Another brilliant installment of short stories, volume 2 of Before the Coffee gets cold follows four more cafe customers as they travel in time to catch up with loved ones. Told with warmth and heart, these characters could be any one of us, telling real human stories through low-sci-fi.

I received an ARC of this book via netgalley. I generally like this magical realism genre but this one really did nothing for me.

Less than 200 pages long much of it is the repetition of the rules for time travelling and the means for doing so. I wanted more from the actual movement across time in the narrative

I got a copy of this book from NetGalley and I read it before reading the first book about the cafe but it worked fine as a standalone. This novel all takes place in a cafe in Japan but it’s not an ordinary cafe. There is a table and chair in the cafe and if you sit down there you can go back in time to meet up with someone from your past but you have to leave them before the coffee gets cold. I loved this book, it was really moving to read the back stories of the characters and to find out why they have come to the cafe and why they feel they need closure regarding the past. I hope to read more about this cafe in the future!

Tales from the Cafe was a beautiful addition to the popular series 'Before the Coffee Gets Cold' It is the perfect whimsical, emotive, and warming book. Which, I'm sure we all need at the moment.
I like the short excerpts of people's lives and their bittersweet endings.
If you liked Before the Coffee Gets Cold, you'll love this. I actually preferred it!

I did like this and I liked the addition of someone looking to head to the future, but at the same time it very much feel like reading Before the Coffee Gets Cold (book one) again. There are the same repetitive descriptions, the same explanations, that it was just a bit too similar for me. Obviously I loved meeting new characters and getting to know the cafe owners a bit more, but it was still just very deja vu!

I did hear from somewhere (can’t recall my source) that at least the first book was originally a play, which would account for the repetitive descriptions and that does make me appreciate it more if it is indeed true.

Still a good book and still very poignant!

This is quite an unusual book - set in Japan, around a very old cafe where customers have the opportunity to travel back in time to a specific point in order to interact with people they knew, although they cannot change any of the events. They must return to the present before the coffee in their cup gets cold, else die and haunt the cafe.

I believe the book is the second in this series, and perhaps for this reason I found it a little confusing coming to terms with the Japanese names without really understanding the characters' back stories. It felt that the reader should know who they were and why they behaved as they did.

The four who travel back make interesting stories, and the interactions of the staff in the cafe are also well handled. I just struggled a little remembering who was whom and what they did. The young girl Mia was just over-indulged and irritating.

An interesting read, although I would not necessarily look for more.

Thank you to NetGalley, Pan Macmillan and Picador for allowing me access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Tales from the cafe is an utterly delightful collection of tales, each one about a different character in the cafe. Apparently this is the second book in the series, I didn’t realise this but I also don’t feel like I was missing anything.

I plan to hunt out the first book and hope I enjoy it as much as this one.

The premise of the book is exactly the same as the first book, but this time we get to meet new people who want to travel back in time. We also get to know more about some of the characters from the first book too.

There is someone who wants to go forward into the future this time - it's trickier as you have to know that the person has visited the cafe and know when they are going to visit in the future - you could miss them by seconds!

I did love this book but because they have to repeat the rules of the time travel it got a little monotonous and of course I could remember what they were from reading the first book. As this book is a little shorter than the last one, there are fewer words and a lot of them repeated. I guess this also serves the purpose of making it a standalone book. Around half way through there was a story that I became more engaged with and I was hooked into the book once again.

I read the first book for book group and enjoyed it, and the second book is similar, with some familiar faces and some new. It's a gentle tale about a cafe where you can travel in time, just once, and only to the same cafe. It's a lovely look at people, and their regrets, needs and fears.

While 'Tales from the Cafe' doesn't quite live up to the heartbreak of 'Before the Coffee Gets Cold' for me, it still retains the easy storytelling, as you grow attached to new characters going back on time, and also learn more about favourites from the original story. It's simple and not complicated to follow, and I love that about Toshikazu Kawaguchi's writing style.

In a small cafe in the backstreets of Tokyo strange things can happen. If you sit at a certain table you can meet someone from the past or the future & talk to them for time it takes before the coffee goes cold. Nothing can change things but it is a way for people to find closure for events. The book tells of four people who take advantage of this.

This is the second book in the series but it didn't make my enjoyment any the less. It is a gentle book of love & regret. I also really likes the background characters who were essential to the cafe. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

Loved! I didn't think this was quite as good as the first one - I think probably just because I had never read anything like it before so it was a new experience. However, anyone who has read and enjoyed the first book will definitely enjoy this one too. I enjoyed coming back to some of the characters we already knew as well as meeting some new ones. Like the first book it is quite sad in places, but overall feels quite hopeful. I'll definitely be reading the third book when it's out in the UK as well as continuing to recommend these books to my customers!

This is such an intriguing premise for a novel - a coffee shop that allows you to travel back to a specific moment in time, but with very strict conditions applied to the unique opportunity, and a harsh penalty if you fail to comply. This book consists of four wonderful stories. In each story we are introduced to a different character who wishes to return to a moment in their past. Although the storyline is simple and also childlike at times, the actual objective behind their reason for travelling through time is far more complex and heart breaking.

I loved each of these stories and the new characters, and I liked that there was a focus on the idea of a happy life; denying and allowing yourself one. I also especially loved learning more about the time travel element and the rules about only the women of the family being able to transport customers back to the past.

Overall this was a fantastic read, and although it was quick and easy to get through, this is the type of storyline that stays in your mind and heart long after finishing the book. I would recommend this to anyone, even if you haven't read the first book, as it could easily be read as a standalone, as well as a sequel.

Thanks to NetGalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I haven’t read the first of the cafe books so wasn’t sure whether this would sprite my attention but it was a lovely book. Telling different stories with the common thread of the mystical cafe and it’s occupants, this was well-written and translated effectively. Even though the setting was limited to the cafe, I didn’t feel constrained by this as the reader. I enjoyed all of the stories and these benefitted from having some characters moving between them. A worthwhile read.

Once again a lovely collection of stories, but filled with distractions. The rules do not need to be gone over again and again. It's not an American TV show that has to repeat everything endlessly assuming the audience has the smallest memory in the world. The childs obsession with insect rhymes and moi also detract from the stories. However once you get past all these the heart of each story is strong and full of meaning and heart

Thank you
to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for providing me with this e-arc in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.,

There’s a Tokyo cafe, where at an average table and chair sits the a ghost of a woman. Once a day, she gets up to visit the bathroom and during that short break a customer can choose to sit in that chair and travel back in time, or even into the future, but only whilst their coffee is warm.

Tales from the Cafe is the 2nd book that follows this theme and it delivers in 4 acts a gift of sweetness, love, sorrow, and absolute joy in the most wonderfully awkward, baby giraffe-like way.

In this sequel, the backbone to the story is Kazu, the waitress, the only only one with the power to send customers backwards or forwards in time, as she pours their coffee.

The four acts each focus on a different customer, each one searching for something lost or unfinished.

As we hear their stories, Kazu’s own narrative unfolds, and flows throughout the book.

The story is told in such an awkwardly gentle way that as a reader you are captured, empathy flows for the characters as you become more endeared by them, quirks and all.

Kawaguchi is masterful in his weaving of the customers’ stories with Kazu’s narrative, and the pure and absolute joy of Miki, that honestly made me chuckle out loud. This is such a warm, comforting and mist beautiful read, that will truly warm your heart.

While I found Before The Coffee Gets Cold, a magical, captivating read on so many levels, I’m sorry to say that this sequel is a poor follow up. In fact, I’m not convinced there should even be a second book. For me, the charm of BTCGC lay in its uniqueness — even its often clumsy translation had a quaintness to it. But you can only take something like this so far. Yes, the new stories are just as sweet, and it’s nice to learn more about the regular characters, but the whole narrative is painfully labored and padded out with so much repetition that, as a reader, you very quickly descend into boredom. And, dare I say it? This ill-advised attempt at a sequel, may actually tarnish the original.

YES. Can we just keep having more books in this world forever, please?
I didn't enjoy this quite as much as book one, but then, book one came with the magic of not knowing what to expect, so I didn't expect this one to make me feel the same, really. I still loved it though. I loved being back in this world, which I am endlessly fascinated by. I loved the familiar faces, I loved the new faces, I loved the simple but beautiful way the stories unfolded, I loved the threads that tied the whole thing together.
This series has settled itself on my list of favourites; I'm so desperate for more. Will there be more?

This book deals with some heart wrenching topics. But also the guilt and regret people feel in different situations.
But each time the person learns to let go of those feelings and be happy. Move on with their life because the person they lost would want that for them.
I liked that Kazu learnt to let go of her guilt, that she had carried around with her since she was a child. It was a nice touch having her mothers spirit leave once she knew Kazu was going to be OK. Almost as if she stuck around just to watch over her daughter until Kazu learnt to let go.
I liked how we had some reoccurring characters in the cafe. Seeing part of their lives and their struggles. But how like Kazu they learn to move through things.

The writing itself felt repetitive at times. Especially having to read the rules every part. It becomes a little boring.
However this was a fast read which I needed.

Tales from the cafe before the coffee gets cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi is a charming book. This is book 2 in the series, and although I haven't read the first one, it didn't matter as you very quickly get to grips with the fact that if you visit a particular magical cafe in Tokyo, you can travel through time. There are specific rules that apply, one of which is you need to return before your coffee gets cold.

The book focusses on four separate stories of people who wish to transport themselves back and meet up with someone from their past, as well as giving an insight to those that run the cafe. The tales provide an explanation of why the journey is wanted, and although told simply, they resonate on a deep empathetic level.

The book is thought-provoking and offers up different perspectives relating to the human experience that stops you in your tracks and make you sit and ponder a while at the end of each saga.

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for enabling me to read this book. It was a different read to my usual genre, but I enjoyed its philosophical tones. Oh, and it has a gorgeous cover too!