4 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️



The Fourth Daughter by Lyn Liao Butler

Format: eBook + Audiobook | Narrated by: Elaine Kao; Christina Ho; Austin Ku; Nancy Wu; Dana Wing Lau




This book has a lot of elements that feel very YA: there is a fated, almost too-convenient plot, a sweet fade-to-black romance, and moments where you really have to suspend disbelief. I cannot argue with those critiques. At the same time, I do not think those aspects are the true focus of this story. The author even says as much in her note at the end.

🌸 What It’s Really About

At its core, The Fourth Daughter is not just about a romance or even a missing family member. It is about Taiwan under martial law, and how ordinary families, especially women, endured cruelty, betrayal, and impossible choices. Butler uses this family saga to highlight the atrocities women faced in the 1960s–1980s, when their worth was measured by whether they bore sons, and their lives were controlled by fathers-in-law and abusive husbands. Some of the domestic abuse scenes are chilling, and what makes it more unsettling is knowing that this is grounded in real history, not just fiction.

🍜 Family & Cultural Themes

This story is also about the strength of mothers and grandmothers, and the way family bonds stretch across generations. I loved how Liv, the modern-day main character, slowly comes to understand her grandmother’s history while reconnecting with her roots.

One of the most heartwarming aspects is how food serves as a bridge between Liv and Ah-Ma. The cooking scenes are rich and sensory, showing how traditions, recipes, and love are passed down even when trauma and loss try to sever those ties. Meals become small acts of healing, both for Liv and for the grandmother who carries decades of grief.

🍨 Why It Worked for Me

• The historical backdrop gave the story weight and depth. It is not trying to be a sweeping, every-perspective history, but it raises awareness of events like the 228 Massacre and Taiwan’s years under KMT rule.
• The emotional honesty of the grandmother’s voice stood out: her love for the daughter she lost and the rage toward the husband who betrayed her felt raw and real.
• Even though the romance subplot was predictable, it added a balance of lightness against the darker themes.

🎧 Narration

I did a tandem read with both the eBook and audiobook, and I think it made the story even more powerful. The audiobook narration immersed me in the cultural references, words, and names that were unfamiliar to me, helping the story feel more authentic and alive. At the same time, the eBook gave me space to highlight passages and take notes, especially when the prose marked the year, month, week, and day of the fourth daughter’s birth, or when cultural differences stood out in shocking ways. Seeing the names written out on the page made it easier to keep track of the family history, while hearing them spoken brought emotion and depth. Together, the two formats really complemented each other.

📜 Pace & Prose

I was a fan of the overall pace and the prose. The story flowed in a way that felt natural and immersive, especially in the chapters where Ah-Ma was sharing her past. It often felt like we were sitting alongside Liv, listening to her grandmother’s stories unfold in real time. That oral-storytelling quality made the novel intimate and gave extra weight to the cultural and emotional history being revealed.

⚠️Trigger Warnings:⚠️Domestic violence (physical and emotional abuse), Child abandonment and loss of a child, Death of a child (mentioned), Suicide (on-page and referenced), Patriarchal oppression / devaluation of daughters, Threats of harm toward children, Political violence and historical atrocities (Taiwan under martial law)

📚 Final Thoughts

This is a moving and culturally rich story about survival, memory, and the resilience of women. I especially appreciated how it showed that reclaiming identity and culture can come through the smallest things, like a bowl of food shared across a kitchen table.

🙋‍♀️Recommended For:

• Readers who enjoy multigenerational family sagas
• Fans of cultural fiction that highlights food traditions
• Historical fiction set during Taiwan’s martial law era
• Those who like contemporary-historical dual timelines with a touch of romance

Thank you to NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing, and Brilliance Audio for the opportunity to read and listen to this title in exchange for an honest review!

If you expect heavy realism, you might find the coincidences frustrating. But if you read it for what it is, a family saga wrapped in history, love, and healing, it is a beautiful and worthwhile read.

I was so deeply moved by The Fourth Daughter. Liv and her grandmother's stories are both heart-breaking in their individual ways and I was completely invested in them as characters. It gives a interesting and harrowing insight into Taiwanese women's rights in a engaging and meaningful way. I would recommend this book.

The Fourth Daughter is a beautifully written, emotionally powerful story that blends family, history, and healing. Lyn Liao Butler captures both the weight of personal trauma and the echoes of Taiwan’s martial law era with sensitivity and depth.

Liv’s struggles with PTSD felt raw and real, and Ah-Ma’s past brought a heartbreaking but necessary historical context. The way food connected generations was one of my favourite aspects, it wasn’t just background detail but a carrier of memory, culture, and love. I also appreciated the writing style: it isn’t flowery or overly prosey, definitely not purple prose, but more direct and straightforward. That simplicity still feels beautiful, allowing the emotions and cultural details to shine without being weighed down.

I had to take one star off for the romance subplot. To me, it felt unnecessary and poorly executed compared to the rest of the novel. While the main narrative was layered, emotional, and beautifully complex, the romance had a different tone—lighter, more superficial—and didn’t match the gravity of the other themes being explored.

Even so, this book is well worth reading. It’s heartfelt, moving, and full of cultural resonance. If you enjoy multigenerational sagas with emotional depth, this one will stay with you.

Even so, this book is well worth reading. It’s heartfelt, moving, and full of cultural resonance. If you enjoy multigenerational sagas with emotional depth, this one will stay with you.

Liv Kuo is a US based chef from an immigrant family, struggling to recover from a violent incident in a restaurant which almost took her life, and left her barely able to function. Help comes from an unexpected source when Liv's much-loved grandmother contacts her from Taiwan, asking for her assistance with a most unusual situation.

To Liv's shock, it turns out that many years ago Ah-Ma's husband gave away their fourth daughter, Yi Lee, whom he considered to be unlucky for their family. This opens up the reader's exposure to a little-known practice (which is also new to Liv), where at a certain time in modern Taiwan's history, there was a practice of giving away girl children to other families for a variety of reasons, including as future brides.

This engaging family saga introduces us to the inner workings and cultural practices of a Taiwanese family, as well as their friends and neighbours, through the deep bond between Liv and Ah-Ma, grandmother and granddaughter.

Lyn Liao Butler is a talented writer who takes us on a very different journey this time, in comparison to earlier psychological thrillers and most recently, the over the top story of a group of bookish influencers.

This book seems to come from a deeply personal space, offering readers not only delicious descriptions of scrumptious Taiwanese dishes, but also the history and culture that brought them into being. This is a marvellous piece of story telling and will appeal to a wide range of readers. It gets 4.5 stars.

The Fourth Daughter has a really interesting premise. Liv, a Taiwanese-American chef who survives a restaurant shooting in the US, is struggling with fear and isolation afterwards. Then her grandmother calls from Taiwan, saying she saw her long-lost fourth daughter on the street, a daughter nobody ever mentioned before. Liv travels to Taiwan, and from there the story moves into family secrets, history, and food.

I wanted to like it, but for me the writing felt a bit all over the place. The book tries to deal with too many themes at once—trauma, PTSD, Taiwanese politics, family drama, and even cooking competitions—and because of that none of them go very deep. The dialogues didn’t feel natural either, often sounding more like the author wanted to explain things directly to the reader. The psychiatrist character especially didn’t convince me. Altogether, it felt a bit choppy and not very polished.

Still, I did enjoy learning some things about Taiwanese history and cuisine, and I think those parts could be very interesting for readers. Even if this book wasn’t really my cup of tea, I feel the author has a lot of interesting things to say, and I would be open to trying another of her books in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Set in Taiwan, this dual timeline story delivered big on the foodie novel I was hoping for, which allowed me to indulge a certain amount of predictability in the family drama and romance. I haven't read this author before but would certainly consider other titles she writes in future.

Taiwanese American chef, Liv Kuo, has been isolating herself from the world following a traumatic workplace incident. That is, until her grandmother surprises her one day with a revelation and a request. Ah Ma believes she has seen her stolen daughter on the streets of Taichung, and she wants Liv to travel from New York to help track her down for a longed-for reunion.

The earlier timeline details how the fourth daughter was stolen, while the present day timeline covers the search for the little girl who is now a woman in her 60s.

This was an easy, enjoyable read. The only thing I really didn't like about it was the rationale for the workplace incident that caused Liv's PTSD (but on the other hand, it's probably no less unfathomable than some of the real stories of violence that come out of the USA on a regular basis).

4⭐️

A beautiful story about a granddaughter helping her grandmother find her fourth daughter.

I wasn’t expecting to love this book as much as I did but I saw myself in Liv and that was so special. There’s a little bit of everything going on in this book; romance, drama and just beautiful friendships that blossom throughout the story.
I was hooked from the very first page. Loved it✨

(3.5 stars – rounding up to 4)

This is my first book by Lyn Liao Butler and I am already looking forward to reading more of her work.

The bond between grandmother and granddaughter is strong. After Liv, a promising chef, survives a traumatic event, she has debilitating PSTD and has not left her apartment. That all changes when Ah-Ma (her grandmother) shares that she had a fourth daughter who was taken from her as an infant. Liv faces her anxiety to travel to Taiwan to help Ah-Ma find her lost daughter.

I enjoyed and recommend this book for any TBR list. The dual timelines from the perspective of grandmother and granddaughter are easy to follow and pickup on details.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for providing a copy.

This book is about family drama, superstition, and the second rate treatment in women in Taiwan. A baby is born to a family where only a son will make the man of the house happy. Unfortunately, the baby is a girl, a fourth in the family of girls. The man decides to get rid of it, after all this is just a hungry girl.

Years later, a woman in Manhattan gets a phone call from her grandmother that she might have found her fourth daughter. The woman thinks the old lady has gone insane. But she doesn't know her family's story.

This is an interesting read, however, the writing style of the author is not my cup of tea. Straightforward, AI generated, YA, or somewhere in between?

Hope she has many readers who enjoy her books.

NetGalley, thank you for the digital review copy in exchange for my thoughts

Note: This review contains 73% more sarcasm than your recommended daily allowance.

Oh, The Fourth Daughter. You beautiful, frustrating mess. You're like that friend who has all the right ingredients to make an amazing dinner but somehow ends up serving you a peanut butter and confusion sandwich.

This book had more potential than a cryptocurrency bro at a Tesla convention, but sadly delivered with all the subtlety of a foghorn in a library. The premise? Chef's kiss. The execution? More like chef's mild food poisoning.

Let me paint you a picture: imagine someone describing a sunset to you for 300 pages instead of just... showing you the sunset. That's this book. The author tells us EVERYTHING with the persistence of a GPS that won't shut up, even when you clearly know where you're going. "The character is sad." Thanks, I gathered that from the seventeen previous mentions of her sadness and the fact that she's been crying for three chapters straight.

Our 35-year-old protagonist apparently got her emotional development frozen in carbonite somewhere around sophomore year of high school. Watching her navigate adult relationships was like watching someone try to parallel park a shopping cart – technically possible, but painful to witness. I kept waiting for her to ask someone to call her mom when things got tough.

The multigenerational family drama, historical tragedy, and identity crisis themes were all there, lined up like ingredients for a gourmet meal. Unfortunately, they got tossed together with all the finesse of a cafeteria food fight. These elements should have created something profound and moving. Instead, they felt like they were introduced at a really awkward dinner party and spent the whole evening avoiding eye contact.

And don't get me started on the tragic backstories that seemed to pop up like unwanted ads. "Oh, you need character development? Here's some childhood trauma! And YOU get trauma! EVERYONE GETS UNNECESSARY TRAUMA!" It was like Oprah, but depressing and serving no narrative purpose.

The romantic subplot felt like it was written by someone who learned about relationships exclusively through greeting cards and fortune cookies. Sweet, but about as substantial as cotton candy in a rainstorm.

Despite all this, I'm bumping this up from 2.5 to 3 stars because, honestly, the concept was solid gold, and I genuinely wanted to love it. Sometimes you have to give points for effort, like when your kid makes you breakfast in bed and it's mostly eggshells and good intentions.

Butler clearly has stories worth telling – she just needs to trust her readers to connect the dots without drawing them a map, providing GPS coordinates, and hiring a tour guide named Chad.

Would I recommend it? If you enjoy books that make you shout "SHOW DON'T TELL" at inanimate objects, then absolutely. Otherwise, maybe wait for her next one – I have hope she'll figure out that readers aren't actually goldfish with three-second attention spans.

The Fourth Daughter is a moving, layered story that blends family drama, cultural identity, and suspense in a way that feels both intimate and expansive. Lyn Liao Butler writes with striking honesty about the weight of secrets, the complexities of immigrant families, and the way the past refuses to stay buried.

What hooked me most was the duality—on one hand, it’s about love, loss, and belonging, but there’s also a simmering sense of tension that keeps the pages flying. Butler’s prose is evocative without ever dragging, and she creates characters who are flawed, resilient, and painfully human.

The emotional core hits hard—this isn’t just a story about uncovering truths, but about what it costs to face them. It’s gripping, heartfelt, and lingers long after the last page.

If you like family sagas laced with suspense, or novels where cultural history and mystery intertwine, this one is a standout.

I enjoyed the plot and the various characters but I sometimes felt like the writing style was too obvious. Every thought and emotion was spelled out and explained for the reader and little was left to the reader’s imagination or interpretation.

I went in blind and it wrecked me. Well, not totally.

It hit home though, telling the life of women in Taiwan, whose lives were interwoven by fate one way or another. It features generational trauma and the unfairness that women were subjected during those times of political unrest.

It started off kinda dragging, which had led me to leave it for a couple of weeks before picking it up again and I am thankful that I did, or else I would've missed out on reading such heartfelt story of the characters especially Ah-Ma and Ziyi. They became strong for their children and that struck me deep. Making me realize how far a mother can go just for the safety and well-being of her children. It was just beautiful.

Overall, I give this a 4 out of 5. Despite the slow start, it caught up with me a few chapters ahead and grew into a moving story revolving around the resilience of women across generations. Leaving me teary-eyed tonight, lol.

The Fourth Daughter by Lyn Liao Butler was a beautifully written book from start to finish, it was a joy to read, so I am so glad this book cover caught my eye. You will need tissues whilst read this book - be warned!

The Fourth Daughter was a story set in Taiwan many years ago, of a heartbreaking separation of a mother and her daughter which lead to despair and determination of finding her lost daughter again who was taken from her when she was an infant As the years went by it was a painful memory and a memory that no one knew about, even her family knew nothing of her pain,

Liv, who is now a famous Chef and her career is in the rise now lives in Manhattan, until a traumatic incident leaves her emotionally unable to venture outside her Manhattan apartment. But an unexpected reason to break free comes from Ah-Ma, who is Liv’s beloved grandmother in Taiwan. She reaches out to Liv and needs Liv’s help in finding her fourth daughter, after all these years, it seems impossible. It’s also a mystery: Ah-Ma’s fourth daughter is an aunt Liv never even knew existed.

Now, with suitcases etc packed Liv is travelling back home to Taiwan and she has just landing, Liv hears the full heartbreaking story of her grandmother’s plight in a country once under martial law, of choices made for her, and of the hopeful search for a lost girl that has endured for more than sixty years. Like the enriching food and traditions that bind Liv and Ah-Ma, their journey for answers brings them together.

And it’s a quest that turns up both a precious old cookbook and a tale of fatal betrayal that shakes everything Liv believed about her family—revelations that could also give her the courage to face the trauma she left behind.

It was a good read I really enjoyed it.

After facing a life changing event that has caused her to isolate from all around her, Liv Kuo receives a call from her grandmother in Taiwan asking her to help her find her long lost daughter; a daughter that Liv never knew existed. Liv sets asides her fears and anxiety to fly to Taiwan and do whatever she can to help. This touches on all the emotions - love, loss, hope - as well as historical context I knew nothing about and a love of food that made me want to get a new cookbook or take lessons on Taiwanese food.

This was the first time I read a book by this author and it won't be the last.
I loved the main character (and the fact that she is professional cook) and her relationship with her grandma. Loved their personality and how the story goes back and forth between past (through the grandma's POV) and present, with the search of this fourth daughter.
I loved how realistic the characters are. Not the plot, exactly. Some scenes read too far-fectched, in my opinion, which threw me off the story considering how realistic and relatable the characters are, but that didn't truly bother me.
The conclusion was, in my opinion, satisfactory enough, but I wished a different ending for the main character,
The scenes (for over the half of the book) set in Taiwan were really nice to picture in my head. I was invested and engaged all the time.
This is the kind of novel that blends contemporary and historical fiction that I like to read. Easy to go through, not too many characters or POVs, heartfelt, a beautiful relationship between members of the same family from different generations, and valid messages that the readers take when the book ends.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this Advanced Release Copy
I loved this book. It ticked all the boxes I like in a book, historical information, descriptions of food, another culture and heart warming characters. I did not know much about the history of Taiwan before I started this book. I will certainly be reading more from this author

Pardon me while I blow my nose and dry my eyes before I can write my review. Ok, now that I’m composed, let me begin by saying WOW! If you’re looking for a historical fiction book that will give you insight into what it was like to live in Taiwan under marshall law and the terror of the KMT, this is a great place to begin. If you’re looking for a story that will describe the powerlessness and struggles women faced, you’re in the right place.

Yi-Ping, known as Ah-Ma to her granddaughter Liv, had her fourth daughter taken away from her by her cruel, KMT husband when the child named Yili was 18 months old as it was thought that four daughters were would bring bad luck to a family. Yi-Ping spent her entire life torn apart with missing and hoping to reunite with Yili. When Liv suffers a traumatic incident in New York, she leaves her job as assistant chef to go to Taiwan and help her Ah-Ma in the search. Through the devotion of grandmother and granddaughter, their shared love of cooking and their love of family and friends, this story will break your heart, bring you joy and make you cry. Told in dual timelines from the point of view of a few key characters, the reader will take an emotional journey through this ugly time in Taiwanese history.

I enjoyed the historical aspect of the book and enjoyed the unravelling of the story behind Yili disappearance from the household however I believe the book delved into to many complicated storylines like survivor's guilt , suicide , abuse etc without going into too much depth into anyone's story , I would have liked to better get to know one character in depth, apart from that this book was quiet enjoyable and I would recommend to to others.

Lovely and well written story full of pain and hope. A really good story with full, well rounded and sympathetic characters and so interesting to learn about lots of Taiwanese dishes.