BEFORE I KNEW I LOVED YOU is the latest from the Before the Coffee Gets Cold series. For lovers of Japanese or Asian fiction, this has been a popular series. I have read the first couple of books and loved the thought behind them. In this installment, we meet people who have loved and lost their people before they can express their love for them. It shows the angst and conflict in their relationships before they realize that, at the end of the day, they love them.

We meet four individuals who visit a basement cafe, popular for time travel in a way it has been an urban legend for some and a medium for some. These individuals have had a difficult relationship in their lives from which they are now long way ahead, left behind and moved on or faced loss of that person. With time and maybe experience their perspective has changed and made them realize they love them and not really hate them. It is a life lesson they learn after leaving their childhood selves behind, after moving out of their homes etc. Each person comes into the cafe some to visit their loved ones in the past or future to express the love they now realize they have for them. There are some wins, some losses, some unfulfilled results.

The calm, hope that these situations portray are heartwarming. It makes a person reflective, nostalgic, emotional and makes the reader feel much more than they bargained for. I believe there will also be people who will be unmoved by these stories. There's an element of repetitiveness in each story with regards to the person wanting to time travel and the facilitator, which might put some off. However, at the end of the read one will leave with some musings, some personal goals and some warmth in their hearts.

I usually read these stories one at a time, so a book with, say, four stories will take me four days, or if it holds my interest, I'll read it in two days. It portrays emotions especially an emotion like Love which always creates a storm inside an individual’s given love has different facets given your relationship with the person you love. If you are looking for a read which shows different faces of Love not just the warm, fuzzy side of it pick up a copy and give these adorable, quirky cafe staff a chance.