I received a complimentary copy of Black Cake from NetGalley.  Opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

Wow! This was a unique novel. I had never previously heard of “black cake” and found the cultural references very intriguing! The mystery and slow unveiling of family secrets were well executed. (I learned more about the heritage of the island areas than I expected from a novel, and I am now interested in doing a but of my own research!)

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson is a beautifully written family drama. When Eleanor Bennett dies, she leaves a tape recording and a traditional Black Cake for her two children, Benny and Byron to share. But in listening to the tape, she tells them that they will know when to share it, then spins a tale of her life before she came to the US, of her family in Carribbean and why she left there, what happened to her after she left and of the sister that they didn't know about. A truly touching story about what makes up a person and a family.

Thank you to the author, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, and NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

#blackcake #charmainewilkerson #netgalley

Byron and Benny grew up with happy and ambitious parents in Southern California and they thought they knew who their mother and father were, but after the death of their mother, the two estranged siblings learn the secrets of their parents' past.

Thank you Random House/Ballantine Books 😘 NetGalley and Author for this advance ebook copy in return for an honest review!

Black Cake by Wilkerson was such a delightful, enjoyable story!
This is an amazing book to be an debut author!
If you enjoy a good family drama I'd pick this book up.
I love reading family dramas because the relationships are usually complex and therefore it's fascinating to see the dynamics in play. Title was a solid read and in some ways exceeded my expectations.
What I loved most was that the issues dealt in this book ring true in today's messed up world!
Such an inspiring book. And one I will recommend to anyone!

Thanks again NetGalley, Publisher and Author for the chance to read and review this amazing book!
I'll post to my Social media platforms closer to pub date!

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!

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.