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apollinares 's review for:

Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
3.0
emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I didn't like how floral the prose was in the translation, but I enjoyed the premise and worldbuilding of the cafĂ© and how time travel works within it.  It's a cozy read where nothing happens in the grand scheme of things, but people's lives are changed nonetheless. 

Would have rated it higher if the writing style appealed to me more, but things are overdescribed, with many an adverb in every sentence, and the translator seems to have gone the "direct meaning over essence" route, resulting in clunky phrasing that took me out of the experience completely.