Mia P. Manansala

Blackmail and Bibingka

Sarah Sammis

While not usually a fan of holiday themed books, the focus on Filipino traditions and recipes saved the mystery from falling into the usual Christmas sentimentality. I especially like how Lila works through updating recipes to work in her coffee shop to be both traditional tasting but also cross-culturally inviting.

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Charlsy Sekyere

⭐️1.5-2

I'm slowly becoming less interested in cozy mysteries. Although I wanted to like this book, I wasn't able to. Honestly, the series continues to get worse as the books go on, so I'm not certain I'll read the next book, either.

I didn’t find the plot to be particularly interesting and found it to be uneventful. As a result of the multiple side characters, I felt that there was little to no character depth, and the characters we have already been introduced to in the other two books in the series became one-dimensional and had no distinct characteristics that differentiated them from one another (I am referring specifically to the godmothers and aunts). Lastly, there was no mystery to the mystery; it was obvious from a mile away.

Despite all the flaws in this book, there is one thing it excels at: descriptions of the food mentioned. However, the food descriptions overpowered the plot, despite food playing a central role in the series. Everything else that makes a book excellent is poorly executed in this one.

With this book, I get the impression that the author just gave up when it came to writing a compelling cozy mystery, which is quite disheartening to say the least.

Blackmail and Bibingka

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