Loyalty is so excited to welcome authors Tracy Badua, Alechia Dow, and Mia P. Manansala for a Kidslit Mystery Panel highlighting their new books Death in the Cards and Their Just Desserts! This event will be held digitally via Crowdcast and is free to attend but registration is required. Click here to register for the event. You can also order any of the authors' books from our website to be added to the event's registration list, and there will also be an option to snag their books during the event. For any questions, please email events@loyaltybookstores.com

DEATH IN THE CARDS: The young adult debut from the award-winning author of Arsenic and Adobo! When a high school tarot reader’s latest client goes missing after a troubling reading, she must apply everything she’s learned from her private investigator mother to solve a case of her own.

Danika Dizon is a natural problem-solver. Thanks to her private investigator mom and mystery author dad, she's equipped with the skills to offer guidance to anxious classmates who come to her for a tarot reading between classes. For a price, of course.

But when one of her clients vanishes shortly after they're dealt a death card, the girl’s younger sister Gaby begs Danika to figure out what went wrong. Danika takes on the case, thinking it's the perfect way to prove to her parents that she should be an official investigator in the family’s detective agency.

What starts off as a compelling challenge quickly devolves into something darker as Danika and Gaby peel back layer after layer of the secret life the missing girl has been living. A life that those involved would do anything to keep from being revealed…

THEIR JUST DESSERTS: Perfect for fans of The Great British Baking Show and Clue, this enchanting and rollicking follow-up to The Cookie Crumbles follows two best friends caught up in a twisty mystery when jewels go missing at a high-stakes baking competition.

Baker extraordinaire Laila Thomas and budding journalist Lucy Flores are living it up at the top of the junior high food chain as eighth graders. But between busy schedules and kinda-boyfriends, these two best friends haven’t gotten to hang out as much. So, when Jaden, an ex-competition rival, begs the duo to step back into the world of cooking competitions and crime—the answer is yes.

Jaden is desperate: His father is accused of stealing prized jewels on the set of an amateur kids’ holiday baking show. The plan is for Laila to smash the competition while Lucy investigates behind the scenes—but their half-baked plan gets turned totally upside down when Lucy ends up in front of the cameras instead.

As the investigation and competition heat up, Lucy and Laila’s bond is put to the ultimate test. Can they solve this bakeoff mystery, or will they—and their friendship—crack under pressure?

Tracy Badua is an award-winning Filipino American author of books about young people with sunny hearts in a sometimes stormy world. By day, she is an attorney, and by night, she squeezes in writing, family time, and bites of her secret candy stash.

Alechia Dow is an award-winning author of several acclaimed young adult sci-fi fantasies, short anthology pieces, and magical (sometimes mysterious) middle grade stories. When not writing, you can find her baking, reading, traveling, and exploring her local food scene.

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 13, 2025). She uses humor (and murder) to explore aspects of the Filipino diaspora, queerness, and her millennial love for pop culture. A lover of all things geeky, Mia spends her days procrasti-baking, playing RPGs and otome games, reading cozy mysteries and diverse romance, and gazing lovingly at her dog. Find her on Facebook and Instagram: @MPMtheWriter Check out her website: www.miapmanansala.com

Please note Loyalty has a zero tolerance policy for harassment or intimidation of any kind during this event.

Kidlit Mystery Panel with Tracy Badua, Alechia Dow, and Mia P. Manansala