A review of A Dragon Rider’s Guide to Retirement by Julia Huni – recently published

A fun romanstasy with a nice twist…

I just finished reading A Dragon Rider’s Guide to Retirement by Julia Huni, and really enjoyed it.  Recently there has been a bit of a trend towards middle-aged heroines (and heros) in romance/romanstasy – a welcome trend IMO.  But usually the protagonists are discovering their powers in their 40s and 50s, while in Guide, both main characters are having trouble with theirs:  Calantha Stormbringer due to well….hmmmm….menopause, and William Ordell due to injury, the death of his war dragon, and a lousy king.

So it’s a lot of fun to watch as they try to “retire”, but instead end up launching a sea dragon fire brigade for their adopted island home of Safe Haven.  And a story hour for the local kids. And reading lessons for some of the adults.   Their growing attraction is definitely complicated by the fact that Cala had been the High War Witch for the country of Borgonne and William had been the Master of the Dragon Guild for Borgonne’s mortal enemies, the kingdom of Verduun.   But it is helped along by a supporting cast of humans, giants, trolls, dwarves, orcs, elves, and even Safe Haven’s magical mayor.  And of course, let’s not forget the sea dragons.     As you might guess, I read this far too late into the night last night.

Guide is the first in the Dragons of Safe Haven series by Julia Huni, who, per the blurb at the end of the book, mostly writes science fiction, but also writes romantic comedies under the name of Lia Huni.  So it seems fair that both “Julia” and “Lia” get author credit, since Guide is a delightful combination of both.  Sadly, the next book in the series is still almost a year away, due out in August, 2026.   But, both Julia and Lia have a number of other already-published books, and now I’m going to go try some of those.

For once, I don’t have an author or publisher to thank for a review copy, since I just noticed Guide on Kindle Unlimited, and borrowed it on a whim.    And I’m very glad I did!

Buy or borrow at   Kindle US  |  Kindle UK