Emily's life is imploding. She loses her job, her fiance and her home. Sleeping on a friend's couch is not a long-term solution. Emily and her mother had a long-held dream - to open a small cafe and serve good food and good friendships, but alas, her mother died.. A small cafe comes up for sale, and Emily, with no experience, buys it, only to discover the foot traffic on that street is almost non-existent. She watches her money dwindle away. An older gentleman becomes her one regular and encourages her when she wonders about turning the cafe into a board games site. After a lot of sweat equity and going deeper in debt, she re-opens. Gradually the cafe plus Emily's wonderful baked goods starts to take off.

The story is not just about games - it's also about relationships and how important it is to cultivate and cherish friends from all walks of life. Emily and her father are close. Emily and her sometimes-boyfriend, Ludek, spend time trying to develop their relationship and determining where it will go.

A lovely, feel-good story.

Thanks NetGalley for giving me this ARC in return for an honest review.

Honestly, I DNF'd this about 20%. I couldn't get into the story and didn't much care for the characters. It just seemed very mediocre and I wouldn't find myself wanting to pick it up to continue reading.

While I'm sure there are tons out there who would love this, but it just wasn't for me and because of that I can't give it a super positive review.

This is such a cute, heartwarming story of starting over and living your dreams.

Emily works for her fiancee James's company and the story starts out with him firing her (making her "redundant") which throws a wrench in their relationship. Emily tries to deal with it and stay together, but the more she thinks about what she wants to do now that she isn't working, the more she is convinced that she wants to fulfill her Mom's dream of opening up a cafe. When her friend, Kate signs them up for a running club, and she stumbles in front of an empty cafe advertising it is available for rent, she knows she has to do it. But James isn't supportive and so she moves out, signs on the dotted line, and tries to live the dream.

This wouldn't be a good story without some bumps along the way though! Despite her prowess in cooking, no one comes to the cafe at first and she is left trying in vain to figure out how to be successful. Thankfully, Ludek, who she met at the running club, has a weekly board game group that Emily has attended a few times and she gets the idea to re-make the cafe into a board game cafe. Things start to really improve and her relationship with Ludek is getting more serious, but her fear of commitment and the landlord selling the building to developers throw her for a loop and she is left trying to pick up the pieces and re-create her dream.

I loved reading about Emily's dream for a cafe, her grief over her mother's death, and relationship with Ludek. This story started out right away and never was there a dull moment. I thought the story line of Emily and her father learning how to move on after her Mother's death was particularly well done and I appreciated that the author didn't gloss over how long grief can have a hold on you. The romance with Ludek was pretty well done, but I was getting a little frustrated with the continued misunderstandings so I was happy to see everything worked out in the end.

Fun, sweet read. What does one do when they lose their job, home, and fiancé in a matter of a couple of days? Open up a cafè on a side street. Not enough people coming in to make it a viable source of income? Make it a board games café. Throw in romance, insecurities, a friend in search of her own romance, and a father who won't leave home, makes for a fun read with ups a downs. The characters are realistic but fun.
I received a copy from NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own.

This is an adorable, charming, and cozy story. I loved the author's writing style, the way she described things just enough and how she ended scenes immediately once the action the reader needed was through. It was told in succinct episodes within chapters. The supporting cast was lovely and interesting. Even though it touches on themes of lose and grief, it was an uplifting and overall happy read.
I loved the twist on the little cafe setting by including board games.
A very enjoyable book and I look forward to more from this author.

A sweet little rom-com about taking risks and pursuing your dreams.

Emily, after unexpectedly finding herself in a new stage of life, decides to take a leap and finally open the cafe that she and her mother always dreamed about.

My favourite things about this book were as such:

1. Mr. B
2. The food (I saved quite a few recipes - determined to make chorley cakes now)
3. Board games (my list of to play/buy is getting rather long, and I'm not mad about it)

I loved the detail that went into the food and the board games. It really helped to set the stage! And Mr. B was a charming, lovely way to give Emily the pushes she needed to continue.

My main gripe is with Emily herself - I found her to be oddly judgmental and, to be quite frank, confusing. Her problems, or at least the way she described them, felt surface level, and at times her outlook was so bleak that it was hard to feel much sympathy. It's hard to fully enjoy a story when you stop rooting for the protagonist halfway through.

That being said, I definitely enjoyed my experience reading this, and I'd recommend if you're looking for something cozy! The setting, side characters, and (again) the board games were a lot of fun.

Thank you to NetGalley and Aria and Aries for providing me an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Little Board Game Cafe is a sweet story of hope, love, and taking risks to make your dreams a reality.

The third-person person narrative threw me off initially, but I got used to it by the end. The novel had a fair bit of British references that I didn't really understand, but enjoyed learning about (such as the Lancashire vs Yorkshire rivalry).

For the first half of the book I did not understand why Emily was so blind to the quite obvious faults in her fiance. I was also not a fan of Emily's best friend Kate - particularly when she shows up with Freddie, as well as how judgemental she is when meeting the board game group. Was a little disappointed that even Ludek seemed to be dissing the D&D players in his group - especially given that it would have been easy to dispel this false narrative by really showcasing the creativity that goes into playing D&D. I'm glad that these characters redeemed themselves in the second half of the book.

As a board game enthusiast myself, I was quite thrilled to see all the in-depth research the author had done for the book. I definitely highlighted a lot of games I now want to try! I loved the idea of painted table tops to play games on - made me wish there was a board game cafe in my town too.

A big thank you to NetGalley, Aria & Aries, and of course to Jennifer Page, for letting me read this lovely ARC.

Wonderful, a tale of someone following her dreams. Huge pitfalls along the way in both her business and love lives . Hard to put down, loved it .

The Little Board Game Cafe by Jennifer Page is about Emily and her dream of owning a cafe. Emily spent a summer in her teens managing a Cafe with her mum whilst the owner was on holiday. Her parents planned for Emily to get a university qualification to help run her own cafe business. Things hadn't worked out as planned. We meet up with Emily as a twenty-something-year-old, engaged and working for her fiancee, James. Her seemingly idyllic life is upended when she is made redundant by James. Emily finds herself without a job, a fiancee and a place to stay. With no job to go to, Emily decides to turn her and her mum's lifelong dream into a reality. She happens upon a recently closed cafe off the beaten track for sale. The story takes us on the journey of Emily's discovery. The book introduces us to dynamic characters like Emily's childhood friend, Kate, the local GP Ludek and customers who became her friends and helped her with the rollercoaster life that was her reality. The book is easy to read but still manages to fill the story with friendship, romance, grief, self-doubt, humour, failure, success and interesting three-dimensional characterisation. I recommend the book to lovers of board games and those who enjoy quick reads.

**this review contains spoilers**

'The Little Board Game Café' begins with Emily being fired by her fiancé, James, and using this opportunity to finally follow her and her mum's dream and open her own café. The story then follows Emily through the up's and down's of business and relationships whilst we see her dream come to fruition.

Firstly, I'd like to say that I adored *almost* every character in this book, and those I didn't like at the beginning redeemed themselves further in. The first note I made whilst reading simply said "I hate James", so needless to say I was very pleased when Emily broke things off with him🤣

The storyline in this book was fairly traditional, in that you knew there would be a happy ending, but was also thoroughly enjoyable with a few twists and turns that I didn't see coming.

I absolutely adored the addition of the board games in this story, and loved that you could tell that Jennifer Page herself is a board game fan; seeing the names of real games that I love made me so happy. I mean who wouldn't want to call their cat Catan? It is one of the best board games there is!

I gave this book 4🌟 overall and would recommend it to anyone who likes a romance intended to brighten up their day.

And on that note, I'll leave you with my favourite quote from the book, one that made me laugh and immediately read it aloud to my boyfriend: 'Afterwards, Ludek wrapped his arms and legs around her, clinging to her body like one of those little koalas you see sometimes in toys shops that grips on the top of a pencil.'

I am a sucker for romances that revolve around someone starting their own business and this certainly delivered on that! I love how romances like these have a theme of 'finding your purpose in life' and when the main character then also finds the right person to share their passion with I am sold! I loved all the board game references and how everyone in this town came together to make this café a success and support Emily.

I don't think this book will stay with me forever (which is why I didn't give it five stars), but I certainly had a great time reading this!

This is such a sweet, delightful and easy read, that I quickly got drawn into the story. It had a nice twist with the games element, compared with the usual cafe owner romance genre stories. I loved reading about the different games and have noted a few to look into for myself. The writing flowed well and the storyline was really engaging and complex enough to keep my interest all the way through.

I loved the characters, especially Emily, the would-be cafe owner, she is so sweet that really wanted her to succeed. This story has a wealth of secondary characters, which I liked more as the book went on. I did feel the breakdown of Emily's relationship with her fiance was rather abrupt but it did move the story along. The characters are well-developed and realistic too.

This is a debut novel for this author and it was an excellent first book, I look forward to reading more from this author in the future. If you are looking for a sweet romance with a few twists then this one is worth getting.

So cute and fun! Definitely a bit out of my comfort zone, but I appreciated this book a lot. The plot had a cute premise and was really enjoyable and light. It wasn't heavy on the romance, which was pretty great to me. I liked spending time with those characters and following their lives. I'd love to read more from this author when I'm in the mood for more stories like this one.

I really enjoyed this book and found it easy to read. A different concept on a cafe, this time with board games and I was intrigued to see how it would turn out. Throw in some relationship drama, love and humour and you’ve got a winner!

TW: death of a parent which affects the FMC Emily and her other parent. This was a cute story about Emily and Ludek. It is about Emily who is finally going for what she has always wanted. She meets Ludek throughout this new adventure. Her cafe is her dream from her and her mom. As she changes it to a board game cafe she is starting to feel better about herself and getting her dream. I love board games and and this book was super cute. There is growth with Emily and Ludek too.

A charming story about finding the courage to follow your dreams and finding love and friendships along the way. I was immediately attracted to this book from it’s cover and title. As a board gamer myself, I was curious to see how the author would incorporate gaming into the story and if the games would go beyond classics to introduce modern hobby games. I was pleasantly surprised at the variety of games mentioned and how the author drew the main character into this hobby. The relationships she built along the way to realizing her dream were a great addition to the story. My only critique is the way the author initially portrayed the gaming group as a bunch of nerdy men. Gaming groups today are a variety of different people from both men and women to couples and families. Otherwise, this was a lovely story that I would highly recommend to both gamers and non-gamers alike.

What a sweet and enjoyable read! This was my first book by Jennifer Page and I’m excited to check out more from her. I really enjoyed reading about the cafe and it was an easy read and was a good pace. I would recommend this book to anyone that likes a plot with romance and just a fun read.

What a charming book this is. So good to read a different perspective on 'romance,' with the addition of Board Games into Emily's cafe. I was fascinated by the names of many of the games and wondered if they are in fact real? However, the main thing is that this is a delightful book, well written and with highly believable charaters.
Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the chance to read and enjoy it.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. What a nice feel good easy read, great characters, great location and a nice storyline.

I absolutely adored this book. I could connect with the characters which is very important to me. The struggles that Emily went trough were very realistic and I could relate to her. She looses her job, fiancée and home and she has to build a new life while staying with a friend and realising her dream of owning a cafe. I would definitely recommend reading this book!!