Review: Miss Percy's Pocket Guide (to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons) by Quenby Olson

Back to reviews! I haven't done one of these in forever...

I can't actually remember where I saw this book and decided to add it to my TBR, but I'm very glad I did. It was an excellent airplane read, very enjoyable, and even better than I expected! It's Regency-ish-era-with-Dragons, but it's more reminiscent of Heyer than Austen (although there are some Austen-y bits) ...essentially Georgette Heyer with dragons. If that's not enough recommendation for you...well, I'm not sure what you're doing here. (Just kidding. I am 100% joking. Please stay.)

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.

Worldbuilding/Writing Style
As I said, it's essentially a Regency-era world, which seems pretty normal until out of the blue, the MC is gifted with a dragon egg, which then has the audacity to hatch. The world is built subtly but matter-of-factly enough that the reader gets a sense of the Regency world without actually having to think too hard about what era they're reading about. Less in-your-face this-is-Regency-era than Georgette, a little more so than Jane Austen. A good balance. And I absolutely love the way the dragon is written. It's unique from many dragons that I've seen in fiction, and while initially that startled me a little bit, I ended up liking it.

And the writing style! Good gracious, the writing style. Each chapter starts with a snippet from an actual book that exists in the fictional world called "Miss Percy's Pocket Guide" &c, and it almost always fits the chapter perfectly. And the narrator often pops out of the story to comment on the writing or the characters' actions or whatever in a very snarky ironic/sarcastic way, and I absolutely love it. I know that breaking the fourth wall isn't everyone's cup of tea (it's not always mine, either) but it works so well here! 

Plot
Honestly, this entire plot could pretty much be summed up as "the MCs are in a Jane Austen novel and the SCs are from a Georgette Heyer novel", adding a dragon to that, of course. It was most enjoyable and unpredictable, and the parts that were especially Heyer-y amused me greatly. (I never feel like I know what to say about plots I like. The author plotted well? There were no obvious holes? She told a good story? Nothing seriously weird happened with the plotline? Save the Cat works? Help me out here, guys.)

Characters
I absolutely loved the MC, Mildred. She's a little bit like Anne Elliot in that she's a rather Shy and Retiring Person who has been cowed by her (younger) sister into a variety of things that she wouldn't have chosen on her own, i.e. living in said younger sister's house and taking care of her children. This has been a temporary arrangement for seventeen years, and poor Mildred doesn't know exactly how that happened, or how to get her lost time back. Through the book, her slow growth was one of the real highlights for me...the author did an incredible job of making the growth so slow that one barely notices it until one wakes up and thinks "wait, that's completely different from what she'd've done before." Perfection. Also, her use of coffee as means to an end was one of the most relatable things I've ever read about a character in fiction in my entire life.

Also, the village vicar, Mr. Wiggan, is the sweetest of well-meaning, hard-working, absent-minded Anglican clergymen. I loved him. And his housekeeper was also the absolute best.

The children who Mildred is looking after, Nottie & Matthew, are not the worst children in the world...they are honestly kind of sweet, when they're away from home and their mother-who-is-the-worst.

One of the most impressive characters, in my opinion, was actually the villain, because he was incredibly sympathetic and good at making even the reader see his side of the issue, even though he was completely wrong. Part of this might be because the end he is aiming for is solidly decent, even though the ends by which he wishes to obtain that end are dubious at best. 'Twas well written. 

And of course, no overview of the characters would be complete without the dragon, whose name is fantastic and which I will allow you to discover on your own, the cat-like reptilian creature who loves bacon. I liked him very much.

Romance
There's a bit of a romance subplot, and it's built oh-so-slowly and sweetly in the best possible way. There's also another mostly unimportant romance side plot that is very Heyer-esque. XD

Content
One barely implied LGBT relationship, one part that could be read as slightly off-color (i.e. off-color situational comedy), a kiss. I don't think there was any swearing, but I wasn't specifically looking for it. Overall, very clean.

Overall Rating
I give this one four stars! 

Do you like narrators who break the fourth wall? How do you describe a plot you love? Do you prefer romance as a subplot, romance as a main plot, or no romance at all?