78 Books Like The Chicken Sisters

I adore quirky characters, and the author nails it with the main character, Fern Castle. (Fern immediately reminded me of Gail Honeyman’s Eleanor Oliphant.)

The author dropped hints of a super-dark secret between Fern and her sister, Rose, in the very first chapters, and I was hooked from that moment on. I love complex relationships in the middle of a flashback mystery.

This is a cute rom-com featuring unique characters, food, and nosy families. Being Puerto Rican, I gravitated immediately to the Puerto Rican flag on the cover.

I loved everything about it: the characters (especially the abuelos), the setting of the Puerto Rican restaurant and the whiskey distillery, the Spanish sprinkled every now and then, and the plot.

I was rooting for Kamilah and Liam to fulfill their career goals and fall in love. I loved that both Kamilah and Liam are flawed and need to grow in order to achieve their goals and have a mature romantic relationship. 

Just wow. The siblings in this book are super-angry with their brother, whose addictions and reckless behavior racked up huge bills, eating through the joint inheritance they were all counting on to deal with their own bad (but perhaps less shameful) behaviors.

I loved the complexity of this book. The bad brother—and let’s be clear that he was definitely a piece of work—was such a scapegoat for everyone else’s issues. I loved learning about the characters’ hidden flaws, watching the hypocrisy unfold, and seeing them all work through their anger and their differing versions of their childhood.

It’s another reminder that people can grow up in the same house with the same parents and take vastly different routes in life. 

First off, let me say that this is one of the few books where I watched the movie AND STILL read the book because I didn’t want the experience to end.

That said, this story starts off with two siblings (older brother Byron and younger sister Benny) at odds after their mother’s death. Simple enough premise. But the flashbacks, the food, the Caribbean history, and the secrets their parents kept from them made it so much more than a book about burying the hatchet after Momma leaves.

I love a good family secret in a book, and this one is bursting with several. This novel brought together several genres that I enjoy: historical fiction, fictional commentary on race relations, family drama, and food. 

This is a cute story about finding your path and being true to yourself. I love coconut cake, so the cover really grabbed me (and the author includes a recipe in the book!).

Lou owns a French restaurant because she thought it would help her establish herself and get a steady clientele when, in reality, she would’ve preferred a more intimate restaurant featuring the comfort food she learned to cook from her grandmother. When a food critic gives her a scathing review, and she’s forced to close the restaurant, she hones in on what she actually wants and connects to her authentic self.

The book also explores the foodie scene in Wisconsin, which was a great addition and really makes you want to visit and taste the food.

This is a cute story about friendship, family, and food.

Annie and Julie are childhood best friends who reconnect in adulthood and decide to start a cupcakery called Treat. I loved reading about the start of their business and the descriptions of the cupcakes. I also loved how the title was applied to the story in that each character ate cupcakes differently, which revealed an aspect of their personalities.

Both main characters were well-developed, and I enjoyed seeing how they dealt with their problems and how their perspectives changed over time. 

This is a humorous story about starting over, family, and having the courage to take risks.

Jessie starts a business creating meal kit supplements inspired by her Korean heritage. I loved the originality of this business, which combines not only food prep but technology since Jessie uses YouTube cooking videos to promote her business.

Lucky for me, my husband has become an expert in Korean cooking, and I was familiar with some of the dishes described. I, of course, had him cook Korean food while I was reading this book. The author also includes a recipe that I can’t wait to try.

Whew–this family took me through some changes! This was my first novel by Sunny Hostin, which lived up to all the hype.

First of all, Martha’s Vineyard. The setting alone is intriguing because of the history of the elite Black inhabitants of the land. Secondly, I knew some secret would come out when these three goddaughters were called to the property for one last summer together.

The setting and plot alone had me hooked from the beginning, and I kept reading to learn more about each character’s pain and promise. 

This story expertly weaves together the tensions of a struggling family, a faltering business and a natural disaster that pushes them all to consider new ways of being. I was especially intrigued by the attempt of the characters to save wildlife after an oil spill in Louisiana. In addition, the stories of characters outside of the family provided a variety of points of view about what was happening.

The spirit of the characters encourages me to remember that there are always choices and new options if I’m willing to explore them.

This book is powerful to me because of the intense mother/daughter conflict she relates. My mother was lovely, well-read, and held an important position at our state university. However, she was also extremely critical of her children. Because I never rebelled against my mother, I was entranced with Joanne Harris’ young character, Framboise, who plans and carries out a rebellion against her mother that is worthy of the French resistance. Many years later, when Framboise Simon returns to a small village on the banks of the Loire, the locals do not recognize her as the daughter of the infamous woman they hold responsible for a tragedy during the German occupation.

The past and present are inextricably entwined in a scrapbook of recipes and memories that Framboise inherited from her now-deceased mother. The journal contains the key to the tragedy that indelibly marked that summer of her ninth year. The mother… show more.