This is book number 8 in the Noodle Shop Mystery Series. In this one, Lana Lee's best friend asks her to host a speed dating night at the Noodle Shop. Unfortunately one of the participants is murdered. Lana and her friends decide that they will solve the murders, but can they do it before there are more murders?

This is one of my favorite cozy mystery series. In this installment Lana is looking into the murder of one of their customers after he ends up dead After a date with a friend. I loved the twists and turns this book took as they solved the murder. What makes this book though are the characters. They're grest!

Lana Lee is spunky, plucky, and not afraid of anything - I love her! Hot and Sour Suspects, Vivien Chien's 8th Noodle Shop Mystery, is a perfect addition to this deliciously written cozy mystery series!!! When a speed dating event lead to murder, and one of Lana's best pals is involved, she pulls out her trusty sleuthing notebook and gets to work!!! If you haven't started this series yet, or if you're as invested as me, do yourself a favor and enjoy the ride! A+++

This is a delightful and fun read. It is light hearted and the characters are wonderful. I'm really loving these noodle shop mysteries.Lana Lee and Megan are going to host a popular speed dating contest at the noodle house. It was a big success. Trouble is not far though, it comes in the form of a murder. Then there is Rina. I am such a fan of this series. It is quaint and whimsical. There is also suspense because you have to read almost to the end to find out who did it. I highly recommend this book.

I absolutely love this series and stalk NetGalley until the newest one is available. Lana Lee is a hoot and makes me wish I could really visit her in her Cleveland restaurant. I always want to take my book and eat noodles all day long while reading.

In the newest addition, Lana and her BFF Megan host a speed dating event at Ho-Lee Noodle House on a slower Friday. All goes well until much later when one of the Asia Village Shop owners is found with a dead body. Can Lana and Megan figure out the killer before their friend is speedily put in jail?

Lana is a bit more reflective in Hot and Sour Suspects but if you follow the author's cancer journey you completely understand why. Personally, I enjoyed that Lana's sister, Anna, was not shown in the most perfect light. I don't wish her troubles on her but it does show she is human and makes errors just like the rest of us. There are a few LOL moments when Lana's mom enters the picture.

You must read this series and start from the beginning. You will thank me later. The covers alone are worth buying the books. They are beautiful!

I received a complimentary copy from the publisher, St. Martin's Press, through NetGalley. All opinions expressed above are entirely my own.

I was so sad to read the author's note at the end of the book, I wish Vivien all the best in her newest fight against cancer.

This was a fun, cozy mystery. I have the rest of the series on my bookshelf but have not read them yet (I have two hobbies, buying books and reading books and they don't always align). I love that Lana knows that her sleuthing might be offensive to her policeman boyfriend but keeps sleuthing anyways. I also love that it is more of a team sleuthing situation and Lana doesn't try to do everything herself.

Really hoping there will be more books in the series.

Dollycas’s Thoughts

What can be hotter than a speed dating event held at the Ho-Lee Noodle House? Men and women searching for love with tempting Chinese food should mean fun and an uptick in business for Lana Lee’s family restaurant. It’s great until things go sour. First, an ex shows up to cause a scene, and later one of speed dating men is found murdered. A murder that hits close to home for Lana because the fatal date started at her event but also because her friend, Rina Su was the victim’s new date. Lana’s boyfriend, Detective Adam Trudeau catches the case but that is not going to stop Lana, Megan, and Kimmy from doing a little sleuthing of their own. Before all is said and done Lana may find herself staring in the face of a murderer. Will she be able to get herself out of hot water and sour the killer’s day? Or will this be the last we see of the beautiful Lana Lee?

I loved the speed dating theme of this story. It was great for Lana and Megan to do something together. I am surprised Lana’s traditional mother allowed the event to take place though in her beloved restaurant but she seemed to give the whole thing her blessing except for Lana’s shoes. “You will break your neck this way, Lana.”

Ms. Chien’s strong characters all return. This time Lana’s sister Anna May get a bit of a starring role when her romantic relationship comes into question. I have had a few questions of my own I wanted to be answered so I was very happy the author put some focus there. Kimmy gets her dander up when she thinks she is being left out of the investigation but Lana and Megan quickly show her some appreciation and include her on a sleuthing night out. While they may not find a lot of evidence or answers there are always some funny moments when Kimmy is around. All these characters feel genuine and I really enjoyed tagging along to every place they went.

The mystery was complicated by the victim having a very checkered past. He had left a lot of women, friends, neighbors, and newly made enemies in his wake. There were several paths to travel but I feel the author set a nice pace as the girls worked their way through the clues. Some nicely plotted twists led up to a surprising suspenseful ending. Darn, that Lana can sure get herself in trouble.

Hot and Sour Suspects was a fantastic read. I enjoyed every minute of it!

Lana Lee runs her family’s Chinese restaurant in a mall called Asian Village. She and her roommate, Megan, are known for being amateur sleuths. This sleuthing is discouraged by Lana’s boyfriend, Adam - a police detective. Lana agrees to hold a speed dating evening at the restaurant in hopes of building up the business. Lana and Megan’s friend Rina comes to the event after telling Lana she thought it was silly. Rina leaves with a man that she meets there. That night Lana and Adam are awakened by his phone. Rina’s date has been murdered in his apartment apparently while Rina was in the shower. Things look bad for Rina so Lana and Megan investigate.
Personally, I love cozy mysteries. This is the first I have read in the series but I am looking forward to reading more books. Vivien Chien is going to be one of my new favorite authors. If you like cozies, you need to read this book.

Do you love cozy mysteries? Because I sure do. If you haven’t dipped your toe into the world of cozies, I highly recommend starting in Cleveland at the Ho-Lee Noodle House. A Noodle Shop Mystery is my favorite cozy mystery series, and its book, 𝗛𝗼𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗦𝘂𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀, does not disappoint.

Lana and her best friend Megan just finished hosting a successful speed dating event at Ho-Lee Noodle House. But before they can begin celebrating their success, Lana discovers the man her friend Rina Su met at the event has been murdered. Lana and Megan immediately don their detective hats and jump in feet first. Will Lana and Megan find the killer and exonerate their friend, or will more dates turn deadly?

Hot and Sour Suspects hits all the marks: A sleuth we can all stand behind <check> A trail of clues and red herrings so we can play the whodunit guessing game too <check> Quarky and loveable supporting characters <check> Lots of fun to read <check, check, check>

Chien wrote this book shortly after finishing chemotherapy. Knowing the struggles of chemo brain firsthand, think pregnancy brain times ten; this is an incredible achievement. So I would like to take a moment and say what an absolute badass Vivien Chien is. Not only does she continue to kick cancer's ass, but she wrote an awesome book too (one of my favorites in the series) during her journey.

If you are looking for a light-hearted murder mystery, I promise you will love this book and come to see Lana, Megan, Kimmy, and Adam as friends.

The only thing I’d really like to see added to the series are recipes. As a seasoned cozy mystery fan, I feel like I really miss this addition. I’d love to see a page from Peter’s cookbook at the end of each book… Maybe a recipe for the dish on the cover?

I received a free eARC in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own.

Hot and Sour Suspects is the 8th Noodle Shop mystery by Vivien Chien. Released 25th Jan 2022 by Macmillan on their St. Martin's Press imprint, it's 320 pages and is available in trade paperback and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of nonfiction ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is such an engaging cozy series with one of the few real girl-friendships and (mostly) healthy family relationships in the genre. I really love Lana's friendship with Megan, her love and loyalty for Adam (requisite handsome cop boyfriend), and her sweet mischievous little pug Kikko. She's loyal and bubbly and smart. She's not some remote superwoman - she has foibles and she just seems so *real*. I'm more her mom's generation in real life, but I'd be happy if my daughter had a friend/roommate like Lana. (I worry she's turning into Cleveland's own Aunt Jessica Fletcher, though... all those murders to solve!).

This one has a solid plot and the denouement and resolution were satisfying and well written. I like that the author takes care to place the murders in different settings and with different situations - if there were this many murders in one strip mall, people would be fleeing for their lives (even in a big city). The settings are very well rendered and it's clear that the author has first-hand familiarity with the area.

The background story is well interwoven in the book, and it works as a standalone without needing to have read the previous books. (I can heartily recommend them as well, for readers looking for a new light cozy series to binge on). The language and content are clean, PG rated, with a sprinkling of lighter cursing and some implied (off scene) consensual overnight stays by the MC's boyfriend. Definitely safe for work or commute reading.

Four and a half stars, delightfully fun light cozy mystery.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

I listened to the first book in this series almost a year ago and decided to pick back up with this most recent book, number eight. This book shows the author's growth as a writer and was even better than the last. In this story, we see heroine and hostess at her parents' Chinese restaurant, Lana, looking into the murder of one of their customers after he ends up dead after a date with her friend. This one was full of twists and turns, and I enjoyed the side characters immensely. I could do with more food descriptions for a mystery set around a restaurant, but I guess I'll have to settle for the gorgeous cover illustration of food instead. I think this was a solid, well-done cozy that I would recommend.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press for my eARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

5 stars - 8/10

Full review to come on Goodreads and Amazon. Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for a review copy.

It's been a while since I've visited Lana Lee and her crew at the Ho-Lee Noodle House, and I may have missed a couple of books along the way, but I was immediately swept back into everyone's chaotic lives and friendships in this eighth installment of the Noodle Shop Mystery cozy series.  Lana hosts a speed-dating event at the restaurant; her friend winds up making a connection with a very eligible bachelor...then he winds up dead.  Will Lana be able to prove her friend's innocence?  Yes, the whole cozy mystery formula is at play here, but  Ms. Chien has brought a fresh, fun look to the genre, and I wish her a strong recovery in her current battle with cancer.

Lana Lee is the manager of the Ho-Lee Noodle House, which is owned by her parents. It is here that she holds a speed dating night to bring in new business and start some buzz about the place. She gets more than she bargained for when her friend Rina meets a Gavin Oliver there and decides to leave with him, despite having a old girlfriend come by and make a scene at the event.. Within hours, Gavin is dead and Rina is the primary suspect of his murder. Lana's handsome, loving boyfriend, Detective Adam Trudeau, gets the call to investigate.
Depite Adam's insisting that Lana stay away form the investigation, Lana and her friend Heather team up to prove that their friend did not commit this crime, This is no easy task, when all the evidence keeps pointing them to Rina.
This is the first novel I have read in the Noodle Shop series. I enjoyed the characters and the sub plots provided by the crazy goings on within Lana's extended family. I look forward to reading more in this Cozy Mystery series.. I am grateful to NetGalley for the ARC of this book and for introducing me to a new series to add to my reading list.

Another fun instalment in a solid cozy mystery series! I like that we continue to get to know some of the side characters more as this series continues (Kimmy!) and, as always, I was craving noodles by the time I finished reading.

I simply love this series & Chien’s writing. Lana Lee is one of the best protagonists in a cozy series that I have ever read. She is fun & down to earth & easy to relate to as a reader. Her friendship with roommate Megan is also a big highlight of the series.

This time around we’ve got speed dating happening at the restaurant, perfect for a Valentine’s Day read. But of course Lana has to solve another murder to clear her friend’s name, digging up secrets & past relationships.

There truly can’t be enough books in this series, I’ll be reading them as long as Chien writes them!

Through NetGalley, I received a free copy of HOT AND SOUR SUSPECTS (Book 8 of the Noodle Shop Mysteries), by Vivien Chien, in exchange for an honest review. Always looking for a way to increase business at the Ho-Lee Noodle House, Lana Lee hosts a speed dating event at the restaurant. Soon after the event, one of the participants is murdered, and his speed dating match becomes the prime suspect. Since the prime suspect is Lana’s friend Rina Su, Lana is determined to prove her innocence. Lana’s only lead is the victim, himself, so she investigates the victim and finds a wealth of wronged lovers, neighbors, and co-workers. Lana, with the aid of her friends Megan and Kimmy, hunts the most dangerous prey, a killer.

I liked this book and the series. I recommend this book to fans of cozy mysteries featuring murder, small communities, restaurants, small businesses, and family drama.

Hot and Sour Suspects: A Noodle Shop Mystery

By Vivien Chien

St. Martin’s Paperback

January 25, 2022



Review by Cynthia Chow



Having taken over as manager of her family’s Ho-Lee Noodle Shop in Cleveland, Ohio, Lana Lee is experimenting with new opportunities to promote the restaurant and boost business. It’s why she’s agreed to host a speed-dating event at the noodle shop despite her father’s concerns that online dating had replaced in-person meetups. Lana’s best friend Megan Riley had seen a huge peak in business at the bar where she worked during past events, and by doing a favor for her BFF Lana hopes to earn enough to give her staff a holiday bonus. Things go a little too well during the appetizer-laden event though, as Lana’s friend Katrina “Rina” Su goes home with a too-smooth charmer. It gets even worse when they learn that the lothario Gavin Oliver has been murdered, apparently while Rina was in his apartment bathroom.



Shocked by her friend’s uncharacteristic hookup but certain of Rina’s innocence, Lana and Megan immediately begin their own investigation. They even go so far as to enlist Kimmy Tran, their rather aggressively extroverted friend whose family also owns a business in their Fairview Park Asian Village. Less complacent with the women’s antics is Lana’s boyfriend, Detective Adam Trudeau, who although now rather resigned to his girlfriend’s determined investigations, remains professionally discreet while she becomes more enmeshed with the suspects. Even though Rina is definitely keeping her secrets, a confrontation the late Gavin had with a jilted woman during the speed dating party adds another candidate to the list of possible culprits. When not being lured in by her grandmother’s lu rou fan braised pork over rice traditional Taiwanese dish, Lana, Megan, and Kimmy track down Gavin’s business and personal partners and discover that this Most Eligible Bachelor was also a Most Eligible Liar.



This 8th in the series has Lana comfortably settled in running her family’s noodle shop and very happy in her relationship with the Hot Detective. Their romance is one of the few sailing along smoothly, as the speed-dating tragedy is nearly matched by the questionable love affair of Lana’s formerly Perfect Asian Sister. Anna May is disconcertingly dating a married man, and despite Lana’s concern Anna is determined to trust the man who doesn’t deserve it. Amidst all of the dating drama life in the Asian Village continues, with the Mahjong Matrons gossiping in the noodle shop, Lana’s mother meddling in her daughter’s lives, and their “big old white guy” father lovingly attempts to reign in their chaos. Lana’s adorable black pug Kikkoman is always around to be walked and give comfort, while Adam provides much more grown-up love and affection. What always charms in this series is how realistically the Asian Village builds its own distinct identity within the state of Ohio. Lana has grown to appreciate her mixed-race heritage and accept being a part of two different worlds. The friendship between Lana and Megan is a delight as well, with their banter and affectionate teasing feeling natural for two women who have been friends since childhood. An inspiring author’s note included at the end will have readers further admiring the strong will of the writer, who has succeeded in gifting fans with this fun and witty novel led by a charmingly colorful heroine.

2.5 stars
I think I’m just not the right audience for this book. I’m not a big cozy mystery reader to begin with but I loved the cover design and the synopsis really drew me in.

The writing wasn’t bad, the characters felt really fleshed out, which I realized shortly into the book that this is #8 in a series which would explain why they felt so well written (yet despite not reading the first 7, I never felt lost, the author did a great job with filling in connections between characters and any necessary history from previous books).

The pacing felt really off, the entire middle of the story dragged and I really struggled to slog through it.

I also felt like the killer was pretty obvious? Is that a thing with cozy mystery genre?

This book has pretty good ratings so I definitely think I’m alone here and that’s okay, as I said at the beginning I just think this isn’t the kind of book for me.

What's better than a sleuth and her best friend solving crime, eating good food, and looking fabulous while doing it? Not much!

Hot and Sour Suspects is the 8th installment in the Noodle Shop Mystery series by Vivien Chien. One of the biggest pluses about this read is that you don't have to read all of the other books to feel connected with the characters and the plotline. It was written so that you could drop in and not be totally confused, and I definitely appreciated that!

There's a lot to love with this book, so let's start with my favorite part: The characters! The leading lady is Lana Lee and, not to be dramatic, but I love her with my whole heart. Lana is hilarious, energetic, and has an inner dialogue that feels so real. I felt like I was listening to one of my best friends tell a story while reader this book. Megan and Kimmy were great additions to the cast and I liked that the difficult parts of friendship were explored; Not everything was perfect between them and they struggled. It was a great dynamic and I closed the book truly feeling like I was waving goodbye to some good friends. The smaller characters are amazing, too. Two words: Mahjong Matrons!

Plot wise, this little book packs a punch. The mystery aspect was well done and didn't feel forced, easily guessed, or like an afterthought; There was a great balance between sleuthing and not sleuthing that led to an easy-to-read story. And by easy-to-read, I mean I couldn't put it down. I read about 60% of this book in a single sitting and had to force myself to stop to sleep. It's that good. I also really liked that the plot took place in a lot of different places, but it didn't feel too spread out. I got a good lay of the land and felt comfortable while reading, not like I was grasping for plot or setting points.

I highly recommend this novel for anyone interested in the cozy mystery genre! This book truly is cozy and such a joy. 5/5 stars from me!