Title- Arsenic & Adobo
Rating– 3.5/5
Genre- A contemporary with upbeat humor and some sassy spice in and out of the kitchen
(Book of the Month selection)
POV- First person, past tense
Trope- rom com, match-making aunts
Similar/Comps– A Pho Love Story (I will write a review on this later 3.5/5)
My emotions- relaxed, calm, soft, pleasant, cozy
Plot/Blurb-
Lila must save her Tita Rosie’s failing restaurant. 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 to a crime scene case. The cops treat her like she’s the only suspect, and the landlord tries to kick the family out of restaurant, so Lila’s conducts her own investigation and soon finds her own neck on the chopping block.
Prose- no complaint
Pacing-
Arsenic & Adobe was a very fast and light read, took me 5ish hours to finish in 2 sittings. It flowed well and kept me interested in the mystery of “who dun it?”
Best part-
I recommend it to those who like to imagine tasting and smelling as they read since there are so many food themes.
What I’d change-
I feel that I couldn’t connect as much as I wanted since it stayed shallow and didn’t dig into layers of how a real-world person would react to these situations. Some of the emotions felt flat or nonexistent or glossed over. I think this is just the way of that genre and intentional to keep it light-hearted.
Cassie Swindon 