Homicide and Halo-Halo by Mia P. Manansala

She’s pleased to see that most of the contestants she’s judging are far more assured and generous with each other than she and Bernie were back when they were competing for the crown. Lila has a lot of bittersweet memories wrapped up in her pageant days, mostly to do with her former beauty queen mom and her own rivalry with her not-quite-cousin Bernadette. Under the new rules, they’re to score the aspiring beauty queens based on thoughtful interviews, volunteer work, design, and talent-not just on appearance. Valerie’s younger brother Rob is head judge, and Lila and another local entrepreneur, Sana Williams, round out the rest of the panel. To her surprise and delight, though, Miss Teen Shady Pines has reorganized itself into more of an actual scholarship competition than the rather superficial parade of years past-largely due to the influence of Valerie Thompson, daughter of the family that owns the pageant’s largest sponsor. Not only is she opening the Brew-ha Cafe with Adeena but also, with significantly less enthusiasm, judging the Miss Teen Shady Pines beauty pageant, which she herself won in her teens. But she’s fine now, as she’s quick to tell anyone who asks, whether it’s a concerned new friend or the police detective who keeps bringing up the therapist he’s recommended she see. Her ex-boyfriend was killed, her family was under suspicion of his murder, and she and her best friend, Adeena Awan, were-for a brief, terrifying time-in the clutches of his killer. Lila Macapagal is fine, which is what she tells everyone who asks her how she’s doing in the aftermath of the events that rocked her small town of Shady Pines, Illinois, just a few short months ago.

Homicide and Halo-Halo by Mia P. Manansala