How a strange café can be exactly what you need…

Synopsis

A gorgeously uplifting story about memories, storytelling, love and friendship, about the journeys we take and the people we meet, what we remember and how there are some things we can never forget.

Alex would like to believe she’s a woman who has it all. Or that’s what she tells everyone, including herself. But this is far from true. Actually she’s on the cusp of losing her home, her dream career as a writer is in tatters, her ex won’t speak to her, and her mother’s gone forever.

But then a chance meeting with a stranger named Hope gives her the opportunity of a lifetime, when Hope jokes that perhaps Alex should take over her job in a cafe while she goes travelling.

Just at that moment, it sounds like the answer to all her problems. So Alex persuades Hope to let her step into her shoes for a month. She brushes away Hope’s attempts to explain about the café, instead demanding to know more about the owner Tom.

But she should have asked to know more. Because the ‘Wrong Order Café’ isn’t like anywhere she’s ever been before. And Alex’s life is about to change forever…

My review

Alex is a writer whose books have been very successful. Yet inspiration has abandoned her lately, even making her risk losing her home, after a failed marriage and losing her mother. Despite her situation, she won’t admit it and makes everyone believe that she still has it all.
Perhaps what she needs is to take a step back, just like Hope, a woman Alex has met by cheer coincidence, suggests. And with Hope going travelling for a month, Alex grabs this chance to step into Hope’s shoes. Not only will Alex be staying at Hope’s place, but she will also take over Hope’s job at the Wrong Order Café.  
Yet Alex is going to have the surprise of her life, once she realizes that perhaps she should have been listening to Hope’s explanations about the Café and owner Tom, instead of dismissing Hope so easily… 

Almost in every book I read, I immediately like the main character(s). So with this new book from an author I truly love, I was really ready to feel a connection with Alex.
However, and perhaps even for a nice change, Alex was not the sweet, loveable character I expected her to be.
On the contrary, for a while I absolutely disliked her… 

Alex felt to me like an obnoxious, even self – centred person, only looking at her own misery (which is justified) and not taking other people in consideration. She is even the kind of person who isn’t kind to others around her.
I really had to trust the author that at some point Alex would change because nobody enjoys reading a book about a character who we don’t like… 

But the one thing I absolutely loved from the very start was the café, and its amazing concept…
I have to admit, I think I can count myself lucky that I haven’t been faced with dementia in real life, so I don’t know how it affects not only the person but also those around him/her.
Yet I admired how Tom made it his goal to give people suffering from this disease still a purpose in life. 

Seeing everyone working in the café, with each their own strengths, truly was wonderful to read. The author shows in an amazing way that a disease can yes change you, but that the disease doesn’t define you.
And while Alex initially is rather reluctant of keeping the job, she also starts to see the beauty of the café, and on her own unique way, she understands the people working there and helps them in a way that is perfect for them. 

And seeing that evolution in Alex, not only towards the café, but also how the café has an impact in her life and her own visions, made me change my initial opinion over Alex.
She starts to see the importance of not only the café, but also the importance of supporting your loved ones, and trying to find a shimmer of light in everyone’s lives. 

My heart went out to each character working in the café, from owner Tom to even parrot Captain Beaky, as they all have their own tale of how they ended up in the café. 

For me, this story was not only heart – warming, but also eye – opening in a sense. Because while it’s easy to disregard people with any kind of disease, they just aren’t. Even if they cannot remember who they are, where they are, or who you are, they still are the people we love. And they still matter… 

And while there were heart – breaking moments, with me having tears in my eyes of sadness, in the end I closed this book with a warm feeling inside, as it made me see that even when we think all is lost, it isn’t…