Homicide and Halo-Halo is the second in the series, and while it would work as a stand-alone, Lila is still processing the events that happened in the first one a few months ago. Detective Park has given her the name of a therapist, but Lila is adamant that she doesn't need help - and worries how her aunt would view counseling.
Lila has a lot going on. Not only is she dealing with PTSD, she is opening a new cafe with her best friend, Adeena, and Adeena's girlfriend, Elena, but is having trouble coming up with new recipes to serve, She's also a judge for the Miss Teen Shady Palms Beauty Pageant, which takes up an absurd amount of time. Do place still have pageants like this? At least it involves things like community service and creativity. It also brings up some of Lila's body image issues and mixed feelings about her mother, who died when Lila was a child.
We're...
I don't know why it's taken me so long to pick up this series. I love culinary cozies, especially when the food featured is not a style I'm familiar with. Lila has returned to her hometown after a bad breakup to help her Aunt Rosie run the family Filipino restaurant. It's not going well, though, and then a local restaurant critic/Lila's high school boyfriend ends up dead, poisoned after eating at the restaurant. Lila becomes the primary suspect, which is her reason for investigating. Every amateur sleuth needs a legitimate reason to nose into the investigation, at least for the first couple of books.
Lila's family and friends, mostly women, are wonderful- supportive and quirky. We have tons of yummy food and a couple of recipes in the back. Lila herself is not my favorite, yet, but has potential. I need her to be a little more focused and I don't like the potential love triangle forming for her.
The...
Eleanor is attending a writer's conference in the Bahamas, with all the usual folks, and the first thing she finds is, of course, a dead body. This Weekend Doesn't End Well for Anyone is the third in the series and has a ton of returning characters, so you might be better off to read them in order.
I find this series both entertaining and annoying. Eleanor is not the most likeable main character. Most of the attendees at the conference have a grudge against her of some kind, which actually seems reasonable. She's rather self-centered and jumps to conclusions easily. The story is told from her point of view but the schtick is that she constantly breaks the fourth wall and loves footnotes. I will say that both of those work really well in the audio version, presuming her whole personality and attitude doesn't bother you too much. The footnotes you can't even tell are footnotes, they just blend into...
First of all, just because there's a train and murders does not make it Murder on the Orient Express. Not every mystery needs compared to Agatha Christie, especially when Christie's plot is tight and controlled and this one is—not. If you read the blurb above, we've got a lot going on - a train wreck with a royal on board, a murderer on the loose, and witches. We also have two systems of magic aside from the witches', two gods, two political powers, and about nine points of view.
I felt like the mystery and fantasy sides were balanced well. The world-building is done well, without being overwhelming. The Lindes do what all amateur sleuths do - ask questions, nose around, try to find who's guilty so you're not blamed. It was maybe a bit difficult to connect much with the characters because we did have so many, but their thoughts and relationships felt realistic. I listened to the audio and...
I might be getting a little tired of this series. This time around Lana's favorite author is killed at an event at Asia Village’s bookshop, The Modern Scroll. Surprise, surprise, her boyfriend, Detective Adam Trudeau, actually asks for her help this time.
I like Lana and her roommate, Megan, but am annoyed by how mean they are to Kimmy, who seems like a decent, if annoying person. They want her help when they need it but otherwise leave her out whenever possible. There was too much of Adam in this one, and he really doesn't seem like the type to break some of the rules he does. The murderer is pretty obvious, not matter how many dead ends Lana complains about, even if the motive isn't. One of the red herrings just kind of fizzled out, which was a little disappointing.
The most annoying thing, though, was how many times certain phrases were repeated. More people blew raspberries and flared...
Tiffany and her husband, Samir, are headed to Bath with their good friend, Thomas Montague. Thomas is engaged to a lovely actress, Rosalyn, but his mother, the Marchioness of Harwood, does not approve. He's hoping Tiffany can help convince her it's a fine match. But of course, Tiffany tends to find dead bodies - this time it's Rosalyn's understudy who is murdered. When an innocent man is arrested, Tiffany starts asking questions.
It's the late 1780s, but Tiffany and her family and friends are modern their views of everything from homosexuality, prostitution, to marriage and the treatment of women. It makes it a more enjoyable story to read, but is perhaps not terribly realistic for the era. I'm not sure that Tiffany wouldn't have been arrested for some of the things she did, even with her husband's approval.
That being said, we have several nice twists and I do like Tiffany's persistence and intelligence. We have several strong female characters...
