Published by Ballantine Books on October 28, 2025
Age/Genres: Adult, Fiction
Rating:
Goodreads
From the bestselling author of the Japanese sensation The Full Moon Coffee Shop, this charming and heartfelt novel showcases the magic of Christmas as lost souls find themselves—with a little help of from an enchanted café run by cats.
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 Christmas-time Kyoto moon.
Satomi is devoted to her job in Tokyo, but when her boyfriend hints that he is going to propose to her on Christmas Day, she becomes torn between the career in the city that she loves and a quieter life with her boyfriend in the country. What will the magical cats see for her future?
Koyuki, meanwhile, works at Satomi’s company. Ever since her father passed away in an accident on Christmas Day, she has been playing the role of the good, cheerful girl—and now that her mother has remarried, she is forced to pretend she is part of a happy new family. But this Christmas, what will the cats reveal as her true wish?
Junko, Satomi’s sister-in-law, lives in a small town with her husband and their daughter Ayu, a first grader. When her estranged father becomes ill, Junko returns home with Ayu in tow—and with the help of the magical cats, she learns something surprising that will change her life forever.
This holiday season, each stands at a crossroads, confronting their past and present struggles. With the help of some feline divinations, each will finally have the courage to seek happiness and contentment in their lives.
I am addicted to the warm fuzzies Japanese lit give me. Seriously, this was another great and cozy book. Once again, the author dazzled me with all the things I do not know about astrology. It's such an interesting and involved field of knowledge. I enjoyed learning a bit about it, as well as seeing the way Mochizuki applied it to the characters' personal journeys.
There were three stories focusing on a different person in this interconnected group of people. The first story was sweet, and I liked how the character had her eureka moment regarding some big choices on her horizon, but the other stories were total gut punches. They got me a bit emotional. And I was thrilled that characters from the first book made an appearance. It was great to see how their lives had changed and progressed.
Overall, another warm and wonderful tale of love, family, and forgiveness.
Published by Crown on April 29, 2025
Age/Genres: Adult, Fiction, Epistolary
Rating:
Goodreads
Throughout her life Sybil Van Antwerp has used letters to make sense of the world and her place in it. Most mornings around half past ten Sybil sits down to write letters—to her brother, to her best friend, to the president of the university who will not allow her to audit a class she desperately wants to take, to Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry to tell them what she thinks of their latest books, and to one person to whom she writes often yet never sends the letter.
Sybil expects her world to go on as it always has. A mother, grandmother, wife, divorcée, distinguished lawyer, she has lived a full life. But when letters from someone in her past force her to examine one of the most painful periods of her life, she realizes the letter she has been writing over the years needs to be read and that she cannot move forward until she finds it in her heart to offer forgiveness.
Sybil Van Antwerp didn't call, she wrote letters.
I love me an epistolary novel, and this was a good one. When we first meet Sybil, she is in her early 70s, writing letters as she always had. She wrote to her neighbor, her best friend, her daughter, her brother, her customer service rep, a friend's young son, as well as several authors. These letters revealed so many different facets of Sybil's life which was one packed with successes, failures, love and loss.
You can see her coming to terms with som painful parts of her life, and as the weight is lifted, her world begins to open up. I loved how even in her 70s, Sybil grew and changed. She confronted so many things that had been holding her back, and she gained so much in the process. Not gonna lie, I shed some tears, but I was so inspired by Sybil's personal journey which reinforced the idea that it's never too late to make changes, make amends, or try something new.
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