“Well, I read that when you give a gift to someone who is striving to achieve their dreams, you have to give them the most cherished thing you have. Some days, that person who is chasing their dreams will not be able to find the strength to keep going. It will be bitter and painful, and they will have to weigh up their dreams and reality to make a choice. When that happens, the person gifted with the most precious thing will be able to fight on a little more. It apparently helps them to feel they are not alone. So, I'm giving you this book because I want you to fight for your dream.”

I found this instalment of the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series to be the most heart-warming, heart-wrenching and immersive. Kawaguchi’s storytelling seemed to take a step up for this one, with the stories becoming a lot more in depth and layered.

I loved how this story took place in a different location, with different regulars (but still a few of our original cast), and how all of these new characters meshed together to create a web of new storylines and levels to each chapter. Kawaguchi’s storytelling and character building felt much stronger in this book and his style of writing seems to have evolved alongside this, which made this one a much more enjoyable read and made characters ten times more loveable for me. Once again, this book is separated by four chapters with four different main actors time travelling in the cafe, but this time I found myself gripped by all four stories pretty equally. My favourites have to be the last two chapters, The Sister and The Young Man. I thoroughly enjoyed how all of these stories revolved around death, human emotion and regret during our lifetime, and the implementation of Sachi and her little (well, quite big) book as a plot device. 

Another point that stood out to me was the ending of this book. I have always found Kawaguchi’s books to end on a somewhat uplifting and happy note, however this book left me with whiplash through the final pages. I did not expect to read what I did on the last few pages, but this added to the impact of the book as a whole. The only reason I can’t rate this one 5 stars is because I didn’t feel an urge to finish this book too quickly. This book has been my definite favourite read out of the series and I hope Kawaguchi’s storytelling continues to be on this upward trajectory. ✨