Café. Waiting. Love. Review:
One Very Sweet Taiwanese Rom-Com
by Giddens Ko
translated by Shanna Tan
Publisher Wildfire, an imprint of Headline
Release date August 27, 2026
Review type Digital ARC review via NetGalley
I have read enough café books that I thought I had a pretty good idea of what I was getting. A charming café, a collection of customers and a series of loosely connected stories about their lives.
Café. Waiting. Love. gave me a full coming-of-age story instead, and that was refreshing. We stay with Si-ying long enough to watch her grow up. She becomes more confident and starts to understand that what she wants may be different from the dream she had in her head.
Written by Giddens Ko and translated from Chinese by Shanna Tan, this is the first time the novel has been published in English. It was also adapted into a 2014 Taiwanese film with the same English title.
The story begins when Si-ying starts working at a small café in Hsinchu, Taiwan. She has a crush on Tse-yu, a handsome regular who keeps showing up with different girlfriends. Then she meets Ah Tuo, an earnest and slightly unusual young man who introduces her to people she never would have met otherwise.
There is a triad boss who looks terrifying but loves movies and makes scrambled eggs. There is a laundrette owner who prepares incredible meals on Sundays. The further Si-ying moves into Ah Tuo’s world, the stranger and more fun the book becomes.
Watching Si-ying grow up
Si-ying still feels like a girl at the beginning. She knows who she has a crush on and has already built a version of love around him, even though she does not really know him.
Then life starts getting in the way of the fantasy.
She makes friends. She works, studies and gets pulled into adventures she never expected. Her world becomes much bigger than the café and the handsome man she watches from behind the counter.
By the end, she feels like a young woman who understands herself much better. She begins to see what she actually needs from another person. I do not want to say how her relationships work themselves out because that is the pleasure of the story.
One of the things I liked most was Ah Tuo’s patience. They are truly great friends. He takes care of Si-ying and wants her to be happy, but he gives her room to make her own choices.
The people around her
Abusi and the café’s Boss were two of my favorite people in the book. Both are confident women with their own relationships to love. They support Si-ying and give her space to learn things for herself. They felt like the older sisters she did not have.
Even Tse-yu, who could be annoying, needed to be there. His choices matter to Si-ying’s growth, and he has some growing up of his own to do. No one felt as though they were taking up space without adding something.
The gangster storyline could have gone completely off the rails. And maybe a couple of times it did.
This enormous, frightening man turns out to be lonely, obsessed with movies and very serious about scrambled eggs. The situations involving him get more ridiculous as the book goes on. One in particular was shocking and hilarious. I am saying nothing else about that because it deserves to catch readers by surprise.
The ordinary details of Si-ying’s life matter too. We see the pressure around studying and tests, the food people share and the different groups she moves between. These details make her world feel full and give us a nice look at Taiwanese student life.
Shanna Tan’s translation
This is the sixth Shanna Tan translation I have read, and once again, the English feels so natural.
The conversations sound young and relaxed. The humor lands, even when the situations become genuinely ridiculous.
Tan’s translation carries the lightness of the story and leaves room for its quieter feelings. The book stays rooted in Taiwan, and Si-ying’s uncertainty around love and growing up is easy to understand.
Who should read it?
I closed Café. Waiting. Love. thinking it was really sweet.
This is a light book, and I had fun reading it. I liked spending time with these characters. The pacing worked all the way through.
This would be a good choice for someone looking for a Taiwanese romantic comedy, a coming-of-age story or a lighter book to read between heavier ones. Readers who are tired of the usual café-vignette format may also enjoy following one character through a complete story.
Most of all, this book left me warm and satisfied.
Definitely Worth the Read.
Where to Purchase
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I received an advance digital copy of this book from Wildfire through NetGalley. Thank you Wildfire for the early read.
