When Lila Macapagal moves back home to recover from a horrible breakup, her life seems to be following all the typical rom-com tropes. She's tasked with saving her Tita Rosie's failing restaurant, and she has to deal with a group of matchmaking aunties who shower her with love and judgment. But when a notoriously nasty food critic (who happens to be her ex-boyfriend) drops dead moments after a confrontation with Lila, her life quickly swerves from a Nora Ephron romp to an Agatha Christie case.

With the cops treating her like she's the one and only suspect, and the shady landlord looking to finally kick the Macapagal family out and resell the storefront, Lila's left with no choice but to conduct her own investigation. Armed with the nosy auntie network, her barista best bud, and her trusted Dachshund, Longanisa, Lila takes on this tasty, twisted case and soon finds her own neck on the chopping block…

An adorably foodie read that I enjoyed from beginning to end, can't wait to read the next one, and will add this to my list of rereads.

I love a good cozy mystery and this was another great one to add to my list of favorites! It was easy to get sucked into Lila's story and root for her and her success, and I loved all the foodie references! Thank you, NetGalley, for the ARC!

One of the best cozy mystery series on the market!

Plot and Setting

Arsenic and Adobo is set in the small, quaint town of Shady Palms, IL. Lila Macapagal had left town to become a chef (and found a particular knack for baking) and had worked at a restaurant in Chicago until going through a rough break up. With no job or partner, she moves home to help her Tita Rosie at her Filipino restaurant in Shady Palms.

Lila was raised mostly by her Tita Rosie and grandmother Lola Flor after her mother passed away when she was younger. When her ex-boyfriend and popular food blogger Derek Winters shows up to Tita Rosie’s Kitchen, everyone is on edge knowing that he continues to slam the restaurant in his column (despite frequently dining there and enjoying his food). To make matters worse, he is with his stepfather Mr. Long, the landlord for the restaurant who reminds them they are late on their rent.

When Derek winds up face down in a plate of Tita Rosie’s delicious food, dead of an apparent poisoning, things at Tita Rosie’s Kitchen really heat up—and not in a good way! While the restaurant is closed pending investigation into arsenic discovered in the kitchen, Lila knows it is up to her to prove the innocence of herself and save the reputation of Tita Rosie’s restaurant.

Along with her resourceful best friend Adeena, her attorney brother, Amir, and the handsome brother of Detective Park, Jae, Lila goes all in on detective work while de-stressing with a bit of Filipino baking for the café. Can she find out who killed Derek before it’s too late?

Review

Lila as a main character is courageous and a fantastic friend. She is working at her Tita Rosie’s kitchen but since that closes after the murder, she’s in a unique position to sleuth as her fulltime gig. What I liked about this was that it meant she was proactively seeking information, finding clues, and learning more about suspects. Sometimes cozy mysteries can feel like the lead just stumbles across information in their life, but Lila is a bright, persistent sleuth looking for the truth.

I also felt that the author introduced more discussion of mental health in Lila than is common in these books. While it isn’t a central plot in the book by any means, it is woven into Lila’s backstory. When Lila talks about leaving Shady Pines and breaking up with Derek when she was eighteen, she says:

“It got to the point where I felt like I couldn’t breathe. Where I started having panic attacks when I thought about my future here. Why was it selfish to try to save myself? Even now, the thought of staying here forever felt like a hand squeezing me tighter and tighter—this phantom hand molding me into the shape everyone else wanted me to be.”

This book is kind of like a warm hug. Cozy mystery series do tend to have a theme and the theme of Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mysteries is food. Lila and her family are Filipino and the description and presence of food and culture throughout the book are like a warm hug. I have had the pleasure of trying Filipino food since I live in an area with authentic restaurants, but I feel like none of them have quite the charm of Tita Rosie’s.

Delightful, Delicious and Unique cozy mystery with a cohesive plot and fun characters. The cheesiness was intact, but in a perfect balance.

There were a lot of elements I enjoyed about Arsenic and Adobo. I loved all the food references, the cultural references, and the writing style. But ultimately, I think cozy mysteries just aren't for me. But I know many other readers would love this book. And I love seeing diversity in the world of cozy mysteries!

Lila Macapagal has her hands full after moving home to help save her Tita Rosie’s family restaurant. When her ex, a harsh food critic, dies shortly after a run-in with Lila, she finds herself as the primary suspect. Against her better judgment, Lila knows she must take on the case herself if she wants to clear her name.

This is delectable foodie fiction! I love hearing about Lila's family dishes, and all the other restaurants she visits make it even more fun. I can't wait to try the recipes included. The mystery element was the least engaging part of the book (which I can't ignore, because it is a mystery novel!), but all the characters, businesses, and connections set up in this first installment of the series make me excited to see what happens next.

I loved it through most of the book but then wanted the mystery resolved sooner than it did. I was impatient for the wrap up. Intrigued by the recipes and descriptions of the food, I also wished that Rosie's Kitchen had included some recipe modifications for the younger, more food and calorie conscious eaters of today.

While delicious sounding and appealing to my sweet tooth, the sister's preparation of traditional foods from their home country were heavy in calories, sweets, cholesterol! I both delighted and cringed in reading about all the coconut milk, the honey, and sweets that went into the pastries and desserts. And the coconut milk in the entree dishes.

A modification for modern food sensibilities would be welcome to this reader for the next books in the series!

When Lila returns to her hometown to help her Tia Rosie’s restaurant become more successful, she had no idea what she would encounter. She thought her return would bring peace and quiet, but that’s not what happened when her ex boyfriend, food critic, and con-man drops dead while eating in her Aunt’s Restaurant. And to make matters worse, she just argued with him in front of a lot of witnesses.
Lila conducts her own investigation but finds herself in sticky situations: she finds her high school nemesis collapsed in her office, her landlord dead and a bag of drugs are found. Lila must find out who the murderer is, and who is framing her, before she becomes the next victim. This is Book 1 of A Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery.

This series is a lot of fun and I hope more people get to read these! Also they make me extremely hungry!

This story was cute and fun but at times was a little confusing. I enjoyed reading it but I am not sure I would recommend it to everyone.

I have never read a cozy mystery, but this book was so fun. It made me laugh out loud and hungry! I felt like I was completely immersed into the Filipino culture and really enjoyed that as well! Overall, I’m definitely not a cozy, whodunnit reader, but this was well worth the read.

This book was very cute and different from other cozy mysteries. I enjoyed the characters and the overall mystery as I didn’t guess the reveal.

Made it 150 pages in and it was just barely getting started. Like just got to the "it's a murder" part. And it was so obvious who did it. Skipped to the end and I was right. Didn't feel like I missed much. Happy ending. I'll try the second one, which will hopefully have a proper mystery.

What a fun cozy mystery - it definitely left me with a hankering for the luscious food described throughout the book. I’ll be up for the next in the series very soon!

A very fun mystery with a delightful cast, complete with lots of food references - the best. Manansala is a clever writer, creating engaging characters and a cozy mystery that also explores the world of family-restaurants with a generous rom-com helping on top. I found myself chuckling along, even as my stomach was growling.

Mia Manansala is a hugely engaged member of the writing community, both as an author and mentor to others. It was a treat to speak with her about this book and the process of writing it all the way up to launch day. Our conversation is available on the Secret Library Podcast.

This book definitely made me hungry, and it was such a fun read! This was one of my first cozy mysteries with a contemporary twist, and I was here for it! I’ll definitely be reading more of Mia Manansala’s work! It pulled me in and wouldn’t let go!

I read this one awhile ago, but unfortunately at that time I was in a huge writers/review block. Now that I'm back and I'm able to string together a few thoughts I wanted to tell everybody how enjoyable this book was. This was such a humorous cozy mystery that I'm very excited to read the others in the series. All the recipes and food descriptions had me craving different food throughout and I fell for the witty genuine characters.

The first book in the Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery series starts off with a very helpful Author’s Note and Glossary and Pronunciation Guide. The book’s protagonist, Lila Macapagal, like the author, is Filipino and so some Tagalog is used throughout the book. As someone who does not speak Tagalog at all and basically only knows the honorifics used in the language from watching some TV shows, the guide at the front helped me quite a bit. Since there are a lot of new, more diverse cozy mysteries out there, I hope that this is something that becomes more common.

Lila has come back to her hometown – Shady Palms, Illinois – a relatively small (fictional) town 2+ hours away from Chicago, after a harsh break-up to help out with her aunt’s restaurant. But after the local food critic, who also happens to be Lila’s old high school boyfriend, dies after eating at Tita Rosie’s Kitchen, Lila and her family are accused. The new detective in town doesn’t seem too interested in finding new suspects, so Lila and her best friend start investigating on their own. This is definitely a similar plotline to a few other culinary cozy mysteries, but Manansala takes this in some interesting directions. There are A LOT of twists and turns! This is a great introduction to the characters and the town, and I really enjoyed figuring out the mystery. I also really liked that there is a big emphasis on the importance of family and friendship, and there was good explanation of how the family dynamics are different for Lila’s family vs. those of her friends. I am very much looking forward to reading more books in this series!

This was such a fun and refreshing cozy mystery. It was laugh out loud hilarious and had some great characters. I loved Lila and I really enjoyed the descriptions of food and culture. Truly a wonderful addition to the genre and I hope to see more books by Manansala soon.