Spanning two timelines, from Gambia to Sweden, Bitter Honey recounts the tale of Tina in 2006 Stockholm, chasing her dream of singing in the Eurovision Song Contest to that of her mother Nancy thirty years earlier newly arrived from Africa who is drawn to her compelling Professor.


A tale of secrets, mothers and daughters and the men who come between them.

Thoughtful and thought provoking.

I really enjoyed the previous books in this connected series by Lola Akinmade and so I looked forward to this installment. I love how the narrative rolls along like a lightweight novel but deals with lots of issues and immigrant experiences in Sweden. This story gives us the back story of Tobias's ( from the previous novel, Everything will be Alright)mother, Nancy who won a scholarship to come and study in Sweden from Nigeria. It has a dual timeline delving into Nancy's past and also following her daughter, Tina, in the present and how she deals with fame when she wins the competition to be Sweden's entry in The Eurovision song contest and her life spirals when the father Nancy has laways told her was dead comes along to congratulate her. Good read.

“For those who have never known rest, may the soft life find you soon”. That is how this book begins, and if you are anything like me, you are gonna be hooked when you read this!

Bitter Honey is about two women, Nancy and Tina, and spans four decades and three continents to tell the story of mothers, daughters, and the importance of carving your own path.

Nancy is Tina’s mother, so whilst we’re following Tina’s story in the present moment, we get to follow Nancy’s journey from a young Black woman leaving moving to Sweden from Gambia for a scholarship, to becoming a single mother of two mixed-race children in a place that maybe wasn’t meant to be her home.

Bitter Honey is not a slow burn story, at all. It starts at full speed and by chapter 3 I was hooked, because I just had to know more. I found myself mostly drawn to observe Nancy because the woman she was before she became a mother, and then who she was through her daughters’ eyes were vastly different. I love that the book was written in such a way because we don’t get to see our mothers before they became that, but this felt like a time machine. And as you come to understand why it’s titled Bitter Honey; you see how some children can be born to the same woman yet experience a different mother. And specifically, it tells the unique story of what it means to be a Black woman who falls victim to the gaze of men who cannot tell the difference between a fetish and love.

One thing I grew to love about the book is that it has many Swedish and Wolof phrases. At first it caught me off guard, but then halfway through the book I was able to understand the phrases before I saw the English translation beneath which was such a fresh experience for me. Call me alskling from now on!

Bitter Honey is full of complex characters. Some you will grow to love, some you will love instantly, and some you will despise with the deepest depths of your being. I have never felt so uncomfortable with a character before a certain somebody in this book, but I think that’s the beauty of Lola Akinmade’s writing. She takes you deep into the journey so you can feel everything as if you were there, but without giving away everything until you’ve travelled all the way through.

I will say that this book is heartbreaking. From sexuality, to racism, to substance misuse, grief. A lot of topics that are weaved into the story could be sensitive for some readers. But for me, I think it’s important for people to see the layers. To see who an undeserving man can turn a woman into. Who he can steal from her children. But then it also has such heartwarming glimpses, of the people you love along the way and how they breathe life into you. How they show you who you are, even when you forget. How you carry them with you in simple things, like the way Nancy calls Tina, “Tina, Tina, Tina”, in the way she was once called “Nancy, Nancy, Nancy”.

There’s so much more I could say, but I don’t want to spoil the actual story as it’s not out until May 2025. But you need to pre-order it now, now, now, so we can be here in 5 months talking about it in detail. I need you to share my enemy from the book with me, because we ride at DAWN. And just wait until you hear their star sign, it all makes so much sense lol!

A powerful novel mainly dealing with racialism in Sweden. Told in two time lines, 1979 and a little beyond with Nancy, from Gambia, wins a scholarship at a Swedish University and 2006 onwards when we join Nancy's daughter Tina who is not at all in a good place. Nancy wants to hide the past and Tina slowly is finding the truth turning her whole world upside down. Plenty of family conflict alongside the inherent culture of Sweden at the time. The book visits lots of difficult issues in mixed parentage, racism, drugs, the false glittery pop world plus general family and life. Definitely recommended

I'm a big Lola Akinmade fan, and this was a riveting read. I loved it so much that I'll be purchasing a physical copy when it's out!

**Thank you NegGalley and Head of Zeus for having given me the opportunity to read this book**


“Bitter Honey” is the third novel by Lola Akinmade, after the duology which includes “In Every Mirror She’s Black” and “Everything Is Not Enough”, and it’s the third books by her I read.
This last work delves into the last of two characters we’ve already met in the duology, that are Nancy and Tina, respectively Tobias’s mother and sister. Two women with similar lives and yet so different, who experienced traumatic and tragic events provoked by the relationships with wrong and narcissistic men and by living in a society unable to welcome what is not usual.
Akinmade explores again the racial question in Sweden but here it’s deepened, and I’m glad about it because it’s less-explored topic in literature. New topics are discussed here as well: narcissism, which is the main, traumatic and toxic relationships, the loss of control, mother-daughter relationship and fate.
Nancy was destined to become the first Madam President of Gambia, but a red-haired man with honey-coloured eyes drew her apart from her fate. Tina was intended to be the next Afro-Swede popstar but she found herself changing route due to the racism and xenophobia of the Swedish society and due to the narcissism of a man who thought he could find a home in her.
“Bitter Honey” is a touching novel. I cried and rejoiced along with the main characters, I scolded and understood them, I rooted and hoped for them. My heart ached when I turned the last page and I know its two amazing protagonists, mother and daughter, will be with me for a long time.
I noticed an improvement in Akinmade’s writing style, but it’s still evident her literary identity, which is contemporary and honest. And “Bitter Honey’ is like this too: contemporary and honest.
Dear Lola Akinmade, keep it up!

We follow two timelines. Nancy’s story begins in 1979 as she sets up a new life (having uprooted from Gambia to Sweden). Her daughter, Tina’s, story begins in 2006 as she navigates being in the limelight as a pop star. This is a story about national identity, navigating family dynamics and intergenerational trauma.

I adored the way Bitter Honey tackled issues of family dynamics with such care and delicacy. I felt all the characters were so real: each had their unique flaws and complex lives which made them jump off the page. They have stayed in my mind beyond the end of the novel. I loved the set up with the mother and daughter timelines, the way they wove together was beautifully done. I especially enjoyed the exploration of Gambian and Swedish identity, which I haven’t read about before.

Multigenerational historical fiction is literally my favourite thing ever, and Bitter Honey did not disappoint. Akinmade’s depictions of trauma and how it affects generations that follow afterwards, trickling through the family was captured so well.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for giving me a digital proof copy, and Lola Akinmade for writing such a beautiful novel. I am now off to read her other books!