Cover of Before the Coffee Gets Cold: A Heartfelt Novel Exploring Regret, Redemption and Closure From a Magical Café (Before the Coffee Gets Cold Series, 1)

Before the Coffee Gets Cold: A Heartfelt Novel Exploring Regret, Redemption and Closure From a Magical Café (Before the Coffee Gets Cold Series, 1)

Name: Before the Coffee Gets Cold: A Heartfelt Novel Exploring Regret, Redemption and Closure From a Magical Café (Before the Coffee Gets Cold Series, 1)
Price: 14.99 USD
Availability: InStock
Rating: 4 (37600 reviews)
Author: Toshikazu Kawaguchi

by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

4.0

Published Nov 17, 2020

About this book

In a quiet, unassuming back alley of Tokyo, a century-old café offers its patrons more than just a perfectly brewed cup of coffee. Local legend whispers of a single chair that grants visitors the extraordinary ability to travel through time. However, this miracle comes with a set of rigid, daunting rules: travelers cannot leave the café, they cannot change their present circumstances, and most crucially, they must return to their own time before their coffee grows cold.

Over the course of one summer, four individuals arrive at the café, each burdened by the heavy weight of unspoken words and lingering regrets. They seek to reconnect with those they have lost—a lover who departed, a husband losing his memory, a sister left behind, and a daughter never known. As they navigate the delicate intersection of memory and reality, they find that the past cannot be rewritten, yet the heart can still find profound closure.

Through the quiet observations of the café’s staff, the story unfolds as a meditative journey into the nature of grief and the courage required to move forward. This tale poses the ultimate question: if you could revisit a moment in your past, would you risk everything for one final conversation?

Available Formats

Kindle: $14.99 Hardcover: $9.57

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What readers are saying

myself

Lite Hearted Story

"Enjoying this book. Easy read for a bit of down time. Would follow this author for more stories. Enjoy the lite humor. ["

May 2, 2026 Verified Purchase

NB

Nice, heart warming book, but can’t understand the hype

"I ordered this book after reading several reviews of how popular it was. It is a nice book with heart warming stories. It made me cry several times. Despite this, I couldn’t understand the hype about this book. It is OK and a good read, but not exceptional. The author is skillful in slowly developing the characters, but the fact that all is set within the confines of a small cafe takes away from the story for me. It is also culturally specific, which made it difficult for me to relate to it at times. The characters seem very restrained in their interactions. The reader is expected to understand a lot from the subtle cultural intricacies of the interactions between the characters, however, those cultural intricacies are from Japanese culture. Due to this, from a Western perspective some parts of the story appear odd. ["

July 31, 2024 Verified Purchase

KPT

Slow but touching read

"This book was a slow read and not my typical style, so it may rate higher than three stars for others than it did for me. That being said, it was still a very good and touching story that pulls at your heartstrings, especially at the end. It reminds you to no take people for granted. I would recommend this book. ["

December 17, 2024 Verified Purchase

PWO

Time travel over a cup of coffee!

"A good book! Everyone has at least one moment where they would like a second chance at a conversation with someone. In "Before the Coffee Gets Cold" the characters can have that opportunity for a few minutes under certain conditions. The future can't be changed but understanding, catharsis or a different perspective can be the result. The "what if" quality of the plot is very appealing. This book is quietly thoughtful and can be read in one sitting. It contains 4 stories with overlapping characters. It's still on my mind a month later and I am reading the rest of the books in this series. I highly recommend this bittersweet novel. ["

October 13, 2025 Verified Purchase