I was immediately drawn to the historical aspects of this novel. The story of the Vietnamese fishermen who immigrated to Texas was particularly interesting, (and I immediately searched out the resources recommended by the author.) The Trans are a messy family, with more than their share of trauma and resulting drama. As they work to reunite their family, and heal some of the long standing, mutually inflicted wounds, we get a small glimpse into the lives of Vietnamese immigrants across America.

I found it interesting that I finished this book on the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

“We all need to feel needed. Otherwise, what’s the point of living?”

Carolyn Huynh made her authorial debut in 2022 with The Fortunes of Jaded Women. It was one of my favorite novels not only of that year, but of all the thousand-plus galleys I have read since I began reviewing. She’s back again with The Family Recipe, and it’s every bit as good as the first. My thanks go to NetGalley and Atria Books for the invitation to read and review, but make no mistake: I would have hunted this thing down and bought it with my Social Security check if it came down to it. I wouldn’t have been sorry, either.

This book is available to the public now.

Once again, our protagonists are Vietnamese and Vietnamese-Americans, mostly women, and once again, they are siblings and other family members that must come together; it isn’t a voluntary reunion. And that’s where the similarities between the first book and this one end.

Duc Tran, the patriarch, has laid out the terms by which his children may inherit his fortune. Once upon a time, he was the Vietnamese sandwich king, and in order to become his heir, each of his four daughters must relocate to a city she doesn’t want to live in, and revive a down-at-the-heels restaurant in a now undesirable end of town. It’s a contest; that is, unless Duc’s one son, Jude, succeeds in getting married within the one year’s time limit of the contest. If he can do that, he wins. (His sisters aren’t worried; who would marry Jude?)

The story is told from several points of view; these include the siblings, their uncle—a shady lawyer, and Duc’s best friend; their mother, who abandoned them when they were small, when her mental health collapsed, and never went back; Duc’s second wife; and briefly, Duc himself, who mostly serves as a mysterious figure that doesn’t even return to the States to lay out his children’s requirements, sending their uncle as his proxy. As the story unfolds, we learn more about each sibling, and about the traumas they have experienced, as well as their successes.

The thing that makes it work so well is Huynh’s unerring sense of timing. It’s a dramatic tale, but it’s shot full of humor, as we see at the outset, when we learn the sisters’ names. Their father was a huge fan of the Beatles, and so the girls are named Jane, Paulina, Georgia, and (wait for it…) Bingo!

There are plenty of twists and turns, and the dialogue crackles. The internal monologues are mesmerizing. This book would make a fantastic movie.

Since I was reading this galley digitally, I highlighted quotes that I thought I’d like to use in this review, but there are 28 of them. Obviously, I cannot share them all here, but let that inform you, if nothing else here has, how much I love this book.

Highly recommended to anyone that has a beating heart, at least a passing interest in Vietnamese-American culture and/or family stories, and can use a few good laughs.

2.5⭐️ I went into this one with such high expectations after loving the author’s first novel. Unfortunately, I struggled with the story.

Too many POVs and backstories made it hard for me to keep everyone’s story straight. It also made the book too long and all I kept wishing was for the story to end.

Will keep reading this author in the future, this one just didn’t work for me.

Every family has their own set of drama to keep them competing with each other. Who has the best house/car? Which one is the favorite? Why did my sister get to do things I wasn't allowed? Carolyn Huynh takes this family dynamic and sets it in a Vietnamese household. Five children, four women, one man, must compete, using a set of guidelines set forth by their father as he plans his retirement. If they want to be the winner and run the family's chain of sandwich shops, the race is on. While not exactly an original plot line, the circumstances and treatment certainly put a few twists on it! THE FAMILY RECIPE is an entertaining read as these siblings decide just how far they will go to best each other or please their father.

Unhappy families are unhappy in their own unique ways, and just like their familiy finances, Duc, Evelyn and their five kids are extravagant in the comic misery. This novel mines the humor of the costs and challenges of making it in America as first and second generation Vietnamese Americans. Estranged from their parents and largely each other, the five siblings are summoned home. Each child is pitted against each other to win the family fourtubw. The five daughters are tasked with turning around a sandwich shop, and whoever creates the most profitable business within 1 year wins. However, their brother is challenged to find and marry within that same year, and he'll snag everything from his sisters if he makes it down aisle.

It's a creative premise that is a solid page-turning family "dramaedy". The perspective flips between a wide range of characters, which might make the audio harder to follow. (Reading it in print, this wasn't an issue for me.) All in all, this is an easily digestible book that explores important themes of loyalty, self-preservation, and what we owe each other and ourselves. 3.75 stars rounded up to 4.



Thanks to Atria and NetGalley for an ARC. As always, all opinions expressed are exclusively my own.

Duc Tran, founder of the Vietnamese sandwich chain Duc’s Sandwiches, will retire and wants to leave the business to someone. His wife Evelyn left years ago, and he's estranged from his five children. To earn their inheritance, his four daughters must revitalize run-down shops in old-school Little Saigon locations within a year, but if his son Jude gets married first, he will get it all. Each daughter is trying to figure out messy lives and gentrification, and Jude tries to decide if he wants to marry at all. Duc has a reason behind the inheritance scheme, and his children soon discover it as well as the secret their mother kept hidden.

Duc was a refugee from Vietnam after the war, and tensions were high in the postwar period. Even years later, people in the southern United States hated him for being Vietnamese. Despite that, he was able to create a fortune and successful banh mí sandwich shops. Unfortunately, his family life suffered. His son Jude felt weighed down by the insistence that he had a bright future, and his daughters all fled as soon as they were able to leave. His second wife was certainly there for material comfort

We see the four daughters as they struggle to learn how to run a store and build a life in each of the four cities they are sent to. Jude tries to work with the first woman he meets through a matchmaker but doesn't feel like it is real. We also get flashes to the past, with Duc and Huey meeting soon after their emigration to America, bonding when traumatized. The scenes of being scorned, threatened, and downright chased out with a shotgun pale in comparison to the ones with the KKK terrorizing the burgeoning Vietnamese community growing in the South. The five children all deal with different issues, the lost children with different levels of trauma from being abandoned by their mother and left with two men who couldn't handle the needs of young children. As the youngest, Georgia felt like she missed the most; she can't speak Vietnamese, has few memories of her mother, and feels like she doesn't belong anywhere.

This is the tragedy of any child born from a diaspora. They don't feel like they belong in the country they were born in but also don't belong in their ethnic country of origin. There are traumas the older generation unwittingly visit upon the younger, even while doing their best. This novel deals with the fallout of this, with the secrets that everyone knows other than the ones it directly affects, and the search for belonging. I felt just as invested as the Tran children in seeing if they would make it, if they could build lives and forge a path forward as a family again. Identity and family are intertwined here, and it felt so familiar while reading the book that I felt like part of their community as well.

The novel employs multiple narrative perspectives. While the diverse viewpoints provide an interesting framework for the narrative's development, the frequent alternation between character perspectives appears to inhibit the full development of any individual character. Consequently, this narrative strategy impedes emotional engagement with the protagonists, making it difficult to invest in their respective journeys or the central family mystery. Although the prose demonstrates competence and addresses significant themes including racism, depression, and intergenerational trauma, the text ultimately fails to establish a meaningful connection with the reader.

THE FAMILY RECIPE is a lovely story about five siblings and their daddy issues. Despite a slow start, it's funny, smart, and surprisingly wholesome. This book walks the line between contemporary and literary fiction. Its lively characters and vibrant settings (5 cities) make it a story worth reading, and the stories of the siblings and their parents are most definitely stories worth telling. The child of immigrants, I found myself often nodding along whenever the mother or her daughters expressed their feelings towards each other. This book was messy and complicated and filled with big big feelings. I loved it and I can't wait to see what Carolyn Huynh writes next!

This is my first book by Carolyn Huynh and I really enjoyed the family dynamics and unique characters. The whole premise is a little unbelievable but I enjoyed it anyhow.

This book did a great job of describing complicated and messy family dynamics, and the fall-out from dishonesty. I loved the bits about the restaurants and food, and it moved quickly as it switched between all the characters.

I'll definitely check out more by Carolyn Huynh in the future!

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!

it was a pleasant enough read with a sweet premise, but it didn’t quite leave a lasting impression. The characters and plot felt a little too safe, and while the writing was fine, it lacked the emotional depth or originality to truly stand out

A multigenerational character study of the dysfunctional Tràn family, whose father, Duc, has just issued a challenging competition to his kids to earn the inheritance from Duc’s successes in America. Over the course of the year, each sibling is working to win, and hoping to heal along the way.

The Family Recipe did a really great job of highlighting Vietnamese culture, and the struggles of coming to America after the Vietnam War, and the racism and prejudice and hate that ensues. I appreciated the insight into this as well as the flow of the chapters, which were highlighting all of the points of view of the Tràn family.

Each character felt very different and it was fascinating seeing how the trauma of the sibling’s mother, leaving at such an early age for all of them, affected them as adults. Huynh made me care about the characters well-being over the course of their year. The breadcrumbs left throughout the story hinting at the twist, definitely have me guessing early on, however, I did still enjoy seeing how each character dealt with that twist. My favorite chapters did end up being the ones where we would go back to the late 70s and early 80s and see how Huey and Duc and Evelyn were experiencing life at that time.

I am so excited for the authors release of this book and for those who also enjoy multiple POV’s and enmeshed family dramas to experience this read for the first time. Thank you Carolyn Huynh, Atria Books, and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy in exchange for my unbiased review.

a wonderful sophomore novel. carolyn, you’ve done it again! thx to netgalley for a copy of the arc in exchange for my honest review.

the family recipe was a messy, chaotic, heartwarming, and hopeful book about a vietnamese family searching for the true meaning of the word “family.”

through the ups, downs, and everything in between, they learned about how they fit into the world as both an individual and as a part of their family.

also huge shoutout to my hometown of houston, we still have a complicated relationship, but you’ll always be home

the book was fine but i felt like the writing was a little juvenile in style. I think the premise was interesting but since there were so many plotlines everything wasn't fully fleshed out. I had no real thoughts on Connie and it just felt rushed.

i loved a lot about this book — chaos! food descriptions! silly jokes — but the eight changing perspectives, two timelines, and many subplots had me confused by the end! still, i had a really good time reading it, and i'll check out huynh's other book!

I loved this author’s debut novel - The Fortunes of Jaded Women and this one didn’t disappoint. I enjoyed rhetorical very dysfunctional family dynamics and the historical aspects. What I didn’t love ( although I could understand based on the history and trauma the characters experienced) the “big family secret” . I wanted a different ending in some cases, and a bit more closure for the siblings than we got . Overall the story is fun , informative and sad at times

My rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Carolyn Huynh is back and just like her debut novel this one also gave us a stacked cast of characters, with a fun plot but always remembering to tie it all back to the Vietnamese experience, culture, tradition and identity. And just like her first novel, Huynh does what she does best, gave us an engaging and fast storyline that I really enjoyed my time with it. With this novel, I think it really solidify for me that she is going to be an author I will keep reading from as long as she continues to write.

I'm excited to see what Huynh has up her sleeves next, I'm curious to know whether she would change up her formula a little bit than what was presented to us in her last two novel. I wouldn't mind if there's going to be a book of hers where we get more time to sit down with the characters and be in their feelings a bit more because that was what I found myself wishing a bit here, to be able to dig deep in their feelings and thoughts because there's always a lot to unpack with her characters, their dynamics and the storyline but I don't think that we usually get to just sit in it all with them. With that said, whatever Huynh plan on releasing next just know that I would be there.

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I loved this book and read it in one day. I loved the characters and their growth along with the storyline. I definitely would recommend this book.

I had the chance to meet Carolyn Huynh at the San Diego Book Festival, where she signed my copy of The Fortune of Jaded Women—a moment I’ll always treasure. I’m incredibly thankful to have received an early copy of The Family Recipe through NetGalley.

While this book didn’t carry the same humor as her debut, it was still beautifully written and emotionally rich. I’m not quite sure if it fits squarely into women’s fiction—I’d honestly call it family fiction. The story is told through multiple points of view, and each character’s voice matters. Every chapter added another layer to the story, switching seamlessly between past and present.

This book is beautifully tragic. It deals with deep generational trauma, yet by the end, there’s a sense of healing that left a lasting impression on me. It’s not a typical happily ever after, but it is real, and the emotional growth and mended relationships truly moved me.

The cultural representation is powerful, and the historical context felt like a lesson I didn’t know I needed. As an Asian American, I really connected with the parts where the younger generation visits Vietnam—the complex emotions there felt so familiar and deeply personal.

The Family Recipe is a story that needed to be told. It’s tender, raw, and reminds us that healing is possible, even if it doesn’t look perfect.

**4 Stars**

"Family Recipe" serves up a compelling family saga with a delicious side of mystery. When Duc Tran decides to retire, he creates a competitive inheritance challenge for his five children. His four daughters must each revitalize a failing sandwich shop location, while his son must find a wife and get married—all within a year. Whoever succeeds wins the entire inheritance.

As each sibling embarks on their journey, family secrets surface, particularly surrounding their father's past and their mother Evelyn, who left twenty years ago.

The novel excels in its cultural representation, providing authentic insight into the Vietnamese American experience. Historical elements, including Duc's refugee story and a subplot involving Vietnamese fishermen's lawsuit against the KKK, add meaningful context.

The story spans diverse locations—from California to Philadelphia, New Orleans, Texas, and Vietnam—creating a rich tapestry that reflects the scattered nature of the family itself. Huynh skillfully portrays the complexity of generational trauma evident in each sibling's emotional struggles.

While the first portion captivated me with its well-developed characters and unique premise, the pacing becomes uneven later on. With multiple POVs and a year-long timeline, some character arcs feel rushed despite the book's ambitious scope.

Where the novel truly shines is in its exploration of family relationships and cultural heritage. Food serves as both a literal and metaphorical anchor, highlighting how culinary traditions can connect generations and preserve cultural identity. The mystery surrounding Evelyn culminates in a poignant reveal that illuminates the family's struggles.

Despite its imperfections, "Family Recipe" offers a satisfying blend of humor, cultural richness, and family dynamics. For readers interested in multi-generational sagas with depth, this book delivers a memorable experience that will leave you craving both bánh mì and perhaps a family reunion of your own.

Thank you to Atria Books for providing an advance reader copy.

Duc’s family has been gathered by his lawyer. He isn’t dead, but he has decided to retire and will not choose who gets the inheritance. His four girls are each sent to a Duc’s sandwiches location across the country with the goal of turning the business around. His son however, must find a woman and get married within the same year that his sisters must revitalize these failing shops. Whoever does the best at their goal will receive all the inheritance. As they all head in their separate directions family mysteries begin to be revealed.

Damn, talk about family turning all their kids against each other! There was so much about this book to love! I enjoyed each of the siblings individual stories as they headed to their specific locations to try and win the inheritance. I was very surprised by the back story of Duc and his family, and it broke my heart what they faced throughout their life. Overall this was a very well done family saga with a bit of mystery that kept me reading!

Thank you to @atriabooks and @librofm for my gifted copy of this book!