Reviews

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

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qzlkh's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

rosesinmarch's review against another edition

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5.0

Definitely a book to recommend. It has the feeling of small world and everyone is connected. I found it hard to picture the characters at the beginning because of the names being similar to me at first. But the story is filled with heartbrake and hope and a sense of completion. I quite liked the structure this book gave to time travel, I felt like it made sense and it think the author did a good job of making it work with the storylines of the characters because I think it easily could of just not worked. The ending was so bittersweet to me but I liked how despite the fantastical element of this book it had a lot of realistic elements.

Make sure to let people know that this is a very sad book and to make sure it's not too close to home because I think a lot of the storylines can be fairly relatable.

Spoiler

Spoiler: I think the husband who has forgotten about his wife but keeps coming to the cafe to try to get the seat to give his wife the letter even though he struggles to read and write and his wife just settling to just be his nurse until she goes back and reads the letter and see him again and he tells her to never stop being his wife. I think I found this story to be the most beautiful but the most heartwrenching.

reem_in_books's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

xvaleriiia's review against another edition

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hopeful lighthearted relaxing slow-paced

3.0

fidoe's review against another edition

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3.0

Week 4 Book 5
Before the coffee gets cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
Rating: 3/5

Usually magic realism is not my thing, but I enjoyed this book. It revolves around a cafe in Japan known for time travel. Customers can pay for coffee and get a chance to go back or forward in time, as long as they get back before their coffee gets cold. beautifully written book with some interesting characters and their compelling life stories. Do read it!