The Café with Five Faces

This book was delightful. None of the stories are particularly sensational or groundbreaking - it is more the inane musings of everyday people and the silly conversations you have with friends when you get together and catch up. You talk about family, friends, politics, football, food, travels. At the end of the book you're left with strong feelings of nostalgia, a need to pop down to your local to catch up with all the community characters and a severe case of travel envy and wanderlust. I'm still trying to find the location of this Cafe so I can go and visit if I ever find myself in that part of the world (because the menus sound delicious and amazing!)

Recommended for rainy day reading when you're in the mood to people watch.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

A lovely book ,a book that draws you into people’s lives conversations sitting in a cafe gossiping discussing current events life.A really wonderful group of people I highly recommend this well written engaging novel #netgalley #troubadorbooks,

This cozy little book was just what I was looking for. It has amazing cultural aspects and views, world cuisine and coffee culture, casual yet provocative conversations and last but not least a multi-cultural, know-it-all cafe owner with great insights about food and drinks, who also has a level of nonchalance I wish to have in life.
I guess the reason why I really like this book is that I travel like a gourmet, devouring every local savory I can find, eating and drinking my way around cities. The rooms of this cafe are inspired by five cities, which have left a unique impression on the author in terms of food, drinks and culture. I wish the menu was added to the book as well, I got really curious about it while reading and picturing the rooms in my mind. When I add this to a quaint selection of customers conversing about politics, football, relationships, environment, disillusionments while eating mouth-watering cakes accompanied by coffee, tea or wine usually recommended by the author/waiter/owner himself. This was quite a delicious reading experience for me and it is recommended especially for foodies.
(Special thanks to Netgalley for providing me the book in exchange for honest review.)

This was a good read. Nothing spectacularly unique, but I love how the stories focused on the everyday routines of normal people.

The Cafe with Five Faces is perfect for people who enjoy and unobtrusive listen in occasionally to the conversation at the next table. A lighthearted read but bringing in all sort of topics to travel and todays political situation in a very readable way. It's all centred around the rooms in the coffee shop. I loved it, a good read!!

When I read the summary to this I almost expected to go from conversation to conversation and not feel anything. And maybe I found myself nodding to so many of those conversations specially the bits about politics, football and brexit because I've been living in the UK since 2016 (give or take a few months back home). Those are the kind of conversations I have (and have had) with my friends, co-workers, housemates and such whenever we get together go to a pub or wherever.
The story felt honest, just the silly, everyday conversations people have when they get together with their friends to catch up, talk about your life, politics, football and such topics. It made feel part voyeur as if I was sitting there in the corner of those rooms, listening in to these people's conversations, this strange sense of nostalgia because I want to have a preferred coffee shop too where I can just pop down to, sit, relax for a few hours discussing whatever topic comes to mind. And more importantly, it made me feel the need to find a coffee place with that menu, I'm seriously jealous of all those food choices.

This book would be good for people who like to people watch. Little insights into the lives of people who visit cafes. Nothing spectacular but enjoyable nonetheless.

Coffee lovers, cafe sitters, travelers and those who find themselves engrossed in eavesdropping on others' conversations will enjoy this, I think, as much as I did.

The Cafe with Five Faces by Chaelli is the type of book I usually love, casual reflections on community, life, and what brings these together. But the voice of the narrator/author just grated on me. I'm sure he is as wonderful as he portrays himself but I would choose almost any other cafe if I were in the area.

Having stated my personal annoyance with authorial voice, I do see how many will enjoy this book. Again, by description, this sounded like one I would love. The little episodes, for lack of a better term, were in content fairly interesting. Overhearing and sometimes taking part in conversations in cafes and coffeehouses around the world is something I have always enjoyed, getting a feel for the people and the communities off the beaten path. So that aspect of the book was good. Again, it was the person telling the stories, not the stories themselves, that I found off putting.

I probably would recommend this to some people I know but I would stop short of making a blanket recommendation. If you can read an excerpt, do so before buying. The issue I have with his voice is not an actual negative against him, or against me, but my opinion of the reader/writer dynamic from my perspective, so should be understood as such.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

This was a good read. Nothing spectacularly unique, but I love how the stories focused on the everyday routines of normal people.

This felt more like a Wiki-slash-Lonely-Planet with personal stories behind it.
I dropped it like a million times just to Google all the places and cafes mentioned. But hey...visuals...visuals...this book would be so much better with proper beautiful visuals.

It is informative and it reads like a best friend you don't really know beyond his tales of his worldly explorations.

I think it would make a nice gift to those who love but for some reason can't travel at this time because it feels like a mini world in a book format. And of course a treasure for coffee lovers - if only the chapters were much shorter and a subway stop read, for example. Then this would almost feel like reading a version of EASY but in a book, not Netflix series.

Thank you Troubador Publishing Limited and Matador for the chance to read this in exchange for my honest review.