A review by binreads
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

emotional hopeful reflective relaxing sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

This book just kept getting better the more you read it. I see other reviewers referring to this book as a 'warm hug' and I absolutely agree. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the concept of time travel that I haven't really seen before. I liked the idea of all these events taking place in this cozy, basement cafe. As a coffee lover, I honestly thought that using the temperature of the coffee as a time travel device was really clever. You never know how quickly your coffee is gonna get cold, I for one always forget I have a cup, then my coffee is freezing cold! So the use of that as a timer for such a delicate action of traveling through time for something extremely important made it very intense.

I did like that it takes place with the core group - the workers at the cafe - and the addition of the characters who seek out the cafe. It made me cry at points. Very moving, I already purchased the second one and I can't wait to start reading it.

The one thing I didn't care for was how often the author refers to the character Nagare's size, like we get it the man is big. And my thing is like it wasn't done in a way that was like, oh he's just really tall.....it was like he's not 'normal sized' or he's a 'big man'...it was overdone.
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