Thank you to Ballentine for the opportunity to read for a honest review.


😅😬 forgive me because I am going to be honest though. It was a very quick read despite not being that good.
It did have a whimsical nature to it which is the reason I even gave this book a glance.
There was quite a bit of drama in this little book about a pop up cafe that only appeared in the full moon and was ran by talking cats. A woman struggling with her career , another with her love life due to being outed that she’d had an affair with a married man…. And another woman who they made it seem like she was originally a he ……? Idk they weren’t clear on that and frankly I don’t care to know.

It was whimsical and some parts were cute but I wouldn’t read any other books by this author, but that’s just my opinion.

What a fun and interesting novel. I find myself still thinking about parts of the book even days after finishing it. I just really feel like anything I say would spoil this magical book but I just want everyone to read it and enjoy it as mischief as I do.

I appreciate the ARC of The Full Moon Coffee Shop, received from Net Galley.

The Full Moon Coffee Shop is a short and charming story about a magical coffee shop which serves each person exactly what they need. The book follows a cast of interconnected characters all on journeys of self-improvement, showing just how small the world is and how the smallest actions can have an impact on others, and on oneself. As each character faces dilemmas in their life, it becomes apparent that just by examining and learning about yourself, changes can be enacted for the better. The book might be best suited for people who enjoy, or are at least open to the idea, of astrology and zodiac signs. I certainly felt a curiosity to learn more about my personal zodiac houses after finishing. But at the very least, anyone who loves cats can find some joy in reading…although the cats can get a bit long-winded at time. The story is overall sweet and feel-good. It provides a basis for understanding astrology presented in an easy to comprehend manner, and doesn’t delve too deep into it. I’d recommend the book to anybody who is stuck in a rut, or anybody who feels like their life just has something missing from it, because I think the characters can inspire people to take their own chances and make their own changes in life.

This book was great for a short story! I love Japanese literature and story-telling because there is always such a diverse, yet close-knit world showcased to the reader. That being said, this is a translated version and I don’t think it exactly captured what was written in the original text (or what I would think was original). The cozy feel of this short story is something that I would recommend to many, especially if they want to branch out into more intellectual and thought-provoking reading.

This was a really quick insightful read! All about how knowing astrology can change the course of your life. I love that it's a pop up coffee shop run by cats. Everybody questions it at first and then just seems to completely let go and go with it. I really enjoyed this one more than I thought I would!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House publishing for my digital ARC!

Have you ever noticed a cat wandering alone? Did you stop and pet it? According to Japanese legend, if you are nice to a cat, the cat will someday return the favor. In this story, being nice to a cat gets you an invitation to the Full Moon Coffee Shop. A screenwriter found her life unsatisfactory. She was once the hottest screenwriter in Japan and now writes character scripts for a video game company. Why did her life take her here? A director with a failed relationship wonders how she could have lost her way. A hairstylist returns home after being disillusioned by her job at a big city salon. Is home where she should be? A website developer wonders how to return to website design. Each of these people finds their way to The Full Moon Coffee Shop. Each person is served the beverage and pastry determined by the cats. As they enjoy their refreshments, the cats consult with them and gently work to help them find their true path in life.

There is magic under the Kyoto moon. Talking cats, mysterious beverages, and pop-up locations soothe the lost souls. This is an endearing story that appeals to your whimsical side. Finding this cafe would be wonderful! Each person's story has a beautiful reset after they visit the cafe and since this appears to be the first book of a series, it will be exciting to read the next book.

Thank you Random House and NetGalley for the advanced copy!

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. A coffee shop is where you would normally see an eclectic group of individuals socializing with one another. This particular one is like one you've never seen. You may see a clever cat or two. A quick read.

'With a name like that, I'd been expecting something quaint and old-fashioned, but this looked more like a trendy pop-up café. Its soft lights glowed against the dark backdrop of the riverbank.'

'The Full Moon Coffee Shop' by Mai Mochizuki is a mystical novel about a pop-up café appearing to people in need of some time off, a custom order made specially for them, and some external perspective on their lives.

While the premise is interesting, the external perspective received by each customer is entirely too dependent on astrological charts. I expected a little astrology from the description, but tying up everything from the choice of their profession to their romantic interests and general luck with random events to just a series of Zodiac houses based on the time and place of birth was too trite for me. I would have liked at least a little conversation about their lives and opinions first that weren't immediately attributed to astrology or their 'phase of life'. Or a food/ drink order customized more to the people's personality or mood than just their age.

I did enjoy the mystical vibes surrounding this café and whom it appears to, but it seems like the advice was given only to this group of people due to a special connection in their earlier years. Overall, I'd recommend the book to anyone interested in or familiar with astrology.

Thanks to NetGalley and the Random House publishing group - Ballantine for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

🌟🌟

The rating is 1 1/2 stars, rounded up to 2 stars for NetGalley and Goodreads as there might be some concepts lost in translation.

[Half a star for the premise and the whole book; 1/4 for the characters; Half a star for the writing; 1/4 star for the world-building; Zero stars for the story arc - 1 1/2 stars on the whole].

Thank you Random House Publishing and Mai Mochizuki for an NetGalley ARC copy of The Full Moon Coffee Shop!

Rating: 3.5/5

This is a modern, astrology-based, cozy fantasy that covers subjects such as relationships, careers, and the things that connect us all. The characters are loveable, their lives are interesting and so different yet still connected, and of course you cant go wrong with cats!

While I don't mind the whimsical take on heavy topics, I did feel like this had a "insta fix" quality to it which I didn't like near as much. Overall I found this to be a fun and relaxing read.

Talking cats, cafes, astronomy & wisdom! I loved this charming book and wish there were more characters to learn about and have those moments of clarity.

This review of The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki is courtesy of NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine. #TheFullMoonCoffeeShop #NetGalley #Ballantine #RandomHouse

Rating 4/5
Upcoming publication date: Aug 20 2024

I've enjoyed various Japanese tv series and manga with mysterious shops that appear/disappear and are food related, so when I saw the description regarding I really wanted to read it.

It's organized as three chapters plus an epilogue where each chapter is really a short story of multiple parts that involves a character/characters ending up with an encounter with the Full Moon Coffee Shop.

The first chapter is the story of Mizuki, the screenwriter mentioned in the book description. It starts with some background of what's going on in her life. Then the cats appear and she's brought to the Full Moon Coffee Shop. At some point, a cat asks if they can do her horoscope and it got intensely into the mumbo-jumbo of astrology even more beyond what I'd have expected with "explanations of various ages". I finished that chapter but really dreaded reading more because of the astrology went way out there and took a break to read a couple of other books including The Kamogawa Food Detectives (another Japanese translated story with a special restaurant) and Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries.

Coming back to the subsequent chapters, I was happy to find the the astrology isn't as out there and was used more for explanations of the persons character and used more to find perspective. Despite each chapter focusing primarily on different characters, the overall story was connected as a whole and tidied up which upped my rating compared to if I'd was only rating the first chapter.

Overall, it's a feel good happy cozy with some potential life lessons/viewpoints shared.

This was a cozy little fantasy. The main character is going through some personal hardships and she crosses paths with magical coffee shop.
Very legends and lattes type of vibe.
It did take me a long time to read though because it is slightly slow

Thank you to NetGalley and PRH Ballantine for giving me an eARC of this title in exchange for an honest review!

3.5 Stars, rounded up to four.

The premise for the book was lovely and adorable— a whimsical café that only appears to those in need, and it’s run by cats? Absolutely sign me up! That part of the book I loved; the people reconnecting after years apart, getting new perspectives on life, work, love, and the world at large. All of the main characters’ threads had woven together previously, and now, after many years, were being woven together again as they all searched for meaning in various areas of their lives. I liked all the characters well enough, and they all seemed authentic and realistic.

Where I felt the story lost me was the extended descriptions of astrology and, strangely enough, the food and drinks at the café. I have no qualms with astrology in general— I think it can be interesting and fun as a hobby— but the descriptions given in this novel were extremely in depth to the point of losing the story in favor of reading a character’s star chart. I felt as though the astrology was much more of a central focus, when it should have been a side detail, used to accentuate details for the characters’ stories.

I felt similarly about the food and drinks at the café. The descriptions given for what each character was served during their time at the Full Moon Coffee shop was often lengthy and detailed— which just wasn’t wholly necessary to get across the feeling of “otherworldliness” it seemed the author was trying to cultivate around these cats and their pop-up café.

In general, I wish the story had focused more on the people and their struggles/emotions/epiphanies/etc., as well as what they learned from the cats at the café, rather than birth chart reading and fancy dessert descriptions. But, the story was cute and overall enjoyable— I did not dislike it by any means.

This is an incredibly delightful book. The Full Moon Coffee Shop only opens during the full moon. It is run by three cats and visited by a small group of interconnected friends. As one reads through the short stories and epilogue you learn the relationship between these three people and why they were chosen by the cats. The cats are well-versed in astrology and use this to guide the humans to a more fulfilling life. The older gentleman playing the piano fits into the story of the visitors to this coffee shop. I’m not good at describing books, but this one is really a fun read. I highly recommend.

This was an amazing book. The three stories in it were tasteful. Also I loved that they used astrology, the authors seemed to have done their research.

Received this book through Netgalley after an email from the publishing company.

It's an easy, feel good read about a coffee shop that pops up for 3 people who are going through difficult situations in their lives. The coffee shop only shows up for those who need it and it is run by cats. The cats not only serve customers beautiful drinks and food they also dish out astrological advice.

The story comes together at the end and explains how the characters are all connected and why the cats specifically chose them.

If you are really into astrology and natal charts then I think you'd enjoy this.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

As I was reading this book, I got reminded of another popular Japanese short story collection, Before the Coffee Gets Cold. I wasn’t the biggest fan of that story but I could see the appeal.

In this one, there are also a collection of short stories and each one of these main characters stops by The Full Moon Coffee Shop. They all have a dilemma and are transported to this place. At this magical place, they are greeted by two cats, the Persian cat and the Tuxedo cat. These two cats tell the main protagonist their astrological sign based around planets. They offer insight into the problems they were having. The protagonist then thinks about this new information in regards to their dilemma.

In concept this sounds like something I would like but I was not as invested as I thought. While I do relate to what some of the dilemmas in some of the short story collections, the insight wasn’t something that I haven’t heard of before. Read this if you want something cozy and also similar vibes to the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series.

The Full Moon Coffee Shop has no set location and it only appears during the full moon. Run by talking cats who serve the customers what they need, not what they want, the cats also offer cryptic advice based on their astrological chart, helping the customers see their missteps and how they can fix them. All of the customers are young adults at a crossroads being helped by the special cats at The Full Moon Coffee Shop. A beautiful tale by Mai Mochizuki, that incorporates several mythical traditions from around the world.

The "Full Moon Coffee Shop" is a short novel that consists of a series of character montages set in Kyoto, Japan. Each section takes on the perspective of a different character - from a former scriptwriter who's fallen out of her earlier success, to a movie director who fears taking a personal risk, a hair stylist looking to make a change of career, and to an IT worker who meets his first love many years later. The novel interweaves a number of elements of magical realism, a nod to the Japanese belief that cats are good luck, and brings each of these characters to the Full Moon Coffee Shop to have their astrology revealed and to indulge in a custom, one-of-a-kind treat crafted by the feline staff.

As is the case with a number of Japanese novels, the writing takes on elements of whimsy and lightness to contrast some of the more weighty topics covered. Many of the characters are struggling with their path in life, their identity, and their relationships with those around them, and their accidental arrival at the coffee shop gives them a chance to center and reassess their thoughts and feelings, and also gives them a little guidance for the future. Each of the characters are loosely interconnected, with the few sections giving more insight into just why these individuals were invited into the Full Moon Coffee Shop. The translation felt well done, and I felt captured Mai Mochizuki's clear tone and clarity in diction.

This is a relatively light-hearted and quick read with elements in the storyline that reminded me of <u>Before the Coffee Gets Cold</u> and <u>Lonely Castle in the Mirror</u>. While it doesn't have quite the emotional depth and darkness that these novels did, I'd recommend to readers who appreciate this genre and am excited to see this published in the US in August 2024!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

After reading The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki I wrote the poem below:

Beneath the full moon,
you may find
a mysterious
train-car coffee shop
laden with Cats,
(or perhaps, Gods).

Your stars
could be read no better.
The stars could glow no brighter.
Lost One,
We will help you find your way.

Wisdom,
a moonlit feast,
the taste
you didn’t know you needed,
out of this world.

Come with quick feet,
we close
before you even know it.

poem by Kerri Lynn Hilbert©️5/22/2024

—

As for the book: A mystical coffee-shop with talking cats, the full moon, magical food, more cats—what’s not to love?

I also learned about star charts (natal charts) from this book and have found the topic very intriguing.

#cats #coffeeshop #TheFullMoonCoffeeShop#Magic #maimochizuki
#arc #netgalley #ballentine #randomhouse
#Brightbookreviews #Goodreads #facebook #Instagram