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A Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mystery · Book 1 · 2021
Audiobook available
After a failed engagement, Lila Macapagal returns to Shady Palms, Illinois, to help at her aunt’s Filipino restaurant. Her ex-boyfriend, a hostile food blogger, dies after a meal there. Lila and her friend Adeena investigate as suspicion threatens her family and its business.
From the publisher’s blurb
“My name is Lila Macapagal and my life has become a rom-com cliché.”Read the full description at Mia P. Manansala, publisher excerpt
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What makes it funny?
Lila recognizes the clichés of her romantic-disaster homecoming and briefly adds a discovery of Christmas’s true meaning to the list. Derek’s reviews get their own verdict: she thinks he would complain even about the food in heaven.
The comedy at work
Lila’s exasperated narration meets aunties who meddle because they care. Her frazzled responses give the investigation comic difficulties while the family’s food and affection keep drawing people together.
Try this if…
Filipino-American family life, friendship and recipes make the community a large part of this culinary cozy’s appeal. The pleasure may lie as much in accompanying Lila as in trying to beat her to the solution.
Good to know
A customer’s death after eating at the restaurant threatens its survival. The opening also mentions sexual infidelity behind Lila’s failed engagement.
A few distinguishing details
- A hostile food blogger’s last meal puts a family restaurant in danger
More funny amateur sleuth
Sources & further reading
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