☕☕☕
The Time Hop Coffee Shop
Phaedra Patrick
Publication Date: December 9th, 2025
Harlequin Trade Publishing | Park Row
320 Pages
Amazon | Goodreads | Bookshop.org
Genre: General Fiction | Women’s Fiction
This is my fourth book by Phaedra Patrick, and she never disappoints. The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper, The Library of Lost and Found, and The Secrets of Love Story Bridge were all four star reads for me. In this one, Greta Perks was a coffee commercial star, and she feels her life is in the dumps. Greta’s marriage is falling apart, her teenage daughter is acting like, well, a teenager, and her acting career is now just a memory. Always dreaming about the perfect life she had on screen, she comes across an enchanting coffee shop that has a magical brew. After a wish, Greta finds herself in the perfect, sunny town of Mapleville, which just so happens to be the fictional setting of her famous coffee commercials. As she lives out the perfect life she always imagined, she begins to realize perfect isn’t always best. This makes her have to choose between the fantasy of her imagined life and the messy, unpredictable yet realistic one she left behind.
This book was utterly charming, and who of us hasn’t thought “What if?” This book has a lot of heart to it and plenty of magick. As always, Patrick’s writing is warm and inviting, and easy to read. She has a unique way of beautifully writing about themes of family and second chances. While the plot was a tad predictable and some of the solutions felt a bit convenient, it was the emotional parts of the story that didn’t wow me. It felt more fantasy-based, and that made it hard to connect with the characters. I found the middle dragged a bit as it was repetitive. I did like the moral of the story, “The grass isn’t always greener on the other side of the fence.” This isn’t a bad book by any means, it just isn’t as good as the previous ones I have read by the author, especially emotionally wise. This would be great for fans of magical realism looking for a light read that is fun and a little quirky.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
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