This is the second book in the series the first being Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon. One of the stories links to the first book but apart from that it is pretty self contained. Like the first book each chapter is an individual story.
Like the first book this is equally touching and makes you think about loss and who you would talk to if you could talk with one person that had died.
I enjoyed it as much as the first one and it is an easy read that is highly recommended I am hoping there is a third (which I believe there is)

I have grown a new love for a "quieter" reads - those unassuming, simpler slice of life stories that just appeal to your heart - and this is a wonderful example of such a book. A wonderful read

A beautifully gentle and moving story about a go-between who has the power to put yearning individuals in touch with a person that they long to see who has passed.

Each of the encounters that Ayumi sets up (and he doesn't always know beforehand whether he will be successful in doing so) leaves the reader feeling moved and reflecting on our own relationships and how we might feel about them once those people are gone from our lives.

In comparison to many of the current East Asian literary sensations in this genre, this particular book seems to have a stronger, less scattered approach to story telling, making all the characters feel more relatable. If you like this genre or this kind of literature, you will very much enjoy this book. It gets 3.5 stars.

I love this author and I was so excited to read this book. The emotion of their writing never fails to touch me. It was also nice to return to the go between - who I found quite intriguing in the first book. There is something magical and philosophical about this author.

I thought the first book, Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon, was emotionally-stirring and a fresh take on what's quickly becoming a trope.

This second instalment didn't hit the same notes for me. Instead of each character's perspective, we almost exclusively follow Ayumi around this time... and the story line feels fragmented and repetitive creating a similar template-style format that plagues series like Before the Coffee Gets Cold and Food Detectives. It's not quite as bad as those examples because it's saved by the through line of Ayumi's story but it was a noticeable departure from the first instalment. We even had entire sections repeated verbatim, which in a book this compact, really stands out.

Opening with the Anna section was a confusing choice. Why Anna stood in is revealed later on but getting reacquainted with the world was trickier. It was interesting to see Ayumi's human life and his go-between life juxtaposed, but I'm not sure I'm feeling the romance that's being telegraphed through the book.

As with the first book, I felt the translation was well done. There was a good sense of people and place.

Barring the unique story with the historian, which was the best in the book IMO, I felt like I'd read these stories multiple times across Before the Coffee Gets Cold and Chibineko Kitchen. If Tsujimura continues the series, I hope that the next one is the conclusion or I fear it'll exhaust itself too - there's only so many times we can read the same stories. I opine that the next book will make or break the series.