The Family Recipe

In Huynh’s zesty sophomore effort (after The Fortunes of Jaded Women), the five Trân siblings compete for their inheritance. Duc, founder of the national Duc’s Sandwiches chain, assigns each of his four daughters one of the company’s floundering outlets, on the provision that if they manage to turn their store around within one year, they’ll get a cut of his estate. However, he also says that if their older brother, Jude, gets married before that time, he’ll get everything. In Houston, Jude starts falling for his fiancée, Phoebe, after making a deal with her to marry for Duc’s money. Meanwhile, the youngest sister, Georgia, encounters their estranged mother Evelyn—who walked out on the family 20 years earlier—in New Orleans, where she runs a Duc’s restaurant. The reasons behind her departure gradually come to light after Bingo, one of the middle sisters, who’s stationed in Philadelphia, uncovers a previously unknown link between Evelyn and family friend Huey Ngô, who helped Duc upon the latter’s arrival in Texas when the KKK was terrorizing immigrants. Adding to the present-day drama, Jude finds out Phoebe is seeing someone else. Some of the final revelations are a bit far-fetched, but Huynh keeps up the momentum with lively dialogue. Readers are in for a treat. Agent: Jordan Hill, New Leaf Literary. (Apr.)