I am delighted to share my review of The Little Board Game Cafe by Jennifer Page. This was a lovely story and it was great to read something lighter after my few weeks of reading crime.

My huge thanks to Aria Fiction for granting my request to read this title via NetGalley.

Publication Date – 13th April 2023

When Emily loses her job, house and boyfriend all within a matter of days, she’s determined to turn a negative into a positive and follow her dream of running a small cafe in the gorgeous Yorkshire village of Rosegarth.

But she quickly finds she’s bitten off more than she can chew when the ‘popular’ cafe she takes over turns out to secretly be a failing business. Emily desperately needs a way to turn things around, and help comes from the unlikeliest of places when she meets local board game-obsessed GP Ludek. But when a major chain coffee shop opens on the high street, Emily is forced to question if she’ll ever be able to compete.

Has she risked everything on something destined to fail? Or can a playful twist, a homely welcome, and a sprinkle of love make Emily’s cafe the destination she’s always dreamed of?

MY REVIEW

This was a really lovely story to read. Having lost her job, her house and her fiance she decides that it is finally time to follow her dream. When her mum was alive it was a dream they both shared, to own and run their own cafe. Taking the plunge, she spots a small cafe, it has potential.

Following Emily, as she negotiates a new business and the tables in her new cafe was wonderful. She soon has her rose-tinted glasses removed as she discovers that the business isn’t all the books made it out to be. She does have customers, well some days she may have as many as 2! Gradually with the help of the local GP, she manages to find her niche, something that makes her cafe memorable. As you have probably guessed from the title, that niche is board games. I never realised there were so many different games until I read this book.

With the help of a handful of people, the cafe starts to blossom, but just as she starts to feel a little more confident, once again the rug is pulled from under her feet.

With mentions of sumptuous food and delightful sounding colour and decor schemes for the cafe, the author has created a cafe that sounds wonderful. Adding in a colourful array of characters and various troubling scenarios to bring a woman’s dream to reality was an interesting one to follow.

There is a really lovely will they/ won’t they romance thread in this book, it was a nice one to follow and I was never sure how this was going to pan out.

A lovely story and one that if you are a fan of contemporary fiction and romance stories, I do think that you will enjoy this one. I would happily recommend this story.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jennifer Page lives near Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire with her husband Hermi and his very – no, make that extremely – large collection of board games. Her debut novel, The Little Board Game Cafe will be published on 13th April 2022. Jennifer writes light-hearted, cosy romantic fiction which was initially inspired by her own dating adventures. Before she met Hermi, she was single for 13 years and had pretty much given up on meeting The One.

When she isn’t writing, Jennifer can usually be found playing board games; since she met Hermi, she’s become even more obsessed with them than he is! She also loves cooking (though she’d never claim to be any good at it!), caravan holidays and walking in the beautiful Yorkshire countryside.

Many thanks for reading my post, a like or share would be amazing 🙂 xx