Emily fulfills the dream that she and her Mom had of owning a cafe after she loses her job, home and fiancé in quick order. Emily has even more ups and downs owing her cafe….(think no customers) than in her personal life. Only when things get worse and Emily is ready to give up, does she find how much her friends want her to succeed. This sweet board game cafe does indeed turn out to be a sweet book. I received this arc through Netgalley, Publisher Aria and Aries. This review is my opinion.

Emily works for her fiancee. She also lives with her fiancee. When he makes several employees redundant, he includes Emily in the group. She is not amused.

She slowly realizes that she does not feel intensely about him. So, she leaves. She moves in with her best friend, Kate. And she has a brilliant idea.

Emily’s late mother always had a dream. She hoped that she and Emily would one day own their own cafe.

Emily decides to take her inheritance from her mother, and buy a small cafe. She cleans and cleans. She paints and redecorates. She knows she can make her dream come true.

The cafe is on a cul-de-sac, without a lot of foot traffic. There are a few regular customers, but there is not enough income to survive.

Then, she has a brilliant idea. She will redo some things and reopen as The Game Board Cafe.

One of her regular customers is her biggest supporter. Mr B is a Polish man who paints for her, gives her recipes and then shows her how to cook them and generally gives her a great deal of physical and emotional support. He is one of the best characters in the book.

There are many good characters in this book. Emily’s former fiancee is a very nice man. Emily’s best friend is truly a good friend. Emily also finds herself falling for a doctor. He is a game board addict, and a really charming character.

Emily has issues with emotional connections. There were times I was not thrilled with her. She is self involved and it takes quite some time for her to get the message that in life, you must connect to people even if there may be pain along with the joy.

I liked this book and learned about games that were completely unknown to me. I also learned what a meeple is.

I received this book from the publisher through NetGalley. I am voluntarily writing this review and all opinions are completely my own.

A real fun and entertaining story with some quirky characters.
I really loved the overall story and the theme of not letting the bad rule and taking some positives from them instead.

This was a cute read but it was a little uncomfortable reading about Emily opening a board game cafe when she doesn’t know a thing about board games. She should have had more time to immerse herself in the hobby before running headlong into this business. The romance was lacking but I did like that she stayed friendly with her ex, that’s always nice to read about instead of vile comments about an ex.

This was such a cute, fun, easy read. I loved it!
At some parts, I was very annoyed with the main character because she held back a lot of her trauma and almost missed out on love.
I love how we got to watch the process of how the game board cafe came to be. It was hard work for Emily but it all paid off!
I would really recommend this book!

Emily and her mum always dreamt of owning a cafe. When Emily loses her job, boyfriend and home in quick succession, she's tempted to buy a run-down cafe and fulfil her dream.
This is a sweet book, with a great cast of characters. Somewhat predictable but just what you want from this type of read.
A great holiday book.

A lovely, lovely read. Great cast of well written characters and a real feel good ending. Highly recommended.

The Little Board Game Cafe is one of the only two books that I was able to finish reading for the month of February this year. I was able to finish reading it because it was accessible as I was reading it through my iPad that I would bring to work from time to time.

I got a hold of this book through Netgalley and I grabbed this particular book because I honestly thought the cover was so cute and I found the premise quite interesting. I have always wanted to read cafe stories but never had the chance to do so.

I adore how appetizing the author, Jennifer Page, painted this story through words. The way Emily, our main girl in the story, and her cooking was described were delectable and sweet. The story follows Emily’s self discovery and all the kind and supportive people she meets along the way. It was also a cute story of learning how to express yourself better and getting yourself together and reaching your goals. There were romantic scenes too, that could well be more about friendship and how to navigate through relationships all while building and finding yourself.

There were just moments in the book where I felt like the pacing was getting a bit slow and repetitive. The built up drama with Emily’s ex in the beginning didn’t sit well with me. I ended up not liking him for most of the book but he ended up being a very decent character, like, he was kind to Emily towards the end and I felt sorry for ever not liking him. It was just that they weren’t a match. This is important to mention because I believe his character, for certain parts of the story, stir up a love triangle trope and I thought maybe we could have had more to his character.

I was able to annotate and highlight parts of this book, specially towards the end. I thought there were a lot of really well relatable paragraphs towards the end of the book which makes for such a wonderful conclusion to the story. The author was able to tie up the story well.

Such a sweet feel good story! The characters are all friendly and seem like people you would like to know in your own life. The story did seem to slow a bit in the middle, but overall was such a nice relaxing read.

Emily has to endure the trials and tribulations of a relationship that she is uncertain of, being made redundant and then chooses to go it alone to fulfill her lifelong dream of opening a cafe. Hardwork and good ideas don't guarantee success and Emily finds this out the hard way but the Little Board Game has a lot in store for her throughout the story.

This was a really enjoyable read and I hope there's another book to follow but I do';t know whether there are any plans for this. A recommended read for sure!

This book was very sweet! It tells the story of Emily and her dream of opening a cafe. I really enjoyed getting to know Emily’s small town and see the progress of her business. This was a slower read than I typically read, but the pacing fit the storyline and the setting well. I do like how everything tied up very nicely for our characters and side characters’ storylines finished up just as well as main characters.

This book is exactly the type I love - relationship ends, girl takes on ambitious project (cafe/bookshop/rundown cottage), falls in love, miscommunication briefly ends things, happily ever after.

This time the ambitious project is running a café with no customers, and then turning it into a board games cafes (another thing I love).

The characters are well written to the point of actively disliking a couple - James is pompous and Kate is self absorbed. My issue with Kate is she's Emily's best friend but doesn't support her. She promises to help market the new café but then doesn't actually do anything until it's failing. She spends most of her time with her latest love interest rather than actually supporting her friend - or taking any interest in what's going on until right at the end.

Anyway, the book has a great story, well researched board games (although a handy list of those mentioned in the back would be good so you don't have to go through the book to find them again!), lovely sounding food and a romance worthy of Hallmark.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced ebook copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

I’ve not read anything by Jennifer Page before so wasn’t sure what to expect. However, the blurb sounded good & as I frequently judge a book by its cover I was hopeful of a good book. I wasn’t disappointed, it’s a lovely gentle story featuring believable, fully-formed characters and a storyline that held my interest from beginning to end.
I will definitely be looking out for more books by this author.
A lovely feel-good story & a great read for the summer.

I had intended to read just the first two chapters to get a feel for this book and found I could not put it down! I wanted to see Emily create her dream cafe and get some of the success that she so richly deserved. I appreciated that she did struggle initially because it made it more realistic. I liked Emily as a character, but was a little disappointed when she just gave up after she lost the location for her cafe. The supporting characters did exactly what they are supposed to - they supported Emily in realizing her dream and in getting her to take some chances. I found Kate to not always be the best friend to Emily - she never comes to see Emily at the cafe, when she does finally come she is drunk and almost ruins the grand opening, and then she criticizes Emily's dating history (while completely ignoring her own issues in that department). Emily's father needed a good smack upside his head. He also criticizes Emily's relationships with her boyfriend while completing ignoring how his behavior after he lost his wife might have made Emily reluctant to get too close to someone (and ignoring that he was kind of an absentee father and never did anything to support his daughter in person when she really needed him). My only complaint about Ludek was that he gave up on Emily so easily every time they hit a rough patch in their relationship. Overall, this is a really sweet story and perfect for reading with a nice warm drink and a sweet treat.

I really enjoyed this book. Losing everything in a couple day time sucks but emily is determined to have a good life. I love the idea of the board game Cafe. I would definitely recommend this book.

Emily's life is imploding. She loses her job, her fiance and her home. Sleeping on a friend's couch is not a long-term solution. Emily and her mother had a long-held dream - to open a small cafe and serve good food and good friendships, but alas, her mother died.. A small cafe comes up for sale, and Emily, with no experience, buys it, only to discover the foot traffic on that street is almost non-existent. She watches her money dwindle away. An older gentleman becomes her one regular and encourages her when she wonders about turning the cafe into a board games site. After a lot of sweat equity and going deeper in debt, she re-opens. Gradually the cafe plus Emily's wonderful baked goods starts to take off.

The story is not just about games - it's also about relationships and how important it is to cultivate and cherish friends from all walks of life. Emily and her father are close. Emily and her sometimes-boyfriend, Ludek, spend time trying to develop their relationship and determining where it will go.

A lovely, feel-good story.

Thanks NetGalley for giving me this ARC in return for an honest review.

Honestly, I DNF'd this about 20%. I couldn't get into the story and didn't much care for the characters. It just seemed very mediocre and I wouldn't find myself wanting to pick it up to continue reading.

While I'm sure there are tons out there who would love this, but it just wasn't for me and because of that I can't give it a super positive review.

This is such a cute, heartwarming story of starting over and living your dreams.

Emily works for her fiancee James's company and the story starts out with him firing her (making her "redundant") which throws a wrench in their relationship. Emily tries to deal with it and stay together, but the more she thinks about what she wants to do now that she isn't working, the more she is convinced that she wants to fulfill her Mom's dream of opening up a cafe. When her friend, Kate signs them up for a running club, and she stumbles in front of an empty cafe advertising it is available for rent, she knows she has to do it. But James isn't supportive and so she moves out, signs on the dotted line, and tries to live the dream.

This wouldn't be a good story without some bumps along the way though! Despite her prowess in cooking, no one comes to the cafe at first and she is left trying in vain to figure out how to be successful. Thankfully, Ludek, who she met at the running club, has a weekly board game group that Emily has attended a few times and she gets the idea to re-make the cafe into a board game cafe. Things start to really improve and her relationship with Ludek is getting more serious, but her fear of commitment and the landlord selling the building to developers throw her for a loop and she is left trying to pick up the pieces and re-create her dream.

I loved reading about Emily's dream for a cafe, her grief over her mother's death, and relationship with Ludek. This story started out right away and never was there a dull moment. I thought the story line of Emily and her father learning how to move on after her Mother's death was particularly well done and I appreciated that the author didn't gloss over how long grief can have a hold on you. The romance with Ludek was pretty well done, but I was getting a little frustrated with the continued misunderstandings so I was happy to see everything worked out in the end.

Fun, sweet read. What does one do when they lose their job, home, and fiancé in a matter of a couple of days? Open up a cafè on a side street. Not enough people coming in to make it a viable source of income? Make it a board games café. Throw in romance, insecurities, a friend in search of her own romance, and a father who won't leave home, makes for a fun read with ups a downs. The characters are realistic but fun.
I received a copy from NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own.

This is an adorable, charming, and cozy story. I loved the author's writing style, the way she described things just enough and how she ended scenes immediately once the action the reader needed was through. It was told in succinct episodes within chapters. The supporting cast was lovely and interesting. Even though it touches on themes of lose and grief, it was an uplifting and overall happy read.
I loved the twist on the little cafe setting by including board games.
A very enjoyable book and I look forward to more from this author.