Lila Macapagal has had to move back to her hometown and work at her Aunt’s restaurant. As if that wasn’t bad enough, she has to serve food to her douchebag ex-boyfriend, who thinks of himself as a food critic. He writes terrible reviews of the family restaurant, yet insists on constantly eating there. One day, after Lila serves him some special desserts she made, he drops dead. The police immediately make Lila their only suspect. To make matters worse, the ex’s stepfather is the restaurant’s landlord, and he has been itching to evict the restaurant. Will Lila be proved innocent? Will her obsessive Filipino Aunties ever stop trying to get her married off?
I read this book back in May when CBR was doing it for the Summer Book Club and I have forgotten a lot about it. Maybe I should actually review books as I read them? I remember that I thought it was just OK, and I didn’t feel like I wanted to continue the series. I predicted who the murderer was almost as soon as the character was introduced. While the Aunties may act like that in real life, it was stressful to read about them. Maybe it’s because I have only ever experienced life in a tiny family that I had a hard time relating. I also don’t really get the genre of “cozy murder mystery”. How is it cozy when someone is murdered? Says the girl who has a Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice and listens to True Crime podcasts to go to sleep.
CBR 15 Bingo – Asia/Oceania. Most of the main characters in the novel are of Filipino descent, as is the author.