The Sunday Lunch Club

Such a lovely book about a family that get together every Sunday for lunch and to catch up with everyones lives.

The story is told throughout the Sunday lunches with just a few little narratives here and there to bring one up to speed with all that has happened in the meantime.

Oh I absolutely enjoyed The Sunday Lunch Club it was a really new fun and exciting story which I just adored, but my goodness did it make me hungry! The characters were so good, you know they reminded me a bit of the Kardashions. I just loved hearing what was happening and Anna was a really great character I just love her.

A gloriously dysfunctional family story with a matriarch who is a force to be reckoned with. Food and Love defines the brilliant Sunday Lunch Club.

This is one of these great and captivating books that you can’t stop reading and, once you do, you keep thinking about it. A character-driven novel with a gripping and immersive plot, THE SUNDAY LUNCH CLUB features four siblings and their extended family. There is Anna who is pregnant and in love with a man who is not the father of her baby. Also, the arrival of a few threatening letters risks to bring to light a secret from her past. There is Neil who still can’t feel fatherhood after adopting baby Paloma with her much younger husband Santiago. Then there is Maeve. She has a new boyfriend who everyone seems to like but her thirteen-year-old son Storm. Josh is the shy younger brother everyone in the family worries about, but he seems happier since there is a new woman in his life, although nobody has ever met her, yet. At the head of the family there is their grandmother Dinkie, the one in the family everyone looks up to, but she doesn’t look happy in her new nursing home, and there is something going on between her and her nurse Sheba.

Every few Sundays they meet for lunch together in each home and each chapter opens with that Sunday menu (as an Italian-born, my favorite was Luca’s and his tortellini in brodo!). Everyone is welcome at their Sunday Lunch Club, friends, boyfriends, even ex-husbands and their new girlfriends.

I couldn’t stop reading about these characters and their exciting stories. I wanted to be part of their family and go to their Sunday lunches. They have their flaws and each has a distinctive personality. The members of the family are very close to each other, they accept everyone, and they don’t hold back criticism – “families don’t sugar-coat the truth”. I liked how they tell each other (almost) anything. No lunch is uneventful as secrets are spilled each Sunday.

THE SUNDAY LUNCH CLUB is funny, but also a bit emotional, and, with a few dramatic scenes and shocking surprises, there is never a dull moment. I really didn’t want it to end, but neither I couldn’t put it down and I read it in two days.

Even just the synopsis of this book made me laugh and made me very very intrigued as to what was going to down inside the pages of this novel, so you can imagine that that reaction was increased a hundred fold once I began reading. I was drawn into this book and this family right from the word go and I didn't want the adventure to end-ever!

Anna is a fabulous main character to steer this ship and she really is the main sail of her family too. We get to know so much about her family as the book progresses, I feel like I am part of their family too. They seem to welcome everyone into the fold, not always with open arms, and so you as a reader are definitely welcomed in as well. We all have a little bit of Anna in us, she is so fiercely independent, partly through choice and partly through necessity, but that doesn't always mean that she is safe from hurt and safe from generally bad things happening to her. The way she grows and changes over the course of this book was pretty spectacular and was heart warming to the very end.

Each Sunday lunch club is an event in itself where secrets are unearthed, revelations are made and bonds are broken and mended. Each of these lunches could be a soap opera in their own right. At the heart of these gatherings though, is that family value that runs all the way through this book. No matter who is there, where they are, what is eaten, someone always leaves feeling a little better about themselves and problems are dealt with as a group, despite what each member of the family might reveal to the others over the course of the lunch.

There were some really funny moments in this book, Anna's 'situation' provides some humour amongst her family and it is impossible not to laugh at other people's reactions when they experience their first Sunday lunch as a friend or a lover as one of the family members in attendance. There are also some lovely moments of family rallying round each other as the book goes on, this was really great to see because four bother's and sisters and a hell of a lot of secrets doesn't always mean that will be the case. And there were of course moments that had me in tears because it would't be a Juliet Ashton Novel without emotions that are poles apart. I cried with sadness and joy though and because I really did feel like part of the family.

This was a truly wonderful read. I barely felt able to put it down and I ended up finishing it during my own Sunday lunch time, not something I planned to do. The story is gripping, the characters endearing and I am sure that you, too, won't want it to end!

I really enjoyed the story of the Sunday Lunch Club and ll ofnthe members of Anna’s family. i really enjoyed each of theirnown individual stories within the group, and by the end of it I wanted to be part of the Sunday Lunch Club, family arguments and all!!! An easy read, would recommend,

This was a fab read. It was funny, it was sad - I love Juliet's writing & this book featured so many wonderful characters. I was left wanting to join the family at one of their Sunday lunches.

Wel,l this was a surprising find!
This is a romantic family type book - and at first I started reading and thought it was going to be a predictable story. When I got to about 30% something seemed to shift up a gear and the story really began to get going. The Pipers are a bunch of 4 very different siblings whose parents are not involved in their lives. They meet regularly for Sunday Lunch in each home and with each meal we see the unfolding of all their backstories - and there is a lot going on! The characters are what drives this book - we have an elderly Irish grandmother who is feisty and fun - she was very well-drawn and could be a story in her own right. The whole book is mostly written from the point of view of Anna who is the eldest daughter, at the beginning of the book Anna discovers she is pregnant. Her brother Neil is having issues of his own adapting to parenting an adopted daughter, the next sister is a bohemian flighty type who never seems to have much luck but has plenty of love and the youngest is Josh - troubled and distant. There unfolds issues in each life which impacts on the others yet through it all the Piper siblings seem able to pull together and create a version of a 'modern family'.
The book is romantic and gentle, and in places really funny, but it has pace and a couple of twists which kept me reading. The author is good with characters, each with a clear 'voice' and while the ending was a little predictable it was a happy ever after feeling.

This was a good read, following a family of four siblings, their partners and their grandmother over a span of about two years. They meet up for Sunday lunch at least once a month and we follow their stories in these snapshots.
All the characters have their own strong storyline and I enjoyed finding out how their lives unfolded. While this is a great personal read I'm not too sure it offers a lot for a reading group.

Omg I've just reviewed this book and sent it on the wrong section, hahahaha I was so excited to review it. So this is my second book by this author but wrote so differently. It was very funny and the characters are so unique and their personalities are so different, they are totally quirky. A perfect read to have a great laugh at and totally British. Warmer days in the spring it's a must read.

A lovely book - I loved it! The story describes a loving, chaotic and very unorthodox family with their ups and downs. From time to time they come together to have Sunday lunch: the four Piper siblings and their friends/partners/children etc. They enjoy each other's company and they talk. We learn about their life from their interactions during the meals. We can see the others from the perspective of Anna the eldest sister who together with the eldest brother considers her job to take care of the others. It is very interesting to see how the family dynamics change from time to time. It is a heartwarming tale and I loved it a lot.

A wonderful tale of the unexpected events that make life that little bit richer. I loved how it centred around the main character's regular family lunches, it was almost as though you were a guest at the table, or a fly on the wall, watching events unfold. And this family certainly had their fair share of skeletons in the closet and stories to unfold. A brilliant read.

A very enjoyable and entertaining book with an interesting plot, complex characters and some food for thought.
Recommended.
Many thanks to Simon and Schuster UK Fiction and Netgalley

I loved it - human, quirky and so British, The Sunday Lunch Club is a joy from start to finish. The relationships within the family will ring so true. And the twists kept me guessing. A beautiful book.

Lovely book with interesting and sometimes complex characters. Great at showing the love but sometimes difficult nature of families and the different personalities. Really enjoyed this. Thank u for letting me review this book.

Anna at the age of 40 has just discovered she is pregnant, every couple of Sundays Anna and her family meet for lunch. Gathered together are Anna’s ex-husband Sam, her brother Neil and his husband Santi with their newly adopted daughter, her sister Maeve with her teenage son Storm, her brother Josh and occasionally their grandmother Dinkie.

All have situations that they are trying to come to terms with and some are hiding secrets from the past and others are trying to determine their future.

This is a good story with likeable characters and some interesting but sad family relationships although they do try to be there for each other.