A heartfelt tale across decades, and sometimes centuries, across continents and across our emotions.

Covey is a swimmer, a great swimmer, and the water is her savior from a missing mum and a spiraling, out of control father. A father who takes his daughter's life into his own hands to pay a debt so deep, he sees no other option.

But this debt is only the beginning as we read a story told from the perspective of Covey, both young and old, her children, her friends, her father and a few others, we track her movements through the last 50 years from sea to land, from love to leaps of faith.

This novel made me cry, but it also frustrated the ever loving crap out of me. I found it difficult to really get into as the perspectives changed so quickly, it took me a bit to get used to and clear my head from the whiplash.

Though we land in a good place, it was a lot of loose ends to tie up at the end and ones that I wasnt entirely thrilled with as I felt a little unsatisfied at the quickness of which they were wrapped up.

This book was nothing like I expected. It was better! The core of this story is family and all of the joys and messes that come from it. The book is told through multiple perspectives, some of which are people and some are situational. I’ve never read a book formatted quite like it before.

One thing that kept the story interesting throughout, even though it’s a relatively quiet one, was what I would call a mystery. Who is the mother? Why is the family fractured in the way it is? What happened to everyone? So many little questions pop up and are answered throughout the book in a way that keeps you guessing, but never for too long.

I definitely recommend this book!

What a fabulous book! I was unsure of what to expect when I received this EARC from Net Galley, and I am glad I did not have preconceived notions of what to expect. The storyline draws the reader in. As we learn more of the twists and turns of the plot we become more entrenched in the story and the characters.

Set on an unnamed island in the Caribbean, Black Cake explores what it was like to grow up on an island with a wide variety of diversities, along with certain societal norms that must be followed. Covey is a young half-Island, half Chinese native. Her wealthy father owns a successful chain of grocery stores, until he gambles them away. Covey has two dear friends who help her through her sorrow and hard times; Gibbs, the boy she loves more than just as a friend, and Etta, her closest friend in the world. When Covey's mother disappears, Covey's father gambles more away, and eventually, out of desperation, he agrees that his daughter should marry a local heavy, Little Man. Little Man dies of poison at his wedding to Covey, and Covey disappears that very afternoon; eventually she is presumed to be dead.

Covey's daring escape sets her life on a course that could never have been predicted or imagined. From her days in London, then Edenborough, Covey struggles to become a person her mother would have been proud of. The story alternates back and forth between Covey's own past, and the people who were in her life, and her own life settled in California with her husband and two children. As the story progresses we learn more about the path that Covey took and the decisions and situations that resulted along the way. A truly enthralling and captivating book, the storyline moves the reader on through the waves of Covey's life.

Black Cake was the best book I have read in a while. It was definitely gut wrenching in a lot of places. but if you like books that make you feel something, you will love this one. I like the alternative point of view style of the book which goes back and forth between characters and time frames, but I know a lot of people that find that confusing and avoid books that are written in this style. If you are one of those people, I emplore you to give this one a chance. There is also a nice element of suspense while the message left behind for estranged siblings Byron and Bennie left by their mother unfolds. Black Cake is Charmaine Wilkerson's debut novel, and I think she knocked it out of the park. I can't wait to see what's next!

Thanks to the publisher for an advance ecopy of Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson.

Black Cake was the perfect book to start my February! It was an intriguing, uplifting book about two siblings navigating their mother's death, their own differences , and the mysterious recording their mom left as part of their inheritance.

People misunderstand each other and this novel portrays that so well...how easy it is to judge other's motives when you don't really know what is going on with them. The novel also masterfully portrays the frustration and futility of hanging on to resentment and hurt. In fact, part of the reason I couldn't give the novel 5 stars instead of 4 was because I just could not imagine how Benny reacted to her father's response to her big reveal of her sexuality. I completely understood why she would be so hurt, but I can't believe that given what he said was more of an ignorant statement than a rejection as well as his age, as well as the fact that she laid it on him without warning, it seemed to me, a better character would have given him a second chance rather than running away and turning on her whole family. Readers who read the scene rather than just my review will know what I am talking about. I guess it is because in my personal experience, most people I know who have sexuality that is anything outside the "traditional" one have a little patience with their family when they tell them. It is not owed to the family, necessarily, but in the case of an otherwise loving family, it just would have made more sense if Benny hadn't rejected her whole family over one comment her father made.

I loved Eleanor's back story. Set first on an unnamed Caribbean island, then continuing on into England, then finally America, her story was a well rounded, mysterious story that really educated me on things I didn't even know about and now I want to know more. Her story was also full of love; romantic love, sacrificial love, and love between a mother and her children.

Byron's story was a very current theme of struggling up and creating opportunities as well as the frustration of losing out on the job he deserves or even choosing a less flashy car than he can afford simply to avoid police attention as a black man given the frequency with which he gets pulled over.

Each character was relatable and both likeable and unlikeable in turns. Eleanor and her best friend Bunny were my favorite characters, but I thought all the characters introduced in the story added to it. I would recommend Black Cake to book clubs as well as anyone who enjoys reading about other cultures. The author was inspired by her Jamaican ties, and that is an area I haven't read too many novels about.

And the obvious question: Who read this book and didn't finish it craving to try the famous black cake at the center of this story????

This is a beautifully written story about family. The story follows two estranged siblings who come together because of their mother’s death. They then learn the secrets of their mother’s past. Told via multiple POV’s and timelines from the past in the islands, to England and present California. I loved the mother’s (Eleanor) storyline so much that I really had no interest in the chapters of the present regarding her adult children. Eleanor’s story was filled with mystery, love and hope. She’s a strong woman and some of the things she endured were heartbreaking. I can't believe this was a debut book! I highly recommend.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine Books for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I just read Black Cake and I am absolutely in awe that this is a debut. It is the incredible, beautifully written story of estranged siblings who are reunited when their mother dies. They come together to hear final words from their mother revealing that their mother wasn’t who she thought she was and she didn’t live the life they thought - instead it was a life full of secrets. This book. Wow. Just wow. This book is a triumph about overcoming adversity, resilience, forgiveness and doing whatever it takes to protect yourself and your family. It covers racism, homophobia and misogyny in all of their raw ugliness and how they have impacted this family in every way possible. The way the storylines and characters came together made me think of that line from Hamilton - every action has an opposite reaction. Everything comes full circle in this book. And it is all tied together with the recurring theme of a black cake and the importance of a culturally traditional food as a celebratory reminder of your heritage and the importance of tradition.
I loved it. All of it.

Byron and Benny are estranged siblings who come together when their mother dies. She has left them recorded messages and a frozen black cake (her family recipe and signature dish). These messages reveal her long buried secrets about her past.

I wanted to like this book so much. I loved the idea of the cake bringing the past into the present and the dual timelines of the present day with Byron and Benny and the past with Covey. I did like a lot about this book, but it really dragged. I had the hardest time staying with it because it was so slow and there were many parts where I just didn't care about the many characters (some of which were the same people but with different names). This may have been a victim of the wrong book at the wrong time, but I had to make myself stay with this book and that is never a good sign. It could have been edited down and slightly simplified and I feel that it would have benefitted it. This is a character driven book on the slower side about family secrets. However, many people are loving this book so it might be just me.

Thank you to Netgalley and Ballentine Books for the advance readers copy for review.

This book is a wonderful little gem. I was hooked from the first few pages. The story is wonderful!!!

Wonderful debut novel!

Fans of family sagas will love this intricate, complex book full of family secrets, loss, grief, missed connections, friendship, and the bonds we create with those we love that survive even the worst of circumstances.

The various settings in this novel are beautifully described, especially when Covey talks about swimming and how she feels in the ocean waves.

The characters have a depth to them that makes this book an emotional journey that will transport the reader to Covey's world as she tells her story to her family and finally unburdens all her secrets.

On a Caribbean island in the 1960’s an 18-year-old girl is being forced to marry the local con-man, who’s more than twice her age, in order to settle her father’s debts. Decades later this same woman, now in her seventies, is dying and she is using the only object she knows—a black cake—to try to reunite her children after her death.
Charmaine Wilkerson’s debut novel unfolds a generational family saga that begins on a not-named Caribbean island, to London, Scotland, and California where the protagonist Covey Lynwood has been carrying many terrible secrets. She’s able to bury some throughout the years, but eventually they catch up with her and she is forced to confront all of them to the people who are completely unaware: her children.

This book ebbs and flows through small village life in the Caribbean where Covey’s interracial parents (her father is a Chinese immigrant and her mother is black) deal with the racial tensions happening on the island. The story moves to Europe during the Windrush period, outlining some of the discriminations and prejudices Caribbean people faced. But mostly this book is about the hard choices Covey and her husband are forced to make about their identity in order to secure their safety and that of their children.
Covey’s future family will suffer for her deception and Wilkerson explores the hurt of each family member within the bubble of family loyalty, but also the consequences of these secrets that bred a lack of empathy for each other. Many realizations happen way too late, but there are some redemptions that are satisfying, though very bittersweet.
Although an interesting narrative, I found Black Cake to be vague in too many areas: why wasn’t the “island” named in the book? Too many times for my liking, Wilkerson generalizes the place Covey grew up as “the island” and I couldn’t decide if the author was trying to extend the air of secrecy that shrouds the book overall, or if she just unintentionally made all of the Caribbean synonymous with this word usage. Other than the black cake reference, there’s very little else that gives the reader a true sense of what it means to live in the Caribbean because the nuanced characteristics that distinguishes each island, are overlooked. I also found some chapters too short and so insignificant I wondered why they were included at all. I was most disappointed with the chapter on Mathilda, Covey’s mother, because so many questions are asked about her through various characters, but only a page is given to what happened to her.
Ultimately, Black Cake is an average read; the hardships experienced by Covey and the decisions she was forced to make time and again, her children’s troubles in dealing with life, and the many people who Covey had to abandon, makes it interesting. Sadly, I didn’t feel particularly connected to any of these characters.

This was not a book for me at all. The chapters were so short and clipped. The character building just kinda fizzled out for me. After a while I just started to not care what I was reading or that I was reading it at all. It was not fast paced enough for me and it felt as though nothing was happening or what was happening was just too unimportant to me that I could not continue on with this one. Such a shame because I thought the description and the premise behind the book sounded so good that i thought I would really love it. Thank you to NetGalley and publishers for this.complementary ear in exchange for my honest review.

This is a beautifully written story that spans generations and continents, all tied together through the characters' persistence to achieve more and their connections to the Caribbean culture- especially black cake. I'm not usually one for books that could be labeled as "family drama," but this one has a special spark that drives the narrative forward while also creating very real and likable characters.

Black Cake is the story of Benny and Byron and their family of origin, the sharing of secrets, and how each of our life choices or life events takes us in a different direction--often far different than what we imagined. The author does a wonderful job of telling the stories of so many people who are involved in their family history. My only mild criticism is that sometimes the jumping back and forth in time along with characters who have multiple names left me more in my head taking me away from the emotion of the story. My advice is definitely read this story but set aside an hour to get into it--it's best read in chunks rather than a chapter a time at bedtime. I'll be looking forward to future stories by this author. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for a candid review.

Black Cake is a multi-point of view family drama set across multiple countries. When Eleanor Bennett dies she leaves behind a traditional Caribbean black cake and a recording. Her children learn about their parents choices and history leading them to question who they are and the choices they have made in their life. The character development and growth is strong and I always appreciate short chapters which keep the story moving!

Thank you to Ballantine Books and Netgalley for the electronic advanced copy.

I enjoyed this book. The mom sacrificed so much and the siblings finally got to see this. I would recommend it.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

A solid 4.5 stars, I really enjoyed Black Cake. The vivid descriptions of the food, the feel of the islands, and the sting of grief really puts you into the characters' shoes and paints a clear picture of this world. While I didn't necessarily love any of the individual characters, I found that they were well written and really understood each of their positions. Though there were a number of time jumps, they were handled deftly and I never found myself lost as to which time period we were in.

Definitely would recommend checking this one out, it's been one of the best books I've read this year.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this unique family saga. It starts with life on a Caribbean island and continues with the lives of Caribbean immigrants in the UK and US. I liked the mystery of a secret revealed at the beginning of the book and learning the family history as the book alternates between the 1960s and 70s and current time. There are many issues covered, maybe a little overambitious to include so many, but I appreciated learning about their lives. I haven't read much about Caribbean people, and I was happy to learn more about them. I think this is a great book to read during Black History Month, and I highly recommend it. Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this.

I enjoyed reading this book from start to finish. You learn that every family has secrets and a lot of the time the children are left to pick up the pieces.

Wow what an excellent book on interracial lives in the West I does, the UK and the USA. The characters were so developed and intriguing with the lives they were given. This is mainly about Covey whose life was really not her own due to the social structures of being a dark skinned female with Chinese blood. She first has to do what her father says even though she knows she is a strong female and can make it. This leads to family relationships that are tested and twisted. It’s the black cake that helps them learn it takes all cultures to make something good and interesting, which is what the life on the island is like.
Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Random House for an ARC of this book.