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Enjoyable sequel.
It was delightful to return to Cafe Funniculi Funnicula, where one can return to the past (or possibly go ahead to the future) for a short time, as long as you return before the coffee gets cold. This is a short novella, a series of vignettes that twine together as the various people come to the cafe in order to speak to someone from the past. A man wants to talk with his friend whose daughter he raised when the friend died young. Another man wants to give his wife the birthday gift he was never able to give her. A man who knows he is dying wants to travel to the future to speak to the girl he loves, and a son with regrets wants to talk to his mother again. There are rules that must be followed, and often the results of the visits are not what either party expects from the journeys.

As with the first book in the series, I partially listened to this as an audiobook and partially read it on the page. The audiobook helps me to get the pronunciations of the Japanese names, but the print helps me to see how the stories interconnect.

This is a conteplative tale, the repetition of the rules gets a little tedious, but overall those who sit at the table and travel through time receive what they desire from the encounters and more. They receive closure, confirmation of decisions, and most of all, forgiveness for perceived wrongs. It's always interesting to see that those who the travelers go to visit often have a completely different view of the events or situations than those they are visiting. It allows the reader to think back about regrets and realize that just because we might feel a certain way about something, it doesn't mean that the other person has the same view.

Overall I have enjoyed the two books in this series, hopefully if there is a third book the author can just say "the rules were explained" rather than listing them out one by one every single time.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, all opinions are my own.