This story reads like a song. The words are lyrical and flow from the page. The island is described so beautifully, I felt like I was on the bay, with the turquoise water lapping at my toes. The story is a mystery full of family secrets and revelations which take the reader through a myriad of emotions, as each character realizes his or her place in the family dynamic.

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and Netgalley, I was selected as an early reviewer.

*****Coming Out February 1, 2022****
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Byron and Benny reunite after many years of estrangement due to their mother’s death. They meet with their mother’s lawyer who have them listen to a recording of their mother telling them about who she really was, her family history, and how she felt about life. Bryon according to Benny was always the successful one in her parents eyes and she was a disappointment, due to the choices she made in her life. Will Bryon and Benny be able to come together and reconnect with all they have been through? This book will have you turning the pages as you go on Byron and Benny’s journey of discovering and finding out their untold family history, while dealing with their mother’s death.

A book that emphasizes the importance family history, passing down traditions, and family relationships. While also emphasizing that when life and circumstances change, so can the relationships within your own family. A great book club pick to dive right into!

In this multigenerational and dual-timeline story, we first meet Byron (a successful ocean scientist) and Benny, (an aspiring Cafe’ owner). B&B are estranged siblings who are thrust together again when their mother, Eleanor passes away. The reader learns that Benny is the one who ran away from the family and chose to stay estranged as the result of her parent’s inability to accept who she was. They preferred for her to be the version of her that they saw and expected, not the one Benny discovered and became. Now back at their mother’s house, B&B are informed by Eleanor’s attorney that she has left an 8 hour videotape for them to watch together. Once they start listening, they realize how little they knew of their mother and father, and how many secrets their family was hiding.

“Benny is thinking, too, about another kind of inheritance, a spirit of defiance that she sees, now, comes from her mother. Her mother, too, struggled to find her way despite other people’s expectations, other people’s definitions of the kind of woman she was supposed to be. Her mother, too, kept closing doors and moving on.”

The story moves through present day in California and the 1960’s in the Caribbean where we meet characters Covey as a child and then young adult. Covey’s parents were of Chinese descent (father) and Island descent (mother). Covey and her father, Lin, are abandoned by Covey mother when she could no longer cope with Lin’s gambling and drinking. A central theme of feeling outcast – not fitting into any one group emerges. Covey grew up with surrounded by her best friend, Bunny and Pearl, the housekeeper who stepped in when Covey’s mother left. Covey and Bunny were enamored with the water and were both excellent swimmers. Covey instantly falls for a young man, Gibbs, another swimmer, when he moved to the Island. Although Covey and Gibbs had plans to go to college in the UK together, a different and unwanted future was thrust upon Covey due to the weaknesses of her father.

Next, the story examines the life that Covey led outside of the Island when she is forced to leave her past behind. The only thing she brings with her from the Island is a wooden box of her and a recipe for Black Cake, a traditional Caribbean cake served for special occasions. Her memories of her mother and her own life on the Island center around Black Cake. Tragedies and misfortune follow Covey for several years. We learn more about all the side characters that have been introduced, and slowly begin to understand how they are all connected. Benny learns that her flight response may have been instinctual while Byron learns that his strive for perfection and status may not have served him as well as he thought.

With themes of longing, loss, misogyny, love and misguided intentions, the book weaves a wonderful story about the power of love and the pain of expectations. I loved the explanations of the origins of Black Cake and how it was instrumental in tying the generations together. There are so many parts I could talk about and highlight, but there is such joy in finding out these things for yourself while reading. Some of the revelations in Eleanor’s video were expected, but others were shocking. When the book ended, I just sat with my eyes closed and my book on my lap, letting the stunning emotions and insights from this book continue to seep in. I loved this book!

“When she fled the island, his mother lost everything but she carried this recipe in her head wherever she went. That, and the stories she’d spent a lifetime concealing from her children, the untold narrative of their family. Every time his mother made a black cake, it must have been like reciting an incantation, calling up a line from her true past, taking herself back to the island.”

I am amazed that is a debut author and can’t wait to see more of her. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House – Ballentine for an advance copy to read and review. Pub date Feb. 2022.

I absolutely love family sagas, and books told over multiple time periods. Charmaine Wilkerson's Black Cake is excellent on both counts. The premise of the book - a recording left by a mother for her children to listen to after her death - drew me in right away. Eleanor has passed away, and like many mothers, she wishes for her adult children Benny and Byron to be reconciled. Disagreement has broken the family apart over the past decade. Eleanor's secrets are unexpected and painful to listen to, but the ending is so satisfying! I loved how the author brought together themes of love and family, relationships, trauma, mystery, and race. And now I want to make a black cake! I will definitely be recommending this book to all my friends when it is released.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a free advanced copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

I feel fortunate to receive books from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I find I read books that I might not have known about otherwise. Charmaine Wilkers’ debut novel Black Cake is such a novel. The title refers to a family recipe of a Caribbean cake that has been handed down over generations. It is also a cake that the novel’s main protagonist Eleanor Bennett baked and asks his children to eat together after her death. I will not repeat the plot described by the publisher and others. This book is about so much, mystery, family secrets and relationships, racial inequity, climate change, air and ocean pollution just to mention a few. The story is told from the point of view of multiple characters shaping Eleanor’s life since the 1960’s to the present time. I couldn’t put this book down, stayed up several nights reading it. Overall, solid four stars. I am taking one star off, because I found the back and forth over time frames, the multiple characters introduced throughout a little confusing at times.
Thanks NetGalley, Random House Publishing and the author Charmaine Wilkers for the advanced copy.

Charmaine Wilkerson's debut novel, Black Cake, is a delicious, delightful, decadent story of family love, divisions, reconciliation and the importance of family history and ritual. In the present day, siblings Benny and Byron have been estranged for a decade. When their mother Eleanor dies they reunite for the first time in years and are forced to confront the things that have kept them apart for so many years.

Eleanor has left a tape for Benny and Bryon, and a black cake in the freezer for them to eat "at the appropriate time". The tape gives them Eleanor's history, which is shocking to the siblings: lost children, a dead husband, and a secret life they never could have imagined.

I loved the book; the vivid descriptions of the culture that shaped Eleanor, the history of the black cake and it's significance to the family, and how those influences also shaped Benny and Byron. Love, loss, scandal, Black Cake has it all. It's a completely wonderful book!

A couple of years ago I started trying to avoid stories that take place in more than one time period; that isn't an easy feat! My two largest beef with these books is that I don't like the mechanism used to "seamlessly" switch into the past and I often don't like the current time story as it often seems forced. Only one of those was true in this book. I thoroughly enjoyed the current time story and the past. I didn't like the "tool" of the recording but that didn't get in my way of enjoying this book. There was something new around every corner and the story is sprinkled with interesting information on obscure topics. All and all a well done book from a new author

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an early release in exchange for an honest and fair review.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for early access to Black Cake, the best book I have read so far this year. Every character is compelling, and the author does a tremendous job of weaving together and slowly unraveling a complicated mystery. The descriptions and details are stunning. I could nitpick the believability of some plot twists and the author's decision to not name the main characters' island home (inconsequential spoiler: it's Jamaica) but overall this is an absolute must read. #BlackCake #NetGalley

I love this fantastic novel about Caribbean immigrants to the UK and the US. The characters are rich and interesting, and they develop over the course of the book. There are family secrets and hard decisions to be made and struggles with identity and community, all of which make for a great read.

I received email of this upcoming release, my curiosity heightened - what is black cake?
Being a debut novel increased my curiosity, so was excite to read ARC.

Define -
sisters, family, home, love, loss, second chances,
all have different meanings after reading this book.

The success of black cake depends on
quality of ingredients, and mostly on how well you handle ingredients
timing of process and your handling of all variables.

Big moments in our lives are really matter of seconds.

I highly recommend this book!!

Black Cake was a great read. The reader is lead through the Caribbean Islands, London, and then to California. This is a multicultural story and though fiction addresses some issues like preconceived expectations, racism, oppression, and other social issues that are still being discussed today. The characters were exceptional and the story was fantastic. Black Cake entertained me but also opened my eyes to other's opinions, treatment, decisions, and consequences. I would recommend this book. Open-minded people that would like to see the world from another point of view would also like Black Cake.

I received a free copy from NetGalley. It always come back to secrets and how they change not only the person keeping them but everyone around them as well because they always come out. Interesting family told over a long period of time back and forth from then and now.

When I first started this book, it was hard to get into because it did a lot of jumping back and forth. I started to put it down but was determined to finish it. Let me say that I am so glad I decided to finish it. The further I got into it, the more I couldn't put it down and wanted to hear all of Covey's story! It turned out to be a very good and enjoyable read!

This book is multi-generational story that follows one family's history from the Caribbean, to London, to the States, and back again. It's a tale chock full of sacrifice, betrayal, tragedy, and triumph. Black Cake is layered (pun intended), and the author peels back each layer masterfully as she tells each character's story. I was able to connect with each of the main characters in some form or fashion, and it's a testament to the author's writing that I was able to keep up as she moved back and forth from the past to the present. This is a solid debut novel!

I really loved this book!! It had so many twists and turns. It kept me on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next!! This was my first book by this Author, and it won’t be the last!! Quick read!! Highly recommended!! You won’t be disappointed!!

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

Full feature for this title will be posted at: @queensuprememortician on Instagram!

Black Cake is a really interesting story about a brother and sister who get together to listen to an audio recording that their mother made before she died. It sheds light on her life and a bunch of secrets that she had kept through the years. It is very well-written with great characters and a unique storyline. I really loved the way the chapters alternated among the characters, it really gives you a lot of extra information and makes the book flow smoothly. The author is an amazing storyteller.

Author: Charmaine Wilkerson

Summary:

In this moving debut novel, two estranged siblings must set aside their differences to deal with their mother's death and her hidden past--a journey of discovery that takes them from the Caribbean to London to California and ends with her famous black cake.

In present-day California, Eleanor Bennett's death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a traditional Caribbean black cake, made from a family recipe with a long history, and a voice recording. In her message, Eleanor shares a tumultuous story about a headstrong young swimmer who escapes her island home under suspicion of murder. The heartbreaking journey Eleanor unfolds, the secrets she still holds back, and the mystery of a long-lost child, challenge everything the siblings thought they knew about their family, and themselves.

Can Byron and Benny reclaim their once-close relationship, piece together Eleanor's true history, and fulfill her final request to “share the black cake when the time is right?” Will their mother's revelations bring them back together or leave them feeling more lost than ever?

Charmaine Wilkerson's debut novel is a story of how the inheritance of betrayals, secrets, memories, and even names, can shape relationships and history. Deeply evocative and beautifully written, Black Cake is an extraordinary journey through the life of a family changed forever by the choices of its matriarch.


Personal Review:

For anyone who has experience or likes to read about situations with a complicated family, this may be a book that resonates for you. The book covers the emotional situation of grief and the follow up that happens. It was interesting to see the story from such different views and the information that lead to each decision along the way. I found this to be a captivating take on how individuals process through the events of their lives and the stories that happen as a result. Thank you for the opportunity to read.

Disclaimer: I was awarded this book from the publisher/Net Galley. Though I did not pay for the book, the opinions are strictly my own.


Happy Reading!

This was an…interesting book.

There were parts that moved slowly, then there were other parts where I was so caught up I put off doing other things so I could read. At times, the theme of the cake stretching throughout felt like a bit much, but then other times it made perfect sense. I usually feel one way or another about books, but this one has me square in the middle.

I had an advanced copy of this book. I could not stop reading this book. It is brilliant. The details and descriptions had me there with the characters. I felt like I knew them, I cried with them. What a strong cast of female characters in this book. I lived in an island for some time and this book made me homesick, made me feel for characters who could not go back.

This book is about secrets. We all carry things from our past that we don’t openly share with our present and sometimes we also keep little pieces of our past hidden from our people, vulnerability is the hardest thing in the world.

I can only wait for what comes next from this author. This is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time.