While the premise was interesting and the characters were fantastic , I didn’t like the writing style and found it too clunky for me for a romance novel. Often I was pulled from the story by weird sentence structure, dialogue that didn’t seem to fit and vocabulary being used that didn’t make sense for the situation It’s too bad because the characters and love story was cute , setting was nice, and the diversity and topics covered were awesome. 

Super cute middle grade book that also touched on some hey topics including racism, nicrosgresion, fitting in, being the new kid, friendships, puberty, lgbtqia, surrogacy , divorce, coming of age,  bullying. Alberta, Edee, and other characters are lovable. 

In the heart of this book is a light mystery   That Alberta and edee are trying to solve together. Throughout the book the orher topics are also handled very well. The sense of plsce, of a small Californian beach town wa also well done. 

Exactly how I like my middle grade novels. 

Did this on audio and the narrator was fantastic 

A cozy mystery that will make you very hungry. Loved the emphasis on family and culture especially with all of the Filipino food ! This book does a great job describing all the food and makes your mouth drool. It’s very much a cozy mystery because the deaths are a bit outlandish and they aren’t taken very seriously . there are clues throughout the. Ok but I only solved half the mystery. The family and friendship relationships with very slight romance storyline really makes this a fun and light mystery. There were  times that I found myself rolling my eyes at the choices and some of the nonchalance about death  but that’s to be expected from a cozy. Overall this was fun, cute, comfy, and delicious . Bonus is that there are recipes at the back of the book 

I wasn’t a fan of the writing style 

I LOVED this for the first half and then it slowed down and started to bore me . I do love that it addresses mental health and also that both characters  are Jewish. It addresses a lot of unique and challenging topics . It was really cute but I wish it didn’t slow down