Homicide and Halo-Halo
Ratings29
Average rating3.7
Death at a beauty pageant turns Tita Rosie's Kitchen upside down in the latest entry of this witty and humorous cozy mystery series by Mia P. Manansala. Things are heating up for Lila Macapagal. Not in her love life, which she insists on keeping nonexistent despite the attention of two very eligible bachelors. Or her professional life, since she can't bring herself to open her new café after the unpleasantness that occurred a few months ago at her aunt's Filipino restaurant, Tita Rosie's Kitchen. No, things are heating up quite literally, since summer, her least favorite season, has just started. To add to her feelings of sticky unease, Lila's little town of Shady Palms has resurrected the Miss Teen Shady Palms Beauty Pageant, which she won many years ago—a fact that serves as a wedge between Lila and her cousin slash rival, Bernadette. But when the head judge of the pageant is murdered and Bernadette becomes the main suspect, the two must put aside their differences and solve the case—because it looks like one of them might be next.
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4 primary booksTita Rosie's Kitchen Mystery
Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mystery is a 4-book series with 4 primary works first released in 2021 with contributions by Mia P. Manansala.
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whoa, i enjoyed this WAY more than the first book!!
i think that's mostly in part to the fact that there's less set up for the series in the second book, which made the pacing a lot better. the first few chapters were info dump-y, and i'm still not a fan of how these books wrap up, but i definitely enjoyed the in-between!!
i actually didn't see the killer coming so that was really great. but also i'm exhausted from end of semester shenanigans so perhaps i would've seen the signs otherwise
read for seasonal roulette readathon: spring 2024read for 24 hour readathon vlog
i love cozy mystery series so much and i really like the characters in this series. i wasn't the hugest fan of the lot but i always get so happy reading cozies.
I really appreciated the author note at the beginning of the book. It let me know that Lila would be struggling in this book. So when I got annoyed with her, I knew I was supposed to be annoyed like the other people in her life. There was character growth in the side characters and eventually with Lila herself.
The mystery is pretty good. There are plenty of red herrings. I did eventually figure it out, but only a little bit before Lila did.
The setting of the pageant was done much better than I expected. It was dramatic, but also a good way to get to know lots of people and the wider community of Shady Palms.
The food was top notch! I was so hungry reading this. I liked the way that Lila put her own Filipino spin on typical coffee house foods.
This was an amazing follow up to Arsenic and Adobo. This is shaping up to be a fabulous series!
