ARC Review: The Side Quest Row #3

A Draught for a Dragon by R.K. Ashwick

Publication Date: October 20, 2025

Summary from Goodreads:

Goodnight, sleep tight—don’t let the dragons bite.

After Ambrose Beake’s kidnapping two years ago, he’s determined to return to normal life. A simple routine of running his potion shop, training his apprentice, daydreaming about his boyfriend Eli’s pending proposal…

(Eli tries to hide it. Ambrose knows he bought the ring months ago.)

But when an angry dragon trapped beneath the city demands help through Ambrose’s dreams, he realizes his adventure isn’t yet finished.

He quickly concocts a plan to shrink the dragon with a potion and smuggle it to safety before the city discovers its presence. To retrieve the needed ingredients, however, he must take a cue from his customers…and go on a quest himself.

While Ambrose, Eli, and friends fumble through heroics abroad, his apprentice Nat takes control of the shop. Before long, she struggles to keep the dragon problem—and her feelings for another apprentice—under wraps. Magical merchants both near and far must pull themselves together…before the city goes on its own quest to slay the dragon.

ARC provided by R.K. Ashwick for an honest review.

Confession:

This third and final installment in the Side Quest Row books was just as fun and delightful as the first two. I just adore Eli and Ambrose, and Nat was a great addition to the cast of characters. The story was a lot of fun to read with lots of action, potion making and adventures.

Eli and Ambrose are such fun characters and I just love their relationship. They are so sweet with each other and very attuned to each other. Both are ready to take their relationship to the next level, marriage, but they are just such sweet and bumbling fools when it comes to actually proposing to each other.

Nat’s point of view was a nice addition to this story. I really enjoyed her and the other apprentices and how they worked together. Things didn’t always turn out well though, but they tried to help. Nat and Luka were very sweet together and I really enjoyed their romance.

Fio, the dragon, really stole the show in this book. I just adored him. He was funny in an drole kind of way, and I loved how he eventually was able to trust Ambrose. For such a fearsome looking creature, he really was just such a sweet and adorable dragon.

The story was a lot of fun. I loved all of the adventures they had in the Driftwood and the many creatures they encountered were quite original and interesting. There were also some fun humans there too. Everyone from Rosemond Street went on the adventure and helped in their own ways. It was nice to see the whole gang supporting each other and help with Fio’s release.

If you enjoyed the first two books in this series, then this is a must read. You could read this one without having read the other two but I wouldn’t recommend it. It is a great cozy fantasy, set in a very interesting world and has a great cast of characters. The romances are a lot of fun as well.