Abandoned by Booklikes

I definitely enjoyed this one more. Mostly because with Lana being forced to run her family's restaurant, we get to see her take charge more. She and her sister still squabble a lot, but you can see where they are both coming from while reading. Due to the murder of two of the owners (Isabelle and her husband Brandon) in Asia Village, many customers and owners are starting to think that one of the storefronts is unlucky. Lana was close with Isabelle and is determined to identify her murderer. Will say there seems to be a hard pause in Lana's barely there relationship with Detective Adam Trudeau. I got to read an excerpt of the next book, and there may be another love interest that I hope we see Lana get excited about. She and Adam have zero chemistry. 

"Dim Sum of All Fears" has Lana dealing with her parents leaving her in charge of the noodle shop while they fly back to Taiwan to see about her grandmother. Though Lana has an opportunity to interview for a new job, she realizes she won't be able to have both. To make matters a little worse, her sister is bent of out shape she's been put in charge, there is a lot of things going on since Chinese New Year is around the corner, and oh yeah, two people were found murdered in their store. These new murders touch Lana a lot more than the last one since she was close to one of the victims, Isabelle. Lana felt ambivalent about Brandon since the guy was never around. And even Isabelle started to notice it. I really loved the twists and turns this book takes with finding out about Brandon's past. 

I did like Lana and Megan more in this one. They really are becoming a fascinating duo of amateur sleuthing. Lana I think felt more sure of herself in this one, even with her blue hair. I do wish that she and her sister would quit fighting. I think Lana's sister is jealous of her, though I get why Lana is annoyed her sister keeps making snide remarks.

Also Lana's relationship with Detective Trudeau seems to be cooling. They have zero chemistry. Lana at one point asks him why did he become a cop and he refuses to tell her. I was fed up with him. I also didn't like Megan saying she would investigate him to find out what is going on. Just ignore the guy if he isn't interested in having a real relationship. Their dates sounded lame too. 

The writing was good and so was the flow. I do think there wasn't any problems that I could see off the top off my head. 

I am friends with a lot of Taiwanese people and I know that Chinese New Year is a very big deal. I wish that Ms. Chien had gone into that more. I know that you are supposed to clean I think three days before the start of Chinese New Year. I think you are supposed to cook the day before. Things like that would have made the book more interesting to a lot of people. 

I do hope that we don't always get someone pulling a weapon on Lana, that kind of stuff will get old in a series really quick.