as Mildred shed her attitude that her life was "finished", and instead started taking a stand for herself and pushing her individuality and independence (particularly with her heinous sister).

Mildred isn't the only standout character in the novel. Mildred's love interest, is the town vicar and scientific hobbyist. I cannot tell you how refreshing it was to have a love interest who isn't described as particularly handsome, or hot, or charming. Instead, he is an everyday, caring man. This is not a romance novel per se, but I really enjoyed watching the slow burn unravel. I also smiled with delight every time the vicar's housemaid, Mrs. Babbinton, appeared on the page. She is another older protagonist we often don't get to see in fantasy novels very often. She was funny but not the butt of the joke as older characters (and particularly older female characters) often are. I cannot overemphasize how wonderful this cast of characters is. You will root for Mildred and seethe at the villains (particularly Mr. Hawthorne, who feels like the dragon egg is his inheritance by right and will do anything to get the egg back).

Miss Percy is also hilarious for those of you who appreciate witty, Austen-esque British humor. Olson has such a unique and powerful authorial voice throughout the novel. The narrator of the story is pretty much a character themself. There are many self-aware and self-referential asides that had me laughing out loud while reading my Kindle on the bus.

My only one complaint (and it isn't a big one!) is that there wasn't quite enough actual dragon in the book for me. Dragons are by far one of my favorite fantasy tropes/creatures, and I was excited for this book because I thought there would be more interactions between our main characters and the baby dragon himself. However, the baby dragon here is more of a prop-piece that spends a lot of time "out of frame" so-to-speak. While reading the book I did grow a bit frustrated by this, although over time I stopped caring because Mildred was such a fascinating protagonist. However, if you are looking for a dragon-heavy book, or a book in which the dragon is a main character, this is not the book for you.

Concluding Thoughts: Quenby Olson has a real winner on her hands here! I cannot wait to dive into the second novel (which has already been published). Highly recommended for all of you cozy fantasy fans out there.

I really liked the premise of this novel, and enjoyed roughly the first half quite a bit. But I found the overblown antagonists so unpleasant that I ended up skimming almost any chapter in which they appeared. At some point I realized that I simply wanted the story to achieve the inevitable happy ending so it would be over. And "happy" is itself relative, as the ending left the antagonists at large, the central question (what exactly will they do with the growing dragon) completely unanswered, and Miss Percy's future plans somewhat nebulous.

This is a fun cozy fantasy novel which fits one of my current favorite moods: "Regency fantasy romance with dragon." It's fun and lighthearted and has an older protagonist (which is rare enough that I have to call it out). If the villain(s) are a bit overblown, well. That also fits this sub-genre, doesn't it? It was a very enjoyable read, and I'm curious to see where the series goes from here.

The perfect gentle read to get me through a stressful week. This is a Regency historical fantasy (although the fantasy elements are minimal) about a 40 year old spinster, Miss Mildred Percy, who has spent her life caring first for her father and then her sister's children (with accommodation in her sister's house grudgingly provided in return) until one day an obscure uncle dies and leaves her an inheritance which turns out to be a dragon egg.

There's a little bit of adventure, a little bit of romance but mainly a slow realisation on Miss Percy's part that maybe there could be more to her life than putting up with her sister's criticisms. This was really well done and while this has a satisfactory ending there's a sequel being written with hopefully more adventures for Miss Percy and her dragon.

Miss Percy's Pocket Guide to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons

Series: A Miss Percy's Guide

By, Quenby Olson

Format Read: E-Book

How I Obtained: ARC Review Copy from Author through Voracious Readers Program

Links to book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55040182-miss-percy-s-pocket-guide-to-the-ca...

https://www.amazon.com/Percys-Pocket-Feeding-British-Dragons-ebook/dp/B097GF4Z1H

Book Summary:
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.

--------------

A Fantastical tale that I feel goes right in there with Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. However, this is from a muggles perspective.
Miss Percy is a spinster that lives under the thumb of her younger sister . She also gave up her dreams in lieu of taking care of her sister and her sisters family by allowing her sister to marry and live her own life while also taking care of her nieces and nephew. She happens to gain quite an odd inheritance in the form of a dragon egg. What starts out as a quest for knowledge about the things that were left to her in an inheritance, quickly turns into a Fantastical Adventure breathing new life into an old spinsters life.
I like how wonderful the character development of Miss Percy is as it felt really natural and was gradual enough that you could grow into her frame of mind easily and get to know her without everything just dropping on you at one time.
The entire world that this takes place in also feels incredibly well put together and it's still developing. I also thoroughly enjoyed how the author would put in little tidbits almost as if they were speaking to you directly about what's going on or just sometimes little comments about "I'm only going to comment about this one time." I found them to be quite fun.
This book is filled with content that is suitable for pretty much all ages but right around young adult seems to be the target audience.

In My Opinion, This is a very great start to the beginning of even more Adventures of Miss Percy and her guides and I cannot wait to see how it all develops. I also hope in the future there will be of course more dragons and maybe even some other creatures discovered.

I give this 4 Dragon Eggs out of 5.

Until next time,

-Teo

It's a sweet read.

You can all me biased (until you pick it up and experience it for yourself) but all I can think to describe Knotted is brain candy! It styles a modern and quirky Pride and Prejudice with a Mr. Darcy-esque love interest and a look into the extremes of social class with a new flavor of self-discovery and growing up thrown in.

Knotted is one of those books that you only dislike because of the fact that you can't put it down and get the eight hours of sleep you were hoping for until you finish this chapter...and one more after that.

I'll definitely be getting this one autographed by the talented author and recommending it to others.