This is a good read. Laura is dreading the 'empty nest syndrome' as her younger daughter is moving away to University. The family seems very cohesive and then Laura makes the discovery that her husband has been cheating.
They separate and she tries to forge a new path but there is still a great deal of affection between them.
Following a health scare, Laura discovers that her family is more important then she thought.

I did enjoy the book, as I enjoy most things by Veronica Henry. She has a real knack of writing about well rounded characters that you can sympathise with. I just found the ending rather abrupt and would have liked a bit more.

I really enjoyed this, it was such an easy and entertaining read - great characters and the switches between timelines was really smooth.
A heartwarming read.

This is Veronica Henry at her best as she weaves a story from two different family generations living at 11 Lark Hill in the city of Bath, about friends, family, adversity, and learning to handle the curve balls that life throws at you. Laura is beginning to experience empty nest syndrome as Willow, her youngest daughter who she has nursed and worried over through the years with her debilitating and life threatening Asthma, starts life as a student at York University. Her other practical and independent daughter, Jasmine, is already at university. She wonders what she will do with her life, and has diffidently thought of doing up and renting out two attic rooms on airbnb. Her widowed grandmother, Kanga, named after the character in Winnie the Pooh, gave up her huge home to Laura and Dom to bring up their family while she lives in a purpose built smaller home on the same property. Henry gives us a narrative set in two time periods with Jilly aka Kanga as a young woman living through the Blitz in WW2 in 1942 with Bath suffering severe destruction and a huge loss of life under German bombardment and with Laura in the present day.

Jilly, best friends with the more extrovert and flamboyant Ivy, uncharacteristically sneaks out of home at night to meet a trainee fighter pilot, Harry Swann, on the night Bath is bombed by Germans. Her parents are killed looking for her, and Jill is drowning in a sea of guilt and grief, Supported by Ivy, Jill does what her parents would have done, helping those who needed help and opening up her home to the homeless Norris family. She discovers she is pregnant but Harry does not want to know. Jill finds comfort in following her mother's recipes for jams and chutneys, and makes her own additions and adjustments to the recipes. The courage she finds to live life as a single mother and survive the war years is thanks to Ivy, and she eventually finds love again with a man content to bring up her daughter, Catherine, as his own. Laura's world is shattered when she learns her beloved husband, Dom, has had an affair with his conveyance solicitor, Antonia. Not being able to cope with this, Laura throws herself in two projects, that of letting out rooms on Airbnb and using her great grandmother's and Kanga's recipes to make chutneys and jams for an artisan market. Kanga has to face the heartbreaking ill health of her life time best friend, Ivy, who has always been there for her.

Laura for the first time learns to stand on her own two feet, becoming independent and becoming more self aware, as she begins to understand her marriage and her role in its difficulties. Is there any chance that she can steer her marriage and her family back to all it used to be? Henry does a sterling job in giving us two wonderful central female characters in Jilly and Laura, drawing on the family recipes and the ingredients that went into the dishes, to help them cope with desperate and challenging times in their lives. Both have to find the ingredients and strength to adjust to new realities and create a new version of family, a new family recipe, where from the ashes arises a stronger woman with a more stable and enduring sense of family, informed by a greater self knowledge. Laura's best friend, Sadie, plays as an important role in her life as Ivy did with Kanga. This is just such a lovely read, Henry has outdone herself. Many thanks to Orion for an ARC.

Lovely book and definitely recommended for fans of Veronica Henry. I could not put the book down and was sad when I had to!

This is the first novel I have read by this author but one I will return to. This was an easily read story set in Bristol . Laura and Dom live in what has been the family home since before 1942. Their younger daughter is about to leave home and so they will have an empty nest. Has Lara concentrated too much on the family to the exclusion of Dom who is struggling in his work life. Laura’s world and comfortable lifestyle is about to be blown apart. How will she cope?
Kanga or Jilly lives in Acorn Cottage builtvfor her in the grounds of the family home. The second layer to the book is her story set in 1942 when she had to find inner grit and determination. Both female characters turn to 5he family recipe book to help them through their troubles.
A tale of loves lost , found and rediscovered and friendships that have stood the test of time.

Another great book by Veronica Henry set in modern day and wartime Bath. A great read with the two stories running side by side. Read in one sitting always a pleasure to read.

This was such a delightful read, it felt very real and was a heartwarming story. The writing style is as I have come to expect from Veronica Henry and she is most definitely on my favourite authors list.

The story itself has a dual narrative and both stories are engaging with wonderful characters. I also loved the progression of how the two stories interweaved and as you worked out connections it simply pulls you into the story more.

I highly recommend this book as a wonderful cosy afternoon read.

This book is all about Jilly and Laura - Grandma and granddaughter brought together in Bath in the house they live: No 11. Silly lived through the Blitz and is close friends with Ivy. Laura learns to find her own strength after her husband betrays her. Family recipes from the past help to give focus to the two women's lives. An interesting and enjoyable read. Didn't like Jilly being called Kanga - found this a little pretentious, otherwise a good read. That you to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me review this book.

I really enjoyed this book which lives up the standard of writing that I would expect from Veronica Henry. Interesting characters and a great story line. Definitely one to read.

A Family Recipe is a fabulous feel good read with great characters, in particular, Laura and Kanga. It’s set between 1942 and present day at number 11, Lark Hill, Bath.

Laura’s youngest child is about to head off to university. She’s fearing empty nest syndrome, her husband is working long hours in property development so thank goodness she has her grandmother, Kanga and her treasured recipe box to rely on.

This is a beautiful book from start to finish and the story will capture your heart. A joy to read. Thank you to NetGalley, Orion Publishing Group and the author for the chance to review.

This was such a lovely book about a family in Bath. The two main characters, Kanga and Laura, were both very strong women and I loved the storyline flipping back and forth between 1942 with the Bath Blitz, and the present day.

Laura and Dom have two children, one already at university and one just about to leave, leaving Laura with an empty nest and free time, as she is the homemaker and Dom is the one who works, developing buildings around Bath. Then she finds out a big secret and her life is thrown into disarray and everything she thought was solid in her life turns out to be a lie. So after panicking for a while she slowly takes the bull by the horns and starts doing things for herself, starting a little business and also doing B&B in their large house.

The other part of the story is about Laura's 93 year old grandmother, Kanga, who lives in a small cottage they had built for her at the end of their garden. Kanga signed over the large house to Laura and Dom, as she didn't need it, and they had the little house built for her. Such a lovely idea I thought. Kanga (Jilly) was a great character, still looking after herself and driving around Bath, but with her family really close by. Kanga had come through the war years when Bath was bombed and left her an orphan. She was also a strong woman and when faced with adversity came out fighting, as I'm sure a lot of people in her situation did then.

Through various events Laura came out the strongest in this book. She wasn't to start with, and used to have panic attacks, especially while one of her daughter's was battling asthma, but she really stepped up and came into her own as the book went on, and realised quite how strong a woman she really was. It ran in the family really, as Kanga was exactly the same.

I do love Veronica Henry's writing and this book is probably her best to date. I was so sorry to have to leave the family and Bath. This book was an absolute delight from start to finish.

This is a perfect holiday read. Heartwarming story which is well written with believable characters. I read this during a 10 hour long haul flight and was kept well entertained! Recommended.

A warm, family centred story about doing the things that make you happy and developing as a person. Laura is feeling bereft after dropping her second daughter at university and her world falls apart even more on the way home when she discovers her husband is having an affair. The story is interspersed with flashback chapter to her grandmother Kanga's life in the 1940s which adds interest, I think Kanga is my favourite character. I felt a lot of empathy for Laura and enjoyed the descriptions of family life and relationships. A perfect comfort read!

What a wonderfully heart melting read!

11 Lark Hill has been in the family for quite a few generations. It's great to see a house with so much history stay with in the family and I could very much feel the love within those walls. Sadly Laura and her husband Dom seem to be going through some difficulties but I think it reminds us of how much we can take the other one for granted.

Laura and her grandmother Kanga (Jilly) were my favourite characters. We get to know Kanga better in chapters that take us back to the war and I really admired her determination and out look on life. I'm sure everyone would love the friendship that her and Ivy have as they really do show what the true meaning of it is. Laura is someone that has probably always lent on others and hasn't had to really stand on her own two feet before. I loved how she pulls herself together though and surprises the people around her.

A Family Recipe had all the perfect and wholesome ingredients for me. It's like a good old fashioned stew and dumplings or a delicious treacle sponge and custard pudding. Something that will warm you to the very core of which you want to savour every delicious moment. A story that will warm the cockles of your heart and will remind us that whatever life throws our way, you can handle it.

I have read a lot of Veronica Henry's novels and she is an author who I will go back to when I know I want to read something and get completely lost in it.

And I did get lost in A Family Recipe; set in Bath and with a dual narrative which took me from the present day back to the Second World War all set in one house.

That house is 11 Lark Hill. Now home to Laura Griffin, her husband Dom and their two girls, Jaz and Willow. With Willow about to fly the nest to university, Laura is going to be faced with an empty house and nothing to do.

When her life takes a completely different turn, Laura turns to her love of cooking and the recipes she has that date back to her grandmother and great grandmother. Perhaps she can find some purpose in food?

Back in 1942 at 11 Lark Hill, Jilly suddenly finds herself an orphan after the devastating attacks on Bath. The house survives and Jilly has to live with the guilt of not being there for her parents. Ivy moves in initially to keep her company but a friendship is borne which grows from strength to strength and will cover their whole lives. When Jilly feels like she has to do something to alleviate the guilt she feels for surviving she takes in a mother and her children who have been bombed out.

Of course the past and the present interlink with more than just the house and as the story develops and we start to work out everyone's place in the past and how it affects the present the story draws you in further.

When events means Laura is suddenly faced with a possible different future will her actions leave her with the guilt that Jilly faced all those years previous.

A heartwarming novel which shows you the strength of love, the choices you make and the place that you should always call home. What more of a recipe do you need to read this book?

I really enjoyed this book. This author never disappoints. I love reading her books.

Only feedback i would have is that for such a likeable, headstrong and independant lead character i was sad that she forgave her husband so easily. It was quite weak.

A great read. Pure relaxation. Books with a family theme are always a welcome read. Recommend this book.

This was quite an unexpected book for me. It is set in 2 time periods, in the present time and during the 2nd world war, and switches backwards and forwards between the 2 to explain the story.

Laura is a 40 something mother of 2 girls, she is happily married to Dom and her daugher is off to Uni and on their way home Laura is approached by a stranger to tell her that her husband is having an affair.

Jilly is a teenager and lives in bath with her parents and she has a best friend called Ivy. Jilly loses her parents in a bombing during ww2, and has to figure out how to make money. She takes in a family and her friend Ivy moves in and they struggle trying to feed everyone but her dad had a garden and Jilly has to learn how to grow her own food to keep them going during rationing, and she decides to recreate jams and chutneys and pickles that her mother used to make and modifies all of the recipes but makes sure she writes down all of her adjustments.

Laura is Jillys grandaughter, and you learn about family secrets, long lasting friendships, mother daughter relationships, grief, betrayal, forgiveness, and learning to adjust to new lives, starting a new business using her Kanga's recipe book, but also how incredibly hard it was to live through the war and how they ate on ratioining. I actually finished the book and started researching ration books and how they ate on a daily basis. Basic food, wholesome, but a whopping 3000 calories each, fascinating stuff. Im also going to have a go at making the national loaf too as i am sick of the bread they make nowadays, about 150 ingredients and very high calorie because of all of the sugar.

A really good book, i thoroughly enjoyed it. This is the 1st book i have read by this author but it certainly wont be the last.

I'm glad I have read this book. I loved it, although it took some time until I warmed towards the heroine Laura. First I didn't like her at all. She looked a helpless smothering person. Ironically, she became stronger from the blow her husband's cheating meant to her. In the end I quite liked her, her husband and even the mistress who also had her issues.
The very interesting story unfolds in two parallel lines: one in the present and the other one in the past. Besides Laura's story we can also see a very difficult period in her grandmother Kanga's life during WW II.
Veronica Henry writes a beautiful prose. It is a pleasure to read it.

Jumping gracefully between wartime and the present day, A Family Recipe is a mixture of interesting characters, heart rending happenings and lovely settings; I can easily imagine the Bath of this book, all golden stone, enticing markets and tasty food.
Even though parts were a bit cliched and predictable, this is a heartwarming story, which I enjoyed.