e-ALC, 13:11:56
Narrated by: Karen Chilton
Release Date: May 12, 2026
Published by: HarperCollins
Read from: May 4-6, 2026
Stand-alone
Source: Netgalley (I received this e-ALC free from the publisher and Netgalley. This did nothing to influence my review.)
Content Warning: Body Shaming, Bullying, Chronic Illness
For Readers of: Adult, Audio, Auto-Buy Authors, Historical Fiction, Sparkly Covers, Most Anticipated, Own Voices, Racial/Ethnic Diversity, Realistic Fiction, Romance, So Good I Read the AcknowledgmentsFrom The Unexpected Diva author Tiffany Warren—a dishy and dramatic novel of the Harlem Renaissance and its most famous Black debutante, Yolande Du Bois, daughter of W.E.B. Du Bois, whose spectacular wedding to poet Countee Cullen was the society event of the year…even though the bride and groom were not-so-secretly in love with other people.
A century ago, Harlem’s glittering social scene had a single Yolande Du Bois, the only child of N.A.A.C.P. icon W.E.B. Du Bois. Yolande was bold, vivacious, and beloved of every gossip columnist. A true daddy’s girl, Yolande followed her father’s advice on from where she went to college (Fisk—Papa’s alma mater) to which sorority she joined (Delta Sigma Theta). But in matters of the heart, Yolande and her father did not agree. Dr. Du Bois himself curated a string of handsome suitors from the “Talented Tenth” for her, but Yolande’s true love was jazz musician Jimmie Lunceford, son of a working-class family from far-off Denver, Colorado. Their romance was an open secret, and more than a little scandalous.
Despite it all, Yolande wound up marrying her father’s famed poet Countee Cullen. Their lavish uptown wedding was the hottest social ticket of 1928. With three thousand attendees, sixteen bridesmaids, and Langston Hughes as a groomsman, it was truly a sight to behold.
But, immediately after the wedding, Yolande’s carefully constructed fairy tale begins to crumble. Torn between the expectations of her father and society and her heart’s true desire, Yolande is forced to decide whether she must leave Harlem to create a more authentic life on her own terms.
A Harlem Wedding is a heady read about love, notoriety, Black excellence, deception, and the très chic lifestyles of the Black elite, from speakeasies of Harlem and the green fields of Fisk University, all the way to Le Grand Duc in Paris.
*MY THOUGHTS*
Y’all know I’m not a huge fan of historical fiction, but y’all know I will always pick up one when it’s about a real Black historical figure. And this one was about WEB Dubois and his daughter and her wedding to Countee Cullen. I had no idea that it was going to be THAT MESSY! LOL
Ok so I’ve said once before that I will ALWAYS read a book about a wedding or funeral because no matter how much you try to make everything perfect, something is bound to go bad. And sure enough, this one went about as bad as bad can be LOL I think I yelled WHAT? at every other paragraph at one point. This book was a mess. I couldn’t decide what was more scandalous! Just when you think you know, something else happens.
The characters were….. A lot. Yolande was so spoiled and acted like she hated her Dad’s ideals, but she didn’t care about using his money. In fact his money helped her ignore literally everything else going on in that home. In fact, she didn’t even know what was going on with her mom and dad until the very end. And someone had to outright tell her smh I learned who her dad REALLY was in Harlem Rhapsody, so I was less surprised about how he treated his wife, which should have made me less surprised for how he treated his daughter. But Nope. I was still shocked that he acted like that. It’s so crazy only ever hearing his name in a good way when all along no one wanted to say what he was REALLY like. It was crazy how none of this stuff followed him. I didn’t know any of this until this book.
One thing that I thought was done well was the storytelling. Even on the down parts when they were away from each other or when they were fighting, I was still so enthralled. And the pacing was on point too. I was legit hanging on to every word. Towards the ending I remember I just HAD to know who she ended up with and why so I ended up staying up till 3 to finish the book, listen to the acknowledgements/author’s note, and then do some of my own Google research. It was a lot, but I just could not stop reading.
The romance was crazy. I guess I have to say something about all of them. So with Yolande and Jimmy, I really thought this should be end game. But she was playing games. She tried to talk about him being jealous, but when things were reversed, she was doing the same thing. She let everyone else influence her about her relationship and in doing so lost the thing most important to her. After all the things she felt and went through after that one break ip, Idk how she let things go as far as they did. I knew it was going to be some bs though when I realized the synopsis said that the wedding is between Yolande and Countee. Once I remembered that I knew it was going to be a bunch of bs. And I was right lol
Even though I knew more than I thought about the DuBois family. I didn’t know everything else, like the stuff around Harlem. And I came across this really cool detail that I don’t think I ever would have known without reading this, like: The Wishing Tree was an elm tree where performers would rub it for good luck before they went on. I found out that in 1934 the city made them cut it down. A man named BonJangles got a piece of the trunk and put it on the new stage for a show called Showtime at the Apollo. There’s so many more of those little gems in this book!
There are so many things I learned from this book. I can’t say it just a romance, because it was so much more than that.. I hope y’all go get this and let me know if you feel the same!
Overall, I give this
