A book with a great premise and a lacklustre execution. I love the fantasy, mystery and cosy elements here, it’s themes are incredibly strong and pulled me through the book. The idea of travelling to the past but not being able to change anything is potentially great. It gives people the chance to understand that their perceptions or reactions to what happened in their past can drastically change their outlook on the event. The problem is that the stories that were chosen were very tired and trope-heavy. The sub-stories were tired and lazy. I wanted to like it far more than I did.

The characters themselves felt wooden. I only knew enough about them for the emotional heartstrings to be pulled – or attempted to be – and nothing more, they weren’t to exist outside of the plot points laid out for them. This is a huge loss in a story that’s mainly driven by the characters, the premise of the cafe being a way to explore the intricacies of human perception and how we interact with each other, what is said and mostly what is left unsaid.

I can imagine enjoying a different variant of this story, perhaps I’ll give the second one a try. For now I have no plans to and I’m surprised by the popularity of this novel which I suspect has been carried by the strength of the premise.