Book 36/30.
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
After a painful breakup, Lila Macapagal returns home hoping to get her life back on track. Instead, she finds herself caught up in the familiar chaos of family life: trying to rescue her Tita Rosie’s struggling restaurant while enduring the affection, opinions, and relentless matchmaking attempts of her aunties. But everything changes when a notoriously cruel food critic, who also happens to be Lila’s ex, suddenly dies in front of her at her family’s restaurant following an argument between the two.
With the police convinced Lila may be responsible and the family facing the threat of losing their restaurant to an opportunistic landlord, she decides to investigate the murder herself. With help from her network of curious aunties, her barista best friend, and her loyal dachshund, Longanisa, Lila dives into a dangerous search for answers. The deeper she gets, however, the more she realizes that solving the mystery could put her own life at risk.
Mia P. Manansala delivers a murder mystery that manages to be intriguing without ever becoming too dark or disturbing, giving you the reassurance that everything will ultimately work out. That makes it easy to simply enjoy the process of piecing together what happened after Derek, Lila’s ex, dies. Often described as a “cozy mystery”, it truly lives up to the label – a warm, low-stakes, and thoroughly enjoyable mystery that is fun to unravel. I enjoyed reading it in the December afternoon sun and looked forward to returning to in the evening 🤓
That said, I liked Arsenic and Adobo well-enough, but not enough to read any of the other books in the Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery Series 😅
** A guide to ratings **
1 star – did not like it
2 stars – it was okay
3 stars – liked it
4 stars – really liked it
5 stars – it was amazing