review of “before the coffee gets cold” Series

written by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Overall, the series was beautifully written. The idea of grief, love, and agony being represented in a light yet impactful way was truly breathtaking at times. The series is like drinking a cup of coffee on a rainy day. As the series continues, you understand and predict the actions of recurring characters, making plot twists or new developments more impactful. In general, the comfort and warmth this series brings make each book very heartwarming.

Before the coffee gets cold - book one

“Before the Coffee Gets Cold” is my overall favorite. It’s the internet’s preferred book, and a huge recommendation to anyone in the BookTok world, for good reason. I thoroughly enjoyed how he introduced each character and intent throughout the book, and the enjoyment of each story. The storylines are all tied together in beautiful ways, which shows the excellence of Kawaguchi. Overall, without any spoilers, this is the one for the ages, and a great namesake for the entire series.

This book is the real heavy hitter. If I recommend anyone read at least one book from this series, it’s this one. The introduction of the world is written in a way that makes it as seamless as possible. It feels like you’re in the novel itself, asking about time travel rather than being a reader. The characters and stories in this book have a huge impact, with Kawaguchi creating some very heavy one-liners that make you sit and think for a while. If you don’t want to read the entire series, but want to at least try one, try this one.

Tales from the cafe - book two

Okay, first, I find it hilarious that this is the only novel with a different title theme. It makes me wonder if Kawaguchi wasn’t planning on making this huge series. This book was the one that stood out most to me. I sobbed my eyes out at the end of it, with a huge sense of warmth, yet the sorrow for the story. As I read, I was still captivated by the story and idea, and was in awe of some of his concepts on life. The introduction of new characters was idealistic and beautifully written. The callbacks to the first book were added in such a way of relevance, yet not taking away from the second book itself. Good as well.

Before your memory fades - book three

I honestly don’t remember this one well. I read it on a road trip, so it felt captivating and entertaining during a seemingly boring trip. One thing I appreciate about this entire series is that you could pick up one randomly and still understand the topic at hand. You don’t need to read the ones before to understand what’s happening now. This novel had really good characters and development of the recurring characters, making time skips seamless and storytelling captivating. Also enjoyed this one, but it doesn’t stick with you. Your memory of it might… fade (haha, get it???).

before we say goodbye - book four

And this is where I lost interest. The story was still great, but the repetition of rules and the lack of change in the day-to-day made me lose the motivation to pick the book back up. The change from Before Your Memory Fades to this novel was disappointing, because you read new topics in the previous book that were never mentioned in this one (and continuing). There were some things I’d love to see developed that never did. I was super busy during this time, so that could be a big factor, but it took me a lot longer to finish this one than the others, mainly cause I had no interest in.

before we forget kindness - book five

Same old, same old. I think they got less intriguing because I’ve been reading them back to back rather than spacing them out. It was SUPER difficult to continue to read, because I felt as though I was reading the rules and layout of the cafe over and over again throughout the books. It makes it easy to pick up any book and be educated, but if you’re trying to make it a series, do less detail with the surroundings you’ve already built previously. I didn’t like having to read the description of the rules and cafe over and over for each person entering (a total of 20 people throughout the series). If you’re okay with that, then please read all the novels. I think this book specifically was not needed. The lack of meaning was evident, and the impactful one-liners faded throughout this book and last.

overall

Overall, the concept and story are brilliant. I mean, coffee, cafes, time travel, and people were beautiful to read. The first three novels were gorgeous, all with their developments and ideas to take away as you read. There were the stories of the customers that grew alongside the plot of the employees as you stayed in their cafe. The two storylines merged gorgeously, but unfortunately, after books four and five, you lose the story of one, causing a lack of interest. This could’ve been a brilliant trilogy. This is no offense at all to the author, but it did feel like the last two books were a bit of publicity/money productions rather than speaking from the heart or story. I will say, I read these back-to-back, which likely had a huge impact on my view of the development. If you read another book outside of this series in between each novel, I think it could potentially be more enjoyable. All in all, the first three? Gorgeous. Read them now. Put the first two on your list for SURE. The last two? I think you’d be okay if you skipped them.

Please remember this is all my very personal opinion, with my situational circumstances, while reading the books. I was reading them back-to-back, graduating, and going through finals at the same time. I hope you enjoyed listening and reading my opinion, as much as I enjoyed writing! I hope this inspires you to read the entire series, maybe abit slower haha.