Set mostly in Sydney in the present time.
Stella Prentice is a working mother with a four year old daughter and a fourteen year old stepdaughter. As her life falls apart Stella decides to employ an Au Pair. Ava is struggling with grief after her mother’s recent death and is encouraged to take up an offer as an Au Pair by her cousin.
Ava tries to help Stella but does not understand why Stella is so overwhelmed and Stella does not take the time to find out about Ava’s life and her grief. When life gets bad for Ava, she turns to her mother’s handwritten advice and recipes to cook meals to try and please Stella and her family. I loved the way each chapter was titled with comfort food.
I loved how this unfolded with the story of Stella and her mother-in-law Elise intertwined with Stella’s friends and their struggles with being mothers and trying to cope with working and juggling their family responsibilities.
This was about grief, family relationships and working mothers.

Stella feels like she is drowning in her life. With her husband, Felix, hardly ever home, she’s struggling to manage her career as a brand manager for a grocery chain as well as family responsibilities. She has a four year old daughter, Natalie.. Her difficult stepdaughter, Georgia, adds to her stress. . Stella’s rich and cosseted friends suggest that she get an au pair to alleviate her issues,

There are themes here such as work/life balance, marriage, motherhood, friendship and the heinous hassles of everyday living.

The Au- pair, Ava, lost her mum and is understandably unhappy. The relationship between the women is strained. Ava’s immaturity compounds Stella’s difficult situation.

Stella’s mother-in-law, Elise, an interesting character, adds to the complexities of Stella’s life.. Her friends aren’t really a great help.

Food, and its associations with motherhood, feature strongly in this story. Stella tries to connect with Georgia by preparing meals to honour her late mother. Ava cooks for the family to try to connect.with them as well.

I liked this book. The ending was interesting, The book didn’t really gel with me as a whole though..

I fell in love with Tori’s writing style when I read her debut novel Grace Under Fire and her new novel has carried on in the same vain. Grace even gets a cameo in this book which was pretty cool.

For me this was a story about three women, Stella, Ava & Elise, who needed to rediscover who they are while navigating the expectations people already have of them.

With in only a few chapters I was full invested in these characters and tears were shed within the first 50 pages… that damn green card!

Motherhood struggles are definitely something I can relate to and I really liked how this was explored through out this story from many different perspectives.

During some of the final chapters I was sat bolt upright with my hand of my mouth repeating “no, no, no” in my head.

The ending was perfect, and tears were shed again at the mention of a handful of sand… Tori Haschka definitely tugged at my heartstrings!

First time reading a book by Tori Haschka. A Recipe for Family was a great book that involved the lives of three different women and navigating the ups and downs of motherhood, parenting, and friendship while living in Sydney.
I loved how the recipes were incorporated into the book and how you were able to make the recipes if you choose to.
I give this ⭐⭐⭐⭐.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Simon & Schuster Australia for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

On paper I am the exact demographic this book is aimed at. White, middle class, tired and overwhelmed Mum of 2 kids. Hi, yes, it’s me!

I find these domestic family dramas difficult to relate to. It’s all just a bit too cliché, to bitchy and gossipy. Maybe I’m just boring or it’s a bit too close to my reality.

I enjoyed the story of Ava the au pair and her point of view juxtaposed with Stella, the mother who feels increasingly jealous and inadequate. Food as a grief medium was something I enjoyed reading and it worked so well as Ava processed her loss and found family along the way. There was enough plot twists to keep me engaged and the ending genuinely surprised me.

One thing that got to me was the word ‘surreptitiously’ is used SO many times throughout the book, it was very distracting and took me out of the story.

Overall this was an engaging drama, that was a quick and fun read, outside my usual genre but definitely worth a read!

This was a really interesting read, different to my usual choices but I definitely enjoyed it.

It’s an honest look at family life with all the minefields that parenting now includes. I liked the exploration of friendships and the feminist vibe of story. I will definitely look for more from this author.

It was a most enjoyable read, with a lot of heart and emotion. I loved getting to know each of the characters as their lives unravelled while simultaneously entwined with each other.

Told in several POVs, this story highlights the pressure in the relationships we have, both familial and other, and how we navigate them. What we choose to share and what we keep to ourselves. Everyone is struggling. Even those whose lives look perfect on screen.

I also love that the recipes mentioned throughout the story are shared at the end. Baking with my grandmother was always a highlight of my youth, and it’s often the way I express my gratitude to others - with food. I could relate to this part of the story well.

A fabulous story that will make you laugh, while also tugging at your heart strings.

Even though I don’t have children of my own I have family and friends that do so can relate to the mothers in this story. I found the book very engaging and I wanted to keep reading to see how they were all going to cope.
Thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy of this ebook.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster (Australia) for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of A Recipe for Family by Tori Haschka.

A story centred around 3 different people trying to do their best.

Stella - a mum and step mum, pushed to her limits without enough hours in her day.

Elise - Stella's Mother-in-law, struggling with unexpected changes in her life.

Ava - an au pair trying to find her way in the world, away from her family and stepping up to help Stella with hers.

Unexpected friendships and challenges faced with many of today's social challenges addressed all held together by the sharing of food.

If you love reading Monica McInerney or Liane Moriarty then ‘A recipe for family’ will be the perfect read for you.
Following the lives of three women at varying stages of their life, Haschka delves into the difficulties and joys of loss, love and just trying to figure out that next stage in life.

A thoroughly enjoyable read.

Thanks to NetGalley for this eARC.

the blurb drew me in but i must admit i was a little worried i wouldn’t relate to this book because i’m not a mother but i was pleasantly surprised by how quickly i was drawn into Stella’s world, by the end of the first chapter i was hooked.

i thoroughly enjoyed reading the different perspectives of Stella, Elise and Ava and how they each dealt with the ups and downs of their daily lives. i’m a baker/cook myself and especially liked the way food was woven into the story and thought the recipes were a beautiful touch.

this is a story full of warmth, has a lot of heart and was an absolute pleasure to read.

I really enjoyed the different dynamics between each of the women whose POV we see, and those we don’t.
It’s a good eclectic mix of characters with a compelling plot.
Stella; I relate to her so much with her overflowing plate and essential single parenting despite having a husband (who it probably the most irritating man). Her desire to hold it all together amid superficial friendships and social expectations. Her pain at being an unwelcome step-mother to a teen is relatable.
Elise is not a typical grandmother - in the sense of how grandmothers are perceived. She’s furiously independent and proud. Unsure of how much to step into her daughter-in-laws life without overstepping.
I enjoyed reading her finally say something to Stella.
Ava is the youngest of the three and the most sympathetic. A girl in a foreign country after losing her mum would be terrifying. She’s shy and kind and the way her mother stays connected with her after her death is beautiful.

I enjoyed the realistic insight into families in the upper echelons of Sydney society. The pressures placed on them by societal expectations, those who butt against these expectations and those who play the game.
Truths are revealed that shine some parents in new lights.

The ending was great, I did with Stella had more of a backbone in some situations.

I received a copy of this via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

I had heard so much hype about this novel and it did not disappoint. I really love new Australian authors and the drama of this book will keep you hooked and wanting more. Loved it and can't wait for the next novel

This was the perfect book to read while recovering from a bout of winter illness. The author is a food writer and there were lots of instances of cooking throughout the text and some great recipes at the back. Though some of the descriptions of facial expressions and emotional reactions which related to food felt a little over the top at times! That said, the storyline is something most women can relate to — regardless of whether you have or don’t have kids — the struggle to “do it all,” and juggle too many competing priorities in our lives, without adequate support. There are three main female protagonists: marketing manager Stella, her engineer mother-in-law Elise, and the au-pair, Ava. But it would also have been nice to have had a chapter or two from the point of view of the step-daughter, Georgie, and the husband, Felix. Some of the other women characters in the novel were really just “hangers on” and it would have been great if the story had been pared back slightly to really just focus on the one family, and flesh out some of the issues a little more. But ultimately, the story was amusing at times, full of warmth and some moments of wisdom from mothers (and the mother figures) in our lives. I’m giving this 4 stars out of 5. Thank you to Simon & Schuster (Australia) for the gifted copy via NetGalley, ahead of this book’s release on August 3. I look forward to reading more from Tori Haschka.

I read the blurb and thought this book sounded interesting and therefore requested it. And although it was an okay book it wasn't a favourite of mine.

It was a bit of a rambler of a story that didn't really have the gripper that held me and made me want to read more. Being a woman's fiction book I thought it might be a bit more poignant and a little more interesting but alas it fell flat for me.

I'm not sure what else to say but I wanted the women on this book to show me a bit more strength and courage and they just seemed a bit mundane to me.

The blurb of this book appealed to me as I enjoy women's fiction stories. It is set in Sydney and tells the story of Stella and her family. Stella has a high powered job and her husband Felix is an aspiring actor. They have one child Natalie together and Felix has a 14 yo daughter Georgie. All is very hectic in this household and Stella takes the advice of her friends and employs Ava to come from America as an au pair. This is where expectations on all sides start to go terribly wrong. Ava has no experience and finds that Stella is not that lovely person she met on Zoom for an interview. Felix is a very absent father and the other au pairs Ava deals with have very different ideas about what an au pair does!
There was also a side story about Stella's mother in law, which I felt added little to the book. It was a pleasant enough read but dragged a tad in parts. 3 1/2 stars from me.
Many thanks to Simon & Schuster and net galley for the copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

With comparisons to Meg Mason and Sally Hepworth I went into this with pretty high expectations, which unfortunately weren’t met. There were aspects I appreciated – the perspectives of three different women and the various personal struggles they’re all shouldering on their own was something that’s important to bring to light and in my opinion not written about enough. As a full-time working mum with two young kids I also found it entirely relatable. The observations about juggling motherhood alongside a demanding job and a hectic household, while carrying the mental load and the weight of mother’s guilt was all too accurate and I felt a close affinity to Stella. However, I felt that the book was missing an element of ‘oomf’ – I didn’t find it particularly funny and there wasn’t a great deal of drama to keep you hooked. I felt we were more just an observer of Stella’s life rather than being pulled into a compelling narrative. At about three quarters of the way through some drama did start to build, but it was a slow burn to get to this point and then from this point on it all wrapped up quite quickly. It’s always disappointing to not love something that is obviously the result of a great deal of hard work by the author, and so I’m sorry to say this one just wasn’t for me.