Hello, Cannonballers! Whether school’s out or not, the time for summer book club is nearly upon us. Since I decided that my first time participating in CannonBookClub in any way, shape, or form should involve me organizing and hosting, I figured the smart plan would be to keep things simple: one book, nothing too heavy. It was a good plan, but then I remembered that much like summer in the hometown I’ll soon be moving back to (New Orleans, LA), I have ZERO chill. So, […]
Trope Blend of Culture, Mystery, Food, and Romance with Mixed Results
Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala
Arsenic and Adobo is a decent cozy mystery that is pretty aware that it is that, as well as a romance. It pulls off one of those things better than the other. What I don’t get is how Lila can open the novel with “my life has become a rom-com cliché” but be so dense about a romance that doesn’t involve her. There’s obviously something going on with her Tita Rosie and a certain detective, but she (Lila and Rosie both) never even says anything. […]
Pandesal? Mmm, Tell Me More
Arsenic and Adobe by Mia P. Manansala
One of the cozy cooking type mysteries, I must knock it down a star because although our girl is charged with murder right out of the gate, there honestly is no danger of anyone buying that. Lila Macapagal is back home from Chicago and is temporarily helping out in her Tita Rosie’s Filipino restaurant. Unfortunately Derek Winter, a food critic who has been writing nasty reviews all over town, including her auntie’s, takes a face plant into his dessert, poisoned. The dessert which Lila had […]
Come for the murder, stay for the food.
Arsenic and Adobo (Tita Rosie's Kitchen, #1) by Mia P. Manansala
I had a good time with this! For a first novel and for a cozy, it was very good. I really only have two complaints, and Manansala can definitely improve upon both in future books, and I hope she does, because I’d like to keep reading this series. It has some things I really like going for it. Like a lot of culinary cozies, this book follows a young woman (Lila Macapagal) fresh off a break-up, who has recently moved home to help in her […]