The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki

The Full Moon Coffee Shop

by Mai Mochizuki

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Translated from the Japanese bestseller, a charming and magical novel that reminds us it’s never too late to follow our stars.

“Mochizuki dazzles in her beautifully crafted contemporary fantasy debut. . . . This gentle fantasy is not to be missed.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review (Best Books of the Year)

In Japan, cats are a symbol of good luck. As the myth goes, if you are kind to them, they’ll one day return the favor. And if you are kind to the right cat, you might just find yourself invited to a mysterious coffee shop under a glittering Kyoto moon.

This particular coffee shop is like no other. It has no fixed location, no fixed hours, and it seemingly appears at random.

It’s also run by talking cats.

While customers at the Full Moon Coffee Shop partake in cakes and coffees and teas, the cats also consult their star charts, offering cryptic wisdom, and letting them know where their lives veered off course.

Every person who visits the shop has been feeling more than a little lost. For a down-on-her-luck screenwriter, a romantically stuck movie director, a hopeful hairstylist, and a technologically challenged website designer, the coffee shop’s feline guides will set them back on their fated paths. For there is a very special reason the shop appeared to each of them . . .

Reviewed by chymerra on

4 of 5 stars

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I am a sucker for books that contain cats. Recently, I have also become very interested in reading Japanese literature. So, when I read the blurb for The Full Moon Coffee Shop and saw that it contained cats and Japanese literature, I knew I wanted to read it. And I am glad I did because this book was a cute read and a little strange.

The Full Moon Coffee Shop’s synopsis centers around four individuals (Mizuki, Akari, Satsuki, and Takashi), their current lives, and how they ended up at the coffee shop. The book was very well written, and I had zero issues following the storyline.

I warn that you might wonder how everything is connected (I certainly did wonder). The author does a beautiful job of gradually explaining the connections between the people. The connection between the cafe and the main characters isn’t fully explained until the end of the book.

The main characters were flawed, but not in a way that would ruin the book. The author did have each character have an awakening of sorts, which carried over into the other storylines.

The cats and the astrology made the book. I liked that the cats were named after the planets. I also liked that the author included drawings of each person’s astrology chart. It was nice to see a layout of what each cat (and there were four that gave the main characters TED talks) was talking about. I was able to visualize it. Also, I liked that the author didn’t fundamentally change the cats. Instead, they were furry creatures who stood on their hind legs, did astrology, and served up custom-made coffee/tea/desserts to the shop patrons.

The end of The Full Moon Coffee Shop was interesting. The author shows how the main characters changed because of their interactions at the coffee shop. In addition, the way the main characters met and the good deeds that they did together were explained. I was in tears reading that. They weren’t sad tears but happy tears. I wish I could tell you all more!!

Many thanks to Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, Ballantine Books, NetGalley, and Mai Mochizuki for allowing me to read and review The Full Moon Coffee Shop. All opinions stated in this review are mine.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 20 August, 2024: Finished reading
  • 20 August, 2024: Reviewed