Everyone needs to read this book.

I loved the story telling. and the overall message the novel brings to us.

I gave the book half a star more than I would have given it had it not been a translation, ending at 2 stars instead of the 1.5 I actually consider it to be. Starting of with what I liked: I don't want to spoil the ending, but I did like that part. The explanation why these characters specifically ended up at the café, I thought, carried an important, if somewhat tried and simple, message and the writing style is at its best within the epilogue. Other than that, the book disappoints. It's about a coffee shop, run by some cats that is supposed to help people lost in their lives. The cats, however, act entirely human, perhaps best illustrated by the master who not only walks on two legs, but is also just as tall as a human. At that point, the cat-part felt more like a gimmick to give the book a whimsical edge instead of the backdrop to a truly whimsical coffee shop setting, leaving me severly disappointed. The other part of the promised plot is equally lacklustre - instead of interesting character studies we get star charts that are analysed, over several chapters in fact. Several times. A star chart for each character. Instead of getting to know them and their situation, we are given a description of their predestined flaws and how to overcome them which I found neither engaging nor written in such a way that I consider it to be interesting from an astrological standpoint. The first time a star chart is read it felt like a three chapter long exposition dump, the other three times it felt like a repetition of previously explained concepts. In a book that neither has a particularly difficult to understand magic system (at leat the parts necessary in this book aren't) nor is particularly long, this is a glaring issue. For the most part, the structure can be summed up as this: The character is, shortly, introduced, is given their star reading across multiple chapters where they get some life explaining and then that character is dealt with. This, I don't find to be very engaging, especially given the lack of depth within each person. Nor did I care much for the advise. At one point a character is told that as a Taurus, they need their apartment to be a sanctuary. That is about the level of foreignly imposed introspection these cats offer. The lacklustre advise isn't helped by the bland characters either. They're all stuck in life somehow and need help moving on, but because so much time is given to the star charts, we barely get to know them. Plus, there is a distinct lack of differentiation between them. They show up and they all react the same to the advise: hm, sure, I did notice that, you're right! That is boring to read. I cannot stress enough how much of this book is dedicated to these charts with so vert little interesting engagement with it. Lastly, I want to touch upon the writing style. This, I'm willing to give most grace on, given that it's a translation and nuances in style are notoriously difficult to get right. However, if you've read this review until here, chance are youll read the book in english too. The book isn't horribly written - I would have dnfed it had it been - but there were several instances that made me cringe. For one, the banter between the cats doesn't work for me, feeling forced and the jokes falling flat. Additionally, there were several instances of telling right after showing,m which to me is an indication of insecurity on the writer's part. Taking all this into consideration, I do not recommend the book. Neither does it live up to my expectations of whimsical urban fantasy, nor does it have interesting characters to fall in love with, nor did I like the writing style enough to cover up other flaws. The portrayal of astrology didn't work for me either, as I don't think the story does a good job at integrating it. The best part is the ending, should you ever pick this up I would therefore recommend reading it to the end. PS: At some point the last 2000 years are described as the age of ,academic meritocracy' (world wide!), but I didn't want to get into the, imo, questionable politics the book alludes to at times/that I extrapolated from it. However, it didn't feel right to not mention them at all.