Tag: book review

Book Review: Tales from the Cafe (#2) by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

Tales from the Cafe is the second book in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series and probably my least favourite. The cafe is back with the four stories where we meet a man who has raised his best friend’s daughter and wants to seek his best friend, the son who did not come home for his mother’s funeral, the lover who travelled to see the girl he couldn’t marry, and the ageing detective who couldn’t save his own wife. The stories in this book are all about the regret left behind and the people want the chance to go back in time. On the side street in Tokyo is a cafe Funiculi Funicula that serves good coffee in a warm surrounding. However, the cafe also offers a unique experience to its customers: the chance to travel back in time. However, there are certain rules that the customers have to stick to, otherwise there is severe punishment.

I felt that this book was a little underwhelming for me when I read the blurb I thought it would connect with me well but did not. The stories are all different but each of them includes the regret and pain of their past that they are still carrying. The book is easy to read and short but it took me time to read. The characters are fantastic, it is moving to see the perspective of life through different characters and how each of them is going through something so painful and regretful.

Another thing in this book that captured me was the backstory of the cafe waitress Kazu, as she is shown emotionless and talks straight to the point. The backstory of Kazu and the cafe ghost was not something I was expecting, but it was heartwrenching. Remorse is unbearable if it includes someone we love, and these stories are the perfect example of it.

I would recommend reading it once.

Rating: 3.5/5

Check out the review for the first book here.

Till we meet again, Be Happy, Be Grateful, and Keep Smiling – a girl who likes to write.

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Book Review: Before the Coffee Gets Cold (#1) by Toshikazu Kawaguchi

I always loved books and movies that let me experience time travel because of the mistakes I have made in the past, which I can’t rectify but seeing fictional characters getting the chance makes me imagine myself in their place and I feel happy. Before the Coffee Gets Cold is the first book in the series and when I heard it’s Japanese coffee-themed and time travel I knew I needed to read this book and I’m glad I picked this up. So basically this book talks about a funiculi funicula cafe in a small back alley in Tokyo that has been serving brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But with coffee, they allow their customers a unique experience and what is that? The chance to travel back in time. But there is a catch, a risk certain rules that need to be followed for the person to go back in time. And I am not going to tell you because it’s the main thing and experience that you need to find out by reading the book. The book follows four visitors who want to make things right using the cafe’s time-travelling offer.

Now the book is divided into four parts with each part a new customer comes and time travels and their story is told. Each story is so different from the others, however, the common thing between them is the regret and how they want to go back and make things right. But that’s the thing what happened in the past can’t be corrected, the choices were made and destiny played its part. All four stories felt like a warm hug, the characters were beautiful and how I can relate to them. In this book, the stories focus on the lovers, husband and wife, the sisters, and the mother and child and each of them felt to the heart.

This book shows the memories we have of our loved ones and the life we have with them, we can’t imagine living without them but circumstances can’t be reversed. This cafe allows people to get the chance to relive the moment differently but with rules that must be followed. The waitress in the cafe, Kazu Tokita is such a pure and heartwrenching character and I loved her the most. The setting is beautiful as it doesn’t give an impression that in such an ordinary old cafe something big like going back magic can happen but that is what makes it unique.

I loved the book because it’s pure and very calming to read. The author did an incredible job with his writing to showcase the peaceful vibe of the book. I highly recommend this book.

Rating: 4/5

Till we meet again, Be Happy, Be Grateful, and Keep Smiling – a girl who likes to write.

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Book Review: Intermezzo by Sally Rooney

I hate myself because how could I not read from Sally Rooney until now? I have heard a lot of people say how intricate and different her books are and I decided to read her latest release Intermezzo. Let me tell you I was not at all disappointed by her, I admire this book so much. I just finished the book and wrote the review because I can’t hold back talking about how much I learned. So this book follows two brothers, a 32-year-old Peter and a 22-year-old Ivan, who had just lost their father. Peter is a lawyer, torn between two women he loves equally. Ivan, a chess prodigy, sees himself fall for a woman who is 14 years older than him. The book shows their life and how they are coping after their father’s death and also, the women in their life. It is said from three perspectives Peter, Ivan and Margaret.

First of all, let’s talk about the different things in the book. The highly controversial thing people hated was the absence of quotation marks in the dialogue. To be honest I did not know about this however I got used to it quickly. At first, it might be really hard but when I got used to it I loved the book. Sally very intelligently uses different writing techniques between Peter and Ivan’s chapters. In Peter’s chapters, the writing style is incomplete, choppy, and hard to understand while Ivan’s is straightforward, direct, and easy to understand. The book focuses on the grief of two brothers who do not share a great bond and after their father passed away how hard it was for them to connect.

Peter, his character might be my favourite and very hard to understand. He according to his brother is very social, good-looking, decisive, and a perfect person to live life. But in reality, from my perspective, Peter was a man who struggled a lot and never had anyone to share his feelings with because he was the oldest. Initially, it was hard for me to connect with Peter but as he opened up about his feelings, I sympathised with him. It is truly said that grief is that feeling that will never go away and a person who is grieving will fall in the big hole of regret and guilt. It was the same with Peter, first of all, he can’t seem to move on and let go of the situation that he is in. He is torn between two women and can’t let go of either of them because people in his life have made him confused.

Ivan is someone who lost his father at the age of 22 which is very early and he is the one who was closest to his father. Ivan is someone whose character is shown as rebellious and has a strong opinion about life. It is easy to understand Ivan because of his strong views and straightforwardness. The thing I would salute Sally for is that she has shown Ivan as a character who is young and prone to mistakes. His frustrations, fears, doubts, awkwardness and regrets felt so personal. I definitely connected with Ivan first because he thinks very intensely which is actually kind of scary. After all, being 22 and thinking so deeply about life is scariest.

The relationship between Peter and Ivan as brothers brings tears to my eyes. Ivan already created his thinking about Peter but in reality, he never asked Peter how he was doing in life. While Peter does not think before sharing his opinion on Ivan’s decision. I loved the confrontation scene that screamed that they were real brothers. I loved it when Ivan realised his mistakes and understood why Peter changed and apologised. Their relationship and this book taught me how awkward I am feeling, and how much I dislike someone but if I see someone I will always ask how they are doing.

I love books which show flawed characters because they’re highly relatable. It is a slow-paced book so if you want to read it you need to have an open mind and be ready to meet the flawed characters. I recommend this book at least once because it’s legit literary fiction that made me feel so many emotions and I loved every emotion I went through when I read.

Rating: 4.5/5

Till we meet again, Be Happy, Be Grateful, and Keep Smiling – a girl who likes to write.

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Book Review: The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn

The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn is one of the first thrillers I read when I decided to step up my thriller game. And I loved this book because it definitely checked all the boxes as the new thriller girlie. It is about a woman named Anna Fox who has not left her home in ten months and during that time she has haunted her rooms like a ghost lost in her memories. The only thing that connects her to the world’s reality is her window where she sits all day and watches her neighbours. One day, Russells moves in, a picture-perfect family of three and Anna is instantly drawn to them. Until one evening she heard a terrifying scream and saw something she was not supposed to and from there, her life changed completely.

I loved this book as it was creepy and thrilling. It kept me on edge the whole time especially when the first plot twist happened. The first plot twist OMG, I still remember my jaw hanging for five minutes because I just couldn’t grasp what I read. And you know what after the first plot twist the story gets more creepy and gripping which makes the book interesting. The plot was great from the start I felt like such a good family and then I was gasping at the fact that it was not like that at all, not even close.

Anna, the main character, what can I say about her, she never left me feeling any less creepy, with her thoughts I felt like I was stuck in her mind. Her loneliness was so horrifying because if she wanted to get out of it she couldn’t as she herself had locked the door to her mind. Her mind did not let her accept the reality and that is why she was stuck living in a dream that her mind had created for her that she feels is the reality. What happened to her was heartbreaking and she can’t get past it and that is the reason why her life is like a facade created by herself. I loved the scenes in which she started to realize life and situations. I loved that in the end she realized what truly she is and that is what saved her life.

The other characters in the book are all mysterious and actually deranged. They kept me on the edge and their interactions with Anna were creepy. The pace of the book is fast, and the writing is simple which kept me awake the whole night about what is going to happen next. The ending was good as I did not see it coming but again in a thriller where is the fun if predictable happens, right?

I highly recommend this book.

Rating: 4/5 (Please check trigger warnings)

Till we meet again, Be Happy, Be Grateful, and Keep Smiling – a girl who likes to write.

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Book Review: The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides was one of the first thrillers I read after getting back into the reading. And I have to say that this book wrecked me with its plot twist and I did not see it coming. The book describes the story of a thirty-three-year-old famous painter, Alicia Berenson, who unalive her husband, Gabriel Berenson, whom she once loved dearly. This happened six years ago and since then Alicia has not uttered a word not even to defend herself in front of the court. Now, a psychotherapist, Theo Faber, wants to figure out the mystery behind Alicia and joins a hospital where she is kept.

I loved this book so much, not only because of the plot twist but also because of the writing of the author. He made sure to give an explanation about the situation of Alicia and Theo which made me more engrossed in the book. I loved the character of Alicia and how in the end she connected all the lines and freed herself. I don’t know what to say about Theo he did not expect the situation to become like this. He wanted to do something better but everything turned out worse.

The biggest lesson that this thriller taught me was you never know what is going on in a person’s mind. You never know what a traumatic past someone has so it is so much better to be mindful of what you say in front of anyone. The situation of Alicia got wild because of her past and it triggered so fast that she unalive her husband. That is why it is said to be mindful because you never know what can trigger a person and its outcome will be worse than one can imagine.

The plot twist, I was legit staring at the wall when I read the page before it was revealed because I was shocked and at the same time sad because it was the situation that made everything turn out like that. I love the plot it was something very different from what I read and the book focuses more on generational trauma and trust.

I highly recommend this book, if you read a lot of thrillers then it might be predictable, however, there is more to this book than just the plot twist.

Rating: 4.7/5 (Please check trigger warnings)

Till we meet again, Be Happy, Be Grateful, and Keep Smiling – a girl who likes to write.

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Book Review: Better Than The Movies by Lynn Painter

“She’s not you.”

“What?”

“She. Isn’t. You.” – Wes to Liz

This is my first ever rom-com book and I have not heard any single bad thing about this book so I decided to read it. It is a cute romantic book without much melodrama and to be honest I like books with more melodrama. The story is very simple it is about Liz Buxbaum who wants her real-life love story to be exactly like movies. She is a hopeless romantic and loves to live like it. Wes Bennett is her next-door neighbour who will take any chance to annoy Liz so they are frenemies. When Liz’s crush Michael comes back she wants him to notice her and Michael is getting along well with Wes. So she asks Wes to help her to get to Michael.

Overall the book can be defined as cute, the plot is very straightforward as it is based in high school. The entire book is in Liz’s POV but I wished the author would add Wes’s POV as it would make the book more interesting. I won’t lie and say that I wasn’t annoyed by Liz. Since the whole book was in her POV sometimes she acted to impulse according to me, however, since she was in high school I can look past it. I loved Wes, even from the POV of Liz, I got to know him so much. He is a cutie pie like a typical high school boy and a next-door neighbour. The whole story revolves around Liz becoming close to Wes instead of Michaal and I loved that the author also pointed that out.

In the middle of the book I loved Liz, the kiss scene was just a chef kiss. I was not expecting it at all and the author wrote it so well and captured all the emotions of them. There is no romance romance because till the end Liz is figuring out her feelings. It was also kind of disappointing, but since it’s the book vibe, I did not mind that much. I loved the conversation of them while they were figuring out their feelings. I loved Helena, Liz’s stepmom and she gets most of the credit for making Liz aware of her feelings.

The relationship between Wes and Liz as friends was beautiful, Wes thoroughly understood her. However, since they get together in the end there is not much about their romantic relationship. But there is a sequel to this book called Nothing Like The Movies.

If you want to read something light-hearted, I will recommend this book.

Rating: 4/5

“I fell in love with teasing you in the second grade, when I first discovered that I could turn your cheeks pink with just a word. Then I feel in love with you.” – Wes confession

Till we meet again, Be Happy, Be Grateful, and Keep Smiling – a girl who likes to write.

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Book Review: The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

You know that one classic book that everybody should read for the thriller genre is The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. It’s a psychological thriller and let me tell you this book has altered my whole brain system not because of the twist but the thoughts and what was going on in the main character’s mind. It is about Rachel who catches the same train every morning and she knows when the train will stop at what signal each time, overlooking the back gardens. She started to feel that she knew one of the couples who lived in one of the houses and they seemed the perfect couple. However one day she sees something very shocking that changes everything about her life and now she is not just a girl on the train anymore.

For a thriller, the plot twist was not shocking, I saw it coming at the start of the book. The plot is also basic it’s nothing extraordinary however the writing of the author legit sucked me in. Rachel the main character is very complex, she is going through a lot and the author’s writing made me feel every emotion that Rachel was going through. The book focuses on Rachel and how she is dealing with her life and basically, I think I was in the mind of Rachel the whole book. The other characters are good and it is great to see how they get tangled in the mess with Rachel or Rachel gets tangled with them.

The psychological aspect is very high because Rachel is already going through a lot and finds herself in a twisted situation. I don’t dare to pick up this book again because even though I read it a year ago, I still remember my mind was not having a great time reading what Rachel was going through.

I will never forget this book ever and I highly recommend this book but please check the trigger warnings.

Rating: 4.5/5

Till we meet again, Be Happy, Be Grateful, and Keep Smiling – a girl who likes to write.

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Book Review: Verity by Colleen Hoover

This is the only Colleen Hoover book I have read and this book is so crazy. This is a psychological thriller book with romance as a subplot. So it focuses on Lowen Ashleigh who is struggling as a writer and is about to go bankrupt. Jeremy Crawford is the husband of bestselling author, Verity Crawford. However Verity is severely injured, so he hired Lowen to complete his wife’s remaining books. She started living with them and one day found a disturbing manuscript of Verity and from that point, her life changed completely.

So I read this book after reading The Housemaid by Freida McFadden and if you have read it you know that the characters are the same in both the books, two women and one man. So I already know the plot between the three of them and what it would be, however, the suspense and plot of the books are totally different. The book Verity is very fast-paced and you won’t realize how much you are engaged until the suspense starts to keep you on the edge of the seat. The plot is astonishing as the manuscripts are so disturbing. My mind was having an internal battle because if I were in the place of Lowen I would have packed my bags the first day and would love to go bankrupt but again in thrillers characters are supposed to be dumb and curious. Apart from manuscripts, Verity herself was deranged which adds another bone-chilling point to the book.

Jeremy Crawford, I don’t know what to say about this character because you can’t figure him out. The way he is written, he is just too good as a person which means in a thriller he should be on the top of the list as a prime suspect. Verity, she is crazy however the book doesn’t let you know the truth, so it is up to you to decide what you feel about her. Lowen is the main storyteller of the book and there is nothing extraordinary about her except the shocks she gets when she reads the manuscripts.

The book ending left me gasping, that is all I am going to say, and it is up to you to figure it out. So the book is delivered into POV, first Lowen’s current POV and second Verity’s POV through her manuscripts. So the audience is divided into a team letter or a team manuscript. Or maybe Jeremy is the real psychopath, nobody knows that.

I wish I could say that this is the best thriller book I have read but the romance ruined it for me. I can’t stand romance in a thriller book. And in this book, it was so cheap and unrealistic. The setting is definitely creepy and brings more thriller to the book. But this book is still in my mind, I read this almost a year ago but I still remember everything because of the ending. I think that fulfills the main aspect of the thriller and the author did an incredible job of writing the book in a way that will make you gasp every time you remember this book.

I will definitely recommend this book.

Rating: 4/5 (Please check trigger warnings)

Till we meet again, Be Happy, Be Grateful, and Keep Smiling – a girl who likes to write.

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Book Review: Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

What I am most afraid of is that one day I wake up and realize that my life is all fake and the people I am living with are not recognizing me. If you want a better perspective of what I am trying to say read the book Dark Matter by Blake Crouch and get lost on how perfectly the book is written. First of all how in the world he came up with this incredible and astonishing idea? I will not give a lot away but it is about Jason, a simple man whose life gets turned upside down when he gets kidnapped in a way you could probably never imagine in the whole world. It is sci-fi, which is amazingly written with a twist of thriller that perfectly balances out the book. The entire time I was so engaged in what would happen next and till the last page my reaction was thrilling and shocking.

The story is so engaging and at a certain point in the book my mind was blown by what was happening. This book truly shows that the decision we make in the past definitely at some point in our life affects our present which leads to the future being uncertain. The book also focuses on family relationships, Jason keeps going and not giving up because he wants to see his wife and son and that courage worked out for him. This sci-fi is not at all boring as there is a mixed thriller, which makes it very interesting. Till the end I was not bored, the book is definitely a page-turner as nothing will make sense until the very end which I am saying in a good way. I highly recommend this book, just pick it up and thank me later.

Rating: 5/5

Till we meet again, Be Happy, Be Grateful, and Keep Smiling – a girl who likes to write.

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Book Review: King of Pride by Ana Huang (Kings of Sin #2)

“Even when we broke up. Even when I walked out. Just knowing you existed somewhere in this world was enough.” – Kai to Isabella

Let’s get ready for my unexpected review of this book. King of Pride is the second book in the Kings of Sin series by Ana Huang and honestly, I liked it better than the first one. I know I might get a lot of hate but hear me out. The book’s plot is written more diligently and feels like a proper book than the first one. It’s about Isabella Valencia and Kai Young who cross paths with each other and attraction begins, but both try to restrict that. It has a straightforward plot but I don’t know why I enjoyed this book so much. I giggled, laughed and even blushed maybe because of Kai Young, he is a gentleman who should be appreciated more.

I know a lot of readers like MMC that are grey and here me out I am one of you as well. However, saying Kai is a gentleman does mean a perfect gentleman but also a sultry gentleman that one look from him and you are under the mercy of him. I loved Isabella’s character, she is so outgoing, has no filter, and is actually entertaining. I loved their banter, it was actually bantering and hilarious. The book vibe is very cool and easygoing which I liked. It is a simple book but at the same time will give you a fun read. I liked the fact that there is no breakup, they are very open with each other. They have one of the healthiest relationships filled with sultry flirting, dirty talks, romance, and actual communication.

“I’m never going to stop being me, Kai, and I don’t want you to stop being you. So how can we be together when we belong to separate worlds?”

“By building one of our own.” – Kai to Isabella

Like I said the banter was bantering which was one of the reasons I liked this book. Their silly jokes, straightforward answers, and the tension everything I found were perfectly balanced in this book. The plot is simple, there is nothing extraordinary but still, I liked it maybe because it’s like a palate cleanser but with more banter, I guess. This is one of the few books where I liked the MMC and FMC equally.

I would recommend this book if you want a quick read with a straightforward plot, hilarious banter, likeable protagonists, and romance.

Rating: 4/5

Check out the review for the King of Wrath (Kings of Sin #1)

“Rest assured, you’re not my type, so you don’t have to worry about me hitting on you.” – Isabella to Kai

Till we meet again, Be Happy, Be Grateful, and Keep Smiling – a girl who likes to write.

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