This was a cute and rather charming story. I enjoyed the cat theme but the astrology portions were a bit too much for me. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This gave me anime vibes. Loved the cozy feel and just thoroughly enjoyed the reading experience. Super cute and would definitely recommend if this is what you like

What a charming little book. Short and sweet, this delightful story is heartwarming and uplifting. Multiple characters are going through something, and a visit to the Full Moon Coffee Shop helps them figure out how to get through it and move on towards something better in their life. In the end, you find out how all of these people are connected, and it’s a sweet and lovely connection.

I found this magical and cozy book to be very entertaining, fun and easy to read. The messages given with each story are something to take to heart and apply to your own life.

If you’re looking for a feel good, short and sweet story, this is the book for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Delightful novella set in Japan and in a cafe run by cats! The separate stories come together quickly and weave into a beautifully surprising tale of reward and redemption. Definitely a worthwhile read for reflection and discovery of how past deeds create dreams-come-true.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballentine for the opportunity to read this ARC.

The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki is a charming and delightful read; I found myself more and more wanting to look for this coffee shop at the next full moon.

I do not follow astrology, so I didn’t follow everything that the cats were explaining to the MCs, but that didn’t take away from the delightful experience of a visit to the Full Moon Coffee Shop. I loved how each of the characters stories were entwined with each other and finding out how they were all connected was so satisfying. I really wish this were a longer read because it was such a pleasant escape to sink into.

I’d like to thank Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

In "The Full Moon Coffee Shop," Mai Mochizuki takes readers on a whimsical journey reminiscent of beloved series like "Before the Coffee Gets Cold" and "What You are Looking for is in the Library".

This story is set mostly in the cozy ambiance of a Japanese café where magical realism thrives and felines speak the language of the stars. Mochizuki created a delightful fusion of café culture, astrology, and personal growth.

The narrative revolves around people whose lives intertwine through chance encounters. Here in the full moon coffee shop, under the guidance of enigmatic talking cats and the mystique of horoscopes and zodiacs, the story's protaganists embark on a journey of self-discovery. What sets this tale apart is its refusal to offer magical quick-fixes; instead, characters find empowerment and enlightenment through their own insights, that lead to genuine personal transformation.

"The Full Moon Coffee Shop" is a charming and relaxing read that celebrates the joys of friendship, self-awareness, and the simple pleasures found in a cup of coffee and the company of talking cats. Fans of magical realism and feel-good narratives will find themselves enchanted by this tale. Mochizuki has created a story that not only entertains but also inspires reflection on the power of understanding oneself. This is a must-read for anyone seeking a cozy low-stakes escape into a world of magic and astrology.

Disclosure: I received a digital review copy of "The Full Moon Coffee Shop" from NetGalley and Random House Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

The Full Moon Coffee Shop weaves together three initially seeming disparate stories. Mizuki is a script writer for story lines for secondary characters in a dating game, instead of the main hero. Akari is working in television and Satsuki, an actress fired from a show for having an affair with a married star. Takashi is a cofounder of a small IT start up in Osaka, M Y Systems and Megumi is a hair dresser in nearby Fushimi.

This book gives cat cafe a whole new meaning. I enjoyed the storyline and how the cafe decided what to serve each guest. Ultimately, the story started strong but lost me in all the astrology. If you love astrology or are interested in it, I think you will enjoy this book

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for an ARC on NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

The Full Moon Coffee Shop is a cafe ran by cats that only appears on a full moon. This story tells the tale of 3 interconnected people at different stages in their lives who are invited to the cafe and all walk away with different realizations. I love the idea that this cafe shop serves you exactly what you need, physically and spiritually, without ever taking your order.

This book is not anything I would normally find an interest in but when I received the email from PGH inviting me to try the book I figured why not. It was worth it. There is a lot you can take away from this quick read. A few points that stuck for me were:

- [ ] Home has to be a sanctuary
- [ ] The Mirror Principle: everything you do in life is reflected back on you in time
- [ ] Know yourself. When you feel lost in life, pull out your map and check yourself
- [ ] Some people are more vulnerable to the effects of a mercurial retrograde

As I’ve said, there is a a lot you can digest in this short story. I think this will be a good book to circle back to when you have life-based questions. It may inspire you to find your answers where you’d never expect it or at the very least pay closer attention to your dreams (both sleep and awake). One of my favorite parts of a book is where everything just clicks into place and that happened towards the end of the story when you find out the reason behind the cats.

The Full Moon Coffee Shop seemed like it would be a bit like a cozy novel mashup of the Mystical Coffee Shop/Midnight Diner (but with cats). The story proceeds in four parts with different customers visiting the titular coffee shop and getting (astrological) advice from talking cats. There was a lot more astrology---often given in almost straight exposition---than I expected, reminding a little of Richard Bach's stories (e.g., Jonathan Livingstone Seagull) from way back when. But it was otherwise a perfectly serviceable set of stories and there were some really great moments!

Wow. This was such a well written novella. So easy to get sucked into and fall in love with this cozy little cafe. I love the spider web the characters are all connected by. Such a sweet story with astrological backgrounds.

Thank you to netgalley for the ARC!

I enjoyed this! The characters felt a little stiff, but that may have been due to the translation. I think it would have benefited from more of a "show don't tell" mindset, especially with character motivations, but all in all it was a cute, quick read.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!
Really cute book, love the cats!
I could have done with a little bit less on the astrology tho, like it just went too deep, too much info it took away from the story imo.
Excellent translation, really smooth!

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The Full Moon Coffee Shop, written by Mai Mochizuki and translated by Jesse Kirkwood, is officially one of my favourite books of the year. As a massive fan of Sailor Moon, nothing appeals to me more than astrology-based characters, beautiful Japanese locations, quests for love and romance, and, of course, cats that are some sort of supernatural alien acting as a guiding force for the plot. I'm also a lover of tarot, astrology, and cats that talk, so this story spoke to me on many levels and I ate it up in a single sitting.

I think my favourite aspect of the story is how everyone is linked. Even though this taoes places in the bustling and busy prefectures of Japan, all of the characters have some sort of link to each other, even if they don't remember or realize it. The down-on-her-luck scriptwriter is a former coworker of the stressed movie director, and is the current scriptwriter for the technology-challenged game dev. That sort of overarching connection exists between all of the characters of the story and makes it feel so incredibly magical when you bump into one of them outside of their point of view chapter. For as large as Japan is, these people all manage to find each other.

I'm sure that the dialogue is a bit different in the original untranslated work, but I found many of the characters to be funny and extremely modern I their way of speaking, and that allowed me to feel very connected to them. The translation is really, really beautiful and I don't feel like I hit any bumps of confusion. Which is amazing, considering how much deep astrological explanation exists in the story, both in dialogue and exposition. The cats of the Full Moon Coffee Shop take as much time as they need to explain to their patrons about their natal charts, planetary houses, and star signs. Informing each character of how the planets are currently affecting their lives and successes, their romances and failures, all while serving them the most delicious-sounding food in the world. I never felt like I was lagging behind or too confused to keep reading at my usual pace.

The ending of this story made me cry, big time. There are a lot of books that market themselves as "cozy fantasy" or "low stakes," or "like being wrapped up in a warm blanket." But I think the Full Moon Coffee Shop truly deserves these kinds of descriptions, because it made me feel like I really was wrapped up in a cozy, low stakes, warm blanket, with a nice cup of cocoa by a cheerfully crackling fire, listening to the sound of classical music forever drifting through the air.

I was really excited to read The Full Moon Coffee Shop because I love Japanese culture and I wanted to read something written in Japanese. This was translated to English and I think the translation was great. The story wasn't really for me, although it definitely could have been save for one thing: the astrology.

I can certainly understand the appeal for those who believe in it or even find it interesting, and the story itself was interesting and I could have gone along with the astrology part of it had it not gone as deep as it did into it. I found myself skipping over entire parts because I just did not care about the explanations behind the signs and the phases and things, I wanted to know how they related to the character, because that's who I cared about. It felt like this book was trying to teach me about their interpretation of astrology instead of trying to tell me a story at several parts.

So it wasn't a bad read, but it wasn't my favorite either. Very cute, very quick, just not really for me!

First off I cried so many happy tears reading this! 5 out 5 amazing! I am so glad it's getting translated in English!! Second, I am currently struggling with bi-polar depression so I have been in a but of a reading slump. This pulled me directly out of my slump. Pulled me into another world. I felt transported and could see the scenes set before me. I smelled the coffee, teas and drinks. I tasted the food. I now am craving the treats mentioned in the book. The only thing I wish was that there was a spotify playlist to go along so I could listen to the songs as they are mentioned. It would have taken this experience to a next level. I also noticed some weird translation things but other then that this was an absolute magical experience. I wish I had a physical copy right now in front of me. I would consume and devor multiple times over. I wish I had the Japanese version! I'd learn to read it as well! Thank you for letting me read this before it was published. It's made a hige impact on my life and I can't wait for it to impact hundreds of other lives as well.
Devouringbooks@onmail.com

This was a random borrow on NetGalley, and while it was cute - I didn’t overly love it.

To me, it read like an anthology surrounding this mythical pop up cafe run by natal chart reading cats. We follow different characters as they’re each going through their own life pains and end up at the cafe hearing some sage advice. I liked how each character had a commonality between them and the interconnectedness of the story come the end. However, sometimes the bounce between POVs felt abrupt to me. The astrology elements were interesting , but will likely go over the head of anyone not familiar with birth charts or astrology. It was cute and quick.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for this ARC! All opinions below are my own.

This was a cozy story about two women in Japan trying to make sense of their lives and careers, and where to move forward. Like many magical realism books, there is that sprinkle of fantasy - in this. case, a cat cafe and a whole series of astrology and life phase hypotheses. I found this book to be incredibly calming, and was written in that matter-of-fact way that feels to me like a core of Japanese literature. This would be a great book for a cold day in, or a day when you just want to sit and muse some time away, with a couple piercing insights that really hit home every so often.

very much in the same vein as before the coffee gets cold but with cats and astrology (which make everything better). i love when books like this have all the characters be connected in some way and everything came together in a very satisfying way at the end also surprisingly very informative about astrology??? i finally learned what mercury in retrograde actually means 😔 overall very cozy and whimsical and wholesome!

perfect for fans of series like “before the coffee gets cold” and “the kawagama food detectives”

japanese authors will never cease to deliver on magical realism, cafe culture, and talking cats.

the story follows four people and their chance encounters with a coffee shop called the full moon coffee shop, where talking cats teach them about their characteristics via horoscopes and zodiacs. i really liked how there was no magical cure for any person’s problems, but their own understandings of themselves better informed them of their agency and helped them shift their perspectives.

the storyline, although told through four different perspectives, comes together really nicely in the end for a super great feel-good journey. loved the character development and wished the book was longer to see where their journeys take them, but the prologue wraps up their journeys quite nicely

tldr; a very cute and relaxing read about cats, coffee, and self growth. excited for this to come out aug 19! thank you to netgalley and random house publishing for providing me with the digital review copy in exchange for my honest thoughts and opinions!

Maybe I'm coming into this review a bit biased, as I have the softest spot in my heart for cats, but this was a delight. It started out so campy, as a group of strangers who each end up at a café at night during the full moon who each receive advice on what's making them feel stuck in their own lives...from three-foot tall talking cats who consult astrology charts in order to help. It was so cute and disarming, and in the end felt like a warm hug. I absolutely loved this.

Big thank you to Ballentine Books, Random House Publishing Group and Netgalley for giving me an eARC in exchange for an honest review!