Lola Akinmade Akerstrom

[Ákínmádé] pulls no punches' Taylor Jenkins Reid'The queen of messy characters!' Onyi Nwabineli'Bitter Honey is an urgent call for empathy, grace and understanding' Glamour'Ákínmádé is a master at shading the gaps between power and love' Chika UnigweTwo women. Four decades. A lifetime of secrets. 1978: A scholarship draws Nancy from Gambia’s warmth into Sweden’s 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 the nation’s Eurovision pop princess. But beneath her glittery façade, Tina is desperate to discover who she really is. Her mother, Nancy, seems desperate to keep the past under wraps, but will an unexpected figure help open the door?With a mother-daughter relationship at its heart, BITTER HONEY explores relationships, resilience, and what it means to fully wear your skin and carve your own space in this world. The first standalone novel from Lolá Ákínmádé is her most ambitious yet, spanning four decades and three continents.READERS LOVE BITTER HONEY: 'Bold, lyrical, and richly layered. Lola Akinmade writes with fire'*****'I fall in love with Lola's writing every time'*****'More books like this, please... such a captivating read'*****'The character-building is great... eye-opening'*****'Beautiful, emotionally resonant... unforgettable characters'*****'A highly addictive, compelling and heartbreaking novel'*****'A novel that stays with you... evoking deep reflection'*****'Deep, intense, really touching... a magnificent novel'*****'Like embarking on a profound journey that spanned not just years but entire worlds'*****'The storytelling is breathtaking, the emotions raw, and the themes deeply resonant'*****

[Ákínmádé] pulls no punches' Taylor Jenkins Reid'The queen of messy characters!' Onyi Nwabineli'Bitter Honey is an urgent call for empathy, grace and understanding' Glamour'Ákínmádé is a master at shading the gaps between power and love' Chika UnigweTwo women. Four decades. A lifetime of secrets. 1978: A scholarship draws Nancy from Gambia’s warmth into Sweden’s 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 the nation’s Eurovision pop princess. But beneath her glittery façade, Tina is desperate to discover who she really is. Her mother, Nancy, seems desperate to keep the past under wraps, but will an unexpected figure help open the door?With a mother-daughter relationship at its heart, BITTER HONEY explores relationships, resilience, and what it means to fully wear your skin and carve your own space in this world. The first standalone novel from Lolá Ákínmádé is her most ambitious yet, spanning four decades and three continents.READERS LOVE BITTER HONEY: 'Bold, lyrical, and richly layered. Lola Akinmade writes with fire'*****'I fall in love with Lola's writing every time'*****'More books like this, please... such a captivating read'*****'The character-building is great... eye-opening'*****'Beautiful, emotionally resonant... unforgettable characters'*****'A highly addictive, compelling and heartbreaking novel'*****'A novel that stays with you... evoking deep reflection'*****'Deep, intense, really touching... a magnificent novel'*****'Like embarking on a profound journey that spanned not just years but entire worlds'*****'The storytelling is breathtaking, the emotions raw, and the themes deeply resonant'*****

Two women. Four decades. A lifetime of secrets. 1978: A scholarship draws Nancy from Gambia's warmth into Sweden's 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 the nation's Eurovision pop princess. But beneath her glittery facade, Tina is desperate to discover who she really is. Her mother, Nancy, seems desperate to keep the past under wraps, but will an unexpected figure help open the door?Spanning four decades and three continents, Bitter Honey is a story of mothers, daughters, and the importance of carving your own path.

From Lol k nm d kerstr m, international bestselling author of In Every Mirror She's Black, comes the highly anticipated second novel, focusing on the lives of three Black women as they fight their own personal struggles in one of the most egalitarian societies, Sweden.Can a career woman truly have it all?Powerful marketing executive Kemi Adeyemi has finally found the man she needs, but Tobias Wikstr m thinks she's the most selfish woman he has ever met for asking him to give up his life in Sweden and move to the US for her own comfort. Will Kemi be forced to stay if she wants to keep him while chipping away at her hard-earned career? As things begin to sour and challenge her relationship with Tobias, someone else moves back into the picture.Can having it all be a gilded cage?Looking into divorce in Sweden isn't what former model-turned-flight attendant Brittany-Rae von Lundin anticipated. Only jointly owned assets are split evenly between couples. Brittany gave up her career and came with nothing into Jonny's kingdom. Having had a child with him, her greatest fear for Maya includes being cut off from the resources she's become accustomed to. With a man obsessed with a ghost, trying to get away isn't going to be easy. And the deeper she digs into his past, the darker the secrets she unravels.Can you run from your past to have it all?After fleeing her home through a client to seek a new life in Sweden, Yasmiin finds love in the arms of Yagiz elik while carving out her own small corner. But as someone from her past forces Yasmiin to become a caretaker before she's ready, she now must confront and move beyond her teenage history, while following her dreams of becoming a makeup artist.Everything Is Not Enough follows the loosely intertwined and messy lives of Kemi, Brittany, and Yasmiin as they interrogate themes of place, prejudice, and patriarchy in Europe, proving--yet again--that Lola Akinmade kerstr m is the next great voice of nuanced contemporary women's fiction.

The brilliant second novel from the acclaimed author of In Every Mirror She's Black follows three women as they try to navigate life, love, prejudice and privilege in Stockholm.Yasmiin cannot comprehend what the policeman is saying to her. Her friend in a coma? Attempted suicide? Discovering she’s listed as next of kin, Yasmiin looks to her friend’s past to try and understand her actions, uncovering fresh mysteries at every turn. All the while, her own life seems to be running off course…Kemi seems to have it all: a high-powered job, a beautiful flat, a loving boyfriend. So why doesn't she feel more settled? Unsure whether its homesickness, heartsickness or sick-and-tired-of-the-same-old-sickness, she embarks on a destructive path to try and change things up…Brittany-Rae doesn’t remember the woman she was before she met her husband Jonny. She knows she was an ambitious, confident go-getter, but now she’s faded into Jonny’s domineering shadow. And as she unearths disturbing secrets about her husband, she’s focused on only one thing: her daughter, Maya, and ensuring she is as far away from Jonny as possible…The three women’s lives begin to overlap in the most unexpected of circumstances. Is it possible that the answer to their problems – though it seems impossible – lie in one another’s hands?

THE NAACP 'OUTSTANDING LITERARY WORK' FINALIST The brilliant second novel from the acclaimed author of In Every Mirror She's Black follows three women as they try to navigate life, love, prejudice and privilege in Stockholm.Yasmiin cannot comprehend what the policeman is saying to her. Her friend in a coma? Attempted suicide? Discovering she’s listed as next of kin, Yasmiin looks to her friend’s past to try and understand her actions, uncovering fresh mysteries at every turn. All the while, her own life seems to be running off course…Kemi seems to have it all: a high-powered job, a beautiful flat, a loving boyfriend. So why doesn't she feel more settled? Unsure whether its homesickness, heartsickness or sick-and-tired-of-the-same-old-sickness, she embarks on a destructive path to try and change things up…Brittany-Rae doesn’t remember the woman she was before she met her husband Jonny. She knows she was an ambitious, confident go-getter, but now she’s faded into Jonny’s domineering shadow. And as she unearths disturbing secrets about her husband, she’s focused on only one thing: her daughter, Maya, and ensuring she is as far away from Jonny as possible…The three women’s lives begin to overlap in the most unexpected of circumstances. Is it possible that the answer to their problems – though it seems impossible – lie in one another’s hands?

From Lol k nm d kerstr m, international bestselling author of In Every Mirror She's Black, comes the highly anticipated second novel, focusing on the lives of three Black women as they fight their own personal struggles in one of the most egalitarian societies, Sweden.Can a career woman truly have it all?Powerful marketing executive Kemi Adeyemi has finally found the man she needs, but Tobias Wikstr m thinks she's the most selfish woman he has ever met for asking him to give up his life in Sweden and move to the US for her own comfort. Will Kemi be forced to stay if she wants to keep him while chipping away at her hard-earned career? As things begin to sour and challenge her relationship with Tobias, someone else moves back into the picture.Can having it all be a gilded cage?Looking into divorce in Sweden isn't what former model-turned-flight attendant Brittany-Rae von Lundin anticipated. Only jointly owned assets are split evenly between couples. Brittany gave up her career and came with nothing into Jonny's kingdom. Having had a child with him, her greatest fear for Maya includes being cut off from the resources she's become accustomed to. With a man obsessed with a ghost, trying to get away isn't going to be easy. And the deeper she digs into his past, the darker the secrets she unravels.Can you run from your past to have it all?After fleeing her home through a client to seek a new life in Sweden, Yasmiin finds love in the arms of Yagiz elik while carving out her own small corner. But as someone from her past forces Yasmiin to become a caretaker before she's ready, she now must confront and move beyond her teenage history, while following her dreams of becoming a makeup artist.Everything Is Not Enough follows the loosely intertwined and messy lives of Kemi, Brittany, and Yasmiin as they interrogate themes of place, prejudice, and patriarchy in Europe, proving--yet again--that Lola Akinmade kerstr m is the next great voice of nuanced contemporary women's fiction.

'A sharply written story with messy, deeply moving characters' Taylor Jenkins Reid 'I was captivated by the writing from page one... Powerful' Lizzie Damilola Blackburn 'The story of Kemi, Muna and Brittany-Rae – Black women hoping to start anew in a society that does not see them – is a story for these times' Chika Unigwe 'A sexy, surprising, searing debut about love, loss, desire, and the many dimensions of Black womanhood. Timely and terrific!' Deesha PhilyawThree very different women are desperate for their lives to change. Though strangers, they are drawn to the same place: Stockholm, a city famed for its egalitarianism. But beneath the city's glittering surface lurk challenges old and new. Challenges that threaten to tear them down once and for all...

A Good Morning America Buzz Pick As seen in Vulture, Essence, Good Morning America, The Independent, Goodreads, PureWow, and many more "A sexy, surprising, searing debut about love, loss, desire, and the many dimensions of Black womanhood."--Deesha Philyaw, 2020 National Book Award Finalist & award-winning author of The Secret Lives of Church LadiesAn arresting debut for anyone looking for insight into what it means to be a Black woman in the world.Three Black women are linked in unexpected ways to the same influential white man in Stockholm as they build their new lives in the most open society run by the most private people.Successful marketing executive Kemi Adeyemi is lured from the U.S. to Sweden by Jonny von Lundin, CEO of the nation's largest marketing firm, to help fix a PR fiasco involving a racially tone-deaf campaign. A killer at work but a failure in love, Kemi's move is a last-ditch effort to reclaim her social life.A chance meeting with Jonny in business class en route to the U.S. propels former model-turned-flight-attendant Brittany-Rae Johnson into a life of wealth, luxury, and privilege--a life she's not sure she wants--as the object of his unhealthy obsession.And refugee Muna Saheed, who lost her entire family, finds a job cleaning the toilets at Jonny's office as she works to establish her residency in Sweden and, more importantly, seeks connection and a place she can call home.Told through the perspectives of each of the three women, In Every Mirror She's Black is a fast-paced, richly nuanced yet accessible contemporary novel that touches on important social issues of racism, classism, fetishization, and tokenism, and what it means to be a Black woman navigating a white-dominated society.Praise for In Every Mirror She's Black: "In Every Mirror She's Black is a wise and complicated exploration of the lives of three Black women in America and Sweden. Lola Akinmade kerstr m offers a sharply written story with messy, deeply moving characters, raising brutal questions and steering clear of easy answers. A book that will stick with you long after you've turned the last page."--Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Daisy Jones & The Six and Malibu Rising"In Every Mirror She's Black highlights the struggles of three women fighting to assimilate into a society that ignores their worth. These characters will pull at your heartstrings. Lola writes with a contemporary flair, highlighting the layered subtleties of the Black woman's plight. In Every Mirror She's Black will stay with readers for a long time."--Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of bestselling novels Here Comes the Sun and Patsy"In her debut novel, Lola Akinmade Akerstrom has given us a story that is at once enjoyable and disturbing as it explores the painful price millions of women around the world pay for walking around with black skin."--Imbolo Mbue, New York Times bestselling author of Behold the Dreamers

The authentic and insightful story of Kemi, Brittany-Rae and Muna, three Black women and their everyday experiences living in Stockholm, a predominantly white city. Three Black women. Three everyday lives. There is no one way to be Black. A timely and arresting debut novel about whatit means to be a Black woman in the world. Perfectfor fans of Queenie and Americanah. Three Black women building new lives in Stockholm become linked in unexpected ways to the same influential white man. Successful marketing executive Kemi Adeyemi is lured from the U.S. to Sweden by Jonny von Lundin, CEO of the nation's largest marketing firm, to help fix a PR fiasco involving a racially tone-deaf campaign. A killer at work but a failure in love, Kemi's move is a last-ditch effort to reclaim her social life. A chance meeting with Jonny in business class en route to the U.S. propels former model-turned-flight-attendant Brittany-Rae Johnson into a life of wealth, luxury, and privilege - a life she's not sure she wants - as the object of his unhealthy obsession. And refugee Muna Saheed, who lost her entire family, finds a job cleaning the toilets at Jonny's office as she works to establish herresidency in Sweden and, more importantly, seeks connection and a place she can call home. Told through the perspectives of each of the three women, In Every Mirror She's Black is a timely,richly nuanced novel that touches on important social issues of racism, classism, fetishization, and tokenism, and what it means to be a Black woman navigating a white-dominated society.

"A sexy, surprising, searing debut about love, loss, desire, and the many dimensions of Black womanhood."—Deesha Philyaw, 2020 National Book Award Finalist & award-winning author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies An arresting debut for anyone looking for insight into what it means to be a Black woman in the world. Three Black women are linked in unexpected ways to the same influential white man in Stockholm as they build their new lives in the most open society run by the most private people. Successful marketing executive Kemi Adeyemi is lured from the U.S. to Sweden by Jonny von Lundin, CEO of the nation's largest marketing firm, to help fix a PR fiasco involving a racially tone-deaf campaign. A killer at work but a failure in love, Kemi's move is a last-ditch effort to reclaim her social life. A chance meeting with Jonny in business class en route to the U.S. propels former model-turned-flight-attendant Brittany-Rae Johnson into a life of wealth, luxury, and privilege—a life she's not sure she wants—as the object of his unhealthy obsession. And refugee Muna Saheed, who lost her entire family, finds a job cleaning the toilets at Jonny's office as she works to establish her residency in Sweden and, more importantly, seeks connection and a place she can call home. Told through the perspectives of each of the three women, In Every Mirror She's Black is a fast-paced, richly nuanced yet accessible contemporary novel that touches on important social issues of racism, classism, fetishization, and tokenism, and what it means to be a Black woman navigating a white-dominated society. Praise for In Every Mirror She's Black: "In Every Mirror She's Black is a wise and complicated exploration of the lives of three Black women in America and Sweden. Lola Akinmade Åkerström offers a sharply written story with messy, deeply moving characters, raising brutal questions and steering clear of easy answers. A book that will stick with you long after you've turned the last page." —Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Daisy Jones & The Six and Malibu Rising "In Every Mirror She's Black highlights the struggles of three women fighting to assimilate into a society that ignores their worth. These characters will pull at your heartstrings. Lola writes with a contemporary flair, highlighting the layered subtleties of the Black woman's plight. In Every Mirror She's Black will stay with readers for a long time." —Nicole Dennis-Benn, author of bestselling novels Here Comes the Sun and Patsy "In her debut novel, Lola Akinmade Akerstrom has given us a story that is at once enjoyable and disturbing as it explores the painful price millions of women around the world pay for walking around with black skin." —Imbolo Mbue, New York Times bestselling author of Behold the Dreamers