I had a hard time staying invested in this story. I normally love books about chaotic families but this story was slow moving. There was also the view point of 5 siblings, step mom and absentee mom. I felt like the shifting prospectives took away from the story and made it hard to get to know the characters. Towards the end I really wanted more from the siblings. This one wasn’t for me.

Thanks netgalley for a copy of this book.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria for this advance readers copy, in exchange for an honest review. The Family Recipe starts off when the five adult Tran siblings are brought together by their father’s lawyer to learn that their father has changed the rules to determine who will receive an inheritance, upon his passing. He determines that each of his four daughters must revive one of the family sandwich shops within a year, in different cities across the US, but if his son gets married first, it will all go to him.

The premise of this story interested me off the bat, namely in the unfair nature of these new inheritance terms. Overall, I enjoyed this book! It was a real character study, focusing on each of the five Tran siblings, as they uncover things about themselves in this experience and uncover long-held family secrets. Some of these plot lines did feel a little too tidy or too much like convenient coincidences but, if you can look past that, it is still a fun book to read. It is an engaging story that is light enough but, still filled with enough meaningful conversation and topics at hand, so as not to feel like fluff. I think this would be a great beach read. These characters are certainly flawed and the story is messy but, still heartwarming.

I would recommend this story to contemporary fiction fans and look forward to seeing what others think when this is published!

3.5
The flamboyant Duc Tran has made an incredible fortune from his empire of sandwich shops. On the eve of his retirement, Tran calls his five adult children together to, they believe, divide his wealth. Instead, he gives them a task. Each of his four daughters has one year to revitalize one shop in a chosen city. Whoever is the most successful will get everything. However, if Tran’s only son marries within that same year, he inherits all the money. As the siblings bicker and struggle, they slowly uncover family secrets and come to understand the power of breaking bread with one another.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for the chance to read an early copy.

I was very excited for Huynh’s next book after loving her debut, The Fortunes of Jaded Women. She has a way of writing characters in the Vietnamese diaspora who are flawed yet still lovable and multidimensional. It seemed like this book was primed to do the same, and I was especially interested in the food component of the story, having recently been to Vietnam myself and still missing the food. Unfortunately, I ended up not finishing this book after Part One (31% of the way through).

My decision to not finish was mostly due to the structure—by covering so much ground with 5 siblings and the father’s backstory, the chapters felt rushed. Some of the storylines or characters being introduced felt too convenient, and it was like we were being shown the characters getting from point A to point B without any of the journey in between.

While I love a multigenerational family story and was interested in this Vietnamese family’s history in Texas, the pacing and structure were unfortunately not quite right for me.

Too many siblings, too many perspectives, too much going on. I liked the premise of this book but the execution just wasn't for me.

Three stars. A cute read, full of family dysfunction, secrets and some pleasant twists and turns . But falls too heavy on the pedantry of the Asian immigrant experience and usage of "trauma": "generational trauma," "cycle of trauma," "inherited trauma," sometimes within a few paragraphs and pages of each other. It would have been a much more enjoyable read without this heavy-handedness.

60/100 or 3.0 stars

I think that people will really like this one! I was never able to fully get engaged in the story or the characters, but I wanted to continue to see where the story was going and how it would end. It was just okay. I just didn't love this one, sadly.

I love Huynh’s previous title The Fortunes of Jaded Women. To say I was excited for a new title is an understatement.
The Family Recipe by Carolyn Huynh
I really enjoyed reading this poignant and heartwarming story.
These strong-willed characters have their ups and downs but would ultimately move mountains for each other. The story is full of humor, drama and has a wide cast of fiery, complex characters. This was an entertaining read about complicated family dynamics, Vietnamese culture and the immigrant experience and I highly recommend.
A wonderful multi-generational story of a Vietnamese-American family.

The Family Recipe is about rediscovering one’s roots, different types of fatherly love, legacy, and finding a place in a divided country where the only commonality among your neighbors is the universal love of sandwiches.

I really enjoyed this book along with how each of the characters evolved throughout it! I’m really happy I read this one since it wasn’t my typical book to read.

I loved the multiple POVs and the dual timelines. Carolyn did a great job on making it clear on which POV it was and which timeline it was on. It was very easy to follow and remember who was who since there are a lot of different characters to follow.

This book was very engaging. I definitely became very vested in all of the characters even if some of them were very unlikeable. It made it very hard to put down the book.

I’m not sure I fully enjoyed how it ended. I liked pieces of the ending, but I don’t think the ending was what I was hoping for.

Thanks NetGalley and publisher for the digital copy.

Duc Tran is a Vietnamese refugee who made a name and living for himself with his banh mi shop chain. Once he decides to retires, he contacts his estranged 5 children with a mission: be the first to resurrect the dying chain and be the sole recipient to his inheritance. Begrudgingly, his children reunite for the first time in years and take on their respective missions.

This was told in multiple POVs, including through the pov of Evelyn, Duc’s estranged wife who abandoned the family decades ago. It was also told across multiple timelines including when Duc and Evelyn arrived in the United States following the Vietnam War.

As a Vietnamese American and daughter of two immigrants, I felt very seen by this story. All of the characters were flawed and unlikeable in their own ways, but with the context provided their decisions and mannerisms became very understandable. I especially resonated with Jane, the eldest daughter. I also thought there was great commentary on mental illness in the context of generational trauma, a topic that is too often overlooked in the Asian community.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for the ARC! I highly recommend, especially if you are a member of the Asian diaspora.

I struggled to get through this one but the family dynamics were fun, interesting, and relatable. This might be a situation of just being the wrong time to read. I’d definitely try again at a different time to see if I enjoy it more at a different time.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Genre: Contemporary Fiction

This is the story of a Vietnamese family in which the father, who is the owner and the founder of the Vietnamese sandwich chain Duc’s Sandwiches, goes for retirement. So the question is, who will be managing this business?

Duc will set his children against each other to find a business successor after his retirement. But all will be according to his rules. The five siblings, consisting of a brother and four sisters, will have different objectives. Individually, each of the girls will be tasked with the responsibility of revitalizing run-down shops in a different state. While their brother has the chance to inherit everything provided he marries before the year ends!

The story follows many characters' perspectives, but thankfully they are narrated in a third-person style. This will help a lot in distinguishing the characters from each other. I think the premise of the book is very unique. It’s not something that I have read before despite reading many books. The whole plot is about this Vietnamese American family, so expect a culture-rich story with lots of depth.

Following many characters means you will have several subplots. Some can be appealing, and others can be just OK. My overall impression is that I found this story to be enjoyable to read, and I believe the author did an excellent job with the competition and the overall dynamics of the family.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the ARC of this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC

Chose this one kind of on a whim and was not disappointed. The Tran family (four adult sisters and one adult brother, none of whom get along), an absent father, doting “uncle,” missing mother and bitter ex wife - add in Vietnamese restaurants and an inheritance challenge; what could go wrong? It’s a quirky story and I’m not sure the plot is iron clad but I enjoyed getting to know the characters and settings. An easy quick read. 3.5 stars rounded up.

Another broad family comedy from Huynh! The Tran sisters have to revitalize one of the family's band mi'shop across the country to get their inheritance, whilst their brother just has to get married. The backstory of "Uncle" Huey and how their dad Duc Tran went from immigrants to successful men and why their mother Evelyn left is mixed with the messy love lives and gentrification neighborhoods in the current America.

3.75 stars

This sprawling family tale seeks to explore the definition of family. It features a group with disputed parentage, and five children. Their mother left long ago and none of the children feels particularly close to their father. They have been advised by family friend and lawyer that there father has finalized his will and has a proposition for each of them. The oldest (and only) son's involves him marrying within a certain time period, and the other four have to do with each of them being given one of their father's banh mi sandwich shops to revitalize. We see fairly quickly that this isn't really about money from their father's business holdings - it's about fixing their sense of abandonment dating back to when their mother left.

Each of the grown children has lost their way a bit personally. The current chapters are interspersed with their mother and father's story from the past. This does include an actual historic event, the criminal trial of two Vietnamese shrimpers for the death of a White fisherman.

I appreciated that this book was a bit messy, because families often are. I also liked that everything was not totally resolved and tied up neatly at the end. Of all the characters, I still felt the mother's motivations and actions were cloudy. There is a lot of humor and some real poignancy as well. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

very well written book and has a cool historical fiction side plot. would definitely recommend. 5 stars. tysm for the arc.

I was unable to finish this book and thus will not be posting a full review. Something just didn't work for me and I was pained reading this. I decided not to continue. Thank you for the opportunity and consideration.

I've read 86 books in 2025 so far and this is my favorite one to this point!

This book is about a large Vietnamese-American family who come together in the modern day to learn how their (living) father is going to divide his estate. The father isn't there, but his lawyer is, and he gives them all tasks, many related to his chain of bánh mì stores and says that the person who does theirs first will get his estate. The mother is mysteriously missing as well and it's clear that we'll learn more about her wherabouts and reasons for leaving during the course of the tasks.

The adult children complete the tasks, while having to deal with their pasts and relationships with each other, and the reader gets to learn about the parents' backstories through a series of flashbacks.

The story is sweet, funny, heartbreaking, and surprising. The book feels easy to read but the content is layered and just like in Huynh's debut book, lots of things are happening in layers. I'm looking forward to rereading it and digging more into where there may have been hints and details, because I was so excited to find out what was happening next that sometimes I would find myself flying through.

Misc note: I've seen some platforms categorize this as non-fiction and others categorize it as a romance. It's neither of those, it's lit/contemporary fiction.

Read it, you'll love it, and read The Fortunes of Jaded Women by the same author too!

Thank you to Atria books for an advance review copy of this book. My opinions expressed herein are my own.

This story of strained family relationships highlights the damage that lack of communication can impart on siblings, parents, and spouses. The family patriarch, Duc Tran, is a Vietnamese immigrant who has spent his life chasing the American dream, but at a cost. His adult children are angry and hurt, but after an inheritance. Chaos ensues.

The appreciation I now have for any immigrant coming here with the American Dream is so much higher because of this book. Carolyn had me laughing & crying while I read this book. The will to push past any obstacle life throws your way the characters faced in this book. The plot was perfectly executed between last & present. I loved it from start to finish.