Book Summary and Reviews of Bitter Honey by Lolá Ákínmádé Åkerström

Bitter Honey by Lolá Ákínmádé Åkerström

Bitter Honey

An Emotional Novel of Love, Forgiveness, and Self-Discovery Spanning Continents and Generations, Unraveling the Complex Bonds of Motherhood and the Struggles of Identity

by Lolá Ákínmádé Åkerström

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  • Published:
  • Nov 2025, 448 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Spanning four decades and three continents, Bitter Honey is a story about a mother and daughter divided by long buried secrets, struggling to understand each other as they forge their own paths, from the internationally bestselling author of In Every Mirror She's Black.

1978: A scholarship draws Nancy from Gambia's warmth into Stockholm's frigid winter. When her friendship with charismatic scholar Lars blossoms into something more, she thinks she may have finally found her place. But there's more to Lars than his charming persona, and Nancy is about to discover the danger of being drawn into his world… 

2006: Tina has had her taste of fame as Sweden's sweetheart pop princess, representing her country at Eurovision. But beneath her glittery façade, she's uncertain who she really is. Her mother, Nancy, seems desperate to keep the past under wraps, but will the unexpected appearance of Tina's father—a man she has long thought dead—help open the door to self-discovery?

Nancy just wants to protect her daughter from making the same mistakes she did, but Tina longs for the freedom to mess up, knowing her mother will always be there to support her. The two women love each other unconditionally, but can they learn to trust each other as well?

This poignant novel delves deep into the complicated relationships between mothers and daughters and delivers a warm, heartfelt story of love, forgiveness, and women finding their voices.

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This information about Bitter Honey was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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Nigerian-American Lolá Ákínmádé Åkerström is an award-winning speaker, photographer, and author of the international bestseller In Every Mirror She's Black and Everything Is Not Enough. She is based in Stockholm.

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