I was drawn to this book by the title, as a board game enthusiast, I was excited to see a book featuring them. Although this is pegged as a romance, I personally think it is more of a women's fiction, with romance as a secondary plot.

I loved that board games were mentioned in detail, but not so much as to overwhelm someone who was not familiar with them.

Overall, a cute, fun read that can easily be read in an hour.

Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of this book in return for my honest review.

This was a cute read!

Emily loses her job, fiancé, and house all within a few days. Hitting rock bottom, she decides to pursue her life long dream of opening a café. The café she opens has low foot traffic, so in an attempt to bring in more customer, she rebrands her café to The Little Board Game Café.

My husband and I LOVE playing board games together, so I was immediately interested in this based on the title and cover. One of my favorite things about this book was all of the different board games mentioned, and the interactions between her customers playing the games. It was fun reading about some of our favorite games to play together, like Wingspan, but I also picked up some board game recommendations just from reading this! (My husband was very excited about this).

I gave this book 3 stars for a few reasons. While I loved some of the characters like Mr. B, Marjory, and Rob, I really dislike other characters, mainly Kate and Emily's dad. Kate was really not a very great friend, and I kept getting annoyed that Emily would apologize to Kate over Kate's wrongdoings and write it off as fine since Kate was allowing her to temporarily stay at her apartment. I also understand Emily's dad's grief, but until the end, it didn't feel like he was very supportive of her. He was all words and no action.

Another reason I decided on 3 stars was the writing style. Some parts of this story were very well written and other parts were just not. I found some of the books climaxes to be very anti-climatic. I also found some parts of this story to be drawn out and other portions that we should have received more detail on felt rushed.

Finally, I did not feel invested in Emily and Ludek's romance. At first, I was swooning. I thought they were absolutely adorable. However, I am not a fan of miscommunication tropes, and their relationship "problems" felt very immature to me.

Overall, I though this was a very heartwarming, cute, and quick read. If you enjoy board games, I think you will enjoy this book!

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for the eArc of this sweet book!

This is my go to kind of book, when I want to curl up on the sofa on a cold winter's day & disappear into an easy to read tale.
This is a lovely little book, set in a newly opened cafe and how it's customers and owner all get to know and help one another

What an enjoyable book this was, my first one by Jennifer Page (and I've just found out through Instagram that it's her debut novel, which makes it even better!).

It had been Emily's dream for years to run her own cafe, one where people could come to enjoy themselves, and get wholesome, home-cooked food. When she got fired by her fiance, split up with said fiance, and came across a run down cafe for sale all in a few days, it seemed like the perfect time to take the leap. However, it doesn't turn out exactly as it had in Emily's dreams, and she has to overcome many obstacles if she wants her new cafe to be a success.

I was drawn into this book by the sense of community - Mr B especially was a lovely character. It was great to follow Emily's journey and to watch her grow in confidence with the help of her friends and family, new and old.

The romance was lovely too, but this one was Emily's story, and I was rooting for her the whole way through.

What a lovely read! 💕

Thank you so much to Aria & Aries, Jennifer Page and Netgalley for the ARC.

#thelittkeboardgamecafe #netgalley

This was a nice and easy read, perfect for those that love a good chic lit book. The characterisation was nice and pleasant and I enjoyed the concept of the story, It wasnt anything ground breaking but still a good story.

A story of friendship, life changes, love and a bit more. This is the story of Emily and how she copes with lose and moving forward in life and with her life.

It is a lovely story, a story that many of us can probably relate to. It flows well, it is sweet and even light-hearted. It is a story for everyone.

Easy to read, entertaining and a bit of fun. I enjoyed this one.

A very sweet and enjoyable read! This novel follows the story of Emily - a young woman with a lifelong dream of opening a cafe, but who faces a lot of self-doubt, trauma and challenges along the way. Although the premise of the novel seems very simple, the author does a fantastic job of creating complex, realistic and likeable characters. I was cheering on Emily throughout the story and the plot decisions were very satisfying.

This novel also provides a great commentary on the importance of relationships - family, friends, acquaintances and work colleagues. Although there is an element of romance throughout the novel, Emily's relationships with her dad, clients and other supporting characters throughout the novel were so well written. The author did a commendable job in illustrating how these connections all contribute to our successes and challenges, no matter how small a connection seems to be.

I also love the unique premise of writing about a board game cafe. I love board games and that contributed to my enjoyment of the book. I even picked up a few ideas about new games to buy! However, even readers who are not fans of board games or only know the classic games (Scrabble, snakes and ladders etc) will be able to follow along. Readers who enjoy games, small town stories, stories about friendship, or who are looking for a heartwarming read will surely enjoy this book.

Overall, I really enjoyed this read and will be recommending it to others once it is published this spring (April 2023)! Thank you to NetGalley and Aria & Aries for providing me a ARC of the novel.

I received a free copy of, The Little Board Game Cafe, by Jennifer Page, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Emily has lost everything, so she decides to pursue her dream and buy a business, a cafe. Not knowing its not a successful business. Will Emily be able to survive and thrive, or is this just another loss for Emily. A really good read.

I really tried to push through this, but I couldn't go on. I was about to get through 25% of the book and ended up DNF'ing the book. There were about 5 moments where I wanted to quit but I kept trying to push thru until it was such a forceful chore to try to read it that I decided this was enough.

Problems I had with this book
1. Third person POV. I HATE third person POV and will always DNF it. It is hard to connect with the character when reading in this POV.
2. There is far too many British slang and lingo. The mentions of all the different towns is already hard to build the world in my mind because I've never heard of these places. I'm not sure if its real or made up. Then there are all the slang words that I don't understand either so half the time I'm trying to figure out what a simple sentence even means.
3. I don't like when there are quotation marks around someone speaking that 'quote' is being used. I've never seen this type of punctuation being used before. Normally "quote" is being used. The way this book uses ' instead of " makes it harder to read.
4. Pacing was off. There wasn't enough content about Emily and James' relationship, and their breakup seemed incredibly rushed. There was no build up to them breaking up, it just happened and they were both indifferent, it was weird. Even though their breakup seemed rush, the rest of the book up until where I stopped seemed very slow paced.

There were honestly so many things wrong with this book that it was incredibly hard to enjoy. I would not recommend this book to anyone.

A cozy, lovely story about finding the courage to follow your dreams despite life's hard knocks.

I really enjoyed this story and read it in one sitting. I could commiserate with Emily on feeling stuck and unsure of where to head next when she finds herself unemployed. The big feeling of "what now?" becomes "what if?" when she allows herself to believe in an old dream she had to open a cafe as a teenager. The unique theme of the cafe certainly made it a fun ride. I myself got into board games through my spouse so it was a lot of fun to watch her relationship evolve with board games and the man who got her into it all!

If you're looking for a sweet and light read that feels like a warm cup of tea, this is the book for you.

My first book by this author, and what a delightful read! We meet Emily who pursues her lifelong dream of owning a café! The cafe she chooses though turns out a bit of a nightmare with no passing trade and not many customers, but can it all change when she comes across the idea of introducing board games?

This was a lovely story. I liked Emily’s character and felt quite sorry for her right from the beginning when she loses her job, her house and her fiancé all in one go. I’ve always loved the idea of running a café, so could totally relate to Emily’s enthusiasm for running her own! I loved the idea of having a theme café, and when board games were mentioned and tables were decorated, I could totally see me sitting down for lunch whilst playing a game of draughts or snakes and ladders! Some of the games however I’d never heard of, and to be honest I never realised there were so many different types of board games! I loved Ludek’s character and the surprise of what he was hiding in his house was…well surprising!! He was such a lovely character though and would have loved him as my GP!

The story flowed along at a lovely pace. There was the required romance, lots of café related talk (the Polish food sounded so tasty!) and some heart-warming friendships amongst the regulars to the café. I loved the relationship that Emily had with her dad, and whilst I didn’t really like James initially (or strangely her best friend Kate for that matter!), I did warm to them all as the story moved on. The location was perfectly chosen and the storyline was light-hearted, emotional at times and very easy to read! Grab yourself a latte and sausage and bacon sandwich and settle down to enjoy!

This novel is all about love  ❤ and friendship.

When out protagonist Emily loses her job, boyfriend and home in one day we know that her life is going to change dramatically.
She live  in  West Yorkshire in village called Essendale. She dreams of owning her own small cafe thereand this is going to be the best time to do it,  as she has literally nothing to lose. 

The only problem is the cafe she buys does not have many passing trade 'no foot fall' therefore not many customers at all. She needs to turn this failing business around and make it a brighter and make it nicer place to work an eat in. If she cannot do this the business is bound to fail.
But at present Emily is 'working six days a week and mostly on her feet than sitting behind a desk- was taking its toll and she was tired'.

Local board game obsessed GP Ludek he is Polish and he partner hasintroduces her to the world of board games, the group play games about taking risks, Ludes Emily watched him 'fascinated by how meticulously sorted out all the pieces' 'He  looks  after his games' say Malcolm (His friend)'the way other people look after their children '.

Is this new business destined to fail or can Emily and her friends turn things arou she first saw him'.
Need a 'Unique Selling Point' for the Lancashire Hotpot Cafe. 'Something that would make it a destination to persuade people to drive a mile out of their way to visit. Or, at least a few hundred yards from Essendale's high street instead of going to sweet delights' her rival cafè so
'She was going to transform The Lancashire Hotpot from an ordinary back-street cafè into a board gamers paradise'.

Opening night 🌙 òf cafè and Ludek states 'It'd  risk I'm willing to take for your' after he brings lots of (expensive) games to the cafe.

Kate, Emily's flatmate and best friend, turns up at the grand opening 🌙 night with new  boyfriend Freddie but they are drunk, and as soon as they arrive  they spoil one of Ludek's special games.

Things go from bad to worse when Emily find out  that Costa is to open in three weeks time, on the High Street!!!
'Now she was back to square one.  No, worse than square one.  When she was at square one, she didn't have a reputation. Now it has a bad one'

This is a easy to read novel,  and has a overall upbeat feel to it😊 ! I can quite see this being the first of a series of books 📚 as we have a knowledge of town, characters and challenges, they might face. 

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for giving me a complementary digital copy of this ebook in exchange for a honest review. All opinions expressed are completely my own.

Emily has always wanted to open a cafe. It was her and her mum's dream. A cafe is up for sale and she decides to buy it but then discovers it wasn't such a good deal as she thought. Ludek a local games enthusiast persuades her to let his friend suse the cafe for their games night. Loved it

I received this book from Netgalley. The first thing I noticed about this book was the cover, and then the title. It's been a dream of mine for quite some time to open up a little coffee shop so this book seemed like a great choice.

It's easy to read and the character descriptions are really good. I feel like I got to know the characters really well. I find the idea of buying the business a bit odd. Probably because it's a café that is closed. So why would she need to buy it? Couldn't she just rent the premises and open her own from scratch - then again, I'm no expert.

Having Costa open up wouldn't change the business that Em's Café has. I love Costa but sometimes you want to go to a cute, independent place instead. Also, I'm sure she would have a better selection of treats.

I like Emily as a character but I so feel like she gave up too easily. She just sold/donated all of her things without even trying to make enquiries about finding a new place - that was disappointing.

Where can I find my own Ludek though?! Man, he is such a great character. Definitely book boyfriend potential ;)

First of all, I love this cover. I was immediately wanted to pick it up based by the title and this most adorable cover. This story follows Emily's journey to happiness and self discovery with a touch of romance. Emily is tired of her "average life" and takes us on a journey of her pitfalls and challenges to succeed. I loved the game nights and the competition of the other coffee shop in town. I wish I had a place like this near me. Sounds like a dream.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Really enjoyed this read, was a lovely story too! The community of the cafe and the board game sound wonderful!

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Aria and Aries for the opportunity to read this in exchange for my honest review.

Unfortunately it was not a winner for me this time.

I was immediately drawn to this book by the charming cover, and was thrilled when I was given the chance to read this. Unfortunately, it just fell a little flat for me. Emily is finally fulfilling her lifelong dream of opening a cafe, and has put her life savings into a little shop that is not known for being very successful. But she is determined to turn it around and to make her late mother proud with the best cafe in…Yorkshire or wherever it is, I forget already! With the (sort of) help from her best friend, Kate, an old man named Mr. B who was a faithful customer at the original cafe and takes an instant liking to Emily, and Ludek, the hot, board-game obsessed doctor she’s just met, she turns the cafe into an amazing, successful board game cafe their little town has always needed and never knew it! So cute! So fun!

Unfortunately, I didn’t connect with any of the characters in this one, and more often than not, I was just annoyed at someone on any given page. Mostly, it irked me how terribly everyone important in Emily’s life treated her- especially her AWFUL best friend, Kate. She is constantly telling Emily what she’s done wrong and what she should have done instead, ignores Emily when she tries to defend her actions, and then is a huge flake of a friend the times Emily actually needs her (it’s supposed to be a cute character quirk, I guess, that she’s trying to find “the one,” but the amount of times she ditches Emily during important times for the sake of another first date is really enraging to me).

The only person who actually treats her reasonably well is Ludek, the cute board game-obsessed doctor she ends up falling in love with. But I just felt no chemistry between them at all and never got invested in their relationship.

In the end, I’m sort of apathetic to the book overall. It’s not terrible, but it just wasn’t that great read I was hoping it to be. Hopefully it hits the mark for other readers!

What a fantastic read! I thoroughly enjoyed 'The Little Board Game Cafe'. It's an engaging story that keeps you turning the pages to find out what happens next. There are twists and turns along the way with unexpected outcomes and many tender and poignant moments. It has a satisfying ending that will leave you with a warm glow. I also loved the brilliant descriptions of quaint villages and cosy cafes, I wanted to step inside the book and snuggle up with a hazelnut latte, a slab of cake and a board game on the go!

Ohh i really enjoyed this book, something a bit different i like the idea of a board game cafe, wish there was one near me

As a recent board game addict I had to read this book immediately! I'm pleased to say I absolutely loved it. The characters were mostly all likeable (a bit more support from her friend early on would have been nice) and the storyline took a few turns before reaching the expected happy ending. I will look for more books by this author.

And the bonus is I now have some new board games to check out :)