Homicide and Halo-Halo

This cozy murder mystery series centers on an early 20s Lila Macapagal and her life back in her hometown as she helps her aunt run a Filipino restaurant and starts up a cafe with her two best friends.  In this book, Lila is asked to be a judge at a local beauty contest.  A fellow judge (and sexist pig) is murdered and Lila must find out who the murderer is.  There is a lot of description of Filipino food and baked goods that gets old quickly.  The themes of mental health and female empowerment are good ones, but handled in a most basic way.  I don't mind reading these books as fluff or filler while waiting on other books to become available to borrow at my library, but I feel they are best suited for a reader in their late teens or early twenties.