Book Review: Black Cake

 

Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫4.5/5 Star Rating

The Summary:

We can't choose what we inherit. But can we choose who we become?
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 tale 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 lineage, 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.

🍰🌊🏊🏾‍♀️

This was my January pick for my Book of the Month subscription and I am so glad I flipped a coin in favor of this book.  When a debut novel is this incredible, it just gives me warm and fuzzy feels all over. *sigh* Confession: I’d never even heard of black cake before reading this book, so I don’t know which emoji best depicts it and will be using them all.

🥮🤷🏻‍♀️

As you can imagine from my 4.5 star rating, this book was near perfect.  Beautifully written and successfully weaving multiple timelines, I was particularly drawn to the “flashback” timeline being shared by Eleanor Bennett.  However, the characters in the present day timeline, Eleanor’s two adult children, were the weakest part of the story for me.  I did not connect to or care about Byron or Benny and find myself skimming over their parts in the last quarter of the story. Because I found both of those prominent characters in this book to be flat and uninteresting, I knocked off half a star for this otherwise stellar debut.

🎂

Thank you to the author along with NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Book Review: A Letter to Three Witches

A Letter to Three Witches by Elizabeth Bass 🎧

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️5/5 Star Rating 

The Summary:

Bewitched meets Practical Magic in this sparkling and quirky rom-com with an enchanted twist. When romance problems cause their powers to go berserk, a trio of witches whose family was banned from practicing magic risk getting in serious trouble with the Grand Council. Can they get their magic—and their love lives—in order before it’s too late?

 

🧹🧙🏻‍♀️🧙🏻‍♀️🧙🏻‍♂️

I absolutely loved this book! So many rom-com novels follow the same recipe these days  and it has become just plain boring to me. This story was a new, fresh idea and was executed flawlessly.  I also appreciate how A Letter To Three Witches was a ”spice free” read without sacrificing the chemistry between the two characters with the burgeoning romance. Above all else, I had no idea what an enjoyable ride this book would be and I particularly loved the witty dialogue & hilarious hijinks our three witches got up to. 

Thank you 🙏🏻 to the author along with NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for this audio arc in exchange for my honest review. 

Book Review: The Man in the Brown Suit

 

The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie 🎧

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫3.5/5 Star Rating

The Summary:

Newly-orphaned Anne Beddingfeld is a nice English girl looking for a bit of adventure in London. But she stumbles upon more than she bargained for! Anne is on the platform at Hyde Park Corner tube station when a man falls onto the live track, dying instantly. A doctor examines the man, pronounces him dead, and leaves, dropping a note on his way. Anne picks up the note, which reads "17.1 22 Kilmorden Castle". The next day the newspapers report that a beautiful ballet dancer has been found dead there-- brutally strangled. A fabulous fortune in diamonds has vanished. And now, aboard the luxury liner Kilmorden Castle, mysterious strangers pillage her cabin and try to strangle her. What are they looking for? Why should they want her dead? Lovely Anne is the last person on earth suited to solve this mystery... and the only one who can! Anne's journey to unravel the mystery takes her as far afield as Africa and the tension mounts with every step... and Anne finds herself struggling to unmask a faceless killer known only as 'The Colonel'.

🚢

Confession: this is the first ever Agatha Christie novel I’ve read. First. Ever.

🤦🏻‍♀️

I quite like the murder mystery genre and have no excuse as to why I have never explored the world of Agatha Christie before now, but I intend to add at least one of her books to my TBR each month for the rest of this year.

My takeaway from this novel was not life changing, but the female MC was a competent, capable, and delightfully witty young woman & I just loved her!  I realize I’m late to the party, but it’s safe to say I’ve found another author to binge.

😬

Book Review: The Rose Code

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn 🎧

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️5/5 Star Rating

The Summary:

1940. As England prepares to fight the Nazis, three very different women answer the call to mysterious country estate Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes. Vivacious debutante Osla is the girl who has everything—beauty, wealth, and the dashing Prince Philip of Greece sending her roses—but she burns to prove herself as more than a society girl, and puts her fluent German to use as a translator of decoded enemy secrets. Imperious self-made Mab, product of East-End London poverty, works the legendary code-breaking machines as she conceals old wounds and looks for a socially advantageous husband. Both Osla and Mab are quick to see the potential in local village spinster Beth, whose shyness conceals a brilliant facility with puzzles, and soon Beth spreads her wings as one of the Park’s few female cryptanalysts. But war, loss, and the impossible pressure of secrecy will tear the three apart. 

1947. As the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip whips post-war Britain into a fever, three friends-turned-enemies are reunited by a mysterious encrypted letter—the key to which lies buried in the long-ago betrayal that destroyed their friendship and left one of them confined to an asylum. A mysterious traitor has emerged from the shadows of their Bletchley Park past, and now Osla, Mab, and Beth must resurrect their old alliance and crack one last code together. But each petal they remove from the rose code brings danger—and their true enemy—closer...

🌹

Kate Quinn never disappoints! I have thoroughly enjoyed each of her three historical fiction novels that I’ve read and am looking forward to her next offering, The Diamond Eye.  Not only is the story itself near perfect, her accompanying Author’s Note was a gem 💎 

I can always count on a Kate Quinn novel about resilient women during 1940’s wartime to be a FIVE STAR read! 

 

Book Review: Death in Cornwall

Death in Cornwall by G.M. Malliet 🎧

⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ 3.5/5 Star Rating

The Summary:

To celebrate their engagement, DCI Arthur St. Just and Portia De’Ath visit the quiet village of Maidsfell in Cornwall. Upon arriving they find the villagers in an uproar over plans to redevelop the local seafront.

The fishermen want to build a new slipway to aid their business, but many residents worry it will spoil the view for the tourists who help drive the economy. After a heated village meeting on the issue, St. Just overhears an argument involving Lord Bodwally – an unpopular aristocrat staunchly opposed to the plans. Later, Bodwally’s lifeless body is discovered. It’s murder.

Although Bodwally was disliked, who’d go so far as to kill him? St. Just, although an outsider from Cambridge, feels compelled to help local authorities investigate. Is Bodwally’s death linked to the seafront, his suspect business dealings, or a secret from the past? One thing is certain, the fallout threatens to change Maidsfell forever...

🕵️‍♀️ 🔍

This book is the fourth in a series of St. Just Mysteries but never having read the previous installments did not make this read any less enjoyable.  I quite like the detective mystery genre and this novel ticked all the appropriate boxes.  The setting is very cozy and DCI St. Just himself is competent and easy to like.  I believe the author did a brilliant job of creating a host of intriguing characters turned suspects and infusing just the right amount of humor throughout. 

😱🔪 

This story appeals to anyone who enjoys a classic murder mystery  I’m happy to have found myself a new detective to track and plan to go back and read the previous three novels in this series. My only complaint is that this book was a bit too long. At just over 11 hours in length, it was a few hours longer than I prefer novels of this genre to be.

Thank you 🙏🏻 to the author, Dreamscape Media, and NetGalley for providing me the audio ARC in exchange for my honest review.

 

Book Review: The Christie Affair

The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont 🎧

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5 Star Rating 

The Summary:

Every story has its secrets.

Every mystery has its motives.

“A long time ago, in another country, I nearly killed a woman. It’s a particular feeling, the urge to murder. It takes over your body so completely, it’s like a divine force, grabbing hold of your will, your limbs, your psyche. There’s a joy to it. In retrospect, it’s frightening, but I daresay in the moment it feels sweet. The way justice feels sweet.” 

The greatest mystery wasn’t Agatha Christie’s disappearance in those eleven infamous days, it’s what she discovered. 

London, 1925: In a world of townhomes and tennis matches, socialites and shooting parties, Miss Nan O’Dea became Archie Christie’s mistress, luring him away from his devoted and well-known wife, Agatha Christie.

The question is, why? Why destroy another woman’s marriage, why hatch a plot years in the making, and why murder? How was Nan O’Dea so intricately tied to those eleven mysterious days that Agatha Christie went missing?

😱

This story had layers. So many layers! Not at all what I was expecting, but in the best possible way.🤌🏻

Nan is the chief narrator of this story, spinning the yarn of her own backstory and the events that led her to cross the path of one Agatha Christie.  Agatha plays the role of a secondary character in the majority of this book, - much to my surprise -  but I felt that it worked beautifully.  We will never know the truth of Christie’s mysterious but brief disappearance, but I quite liked Nina de Gramont’s take on those events.

Thank you 🙏🏻 to the author, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.