WELCOME TO FAE CAFÉ is like Holly Black’s tricky FOLK OF THE AIR schemes meeting your grandmother’s freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. With a sweet, comical romance and relatable slice-of-life moments colliding with manipulative fairy games and deathmatches, this book puts a spin on the typical fae stories readers know and love and aims to be the coziest rom-com fae book of all time.
Welcome to Fae Cafe is a fantasy rom com that brings together a human and an assassin prince. Kate Kole is just simply minding her own business, scoping out the competition, when a rather aggressively rude male (turns out to be a fae) brings a dash of disorder to her day. Well, when things turn...physical, the situation goes left, and Kate is guilty of...muuuurder. *Gasp* Well, this is officially the beginning...of the end. No, we’re just kidding. This is the beginning of Kate’s and Cress’s story that buds an unlikely romance, with some rather humorous moments sprinkled throughout.
The blurb and cover for this book promise a lot of fun to be found within these pages. The book’s cover depicts a young woman, and a fae male sitting together drinking what we can assume to be coffee. The fae guy appears to be quite taken with the young woman. However, is it reciprocated? The cover definitely gives off cozy vibes, but will they be found within the pages of this story as well? Well, you’ll just have to read to find out.
Welcome to Fae Cafe by Jennifer Kropf is absolutely an interesting story, for the most part. As you read this book you get to learn about who Kate Kole is. Of course, you’ll have to exercise quite a healthy amount of patience since Kate flutters back and forth between interesting and just down-right annoying. Sorry not sorry but her abuse of adjectives is enough to drive a sane person to the nearest abandoned asylum. LOL! No, seriously. It’s like she doesn’t know how to simply pick up a dictionary. They still do exist in this fiction fantasy realm, right? Well, we hope they do anyways.
This story alternates between Kate and Cress. It’s easy to tell who the chapter is focusing on by the headings of each chapter that will either have a female depicted character, or a male depicted character. Though Cress’s were typically the ones we looked forward to the most since he got a sword and ivy swirls. Plus, honestly, Cress is just more interesting as a character.
As Welcome to Fae Cafe unfolds we get to learn about each of the characters in this book, but Cress’s story is more interesting. Cress’s story has more backstory and gives readers a better idea of who he is. Is he an arrogant character? Honestly, yes, he is. However, he isn’t the only one. LOL! To be honest, Kate is, too. They are the definition of two wrongs don’t make a right.
Cress has come to the human realm after one of his assassin brothers was killed. His agenda? Revenge. While Kate may be insanely incompetent, she has some helping nudges along the way that have her enslaving this fellow assassin brothers who came to the human realm with him.
There is some humor in what Kate does concerning them, but unfortunately, for this reader, it wears off rather quickly. The intended humor element we mean. Kate insists on taking things too far for our liking. She never stops to consider how she would feel if someone subjected her to the things that she forces them to do. Now, to be fair, the author does come back and have Kate express some remorse concerning her actions. But for us, it’s just too little too late.
Cress and his fellow brother assassins bring the majority of the humor to the storyline. Unfortunately, Kate just brings...more than a little annoyance. To be fair, there are moments of where we like her. But then she typically shortly there after does something that proves to be irritating and that little bit of liking we had towards her...evaporates like steam. Are we being biased against her? No, not really.
Typically with any book we come into each one with the intent to immediately like the FMC, but Kate just drives that dry pretty quickly.
Now! With that being said, Welcome to Fae Cafe honestly does have some redeeming qualities. The question begs though...why do the heavier rom com elements take place in the final 30% of the book?? We wanted more of it throughout! We wanted more give and take between the characters. As it is, it’s Kate giving in spurts, but doing most of the taking. Plus, we wanted more of her backstory. It just wasn’t enough. We also wanted more focus on her working to open the cafe. We get spurts of attention to this here and there, but it all ends up flashing by once she enslaves the assassins to do her bidding.
While this book was heading towards 4 star territory, the author probably had an idea that there would be readers like us who would be preparing a mildly scathing review. LOL! Well, this book has some major saving grace with some really well done twists, surprises and unexpected elements sprinkled thoughout this book, but especially towards the end. So just go ahead and settle in. Think that you’re getting to the point of putting this book down for whatever the reason? Just hang in there. You’ll be happy that you stuck with it.
We will warn you of this though...grab some tissues and just have them on hand. Don’t worry, nothing is going to happen for quite a while, but after the 65% - 72% mark of the story...have them nearby. You’re going to need them. This author intends to bring a tear or two to your eyes.
This book has an interesting ending, but the good news is that it seems like we’ll be returning to the Fae Cafe sometime in the near future. This is good news, because honestly, Cress has unfinished business and it will be interesting to see how it all plays out.
Welcome to Fae Cafe is an interesting fantasy cozy rom com that despite the irritating behavior of certain characters, is a lot of fun to read. We look forward to returning to them in the future.
4.5 out of 5 stars
Thank you to the author, Jennifer Kropf, and R&R Book Tours for the opportunity to read and review this book. We look forward to what comes next.
Welcome to Fae Cafe (High Court of the Coffee Bean Book 1)
Publication Date: October 2023
Genre: Cozy Romcom/ Fae Fantasy Elements
There are ten golden rules if you want to survive an encounter with a fae:
Don’t ask their name.
If they ask you what your name is, lie.
Avoid looking directly into their eyes.
Don’t invite them to your book club.
Don’t instigate a snowball fight.
Never let them burn their mouth on coffee.
Don’t ask them where they’re from.
Don’t tell them where you live.
Never mention their queen.
Don’t try to kill them with an ordinary human gun.
From there, four deadly fae assassins come to the human realm to hunt her down for breaking a fairy law and killing one of their own. Leading them is Prince Cressica Alabastian, the most feared and deadly fae assassin of the North and heir to the North Corner of Ever.
After the assassins arrive in the human realm, things go terribly wrong. To Prince Cressica's horror, his assassins unwittingly get roped into running a cozy café on Kate Kole's behalf. To blend in, the fae assassins are forced to learn how to do basic human activities like cleaning up after themselves, driving without road rage, reading popular fantasy books at book club without getting into alpha male fights over what they’re reading, and in general, be nice, all to blend into regular human society.
With a temper like no other, and deadly power that's unmatched, Prince Cressica seeks to get revenge on Kate Kole. But as he aims to strike where it will hurt her the most, the Prince finds himself enchanted by his human target in more ways than one. And when the darkness of the Ever Corners comes knocking at the human realm's door, he needs to make a choice that could cost him everything.
With coziness for days, WELCOME TO FAE CAFÉ is a new spin on some of the most popular fae fantasy tropes, in a setting where fae most definitely don't belong. If you like fantasy and you like rom coms, this may just be your cup of tea. (Or coffee.)
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