Books, Iced Coffee & a Side of Dragons - Amanda Lovelace - ★★.½

AUTHOR: Amanda Lovelace

ILLUSTRATOR: Raquel Travé

GENRE: Graphic Novel

PUBLICATION DATE: August 25, 2026

RATING: 2.5 stars.

In a Nutshell: The debut graphic novel offering by the prolific poet. A sugary-sweet Sapphic romance with Pride rep and some important themes. Stays true to the title by containing books, coffee, and a more than healthy side of adorable dragons. Episodic in structure, which makes it lack depth. Includes darker themes but they are just brushed upon. Might work better for younger readers. Was a bit too superficial for my taste, though.

Plot Preview:

In the scenic Sea Witch Cove, Luci runs Little Lighthouse Books, an indie bookstore, with her assistant August and her pet dragon for company. Next door to the bookstore is a coffee shop run by Aster, who also has a pet dragon. Luci has a secret crush on Aster, and this summer, those one-sided feelings are about to turn into a sweet relationship, cheered on by August and the dragons.

The combination of author, that cozy cover, and the tempting title made it difficult for me to resist this book. I have read a few poetry collections by this author-poet. She’s probably among the handful of poets whose work I read, not because I enjoy poetry but because I love the messages in her verses. This graphic novel wasn’t a great match for me in terms of plot execution, but it delivered all the right cutesy vibes.

Bookish Yays:

🏳‍🌈 The author’s introductory note, which has the same intimate tone and concern as in her poem collections. There’s also a curated playlist that is quite impressive.

🏳‍🌈 The dragons. My favourite part of the book. All of them are adorable!

🏳‍🌈 The location of Sea Witch Cove, which the author describes as “New Jersey with dragons”. There’s a lovely map too at the start of the book.

🏳‍🌈 Many cute moments and funny scenes.

🏳‍🌈 The art – quite outstanding. The colours, the characters, the expressions, the setting, the background… everything works wonderfully as per the tone of the book. Aster’s appearance left me with mixed feelings, but there are trans women who look absolutely like cis women, so it’s not really a valid criticism.

Bookish Okays:

🌈 The characters. Though the plot is limited to just 5-6 speaking characters, each of them is good for this story, including the one who seems a grump. At the same time, I wish they had a more layered portrayal. None of the characters had any depth.

🌈 The inclusivity. The LGBTQIA+ rep is good, but I wish it had not been so checklist in approach (one trans, one bi, one ace,…) There is also fat rep and PCOS (PMOS) rep, but both of these are somewhat surface-level with no deep discussions.

🌈 While I appreciate all the themes included in the book, I feel it didn’t do proper justice to the serious themes such as PCOS (PMOS) or transphobia. In striving to be cozy, the darker themes are just touched upon before moving to the next happy scene. Perhaps this caters to the promise of sweetness, but my heart longed for more. Similarly, the trans rep was too subtle for my liking, though I still appreciate its inclusion. Aster’s struggles were way more severe but none were presented openly in the plot. The book should have done far better in this regard.

🌈 The pop culture references. While the names dropped were good ones, I found them distracting me away from the main storyline.

Bookish Nays:

☕ The minimal plot. The love story is instant, so there’s no build-up to the relationship as such. The portrayal feels somewhat superficial as there are no conflicts at all. A good romance is always improved with some tension. This was a major negative for me.

☕ Another big negative: The episodic nature of the story, with the pages showing us vignettes of key scenes than a continuous plot arc. I have seen such single-page scenes used only in children’s graphic novels. Adult narratives ought to have a more structured and nuanced storyline. But this plot was too ad hoc for my reading preference. Further, many of the scenes had nothing to contribute to the main storyline but were added for gay [pun intended] moments, which soon feels repetitive.

☕ The sugary sweetness. Might work for others, but it was an overload of mush for me.

☕ F-bombs. Very out of place in an otherwise wholesome read.

Overall, this book is strong on vibes but weak on plot. The blurb of this graphic novel promises that it is “sugary sweet” and “the perfect time capsule of sapphic summertime sweetness.” I can read saccharine stuff if I am forewarned about it, but this turned out to have even more diabetes-inducing levels of sweetness than I was prepared for. The dragons and the illustrations were two factors that worked in my favour. But the rest of the book had an opportunity to make a greater, more meaningful impact, and it missed.

Recommended to upper-YA romance readers looking for an overly cutesy Sapphic romance and playful dragons in graphic novel format and don’t mind the absence of a well-developed plot.

2.5 stars, rounding up wherever applicable because the sweetness was in accordance with what was promised in the blurb.

My thanks to Andrews McMeel Publishing for providing the DRC of “Books, Iced Coffee & a Side of Dragons” via Edelweiss+. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.