Reading Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe felt like stepping into a warm hug—cozy, queer, and quietly magical. I went in expecting a cute sapphic romance with a quirky title, and what I got was so much more. Brenda is a hyper-focused, science-loving overachiever trying to stick to her world-saving plan. Kat, on the other hand, is the Chosen One from a fantasy universe who just wants a normal life without prophecies hanging over her head. The two girls literally come from different worlds, and yet their connection feels effortless and real.

The concept of a coffeeshop that exists between universes is so fun, and the way their lives keep intertwining—despite different timelines and magical rules—had me hooked. It's soft and funny but still explores deeper themes like identity, expectations, and the pressure to have everything figured out. There’s also a dragon, cute sibling dynamics, and so many heart-fluttering moments between Kat and Brenda.

Honestly, I wish this book existed when I was younger. It’s comforting and full of hope, with just the right mix of fantasy and teen angst. If you love queer stories, slow-burn romance, or anything multiverse-y, don’t skip this one. It’s a gem.

This was such a sweet, Cozy Fantasy Romance that I fell in love with! Two worlds collide in a coffeeshop where Brenda and Kat meet, not realizing how different they live. I loved the magical world and how technology operates entwined with the magic.

I appreciated how the conflict didn't come from teenage friend drama, but from real issues they need to tackle. Long-term relationships are complicated, but being in two different worlds makes it exponentially more difficult!

If you're looking for a cute sapphic fantasy that has an undercurrent of the immigrant experience, then check this one out! I'm really picky about my cozy fantasies, but I consider this one of the best! It's easily a five-star read! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I will say- I didn't realize this was a young adult novel, so it took me a minute to adjust my expectations, but once I did, I really enjoyed this book. It does an excellent job of bringing us into two different worlds with two entirely different characters and identities. This was ultimately a really sweet sapphic story with an adorable giant cat!

The audiobook was PERFECT! Both characters unique perspectives were clear. It's the perfect way to enjoy this story.

This is a cozy, delightful adventure with a refreshing original twist. The story isn’t just your average meet-cute, it’s a meet cute across dimensions, which adds a whole new layer of charm. It takes the familiar romcom meets D&D setup and pushes it a few steps further. It blends heartfelt moments with clever otherworldly storytelling. A super warm read!

This book was sadly not for me. It’s a typical chosen one story and it was from time to time a bit difficult for me to follow along. Sometimes a lot happened at once and the next moment nothing really happened for several chapters. I also couldn’t really connect with any of the main characters. The story itself was interesting.

The narrator’s were okay but somehow Kate’s narrator was sometimes really quiet and I had to turn up the volume to understand what she was saying, just to turn it down again the next chapter. I don’t know if it was on purpose or only a mistake but it stopped the listening flow for me.

Thank you to NetGalley for this Audio Arc!

This is not cozy fantasy. This is an extremely typical YA "chosen one" fantasy. Cozy would have the two girls chatting in the coffee shop every day after school while slowly realizing they're from different worlds and sorting out the cause of the magical earthquakes.

This has very high stakes, high anxiety, and way too many words. 400 pages is too many for either a cozy fantasy or a YA novel. Also, the villain was obviously the villain from the moment of introduction.

This was such a cozy fantasy with portals and powers and alternate coffeeshops also healing grief and found family

Coffeeshop is a cozy multidimensional young adult queer fantasy with a unique and creative world that reels you in. Although it did take a bit to warm up to Brenda (she's a bit naive and bubbly which read as younger), I really ended up loving this more than I expected. Even the parts that moved slower were sprinkled with a sweet sapphic romance, friendship, and *magic*. I really love Kat and Brenda's opposing personalities and how they helped each other. The mystery and the magic was well done and kept my interest.

This was cute, fun, and unique! I am loving the multiverse rom-coms that are becoming more popular, it's such an interesting thing to explore and adds an element to the relationship that you can't get any other way.

Both main characters were really sweet. I was immediately drawn to Brenda, and it was so cute when Kat thought Brenda was from her world based on Brenda describing herself playing D&D. Not too low stakes, but with cozy elements.

I loved having dual POVs and narrators, especially with each one living in a different universe. They did speak at different enough speeds that I found myself speeding up and slowing down the book when POVs switched, but I liked both of their narration. Definitely an enjoyable listen!

Oh, what a lovely, fluffy, romantic adventure, with a few surprises thrown in!

I wasn't quite sure what I was getting into. I knew it was an isekai romance. I figured it had a typical RPG fantasy garb and world-building. All checks. But the way the story was written and the deviations from the norm were delightful. Brenda is a big nerd in "our" world, or something close to it, clearly obsessed with some "fake" magic system like FFVII's materia and boasting some kind of hero complex. Kat is "The Chosen One" in a magical alternate universe. Everyone's queer and it's nbd. Dates happen at random, like encountering monsters in the wild, when portals decide to open between the worlds. Of course, there's a baddie working in the background, and our heroines have to set love aside ... or maybe front and centre ... to save the world(s).

Now, the plot does drag here and there ... and there's just a little bit too much fluff for my tastes. I mean, these lovers have to ask to kiss each other after establishing their relationship, which just felt off and juvenile. Ah well!

The narration by Elyse Dinh and Emily Woo Zeller was spellbinding. What an excellent pair! Absolutely, 100% recommend the audio version.

Thank you Netgalley for this copy.

Brenda is a girl from our world, trying to get into college, and worried about climate change. Kat lives in an alternate version of our world, full of magic. When they stumble into each other thanks to some portals, they find themselves at the center of saving both their worlds and magic in Kat's world becomes more and more unstable, creating consequences for Brenda's world. Oh, and while they're at it, they fall in love.

Both girls are such awesome leads, I loved following their parallel but also unique struggles. I also enjoyed their individual relationships with the families, and their friends. Watching Kat cope with the looming chosen one life, or death, and how it impacted her relationships, made an interesting story to follow.

The world was also fantastic. Brenda's is, of course, very recognizable, but Kat's was incredibly interesting. How the magic replaces technology, the ways their world grew and changed to be so similar and yet so different from our own, the one Brenda lives in.

The narrators were great, I loved that they voiced the dual POV with two voice actors, it made it easier to follow the narrative and gave some extra life to the story.

This was a phenomenal book. I loved the entire story, and found myself desperate to know what was going to happen next.
The audio was also fantastic - both narrators truly brought the characters they were voicing to life.
This is one I can definitely see myself rereading in the future.
An easy 5 stars from me.

Cute middle grade/young YA book about two parallel Los Angeles cities one with magic and one without and what happens when the two collide. This book was fun and lighthearted without being boring or too silly. It would be a great read for middle or high schoolers wanting a light fun queer fantasy. The characters are young, full of life, and a little immature and indecisive but no more than any other teenagers! They have large dreams of saving the world and idealistic dreams of their future which is very true of kids their age. A great and super quick listen even with the length of the audiobook. The narration was well done and captivating though a little slow which was easily solved by upping my speed.

I loved this so much! The concept is brilliant - taking the ever-popular concept of the "coffeeshop au" and making it a literal coffeeshop in another universe is pretty much guaranteed to be great. This is the second book of C.B. Lee's that I've really enjoyed, and one of my favorite cozy novels.

Brenda and Kat are both loveable and easy to root for. They have great chemistry and it was such a joy to watch their excitement an they learned about one another's worlds.

Brenda's friend group are fantastic and fit seamlessly in with the couple as they work to save both of their worlds. The idea of taking a DnD party and informing them that, hey, magic is real in another universe, is highly entertaining.

I had the biggest smile on my face the whole time I was listening. It was great.

The audiobook narrators did an excellent job bringing the characters to life. I'm not usually a fan of Emily Woo Zeller, in fact I spent years actively avoiding anything she narrated, but I didn't mind her voice here, and actually think she did a great job. Maybe because I have since learned that I can speed up the narration until the voices sound natural to me.

Absolutely 100% recommend, especially if you love stories involving DnD friend groups and/or fanfiction aus.

*Thanks to Feiwel & Friends and Brilliance Audio for providing an early ecopy and audio copy for review.

This was so cute. I may be a woman in my mid twenties but I was kicking my feet with how adorable these two girls are. The world-building was so refreshing and fun. If i could back in time i would give the book to my young self and all my friends. The audiobook narrators truly enhanced the book by leaps and bounds they delivered the characters emotions and thoughts so well. I found myself laughing out loud many times.

The narrators did a really good job on this audiobook, every character voiced by each narrator felt unique and full of character even if some of them annoyed me, it only showed me the range of the actors. It mostly flowed perfectly except for a couple of weird breaks or emphasis here and there. The story itself was sweet, cosy and very successful at making me very hungry with its descriptions of food. It is medium paced, but in a way that doesn't drag on and I really enjoyed listening to this audiobook even as someone who usually dislikes audiobooks due to noise issues.

This is such a cute cozy story. I loved the narrators Elyse Dinh and Emily Woo Zeller. Loved the FMC’s Brenda and Kat. The worldbuilding and writing were fun.

That was a ton of fun! The characters were great, especially for YA. Nobody was hopeless on their own but teamwork was what was needed on their own, and the teenaged angst was used believably. I could see Fantasy LA easily, and Reality LA sounded like the city I remember. The pop culture references were fun, though I may have missed what kind of mass media the magic world shared. (I mean, they must have had live theater if nothing else. But they clearly had the ability to broadcast voices, if not change stations. And I don't remember hearing about novels? But maybe I missed it somehow. I must have missed it.)

I have two Obnoxious History Nerd observations: am kind of curious if a decrease in electricity really would save the environment of LA, since I'm not sure water use for household and farming settings for such a large population wouldn't do damage, but having all that green definately did good things for the visual differences between the two worlds. I LOVE the idea of cars not really being a thing, but guess there was some magic way of dealing with horse dung which made the roads less shitty (I couldn't resist) than they were before cars took off.

This was a case of “not for me”. The two POV characters are distinct and fleshed out, but I didn’t enjoy the writing style. It felt too info-dumpy. Brenda often seemed ridiculously immature, which didn’t make sense, given her overall characterization, ambition and role in her extra curriculars. I know capturing an authentic teen voice is tricky, but most of the books I read are YA and this stood out to me as unbalanced.
Both girls dwelled on interiority in a way I personally don’t enjoy, and the pacing was lagging, so I eventually DNF’d.
The narrators were fun and engaging, speaking at the perfect speed, but in Brenda’s case the voice felt too childish.

Thank you to NetGalley and Brilliance Publishing for the audiobook ARC in exchange for an honest review.