Homicide and Halo-Halo

Another highly enjoyable read. I really liked that Manansala spends time focusing on Lila's mental health in regards to the trauma she dealt with from the last book. In a series you have one character who finds so many bodies and it doesn't effect them at all! This made it feel a little more realistic. And I also spent so much time hungry! Definitely copied down the recipes here.

Rating Description:

1.0 - DNF/Despise

1.5 - Almost DNFed and wish I had

2.0 - Almost DNFed but had redeeming qualities/just boring

2.5 - Alright with lots of notes

3.0 - Alright with notes but I'm not raving about it

3.5 - Technically good but I'm not raving about it

4.0 - Technically good, and/or I enjoyed it a lot

4.5 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book but still with notes

5.0 - Loved it, I wanted to highlight lines in the book, and notes are very positive

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Given the foreword written by the author of the book, I can understand why this book was off to me, especially if I compare it to the 1st book. Though, to be honest, I’m not quite sure if the foreword actually set up my mind to notice the difference of the vibe or if the vibe was really just different. Regardless, this 2nd book in the series fell short of what I expected.

I am not saying it’s bad. It was good enough for me to consider it okay but I had quite a few issues with it.

The pacing was slower this time. For one thing, the homicide didn’t happen immediately. The whole thing started off with a threat towards the local teen beauty pageant. So, I thought this will somehow follow the trajectory of the movie Miss Congeniality. I expected Lila to embed herself in the pageant activities to ferret out the culprit and then have humorous scenes sprinkled here and there. But it did not go that way.

What I got was a good dose of Lila reflecting about her relationship with her mother. How she felt like she couldn’t get her mom’s approval if she wasn’t out there winning medals or something. Normally I’d feel a good amount of sympathy during such scenes. However, I couldn’t get into it because I kept on wondering if a child of eight could remember such slights so vividly especially since her mom died soon afterwards. Also, the slights were…slight. Relatively speaking. Always fixing her hair. Telling her to do her best. Were those actions and comments that trauma inducing? Could such things, that weren’t even reinforced after her mom’s death, be really that impactful?

I don’t know. It all felt…forced and unnecessary. Lila was already dealing with PTSD from the events in the first book. Why not focus more on that? Setting up Lila to have issues with her mom just seemed like a reach.

I was not that happy with the characterization of some characters.

1. Amir was just blah. I was hoping he would be fleshed out some more in this book but he has become more of an afterthought in this book. This was probably because the author was setting up the end of the love triangle but, in my humble opinion, it could have been handled better.

2. Dr. Jae was also not that fleshed out. Beyond him being sweet and cute, what was he? I still can’t understand what makes him interesting enough for Lila to want to be with. Was he more accommodating than Amir, sure. But so could a lot of other people. So why him? I will concede, though, that fleshing him out to the point that he had distinct quirks was not important since the book was, first and foremost, about mystery and not romance.

3. The characterization of the Calendar Crew, Bernie, Lola Flor and Tita Rosie were believable. However, it was so believable to me that it made me mad.

The whole ‘forgive and forget’ trait that a lot of Filipinos adopt is, quite frankly, unhealthy. Tita June’s and Bernie’s habit of talking shit about people, who were supposedly their friends and family, was sadly typical. The fact that they were welcomed back into the fold later on was also typical. Did they apologize, sure. Will they probably do it again. Fuck, yes.

I could forgive Bernie though. She was pitted against Lila since they were kids. Then in this instance, her life was on the line and people didn’t seem that to care about her. Sure, they were investigating the murder which does help her out. But no one seems to be checking up on her well-being. On top of that, Bernie had been actively trying to be a better person. Unlike her mom.

4. Lila becoming friends with Yuki just struck me as weird. Didn’t that woman cheat on her husband? I found it hard to believe that a person who got cheated on would become friends with a cheater.

Last but not least, I could not get invested in the effort to solve the homicide. The guy was a douche. I really couldn’t care who killed him. And in the end, I was kind of sad they caught who did it.

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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.

The addition of so many characters in this book was confusing to me, especially as some have similar names. However, besides that, this book contained the same charm, balance of suspense and coziness, and delicious food descriptors as the first book in the series. Looking forward to reading the third!

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

The sequel to Arsenic and Adobo is still enjoyable for me and I would rate it 3.5 stars instead of 3 stars. Love the light-hearted and funny nature of the book along with amazing Filipino recepies. I would improve on character development and look forward to the third book in this series later in 2022.

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!

3.5