Join the Kwento Bookstore Collective in welcoming Mia P. Manansala and Gabriella Buba for a VIRTUAL event to celebrate the release of Guilt and Ginataan! The Kwento Bookstore Collective is made up of Filipino-owned indie bookstores and this virtual event is co-hosted by Bel Canto Books, Femme Fire Books, Loyalty Bookstores, Waucoma Bookstore, and Word Up Community Bookshop. This event will be held digitally via Crowdcast and is free to attend. Click here to register for the event. You can also order the book below to be added to the event’s registration list, and there will also be an option to snag the books during the event.

Preorder Guilt and Ginataan to receive a signed bookplate and a print designed by Arielle Jovellanos.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Autumn is in full swing for the town of Shady Palms—the perfect time for warm drinks, cozy cardigans, and…dead bodies?

The annual Shady Palms Corn Festival is one of the town’s biggest moneymakers, drawing crowds from all over the Midwest looking to partake in delicious treats, local crafts, and of course, the second largest corn maze in Illinois. Lila Macapagal and her Brew-ha Cafe crew, Adeena Awan and Elena Torres, are all too happy to participate in the event and even make a little wager on who can make it through the corn maze the fastest—but their fun is suddenly cut short when a dead body is found in the middle of the maze…and an unconscious Adeena lies next to it, clutching a bloody knife.

The body is discovered to be a local politician’s wife, and all signs—murder weapon included—point to Adeena as the culprit. But Lila knows her best friend couldn’t have done this, so she and her crew put on their sleuthing caps yet again to find the killer who framed Adeena and show them what happens when they mess with a Brew-ha…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Mia P. Manansala (she/her) is a writer  from Chicago who loves books, baking, and bad-ass women. She is the author of the multi-award-winning Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery series and the forthcoming YA novel DEATH IN THE CARDS (May 2025). She uses humor (and murder) to explore aspects of the Filipino diaspora, queerness, and her millennial love for pop culture. Find her on Facebook and Instagram: @MPMtheWriter Check out her website: www.miapmanansala.com

ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER 

Gabriella Buba is a mixed Filipina-Czech author and chemical engineer based in Texas who likes to keep explosive pyrophoric materials safely contained in pressure vessels or between the covers of her books. She writes adult epic fantasy for bold, bi, brown women who deserve to see their stories centered. Her debut SAINTS OF STORM AND SORROW is a filipino-inspired epic fantasy out with Titan Books. Book 2 of The Stormbringer Saga DAUGHTERS OF FLOOD AND FURY comes out July 2025.