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If you love inheritance games stories. If you love anything that’s Succession meets [fill in the blank]. I’ve got two books for you — one for now, one for later — that you’re gonna wanna read. First up is The Family Recipe by Carolyn Huynh.

So this is about a Viet family based out of Houston, but the kids have scattered to the wind. And the dad decides he’s ready to retire. But in order for his kids to inherit his fortune, they must each renovate one of the banh mi shops that the family owns.
If you love messy, complicated families you need to read this. It is a multi-POV story, each of the kids has a perspective, the mom has a perspective. So some of them get shorter shrift based on how the story evolves. But! The thing makes this interesting and more than the typical inheritance games story is we also get flashbacks to when Duc and Huey (his friend and later attorney) first immigrated to the US. You can imagine what they were up against — racism, KKK, intimidation, etc. Check the trigger warnings.
The audiobook is narrated by David Lee Huynh and Vyvy Nguyen and it’s a fantastic listen particularly for the pronunciation of Viet words and names.
Get The Family Recipe at Bookshop.org | Kobo | Apple Books | Amazon

ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley
These Summer Storms by Sarah MacLean, out July 8, 2025, is a more traditional inheritance games story. You’ve got upper crust white people in Rhode Island. And the kids come back together at the family estate after the death of the patriarch.It’s a fantastic summer read — you get that dappled summer light, summering in Rhode Island, a hint of bodyguard romance vibes, though this is contemporary fiction.
I will say, you won’t hate these people as much as you hate people in Succession. I just rewatched the first episode and was like, “Wow, I hate all of you.” And you won’t have that in either of these books. I mean, they have their complicated sibling relationships, but they’re not hateable like that.
If you’re an audiobook reader, Julia Whelan is doing the audio! Signed copies with a special dust jacket are also available through the Ripped Bodice.
Get These Summer Storms at The Ripped Bodice | Bookshop.org | Kobo | Apple Books | Amazon

