Guilt and Ginataan

By: Mia P. Manansala

Narrated by: Danice Cabanela

Autumn is in full swing for the town of Shady Palms—the perfect time for warm drinks, cozy cardigans, and…dead bodies?

The annual Shady Palms Corn Festival is one of the town’s biggest moneymakers, drawing crowds from all over the Midwest looking to partake in delicious treats, local crafts, and of course, the second largest corn maze in Illinois. Lila Macapagal and her Brew-ha Cafe crew, Adeena Awan and Elena Torres, are all too happy to participate in the event and even make a little wager on who can make it through the corn maze the fastest—but their fun is suddenly cut short when a dead body is found in the middle of the maze…and an unconscious Adeena lies next to it, clutching a bloody knife.

The body is discovered to be a local politician’s wife, and all signs—murder weapon included—point to Adeena as the culprit. But Lila knows her best friend couldn’t have done this, so she and her crew put on their sleuthing caps yet again to find the killer who framed Adeena and show them what happens when they mess with a Brew-ha…

Critic reviews

"A good bet for fireside reading on a fall night.”—Publishers Weekly

“The plot has satisfying twists to go along with the mouth-watering food.”—Booklist

“This exhilarating, cozy mystery beautifully weaves themes of friendship, loyalty and the indomitable spirit of small-town life amid the thrill of a chilling whodunit.”—Seattle Times

Pretty good narrator

The narrator is pretty good. She mispronounced a handful of Filipino words but was mostly accurate. The story, on the other hand wasn’t great. I loved the first three books in this series but my journey with Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mysteries ends here. I found the three main characters to be bland and annoying. Their behavior is so juvenile and I wanted to DNF it more than a couple of times. Also, Lila and her boyfriend have ZERO chemistry; no flirty banter, all dull or worse- cringey interactions. I questioned why I was wasting my time on this book.
Also, very weird that Tita Rosie calls her own boyfriend by his title and surname. What woman calls her boyfriend “Detective Park”?

bad friends

I dont often write review (a habit I should change) but this is one I think I needed to make.
I love this series, I love the focus on families and communities of color and the drama that often comes with it. The food makes me think of my own childhood in a mixed Filipino home.
I enjoy reading about Lila and how she's slowly growing from her previous experiences. However what ruins the books for me especially this one are her friends, Elena and Adeena. They have openly been hostile, manipulative and constantly guilt tripping Lila without resolving problems and thats just in previous books. This time around I almost didn't finish the book becasue it was becoming too frustrating. Id love to go into more detail but that would just turn into a essay.
Lila needs better best friends then two people who often think only of themselves and use Lila as a emotional punching bag every volume. They forget that Lila has lived through alot of similar trauma herself and could have helped both Adeens and Elena with coping. And the ghosting and gaslughting her over the investigation didn't make alot of sense to me.

5 stars

Interesting story with engaging characters and an entertaining plot. I look forward to the next book.

Worst book in the series

Don't buy it if you like the calendar crew… they are hardly in it.

Also don't listen if you don't like constant bickering between friends with limited self reflection or focus on the correct issues. A bit of this is okay for character development and growth but it became a bit much and several characters were too focused on themselves when in other books they aren't as narsasitic, specifically the main character.

This book was a dnf and disappointing. No longer an auto-buy for me.

Love this series.

I finished this in one sitting. Now I am sad the adventure is over. I love the genuine voice of the writer and she has me looking forward to the next installation.