I loved this book, for the humor, characters, history of an important chapter in our American story. The Tran children are all adults, still missing their mother, Evelyn, who left 20 years before. When their father, Duc, sends each of them letters which describe what they would have to do to get their inheritance, a year of challenges was undertaken by Jude, Jane, Bingo, Paulina and Georgia. Jude was assigned the task of finding a wife and getting married, while each of the daughters was given one of the banh mi stores to restore their success. During that year, they would discover much about themselves, but also the history that formed their Vietnamese parents’ attitudes and actions. I highly recommend this book, which I didn’t want to put down. Thanks to NetGalley for this gem.

Huynh writes about generational trauma and healing in the best way. From bickering siblings to reminiscing parents, Huynh captures all the ugly and beautiful parts of being a family.

She also highlights an important and painful part in Vietnamese diasporic history of persecution and prejudice from fishing towns and the KKK in the south.

Fantastic novel overall.

The Family Recipe offers an intriguing premise about family, inheritance, and legacy, but it falls into a bit of repetitiveness. Duc Tran’s eccentric challenge for his five children to revitalize his sandwich shops feels fresh at first, but as each daughter faces similar struggles with gentrification and personal issues, the story starts to feel a bit predictable. Jude's storyline, centered on whether he should marry for love or money, adds an interesting twist but suffers from the same repetitiveness. While the themes of rediscovering roots and family bonds are strong, the emotional beats don’t always evolve in unexpected ways. It’s an enjoyable read, but the story could have used more variety in its arcs to keep things from feeling too formulaic.
**rounded up from 3.5 stars**

Oooof. I did not finish this one. I found the writing to be very labored, overwrought, and cringy. For example: "It was as if someone did CTRL + C on their mother, and then CTRL + V four times to create exact replicas of one another: dark roots, strong jaws, big doe-eyes, and heart-shaped faces spotted with birthmarks, a near replica of Cassiopeia." Whew!

Thank you Atria Books and NetGalley for the ARC.

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to read this book.

I need this book to be opted as a series or film trilogy. I love reading books with representation that parallels me and I have never felt more seen than I did reading this book. For all 5 Tran siblings I felt like they all had facets of me, my heart ached for their individual tribulations and I was unbelievably heartbroken for Evelyn. This took my emotions all over the place and made me miss my Ba Nho.

Thank you Atria Books for my #gifted copy of The Family Recipe! #AtriaPartner #atriabooks #TheFamilyRecipe #CarolynHuynh

𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐞
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫: 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐲𝐧 𝐇𝐮𝐲𝐧𝐡
𝐏𝐮𝐛 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝐀𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐥 𝟏, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓

𝟒★

Carolyn Huynh’s sophomore novel, The Family Recipe, did not disappoint! This family dramedy about estranged siblings featured so many layers and was so rich with its complex characters. I loved the focus on finding your own roots and the focus on family and culture. Huynh did such a great job blending humor and heart and mixing in history. I knew nothing about the conflicts the Vietnamese fishermen faced in Texas with the KKK, but since reading this book, I have researched more about it and have learned so much more. I really enjoyed this book and found Huynh to be a delightful storyteller!

🥪Complex Characters
🥪Estranged Siblings
🥪Family Secrets
🥪Multiple POVs
🥪Vietnamese Culture & Traditions

Posted on Goodreads on April 4, 2025: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/144922955?ref=nav_profile_l
**Posted on Instagram - Full Review- on or around April 4, 2025: http://www.instagram.com/nobookmark_noproblem
**Posted on Amazon on April 4, 2025
**-will post on designated date

Duc came to America as a refugee from Vietnam and was determined to succeed. Years later, he owns a chain of Vietnamese sandwich shops, has five grown children, a missing first wife, and a second, somewhat absent and self-absorbed, wife. He's viewed by his community as an example of rags to riches success, but he's currently MIA and estranged from most of the kids. The premise of the book is Duc's hair brained scheme to possibly save the businesses and bring his kids together.
The siblings are also estranged from each other but come together to learn about Duc's plan. They're all given an assignment and the successful one will inherit Duc's full estate. But will they?
Stories of each of the siblings alternate with chapters about Duc's early years after arriving in the US, meeting Huey (his right hand man to this day) and their lives in a number of places, including Seadrift, Texas. This location was especially interesting because the story also then focused on Huey's involvement in the real life lawsuit of Vietnamese fishermen against the KKK.
Story-wise, and geographically, the book is all over the map, from California, to Philadelphia, New Orleans, Texas and Vietnam. Most of the characters are emotionally stunted and evidence of generational trauma is clear in all of the siblings. The Family Recipe went a little off the rails at the end, but overall, was an interesting novel about family relationships, racism, and the Vietnamese culture.
Thanks to Netgalley and Atria Books for the opportunity to read The Family Recipe. I was given a complimentary copy of the book and opinions expressed are completely my own.

This book just wasn’t for me. It is kind of corny and repetitive. I normally like slice of life stories but this one was so draggy and overwrought with sappy emotion.

I really enjoyed this messy family story, as well as the tragic historical background attached to it. I wish maybe there were less siblings, so there was more time and story to get develop an attachment.

Such a good family drama!! Really enjoyed this one and the author is now an auto buy for me. Highly recommend

Thanks to NetGalley for this eARC!

OMG! I always get excited when there is a new Carolyn Huynh book. I fell in love with the stories Carolyn has written, and this is no exception. I knew it was a great story from the beginning, amd this took me not long to finish it. I can't wait for her next book!

I love a family drama. Give me a solid cast of characters and some family secrets, and I am in. The Family Recipe absolutely delivered on that, but it was also so much more. It was an exploitation of generational trauma and the Vietnamese diaspora. It explored the American dream and the all too real and ugly sides of America that often face immigrants and refugees. It looked at motherhood and familial relationships but also examined those within the context of being the child of immigrants. And though I’ve made it sound heavy, there are also moments of levity and humor. Huynh’s characters are beautifully developed (I just wanted to hug Georgia any time she was on the page), and I really enjoyed all of the different perspectives we were given, both in past and present.

I 100% recommend picking this one up. I’m so glad I did.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars

A talented writer has the unique ability to draw you into a story and its characters, even when you’re initially reluctant to connect with them. With The Family Recipe, Carolyn has proven her depth and range as a storyteller. While The Fortunes of Jaded Women focused on the Vietnamese women’s stories and giving them a voice, The Family Recipe provides readers with some chapters from the male perspective while still putting the women mostly at the forefront. Here, Carolyn cleverly opts to change things up by using a third-person narrator for all the characters’ chapters in The Family Recipe except for Evelyn’s aka the matriarch. Historically, older Vietnamese women have been overlooked and/or silenced, so it is especially significant that Evelyn is the only character in The Family Recipe who is allowed to narrate her story directly to us, the readers. In books with multiple perspectives, you’d often find that you resonate with some characters more than others. For me, as an eldest daughter, I related so hard to Jane, while Jude was my least favourite character. Although every character was flawed and messy, I felt the least amount of sympathy for Jude, so much so that I took considerable satisfaction in seeing him get his much-deserved comeuppance. In light of that, it was still impressive to see the appreciation for the fact that when the eldest daughter joins forces with the only son, they create a formidable and nearly invincible duo.

Those familiar with Carolyn’s first novel will find that the Tran family easily rivals the Duong women in terms of chaotic family dynamics, miscommunication, and misunderstandings. The Family Recipe is bursting with so much for just one book! The present-day dysfunction of a modern family inheritance battle, the historical clash between the Vietnamese Americans and the Gulf Coast fishermen who were backed by the KKK, along with a looming mystery, could easily become a messy narrative when combined and in the wrong authour's hands. Fortunately, Carolyn manages to create a well-paced, compelling book that subverts expectations and manages to avoid the usual cliches that would have led to an overtly saccharine book. Unfortunately, though, once again I’m left wanting more of these characters after I’ve finished reading.

THE FAMILY RECIPE is the quintessential family dramedy with witty dialogue and relatable moments filled to the brim with characters that you can't help but cheer on.

I finished this book over the weekend and I loved it. This story is complex, in that it weaves together multiple POVs and timelines, but Carolyn does it seamlessly. There are five siblings that the story tracks, along with other characters, and usually, with a larger cast, someone gets lost along the way, their story not as captivating as the others. I expected that with so many narrations. But I didn't feel that way with this book!

Every single person had their own journey, their own relatable struggles and triumphs that I felt connected and invested in each person. I have never felt that way reading a story with so many different perspectives before, and it was a joy to read.

Duc is the founder of a chain of sandwich shops around the country. He has 5 estranged adult children and a wife he has not seen in years. When he decides to retire, he gives conditions to his children. His four daughters must revitalize failing shops within a year, but his only son will inherit everything if he gets married. The catch? Whoever does it first wins the whole inheritance

But the store each sibling is given unlocks bigger mysteries, and soon, everyone will learn the real reasons for this bazaar scheme and the secrets their mother and father kept hidden.

Trigger Warnings
Racism, Hate Crimes

Why Kirsten loves it
I love a sibling drama, but I was not expecting to fall in love with this story so deeply. I didn’t want it to end. I loved each sibling’s journey. I loved learning the back story between Duc and Evelyn…and I craved a Bánh Mì the entire time!

Carolyn Huynh's sophomore novel The Family Recipe focuses on the Vietnamese American Tran family, whose patriarch Duc founded a sandwich chain and sets up a race to inheritance for his five children. Family dramas following money and inheritance often focus on the traditional rich white families, and it was interesting to see how Huynh took that story and saw it through an Asian American lens. I really enjoyed how she traced the Tran family's story of immigration and success, showing how the American dream and their Vietnamese roots influenced each daughter, the only son, their father, and the family as a whole. Huynh also brings in topics like gentrification and ethnic communities, as well as family dynamics, estrangement, and legacy. The story is a little crowded with the five kids to balance, but otherwise, The Family Recipe is both smart and compelling, painting a strong, complicated picture of a family figuring out their way back together.

Carolyn Huynh’s sophomore novel, The Family Recipe, is not about the best recipe for a Bahn Mi sandwich or even the “recipe” for a successful sandwich shop. Instead, the book is about family secrets, legacy, and identity with a little history thrown in the mix.

The story is told in dual time lines by multiple narrators. In the past we learn of the hardships and discrimination that Duc, Evelyn and Huey faced as newly immigrated Vietnamese toward the end of their civil war. In present day, all five of the Tran children narrate their journey to win their inheritance. Additionally, their long-absent mother, Evelyn, and their marginally tolerated stepmother, Connie, narrate a few chapters. While Evelyn and Connie don’t get center stage for very long, I found it easy to quickly get a feel for both characters.

Through the tale of hardships and hard work, readers get a small look into the Vietnamese culture. Ms. Huynh has built in poignant messages about mental health, racism during mass immigration from one country and the importance of non-material inheritances.

I found the premise interesting, the plot pace perfect, the characters interesting, and the end intriguing. While it was missing the level of humor I anticipated, overall, I wholly enjoyed the book.

A interesting take on a very dysfunctional family. Though I have to say the characters were a bit unlikeable. And…….there are so many characters in the story, I started to feel overwhelmed.
This was a ok read for me.
Thank you NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Carolyn Huynh does it again with a story about a Vietnamese family - with its history, its complications, its trauma, and the long arduous journey of healing. It was complicated, messy, and heartwarming.