I'll be the first to admit, I bought this book because of its gorgeous cover and title. But my breaking the golden rule of reading paid off, as this was a delightful book. 
 You encounter many different dragons as a reader: there are the Smaugs and the St. George's dragons; terrible and awesome embodiments of evil. These are my favorites. Then there are the Saphiras, the friendly, "pet" dragons that you can ride. These are my least favorite (Toothless being the exception, obviously). Then there is the third, very under-utilized route, which is dragons as wild animals. This is the route Marie Brennan took with this series, and it's oddly refreshing. Too often authors of dragons use them as a crutch, but the star of A Natural History of Dragons isn't even the dragons, it's the smart and snarky Victorian heroine, Lady Trent, who is pleasantly opinionated, imperfect, and aloof towards "sensational and sentimental novels." The dragons sometimes simply fell into the background, but the story never suffered for it. When they did appear, the dragons defied enough modern cliches that they were fun to read, but classic enough that you don't feel Marie Brennan was trying to re-invent the wheel.