Before We Forget Kindness is the fifth book in the bestselling Before the Coffee Gets Cold series translated from Japanese about the mysterious Funiculi Funicula café in the Kanda area in Chiyoda City outside Tokyo. In this legendary café, customers visit hoping to travel back in time often in hopes of finding closure with loved ones in order to move forward with their lives.

There are, however, a few stipulations regarding time travel in the café. Customers must remain seated in a certain chair at all times. Customers can only travel back in time to visit with other people who have previously visited the café. The time travel period begins once the coffee is poured into their cup and ends when the coffee gets cold, leaving approximately eight to ten minutes to visit the past. Lastly (and perhaps most importantly), customers are reminded that there is nothing they can do or say during their time travel that will change the present. For example, a life cannot be saved, nor can a divorce be prevented.

Knowing all the rules that come with the café, why are customers compelled to go back in time? The answer is almost always regret in some form or another. Words that were left unspoken, tears that were shed, anger in the heat of a moment. A chance to react differently knowing all they do in the present moment is what these customers seek.

Toshikazu Kawaguchi introduces us to four new characters with heartbreaking stories:

1. The Son
2. The Nameless Child
3. The Father
4. The Valentine

Overall, I find Kawaguchi has a real gift for capturing the depth of regrets humans carry and the power of hindsight. Although it helps to read Before the Coffee Gets Cold, I believe this can be read as a stand alone. At just under 250 pages, this is a short read. For the most part, I enjoyed it (especially Yuki and Riuju). However, I found it unnecessary for the rules to be repeated for each character in such excruciating detail. The third-person omnipresent POV can be a bit overwhelming at times as well. That said, I definitely still shed a few tears!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this arc!

The most recent instalment (5th book) in the series.
Before We Forget Kindness delves into various emotions and themes while the concept of the cafe remains the same.
It is tender and touching as always, and thanks to its readability, it is a 3.5 stars rounded up.

BEFORE WE FORGET KINDNESS
RATING: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
GENRE: Japanese Fiction, Sci-Fi

This is the 5th book in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series and focuses on the concept of kindness with our new cast of characters; a wistful young boy, a confused new mother, a regretful father/daughter pair, and a remorseful friend. Just as all the previous books, the story takes place in Funiculi Funicula with Nagare and Kazi returning to help guide our patrons into the magic of the cafe. We also get appearances from previous cafe time travelers now turned regulars to instill their wisdom onto those who wish to travel to the past.

I have enjoyed this series as it explores humanity, regrets, and compassion from different angles. However, I did feel that these four new stories were a little lack-luster compared to the previous one that usually left me wanting to bawl my eyes out. I did enjoy the stories and the outcomes as always. This book seems to focus on the ‘kindness’ of the cafe-goer’s person that they intended to meet. We get to see what happens with that person after the ‘coffee gets cold’ and the cafe-goer has to return to the present. We tend to focus on our own concerns, not realizing that others may view a situation differently and it allows us to have on different perspectives.

Thank you to NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing and Hanover Square Press for the opportunity to read more of this beloved series as a eARC. Please be on the lookout for this book on shelves 11/4/2024. I can’t wait to add to my collection of Japanese fiction.

Deeply moving and beautiful! I’m happy to revisit the cafe with new characters! I will never forget this series and these stories.

We are back in the café; we are back to get our hearts ripped from their sung places. Five books later, it is the same story: you can go back in time, you cannot get up from your seat, you cannot alter the past (or future), you need to drink your coffee before it gets cold.

While it is the same thing, regrets and what led people to those regrets differ a lot. This time we are reading stories of following characters: a boy who wants to show his smile to his divorced parents, a wife holding a child with no name, a woman who couldn't give Valentine's Day chocolates to her loved one, and a father who could not allow his daughter to get married. They were all in the café to tell those people who were gone from their lives that what they said before meant nothing

Like I said b5th book in, I still love it and I shamelessly wait for the 6th installment. I read this series as a reminder to not to do anything that I might regret later. I think twice before I say or do something

“What could anyone accomplish in the time it takes for one cup of coffee to get cold?”

Before We Forget Kindness poses the above questions, and it’s one of my favorites in the series. The limited time never puts people off to going back to the past, it’s actually more the following rules that get them.

I think these story collections are incredible, even though this one wasn’t my favorite out of the bunch! I think the previous installment has stuck with me for so long that I just haven’t been able to get over it.

To answer the question though, a lot. You can accomplish a lot before the coffee gets cold <3

Thanks so much NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest thoughts :)

Starting off with Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing and Toshikazu Kawaguchi for the opportunity of receiving this as an arc.

Ive read all 4 books in the Before the Coffee Gets Cold collection and have loved every single one of them. All of them give you an emotional impact in a way that you don't expect. Yoko's story had me the most emotional as her relationship with her parents is relatable and in a way hit close to home. I found myself relating a lot to her having to hide things that had gone on in order to not disappoint her parents, as i've experienced that myself.

This book was such an enjoyable and emotional journey, while having many lessons that you learn which can be translated to your life. I also love the concept of being at a coffee shop and sitting down to drink a cup of coffee while traveling back to the past. I wish we could do this in real life as there are many things in the past I would love to experience again.

These books always seem to come into my life at just the right time when I’m making a big decisions, having regrets or grieving. And they know just how to soothe.

The chapters featuring fathers really got to me this time and I know I will read and reread this book just like the other 4

3.75 stars

”as humans, we are wired to fear the unknown.”


at the enigmatic Funiculi Funicula café, a singular rule governs the temporal topography: from the precise moment the coffee is poured until it reaches its final, lukewarm destination, patrons are free to traverse the fabric of time, choosing any moment, second, or date that tantalizes their curiosity. yet, beware, for the café's mystical energies may exact a terrible toll: those who tamper with the past risk being cursed by a sorrowful fate, and the consequences of altering the timeline can be catastrophic.

”regret comes in two f lavors: actions taken and opportunities missed. the regret from doing something stems from either not being able to undo it, or the awful outcome, such as hurting someone with an insensitive comment, or feeling wretched after declaring one’s love.”


the novel is comprised of four distinct narratives: 'The Son', 'The Nameless Child', 'The Father', and 'The Valentine'. however, despite their disparate storylines, they ultimately converge to convey a powerful theme: the profound sentiment of grief. the novel mourns the loss of the illusion of a family, where one's child will never experience the solidity of a father's presence, where a father will never get to witness a child's first moments of life, where one will never reconnect with their own estranged father, and where one will never have the chance to live their true love story.

”In this world, there are countless situations where sound reasoning doesn’t necessarily lead to the right answer.”


overall, I found the novel to be a deeply moving and emotional experience, as it retraced different storylines to evoke a single, powerful essence. while the multitude of characters presented did occasionally lead to moments of confusion, I was able to keep track of most of them after a few pages. however, there were one or two instances where I had to double back to refresh my memory on certain character identities.

“but to die without ever conveying my feelings is an even greater torment.”


many thanks to publisher and netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for an honest review

A beautiful end to a beautiful series. The balance between poignancy and urgency works so well. This series should be a classic, if it is not already. The fact that they can only take this trip once, knowing that they cannot affect the present day, only one aspect of the past, introduces a surprising amount of suspense. It manages to be sad and happy at the same time, while leaving the reader knowing that the world continues as it was meant to, but those few moments are a gift.

Really lovely way to end the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series. I will be doing a video review on TikTok, and written reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, as the release day gets closer.

Thank you for this galley. I look forward to the next book!

E-arc provided by Netgalley

The issue I have with this book is the same one I have for every book in this series and that's that not on in the beginning of the book but in each story they explain the rules of the cafe and bybthe end of the book you've heard they same damn thing Luke 4 or 5 times, overall this was a fine edition and basically a carbon copy of every other book in the series

Ahhh I love this series so I’m so glad to have this arc in my hands. Definitely would recommend- love the stories and everything else that comes with this series!

3.5 ⭐️
While this is not really straying far from the other four books I still enjoyed reading this and would likely read another one. There is something very quiet and cozy about this series that really pulls me in even though every single one of them has made me very emotional. Highly recommended for the people who read and liked the first four!

Thank you to Netgalley and Hanover Square Press for the e-ARC!

thank you NetGalley and Hanover Square Press for this ARC! while I’ve enjoyed this series, the last few books have felt extremely repetitive, especially with repeating the rules every single chapter….this book also seemed written slightly different than the others and I’m not sure why. I believe this is the final book of the series, but if it’s not, I don’t think I’ll be reading more.

Such a pleasing read, it was so easy to be invested. The writing style was so amazing, one of my favorites of the year!

Thank you to NetGalley for the advance review copy in return for an honest review. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. I always love these books but I feel like at this point it’s probably been done enough. The stories kind of all feel the same after a while. They still make you feel good, but the blend together.

I absolutely love that every time we explore the Funiculi Funicula cafe in this series, we learn something new about how the time travel works as well as the characters that continuously pop up in the stories. The new characters are always engaging as well and their stories add depth and intrigue to how the cafe engages with the people around them and the ways in which the time travel aspect factors into their decisions about whether to go back in time and what they will do with the opportunity. This is definitely a comfort series for me and I'll always be on the lookout for more from this author.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade and Toshikazu Kawaguchi for the arc.

This one was a great collection of short stories. I read it in one sitting and couldn’t put it down.

It’ll make you stop and think as it’s all human experience and many times the emotions displayed by these characters will hit you. There were instances where the story was predictable, but that didn’t take away from the their meaning.

The grief aspect really got me.

I haven’t read Kawaguchi’s prior work, but I’ll definitely be picking more up.

2.5/5

None of these books have been awful, but this is the first one that (in my opinion) shows the series is losing steam.

I don’t feel that the idea of the time traveling cafe itself has been played out, I just feel that the individual stories are starting to blend into each other a bit.

Kawaguchi tried to play around with the general format of the stories in this installment, especially with the story surrounding a father and his daughter who eloped.

However, since what can be done in the cafe has become repetitive, Kawaguchi is spending longer and longer focusing on the backstories of each character using the time travel coffee, instead of centering the stories around the cafe itself.

Again, not a bad thing, I just feel that there’s not much more that can be done in this series.

**Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This review is based off an Advanced Reader Copy from NetGalley. Thank you, NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing, for the early read!

If you haven't read the others of the series, you can jump into this one, but I don't recommend it. In this book, we visit characters from the previous titles and it feels like meeting up with old friends and beingnable to follow-up with them. If you already know their stories, it makes the meet-up all the better. So please go back and start with Before the Coffee Gets Cold!

This was also my first time reading the book, as the others I have read have been audiobooks. I did enjoy the audiobooks and it was nice seeing names and knowing how theybshould be pronounced.

This book focuses on four visitors to the cafe, all of whom want to travel in time. As usual, our author makes astute observations about humanity that spans cultures, genders, age, and all those other classifications you may think of. The stories will pull your heartstrings, make you reflect, and of course, smile.

<spoiler>That all being said, I found the other titles in this series to be more enthralling for one reason: that everything tied togetherat the end into a neat bow. Stories entertwined and came to deeper resolutions later in the stories.

This book felt more like a seriesnof short stories of our four character than one big story with four chapters, like previous books

There were also a couple of references that I think were more literal/Japan-based/original-book-in-Japanese references that may work better if they went with the culture the book is being marketed towards.</spoiler>