I adore this series! Anytime a new volume comes out I preorder a copy for my home library. The staff and customers of Café Funiculi Funicula continue to break my heart in all the best ways. It was a pleasure to revisit this magical place.

In a small cafe in Tokyo, there is a chair that will transport you through time. You can only interact with someone who has or will come to the cafe, and no matter what you do in the past, it cannot change the present. Most importantly, you only have the time it takes for your cup of coffee to get cold.People have visited the deceased, lost loves, and searched for closure.

Like the first book in this series, Before the Coffee Gets Cold, Tales From the Cafe takes what sounds like a heavy and depressing premise and turns it into a life-affirming story. There is something wonderfully warm and happy about this book, even in the sad moments. It's a short work, worth every minute you'll spend reading it and then thinking about it. Highly recommended!

I received a copy of this book from the publisher for an honest review.

After the first book - Before the Coffee Gets Cold, this was just not as good! I recommend Before the Coffee Gets Cold to people a lot, but don't feel great with this one. It was too sweet.

I really enjoyed Before the Coffee Gets Cold, and I felt the same way about this second novel. Like the earlier book, this one consists of short stories related by the cafe where you can time travel (before your coffee gets cold). The four stories have to do with love and loss and families. It's wistful and charming, and if you liked the first book, you'll definitely like this one too!

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

Great read to take with you anywhere; insightful characters, great personifications and raw emotions

I have not read Before the Coffee Gets Cold and I can say that it is not necessary to do so before reading this book.

Such an innovative concept!

These four short stories are powerful, all dealing with some sort of grief. Most of the patrons want to go back to the past with one wanting to go two and a half years to the present. That story was tricky for me as I had to read it twice. Also, there is a thread of a story flowing throughout the book that stuns at the end.

I must admit that Miki (the cafe's owner daughter) was completely annoying and her antics shook me out of the story every time she appeared. The ghost lady was the creepiest and I enjoyed her telling the people, after retuning, to "move!"

I will read book one and continue on with the third book Before Your Memory Fades.

Thank you Harlequin and Hanover Press for the eARC provided for review
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This is the second in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series, and while I struggled to get through the first, I heard so many great things about both books that I thought I'd give number two a go.

A tiny cafe in a little back alley in Tokyo has a special gift. If you sit in a particular chair you can travel back in time. But you can only go for as long as your coffee stays hot, and only back to the same location (the cafe).

You meet lots of different characters who want to travel back for various reasons, to see loved ones, try to right wrongs etc.

Unfortunately, I just don't get all the hype. I've never heard anything other than glowing reviews, but while the premise was great, and some of the stories were moving, I just found myself so incredibly bored most of the time, and I thought both books were quite repetitive.

Have you read this series? What am I missing?

Just as wonderful as the first book. I loved that the short storied were interwoven into the main story. While the rules may get overwhelming at times, what happens to those who follow them receives closure. It is interesting to think about how all of these people chose to/when going back and makes you as the reader ponder where and when you would go as well.
I would highly recommend this book to those who enjoy magical realism mixed with a bit of fantasy.

Beautifully written short stories that all connect to a cafe that allows for time travel. There are very hard and fast rules that the customers must adhere to and you aren't allowed the change the past (or future). The stories show a beautiful way to gain closure and to gain understanding into a situation that was misunderstood. I love these stories.

I was so happy to be back in Café Funiculi Funicula. I really enjoyed the first book in this series and was happy to have more! All the stories in this collection were so good. I teared up at a few of them. In this volume of stories, you also learn the truth of the ghost that currently resides in the only chair in the café you can time travel in. I loved being back in this café and can't wait for the next one to be released!

Thank you to Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Hanover Square Press, and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Smooth flowing narrative and resonant themes of the heart delivers touching tales of restoration and hope.

The café in questions brews a special coffee which will allow customers to take advantage of a form of time-travel if special rules are observed. One of the special rules is that the customer needs to understand that going back in time will not change the outcome or the present.

This is the second book in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series and works well as a standalone. Once again the book focuses on four customers who want closure from a past event. The tales are inspiring and please the souls and hearts of the readers, and my one nitpick from someone who read the first book in the series, is the full explanation of the rules again before each tale.

Kudos to the translator who captures the subtlety and tone of words and culture to ensure a captivating reading experience.

This book is just as good if not better than the previous tales from the Cafe. These small tales always make me tear up and reevaluate what I have currently. The simplicity of the language just lets the emotions behind come out stronger.

I really enjoyed this sequel about the small cafe in Tokyo that can take visitors to the past or the future. It isn't necessary to read Before the Coffee Gets Cold first, but I would recommend it. Both books have a cozy, calming sense of place and a cast of interesting characters. If you're looking for something quirky and thought-provoking, you will love these stories!

A follow-up to Before the Coffee Gets Cold, a heartwarming collection of stories about a time-traveling café in Tokyo.

I will say that I truly enjoyed getting to know even more about the characters (from both books). I didn't enjoy it as much as Before the Coffee Gets Cold, but I absolutely love this cast of characters.

Having read “Before the Coffee Gets Cold,” I was excited to read this next installment. Can be read as a stand-alone novel, enjoyable and thought provoking enough for 3 stars from me.

**I received an electronic ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review of this book.

Princess Fuzzypants here: If there was a place where you could turn back time, would you go there? There is a cafe in Tokyo, hidden away, where urban legends say this can be done. Many of the people who seek it out go away once they learn there are some hard and fast rules, the biggest one being you cannot change anything that will affect the present. Since that would be the reason why most would want to turn back the clock, it reduces the number of patrons. There are other rules, including the need to return before a cup of coffee turns cold or be turned into a ghost. And the only person with whom you can visit is someone who has been to the cafe in their lifetime.

It is an interesting premise and has four tales of people who are willing to go back, who need to say or do something so that they can move on with their own lives. There is also an fascinating dynamic with the people who work in the cafe and their relationship with the “gift” they offer. The stories are bittersweet but moving. Four purrs and two paws up.

** Thank you to NetGalley and Hanover Square Press for providing me with an eArc in exchange for an honest review **

This is a sequel/companion to the first book, Before the Coffee Gets Cold. I follows the same premise of a café that offers its visitors a chance to travel to the past or future. Like the first book these short stories are wholesome, heartwarming, emotional and interconnected. I highly recommend reading the first book as characters from those stories make appearances in this book. These appearances add to the individual stories and enrich the reading the reading experience. There are some story reveals that answer questions posed in the first book and it was just a comfy read.

If you are looking for a cozy, comfort read that isn't very long that tells stories of the human experience in a wholesome and heartwarming way. I would highly recommend this short story series.

The sequel to Before the Coffee Gets Cold follows the same format of the first book. The characters are all recurring (definitely read the first one before reading this one) and we have four more people that are interested in traveling in time. The rules are repeated (again and again) but we find out more about the characters in the cafe, including the woman in the white dress reading her novel.

I think, because I had recently read the first book, that I enjoyed this one more than the first one. I was used to the writing style. I remembered more of the characters and I wanted to know more about them. The writing style definitely takes some getting used to and with these short books, it was tough to adjust to at first. The sentences are short and the author repeats a lot of information. The characters all have Japanese names and it is tough to keep straight. But by the second book, I definitely got it more.

If you liked the first book, you'll definitely like this one.

Enjoyable sequel.
It was delightful to return to Cafe Funniculi Funnicula, where one can return to the past (or possibly go ahead to the future) for a short time, as long as you return before the coffee gets cold. This is a short novella, a series of vignettes that twine together as the various people come to the cafe in order to speak to someone from the past. A man wants to talk with his friend whose daughter he raised when the friend died young. Another man wants to give his wife the birthday gift he was never able to give her. A man who knows he is dying wants to travel to the future to speak to the girl he loves, and a son with regrets wants to talk to his mother again. There are rules that must be followed, and often the results of the visits are not what either party expects from the journeys.

As with the first book in the series, I partially listened to this as an audiobook and partially read it on the page. The audiobook helps me to get the pronunciations of the Japanese names, but the print helps me to see how the stories interconnect.

This is a conteplative tale, the repetition of the rules gets a little tedious, but overall those who sit at the table and travel through time receive what they desire from the encounters and more. They receive closure, confirmation of decisions, and most of all, forgiveness for perceived wrongs. It's always interesting to see that those who the travelers go to visit often have a completely different view of the events or situations than those they are visiting. It allows the reader to think back about regrets and realize that just because we might feel a certain way about something, it doesn't mean that the other person has the same view.

Overall I have enjoyed the two books in this series, hopefully if there is a third book the author can just say "the rules were explained" rather than listing them out one by one every single time.

I didn’t read the first book but, I will be righting that wrong soon. This book was beautifully written and packed with emotion. I was hit with emotions with every story and cried throughout most of the book. Definitely will be recommending the book for a very long time.