Felt I would've enjoyed this more written than audio as found it hard to keep track of the characters a little bit. Reflective storyline

I loved this! Such a sweet and fun story, I loved all the characters. I enjoyed the layout of the book, having it broken into four sections/stories was great. 100% recommend!

Oh this book honestly felt like a warm mug of hot coffee after a really long and sh*tty day. (Yes, coffee, see what I did there?)
All puns aside, listening to this story was the perfect way to enjoy it. I feel like you could tell from the start that this was written originally for the stage, and so the transition to an audiobook feels natural. It's a story to be given to you as you relax and open up your mind to the incredible narrator and the magical story she tells. The chapters are like their own complete stories, making this perfect to enjoy when you only have an hour or 2 to spare.
Each story brings hope and I loved the way they all interweaved, with characters coming in and out - even when it wasn't their turn to sit in the seat. It really felt at times as though I was sitting right there in the cafe watching it all happen and I loved that feeling of being involved and being privy to all of these intimate moments of the characters lives.
I also can't stop wondering whether I would sit in the seat or not, if given the chance.

If you could travel backwards (or forwards) to a single point in time, without having an impact on the present, would you?

Following the visitors to a cafe, with a chair which allows customers to do travel through time - provided the regular occupant of the chair vacates it. This is a moving and touching tale which sees a number of characters using the chair's power to bring unresolved issues to a close.

Intriguing and engrossing, I love how everyone's story became interlinked, though I am still keen to find out the story of the ghostly guardian of the chair. Maybe this is addressed in book 2.

Absolutely adored reading this book, and somehow enjoyed it even more as an audiobook. The narrator did a spectacular job, and added an extra level of emotion and intrigue to the story. One of my all time favourites.

This was a sweet, short book about a mysterious time travel cafe in Japan. It is translated from the original Japanese and I listened to the audiobook. The book is made up of a few different stories, all of which include characters interwoven with each other in small or significant ways. I especially liked the Rules imposed on anyone wishing to travel in time, and I loved the Ghost :) Would like to hear more about her!
There were a few points in the story left unanswered, but this book is part of a series so maybe these are picked up in the following books, which I would definitely read.
Some parts of the book were quite slow and I felt things were over explained sometimes. The narration was quite monotone and took me a while to get used to, but once I did it was relaxing to listen to.

Am I glad I read it? Definitely. Would I read the rest of the series? Yes!

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance audiobook version of this book to listen to!

A cozy yet touching story with a sprinkle of magical realism and a whole heap of rules!

Before the Coffee Get Cold is a Japanese translated story of a Café that you can time travel in! You just have to follow a whole bunch of rules first..and you only hBe until the coffee gets cold to return to the present.

This was heavier in subject matter than I was expecting going in but because of the narrative style simultaneously felt dragged out.
I appreciate that because this is translated that I may have missed some cultural clues here.

A touching story that has a really interesting premise and time travel element but ultimately is let down by pacing and repetitive language. I have no criticism of the audiobook, it was well narrated.

Before The Coffee Gets Cold takes place in a small cafe in Japan. It asks the question if you could go back in time without the power to change the future, would you go and who would you visit? This book was a really interesting premise, offering something new and poignant.

I'm not sure if perhaps this book is a victim of it's own hype. My one ciritcism is it became a little formulaic, and perhaps repetitive. However the stories did become more poignant as the novel progressed, and I did enjoy Kei's story the most.

I listened to this via audiobook and I feel the story lends itself to the medium particularly well. The narrator did a fantastic job.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lovely book, the engaging bundle of short stories was like a big warm hug. It's a book about acceptance, being able to travel back in time, with limitations, and not change the future at all. It wasn't really my cup of tea, but the book was pleasant and the narrator for the audiobook had a nice voice, soft and fitting for the style of book. Bit slow for me and needed a bit more substance. Only 3 stars given as I didn't particularly enjoy the read but I see how others would. Thank you so much for the opportunity to read and review this, my review has been left on Goodreads and Bookmory.

I loved the premise of this book. Multiple people come into a cafe to move backwards in time and speak to someone they know they have lost or are going to lose. The whole theme is loss and the various forms grief reveals itself. It is also a study in things left unsaid. I enjoyed it, but didn't love it. Ultimately it felt repetitive as while the stories were not the same throughout the book, they somehow felt the same, and it began to drag. Overall, an interesting concept but I think could have been executed better.

There's a café in a small back alley in Tokyo where few people venture. But there's a rumor that it can send you back in time... But don't rejoice, there are a set of very important rules. And above all, one must come back before the coffee gets cold.

This was a very short book, which I liked, with extremely long chapters, which I liked less, but since I listened to this book, it bothered me less than it would have had I read it with my eyes. Also, the narrator was so good.
I really liked the magic system and the overall atmosphere of the café. I liked the very specific rules and just how it all worked. I also really enjoyed the fact that the narrator was omniscient. It added a new layer to the story.
However, I liked less the way the first female character, the main one of the first story/chapter was described. It icked me a bit. I also didn't love some of the choices the characters made. It all felt a little conservative to me. But I still enjoyed this book overall and would like to keep on with the series.

Normally weird Japanese fiction is where I’m at. However trying to get through this book proved difficult for me. The plot, while interesting fell flat when it became too convoluted, and with the scene being set in the same room it’s difficult to even differentiate the characters and the scenario. So I unfortunately didn’t really enjoy it.

A wonderful collection of stories. Lends itself perfectly to audiobook format as you can dip in and out of the book chapter by chapter. Wonderful characters and themes throughout. Fell in love with all of the stories and am very interested in reading the companion/sequel. Fantastic narration and even lent well to speeding up for those times I accidentally hit the 1.25x button. Only qualm I had with the narration was the obviously North American accent with the British/European English terms but other than that I can find very few faults.

Was listening to this on the London Underground and had to put my sunnies on to hide my tears. This book was always on my radar and I’m so glad I finally picked it up

This was so lovely, and the narrator was great!! At first, I wasn't sure if I liked this book, I had to sit with it for a while before reviewing it but now that it's marinated a little I think it's safe to say that I really enjoyed this book!

It was simple enough to read/listen to, and follow along with the plot, while still being emotionally complex and exploring each person's individual experience and reason for why they wanted to sit in the seat. I really loved the way the time-travel aspect was approached, it was real in the factual sense, but the people in the story were still unsure if it was rumour or not. In other words, I liked that it wasn't the norm, but was still accepted as a possibility by those interacting with it on a personal level. I liked that it didn't rear too far in the science fiction direction but still had that fantastical, speculative reality feel to it.

I liked that there were multiple stories and characters with distinct motivations and personalities all converging at this cafe. The rules were a really interesting part of it, and I liked that you could only travel once, and that nothing could be changed. It really made me pause to consider the question that the characters themselves were trying to figure out- what was the point if they couldn't change the future/present after altering the past. The way this was explored was phenomenal, and again, complexity was not sacrificed for linguistic simplicity, and they worked really well to make this book accessible to every reader.

I did listen to this while running errands, but I think if I had sat down with the physical book and followed along to the audiobook it would have felt more coherent and I maybe would have given it a five star rating.

Overall, I really loved it, and would definitely recommend it to anyone who liked speculative fiction/literary fiction etc!

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for providing the audio arc in exchange for a review!

There exists a quaint café in Tokyo that allows its customers to travel back in time, as long as they return before their coffee gets cold. However, interestingly, it does not let one change the past to alter the future.

Thus, it isn’t so much about the time travel, but a philosophical examination into how we handle the loss and despair of a loved one.

However, I have to admit, this felt fairly repetitive and I had to sometimes check my audiobook hadn’t accidentally been put backwards.

This is probably a popular and overdone comparison, but if you wanted a similar experience, try the Midnight Library.

Short sweet and sad.

A cafe that can allow you to travel back and forward in time for a limited period, just until your coffee is finished.

We follow 3 different stories, all with their own woes, the last one being a gut wrencher 😭

With many rules to follow to allow you to do this, the single most important rule, is don't let your coffee go cold!

I really enjoyed this story, and the narration was perfect for it.

I have mixed feelings about this book. The premise sounded interesting or that it would be moving, but for me it wasn’t.

I feel like it almost just felt very one note/level where we almost where we just watched what happens in a coffee shop where people have regrets or missed opportunities which urge the characters to time travel to almost get some form of closure. Whilst the situations were different, it basically all followed the same storyline as there were no surprises or mystery. We were told the rules of the time travelling and each character followed those rules and had a suitable outcome for them. Just felt very repetitive for me.

Sadly it won’t be a book I remember in a couple of days.

The premise of the book is that if you sit in a specific spot in the cafe, you get to go to the future or past, provided you follow some terms and conditions - the most important of all being to return before the coffee gets cold.

The book is split into four different POVs, each telling their experience of when they sat in the chair. The overarching message being I believe that we should live in the moment and treat the people in our lives with love and care, telling them how we feel as regrets always come too late.

I got this book as an audiobook ARC and felt it was easy to consume in this format and that I might have struggled to read a physical copy/ebook. The narration was well done and kept me wanting to listen to more. Will this be everyone’s cup of tea, probably not, but given how short it is I would recommend it anyways.

This is a beautifully moving story, narrated brilliantly and handles the subject of memory loss and aging so sensitively. Anyone who has lost someone recently, or is supporting a loved one through end of life will relate to this so hard. I couldn't have listened to this a couple of years ago, when I lost a close family member, its that real. But now it feels healing to listen to something as poignant as this. Best of all, there are several more in the series.