Category: 4.5 star

4.5 star

Review: Tales from the Café by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back in time…

From the author of Before the Coffee Gets Cold comes a story of four new customers each of whom is hoping to take advantage of Cafe Funiculi Funicula’s time-travelling offer.

Among some faces that will be familiar to readers of Kawaguchi’s previous novel, we will be introduced to:

The man who goes back to see his best friend who died 22 years ago
The son who was unable to attend his own mother’s funeral
The man who travelled to see the girl who he could not marry
The old detective who never gave his wife that gift…

This beautiful, simple tale tells the story of people who must face up to their past, in order to move on with their lives. Kawaguchi once again invites the reader to ask themselves: what would you change if you could travel back in time?

This is the second book in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series, though strictly speaking it isn’t necessary to read the first book. I thought I had rated it a full 5 stars, but actually it was only a 4. Nevertheless I will rate this sequel as a nice 4.5. It wasn’t necessarily “better” than the first, but considering the expectations from the first book I had going in, it actually met the (somewhat high) standards I had going in, thinking there wouldn’t be much more to add.

Tales from the Café is a continuation from the last book, but mostly it’s just new characters coming into this special cafe in Tokyo. The rules are simple, the café allows you to time travel, but only until your coffee gets cold. The main caveat is that the past (or future) cannot be changed no matter what you do in that short journey. So why would anyone want to go back? Nevertheless there are those who do, and each book is a collection of such people’s experience who wish to travel through time.

The characters in the café remain the same, though we get a further exploration of their characters, which I think was really excellent, and a nice backdrop to the main substance of the story through the customers coming in. The characters who came to travel through time were also well done, and I definitely had some teary moments during those conversations, no matter just how short they were. The emotional build up and the change in the characters truly illustrates the power of the cafe, and the book knows how to capitalize on it.

I commented last time that some of the translations were a bit off, but I think in this book I didn’t notice it as much. That, or I just got more used to it. Nevertheless, I didn’t see it as a problem here, perhaps contributing to its higher rating.

The plot was once again excellent. There is always a very gentle continuity between the short stories, and between the customers and the café characters. I really enjoyed all their interactions and it really helped to add the emotional suspense and the connection that you felt to each character and their circumstances. The book also sets out the pace really well. Sometimes I get the feeling that the character or their plight is a little bit predictable, and it usually starts off that way, but the way that it’s developed and how the author derives the message and meaning from the story really gives me new perspective, which I really appreciated all throughout the book.

I definitely enjoyed this book a lot and I’m glad I picked it up. I definitely recommend the first two books in the series. Not to mention they’re very short reads! Stay tuned for book 3 in the series.

Overall Recommendations

Tales from the Café is the second book in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series, which again takes places in this special café in Tokyo which allows a person to travel back into the past to speak with someone, usually a loved one. However, there is nothing that can be done during the travel to alter present reality. While this usually deters most customers, some others will go anyway. Just what is the purpose of such a travel, and what can be learned from a conversation where nothing in reality can be altered? Find out in this collection of very short stories, full of emotions and a journey of self-realization and self-discovery. I definitely recommend the first two books in the series!

4.5 star, YA

ARC Review: Threads That Bind by Kika Hatzopoulou

Andge @ Down the Rabbit Hole

In a world where the children of the gods inherit their powers, a descendant of the Greek Fates must solve a series of impossible murders to save her sisters, her soulmate, and her city.

Descendants of the Fates are always born in threes: one to weave, one to draw, and one to cut the threads that connect people to the things they love and to life itself. The Ora sisters are no exception. Io, the youngest, uses her Fate-born abilities as a private investigator in the half-sunken city of Alante.

But her latest job leads her to a horrific discovery: somebody is abducting women, maiming their life-threads, and setting the resulting wraiths loose in the city to kill. To find the culprit, she must work alongside Edei Rhuna, the right hand of the infamous Mob Queen—and the boy with whom she shares a rare fate-thread linking them as soul mates before they’ve even met.

But the investigation turns personal when Io’s estranged oldest sister turns up on the arm of her best suspect. Amid unveiled secrets from her past and her growing feelings for Edei, Io must follow clues through the city’s darkest corners and unearth a conspiracy that involves some of the city’s most powerful players—before destruction comes to her own doorstep.

Overall Recommendation:

Threads That Bind ties together an intriguing take on Greek mythology and the powers ones descendants take on. In a dystopian world that’s fallen to natural disasters like regular flooding, Io’s world is still filled with fear against those who are different: the other-born with gifts from the gods. If you come into this book thinking it’s a super romantic story, I mean, yes, it has romance but it’s super slow burn. What is mostly highlighted and what I loved was the adventurous journey she and her fated soulmate takes to solve the mystery of dead women killing people in her neighborhood. Wholly imaginative in world building and the pieces of the mystery, this book will have you flipping those pages as it surely did for me.

**Threads That Bind comes out June 13, 2023**

Thank Penguin Random House Canada for this copy in exchange for an honest review

I always love a good Greek mythology story but sometimes it seems we focus on very specific gods and figures. One of the many things I loved about Threads That Bind is the different take on Greek gods and the powers their descendants may have. Io Ora, our protagonist, is a moira-born, one who is descended from the Fates and can specifically cut the threads that tie the people, places and things a person loves. Oh, and also their life-thread. This makes her considerably dangerous from an outside perspective, and Io knows well what it means to be other-born and a cutter. Faced with others’ stereotypes and fears, she holds to her own morals and helps those in the poorer district of the city where she lives as a private investigator.

Enter the mystery. While there is definitely romance in this book (I will get back to this later), this was my favourite part. Heavily plot-laden, we follow Io on what was initially a simple cheating case she was hired for that quickly escalates to mysterious deaths caused by a woman with a severed life-thread. In other words, this someone should be dead yet is functioning enough to kill someone else. Partnered with the man she is connected with by a fate-thread, Edei, the action is nonstop and the pieces of the puzzle keep on getting better as we unravel more about these women and their puppeteer.

While the mystery kept the plot exciting and moving quickly, another thing I loved was the world building. The lush descriptions of this dystopian world where neo-monsoons flood the streets often and three moons circle above entice you into this otherworldly experience. The residents are forced to traverse buildings by roof with bridges built in the air, and individual large cities have become their own city-nations as the lands outside are less inhabitable. The existence of so many different other-born showed the vast variety of people and Greek gods present, and how they can use their individual powers in society. I didn’t want to leave the city of Alante, not because it’s a nice place to live, but because it felt so real.

But for my romance lovers out there, the romance here is present but alas quite a slow burn. Fighting against their fate-thread that sometimes draw them closer together – especially in life-threatening situations – Io has been trying and failing at keeping her distance with Edei, emotionally and physically. This book explores the idea of fate versus choice. If they were to fall in love, is it considered real if this was always their destiny? Or is there something more potent about the idea of choosing whom you love? I can’t wait for more in the next book between them, but I definitely felt the pacing of their love story was appropriate given the craziness going on in their city. When one meets a fates soulmate, it wouldn’t do if they fell instantly in love. Now that would feel less real.

The last thing I’ll highlight that I loved was Io’s character arc. Hurt by her overbearing sister’s rules growing up, Io dealt a lot with shame and guilt when it came to her sister’s abandonment two years prior. Add onto the fact that she’s a cutter and normal people generally regard her suspiciously, it’s hard not to want to be everyone’s saviour. Helping out of guilt versus out of kindness are two different things, and Io had a lot of baggage to process in how she lived and what propelled her actions. I liked that she had flaws, realistic ones from her upbringing, but she also carried morals that could be molded when faced with new knowledge and experience. She’s the kind of flawed protagonist I like. Not morally gray but not self righteous in their inability to admit wrong. I look forward to seeing her journey continue in book 2. It honestly can’t come out fast enough!

4.5 star

Review: The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley

Fives @ Down The Rabbit Hole

Jess needs a fresh start. She’s broke and alone, and she’s just left her job under less than ideal circumstances. Her half-brother Ben didn’t sound thrilled when she asked if she could crash with him for a bit, but he didn’t say no, and surely everything will look better from Paris. Only when she shows up – to find a very nice apartment, could Ben really have afforded this? – he’s not there.

The longer Ben stays missing, the more Jess starts to dig into her brother’s situation, and the more questions she has. Ben’s neighbors are an eclectic bunch, and not particularly friendly. Jess may have come to Paris to escape her past, but it’s starting to look like it’s Ben’s future that’s in question.

The socialite – The nice guy – The alcoholic – The girl on the verge – The concierge

Everyone’s a neighbor. Everyone’s a suspect. And everyone knows something they’re not telling.

I always love a good closed-room mystery, and this was really no exception. I’m generally a fan of Lucy Foley’s work, and this one didn’t disappoint me—though I have heard mixed reviews from others.

The Paris Apartment takes place in…you guessed it, a fancy apartment in Paris. The neighbours we meet are certainly something, and above all, of course, suspicious. Just what is going on with these weird neighbours? Each one has their own story to hide, and it all seems to have something to do with Ben, the protagonist’s half-brother, who is missing from the very start. What is the connection between all the neighbours, including the concierge who always watches out front?

The characters were all fantastic. Each was so suspicious, mostly so deplorable and annoying that a reader’s natural biases start to come up, which is a fantastic play on tropes by the author. There were the more foil characters, and then there were the more complex characters that we see play out. However, it does not become immediately obvious who the perpetrator is because of who was focused on more. There was an appropriate level of character development and although it wasn’t a major factor in the development of the mystery, there was enough to satisfy the readers so that we could understand their motives and goals.

I personally felt the plot was excellent. There were so many twists and turns, some obvious, some not, but all equally surprising anyway. Having read many mysteries and thrillers, at this point, most things aren’t a straight-up surprise. But, it also means that the author is able to play on the “obvious” plot lines that I expect with their signals and red herrings. I also enjoy her writing style. Foley likes to do a lot of these short, parallel chapters to build effects and suspense, and that it something I enjoyed both in The Guest List and in this one. Just when I thought there was a reveal and all was solved, there was always so much more. This helped to create drive so that I did not get bored when I figured out one of the surprises in the book. I certainly didn’t see the final few surprises coming, and I had to keep re-wrapping my mind around it. There was one chapter that I think could have been re-ordered for a little bit more dramatic effect at the end but overall I thought it was really excellent how everything built up to the climax and denouement. I definitely didn’t see it coming fully.

Overall the mystery and thriller elements were good, with the slightly unreliable protagonist (but not too much), and the way every character seems shady, and how you just cannot trust anyone you meet. The result is a very exciting story which I plowed through quite quickly. The ending was also pretty exciting, and like I said, I didn’t really see it coming fully so I was pretty genuinely satisfied. I don’t expect endings to be surprising often, but rather I look more for the execution of the ending and how the author ties up certain loose ends (or doesn’t tie up certain loose ends) for a satisfying ending. I definitely enjoyed this one.

Overall Recommendations

The Paris Apartment is a typical closed-room mystery that takes place in a rich apartment. Jess moves to her half-brother’s beautiful apartment, although it seems like he has gone missing and is unable to receive her. So, of course, it is up to Jess to speak with all the neighbours and any contacts Ben might have had in order to figure out where he is. The more she looks, the more locked doors she finds—which means she’s getting closer, right? Just what is the mystery of this Paris apartment, and what lurks behind closed doors? Fast-paced, thrilling, and exciting, this one is sure to be for you if you like a good closed-room mystery novel!