What a beautiful book! Made me reflect on life, family, love and loss that a book has never done before! It was such a heartwarming read that felt like one big, long hug.

This was a quick and easy read that I think a broad range of people would enjoy. I got a little mixed up remembering who was who in the first books, but I quickly got the hand of things. I loved the magical realism aspect of it and these types of books usually hit home the most for me.

Before I talk about this one, let me share something I felt while reading the first book in this series. I was intrigued by the time-traveling premise. I liked what the book was doing with it. But I didn’t understand how there could be two more installments in the series. Would they just continue hashing out the same ideas? Would I not soon get bored of it? Then I started the second book and was pleased that though the basic formula remained the same, we were also following along with the lives of the people who worked at Cafe Funiculi Funicula. I’d grown fond of the Tokita family and wanted more. The time-traveling mechanic also continued to be used in ways I didn’t expect. It wasn’t just reusing the same ideas over and over. I enjoyed the sequel even more than the first.

All of this is to say that I came into this one knowing what to expect, generally speaking. I looked forward to reading it and wasn’t disappointed! This book further develops the lives of the Tokita family, while also moving us to a new location: Cafe Donna Donna, situated on Mt. Hakodate in northern Japan. We meet new characters and learn a little more about the ones we already knew. And of course there is time-traveling, heart-wrenching conversations between loved ones, and coffee. :) And I again found that I liked this one even more than the first two. While occasionally a little heavy-handed regarding its themes (always take the chance to tell the people you love that you love them, etc) the story is mostly unassumingly straightforward about it, which I appreciate. New readers should start with the first book, though all three are short enough that you can get through them in no time. They’re well worth it.

Before Your Memory Fades is a sequel to Before the Coffee Gets Cold. It is set up in three parts with three stories of people using the coffee shop to travel in time. All the characters have a connection to the shop owner Yukari.

Honestly, it was a sequel that I didn’t need, and I love reading duologys and trilogys. While it gave further information on the magical coffee shop, it didn’t really give me what much more connection to the characters. Perhaps this was an issue with the translator or in the original text, but every time the characters exclaimed, “Huh?” I grew more and more annoyed with the translation.

Overall, it was an okay read.

emotion after emotion after emotion, the relationship built between characterss I love it sm and I was like omg I am gonna cry and then I am like omg this book is toooooo goooooddd

LOVED this third book in the "Before the Coffee Gets Cold" series. I really want to go to this cafe myself!

Notable lines:
"He realized that no matter how difficult life seemed, it could be completely turned around by a single epiphany."

"Something I strongly believe is that we mustn't allow the death of a person to be the cause of unhappiness. The reason for that is simple: if we let everyone who dies be a cause for unhappiness, that would mean people are being born to become unhappy. But the opposite in fact is true. People are always born for the sake of happiness."

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC. Btw, I was going to travel to the past when I first read book #2, but now I choose to travel to the future to see how my child's doing. Just sayin'!

Before the Coffee Gets Cold was outstanding and every book following it has only added to the awe readers feel after the experience. Before Your Memory Fades hits you right in the heart and reminds you what life is really about.

The Before the Coffee Goes Cold is one of my favorite Japanese series to date. If you haven't tried out the previous entries in this series, you need to do that now. Each book has 4 unique stories of people traveling through time to talk to dead loved ones, estranged friends, and the unknown people who affected us deeply. The stories are all varied and complex in their own right, each deserving a spot in their respective book. This is the kind of book that makes you sit back, think, and feel so many emotions.
All all the stars.

This book was as phenomenal as the first. It leaves you sitting in your feelings in the best way. I am obsessed with this author and will be recommending to everyone I know!

(Big thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for giving us this eARC in exchange for an honest review!)

I was so excited when I saw that we had received the third book to the Before Your Coffee Gets Cold series! Although I still think that the first two books were better, this one still did not disappoint. I was a bit apprehensive going in because series tend to get more sluggish and dragged on within the middle of the whole storyline. However, this book (although I still have some issues with the pacing) was amazing and continued the storyline well. I didn't exactly love that the events were happening in a new coffee shop and some of the details were differently, like the sounds for when they are traveling back in time, it felt like it lost that touch that the other two books had. I love that the series touches upon the question of "what if the world was ending tomorrow" and people being able to go see past loved ones, ones that had lost opportunities or ones that are no longer there with them. It is incredibly heartbreaking and a bit heartwarming reading each short story. The ones I felt particularly attached to and was interested in was the story about the comedian who is in hiding but is traveling back in time to visit his late wife about his success and the sister who went back to visit her sister that passed. It's always going to be super heart wrenching for me to read and I will always continue to love reading each story. It does start to feel repetitive, how the storylines were still very similar to the first two. I think that the plot is still there, but it will definitely get more sluggish if there isn't much variation to the stories. This is a perfect fall read/coffee shop read! I would highly recommend this to people who are trying to find something new yet emotional enough for them to enjoy.

If you’re looking for a combination of hopeful, inspiring, and bittersweet, this is the perfect book. A beautiful addition to the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series. Kawaguchi’s exploration of grief allows characters to be imperfect and messy in their journey without judgement. With a new location and some new faces to keep the series fresh, Kawaguchi sticks to the heart of the series. Many of the new characters are professional comedians who are trying to find balance in happiness through laughter while honoring their loved ones and their grief. Burnout, anxiety, and regret are central to these characters lives. This dynamic brings both tension and a hopeful tone. The last paragraph of the book is so incredibly bittersweet, you want to wallow in it. Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing for the ARC in return for the honest review!

Review posted on StoryGraph on Oct 2nd

I really enjoy the sweet books in this series. It's magical without the bother of details or world-building. The reader just has to go along for the ride, form bonds with characters, and see themselves in the failings and successes of the human experience. This one has a more bittersweet edge to things, but is still just as lovely.

This series is such a little gem. "Time travel" but in a very soft ~unexplained~ way (more like magic than sci-fi really) that just lets you focus on the characters, their relationships and their emotions. This third installment actually takes us away from Tokyo to another similar cafe and we get the opportunity to explore the bonds between some new characters. <3

If you could go back in time (or forward to the future) would you? The magically realistic premise of this book is lovely; to settle past events without changing anything in the present. It will not bring back those lost to death and it will not change the future, yet it can change the outlook of the person doing the traveling.

Set in Japan and originally written in Japanese, I found the translated dialect between characters a bit choppy and stilted at first, but the storyline is so intriguing, and the questions posed are thought provoking. This is the third book in a series written by Toshikazu Kawaguchi.

I liked revisiting characters from the previous books; however, I was confused with the introduction of a second cafe. I went through four tissues while reading this book, and I would have like it ending on a more happier note.

Adored the first book in the series. What a brilliant idea for a book but not sure if it needed to be a series. These books are thought-provoking and hopefully will make you cherish your loved ones and the precious time we are give with them. I sometimes got confused with who is who so having a notebook nearby is handy. A big thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for this ARC.

Toshikazu Kawaguchi doesn't disappoint with Before Your Memory Fades, the third book in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series. This book finds Nagare, Kazu, and Sachi in Hakodate, running Cafe Donna Donna, Nagare's mother's cafe. Here, too, there is a magic chair that will transport the seeker either into the past or into the future. And as with the Tokyo cafe, seekers need to wait for the ghost who sits in the chair all day to get up and go to the restroom.
The stories are just as touching as those in the previous books. The writing just as simple and elegant. This is surely another book to add to personal library.

#BeforeYourMemoryFades #NetGalley

***Thanks Netgalley for this Arc***
I do love this cute little series, but I think it doesn't match up to the first. I think the story is missing the mark
with how they started. I do enjoy the extended stories of the characters who are coming to the Cafe to visit their
past, but I liked it better when it was short stories per character and their reasons for visiting the past and the lessons learned.
Nonetheless, this was a short and fun read.

This was super emotional and gripping. I haven't read the other books in this series but I definitely am going to visit them now. I found each story to be captivating and emotionally gripping, full of character study.

I love Before the Coffee Gets Cold and I love this book too. A coffee shop offers its customers a chance to travel back in time.... but nothing will change in the present. It's another set of loving and emotional stories. It's thought provoking and still interesting even though it's not the first book. :) Really enjoy it.

Thanks to the publisher for the arc.

Thank you Netgalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this ARC! I have read the first two books in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series and loved both so much, so I was super excited to get an ARC for the third book!

Book Review:

A special cafe exists in Tokyo that gives customers a chance to travel back in time or to visit the future. Another cafe, with the same opportunity, is also in Hakodate, where this book takes place. Before Your Memory Fades follows four new customers that want to use the special cafe's time-traveling opportunity, even if it means the present won't change no matter what they do in the past or future.

This book made me tear up just like the first two books did. Kawaguchi is an incredible story-teller that truly makes you feel for the characters and their situations. Before Your Memory fades is heartbreakingly beautiful and makes you wonder if you would want to time-travel, even for a short time, knowing that nothing will change in your present time. This book, and the whole Before the Coffee Gets Cold series, allows you to think about your life in a different way and maybe even gives you the courage to express how you feel to others before the opportunity is missed.