Stephanie

The second installment of the Meals to Remember at the Chibineko Kitchen series. I read the first book earlier this year and adored it, it is among my favorites I read in 2025. I was beyond excited to be asked to review the second in the series. 

We follow four new bittersweet stories of people setting out to have one last meal/meeting with lost loved ones. I cried just as much in this book as I did the last, it is such a tear jerker, but leaves you with a sense of hope and reflection as well. I was caught slightly off guard that the fourth story felt much more heavy and challenging than the others, including the stories from the first book.  

There are some characters from the first book appear again, making the stories semi-interconnect in various ways. The characters are likeable, though I will say my favorite has been the mischievous calico cat, Chibi, who takes any opportunity to try and escape from the restaurant. 

Meals to Remember at the Chibineko Kitchen has been my favorite of the healing fiction books I have read. I am looking forward to reading the others when they are translated.

Thank you to Viking Penguin and Netgalley for the ARC!

I'm really not qualified to give an in depth analysis of poetry, but I can say that Maggie Smith's writing was really delightful, reflective, and thoughtful. I connected with quite a few poems. 

My favorites: 

“A Suit or a Suitcase”
“Now They're Saying Isolation Atrophies the Brain”
“Time-Stamped”
“The Before Picture”
“You Asked If I Believe in the Afterlife”
“Homebody”

Thank you Netgalley and Atria Books for the ARC!

These poems are good, I just didn't relate to most of them. I think a lot of these poems went over my head, or I'm quite possibly not the target audience for them. I did really enjoy a few of them (“Encore”, “Camaro”, “Equinox”, and “Meteor”). I look forward to keeping this on my shelf and revisit in the future, with possibly a different mindset and different experiences. 

Creature feature at a drive-in? Count me in. Great nods to classic horror films of the 50's, you can feel how much the author loves the horror genre. The action scenes were so chaotic and gory, in the best way.  I love that this almost reads as a cozy, creepy 90's/00's horror flick. Perfect for a summerween read. 

Thank you to Mad Axe Media and NetGalley for the ARC!

Pretty cheesy holiday rom com mystery. It was fun, but didn't live up to the hype or the Knives Out comparisons.

The romance side of the story didn't really do it for me. I found Maggie a little grating and Ethan's savior complex, overuse of the word “sweetheart/sweetie”, and over all dialogue to be pretty cringy. This was more of a mash up of one sided “enemies to lovers” and one sided “insta love”. If I had to read about how perfect Ethan Wyatt was one more time, I think my eyes were going to roll out of my head.

However, the mystery side was definitely a page turner and kept me entertained. But I found the other characters involved were just kind of...there? They were all so nonchalant that they didn't have any impact and I felt very indifferent about them. I do wish the big question of how Eleanor Ashley got out of the locked room was actually revealed. I'm not sure if keeping it a mystery is something I like about the book, or if that is something the author couldn't explain either.

While I this won't be going under my list of favorites, I still had a good time reading it and thought it was a fun read for the holiday season.