Homicide and Halo-Halo

 Homicide and Halo-Halo by Mia P. Manansala, 279 pages

Kara's review of this book finally gave me the push to read this book that I had been meaning to read for about a year. 

I'm afraid that I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as the first. The exposition was pretty front-loaded, and it was quite a while before it felt like the plot really started. That being said, I did still definitely like this book, and once the plot got going the mystery was twisty and interesting. I also thought it was novel (no pun intended) to have a cozy mystery series that actually gives the murders some weight. Lila is still reeling psychologically from the last book when this one starts, and that's not something I'm used to seeing addressed in the genre (that tonal dissonance is actually why I often struggle to get invested in books in the genre). Overall I would say that this isn't my favorite entry in the series, but my issues with it feel isolated enough that I'm definitely still planning on picking up the next in the series. I'm still excited to see what the author does next!