The Lost Apothecary

I felt like the historical aspect could have made for a great book on its own, but the modern day stuff was a bit too much of a mess.

2.75/5 stars

This book wasn't bad, but it also just doesn't deserve 3 stars...

I have never read a book written by a woman where I was entirely convinced was written by a teenage boy. How does such an interesting concept turn into such junk? I almost dnf multiple times, but it was bearable on audiobook at 2.75 speed so here it is. How in the hell did this book get listed as BOTM??

3.5 stars

I enjoyed this. I loved Nella's perspective.

I was updating the wrong entry in Goodreads for this book!

3.5 stars, rounded up for the beautiful cover.

I loved the second half of this book; the first half I found rather slow. However, I felt appropriately shocked at some of the twists, some of which I didn't see coming! All in all, worth reading but perhaps not going to blow you away.

disappointing read after a strong start :(
i wasn't interested in the present day story at all, ok maybe for the tiny hopes of a sapphic romance (I'm seeing a pattern here with all of my reads) which never fruited. present day mc made sooo many silly decisions and i just didn't like her character and couldn't stand by any of the weird choices she made, her internal thoughts were quite frustrating. and oddly, the narrator had an English accent for this American character during all thoughts and first person description. but whenever she spoke aloud she put on an American accent. why not just have an American accent for the entire present part? they also had an Extremely English man say sneakers aloud. #petpeeve

i was enjoying the historical parts, nella and eliza were great characters but the whole thing was a little slow. and far far far too many women spoke about the longings of their wombs. maybe the author is going through something wrt to that but it felt unesessary.

i think this shows promise and i look forward to see what the author will write next. the premise was so intriguing, just a shame about the execution.

DNF at some 60 pages

I was looking forward reading this. Hidden feminism giving powerless women some power.
But - I can't stand the whining. I can't stand the dramatics. I can't stand the stupidity. And there's a definite flavor of marysueity and deus-ex-machinism... a certain feeling of that the heroines won't ever really get into real danger or problems and there is always something convenient happening that will make everything right without them needing to fix it. Most of the problems, drama, conflicts are emotional and feels exaggerated and imaginary.

Reminds me of Addie LaRue, and I don't like that book.

So, not going to read any longer. It could be good later on, but I doubt it. I'll go find something that's good from the beginning.

Gelezen als audioboek

Dit sloeg gewoon nergens op.
Ik had hoge verwachtingen, wat met die synopsis en schitterende cover, en het begon ook veelbelovend, maar het ging al snel bergafwaarts. Alles, van plot tot personages, bleef gewoon aan de oppervlakte, niets werd grondig onderzocht, te veel leunde op toeval en alles ging belachelijk gemakkelijk. Mijn vermogen om mijn ongeloof te negeren, werd grondig getest en uiteindelijk gebroken.

Het concept was er, maar de uitvoering sloeg gewoon nergens op. En dat einde, jezus mina, waarom? Zucht.

3.75
It was slow at first and holidays came by. Finally picked it up to finish it. There are three perspectives and two timelines which is interesting. Love the last several pages with information and recipes.

So, the girl with the reading slump which would be me has had a very hard time finding a book to say I LOVED it to. In my humble opinion, this book is the one that everyone should read. When I reluctantly finished The Lost Apothecary, I did so with a sigh and chills, my most visceral of 5-star reviews. This dual timeline tale takes place in the 1790s and present-day London, centering around a mysterious hidden apothecary shop and its effect on the lives of two troubled women. This satisfying read will leave you looking forward to more from debut writer Sarah Penner.

It's a cold night in February of 1791 and in an unmarked back alley in London, Nella sits awaiting her customer.
Nella is an apothecary, as her mother before her was. Women came from all around for her healing potions and salves. Taking care of women. Nella is carrying on the tradition in another way. Women come to her for poisons that will release them from the men who have done them wrong. It might be morbid but I loved the darkness of the interactions between Nella and the women. What is impressive is the rules that must be followed if the poison is to be given and used. The poison must never be used to harm another woman. And the names of the victim, poison, and the killer are to be recorded in a register.

As the pages turn you meet Nalla's next client what is different about this client is that she is a 12-year-old girl named Eliza. You would think or at least I thought what would a 12-year-old girl need to kill a man? It turns out that her employer sent her to get poison to be used against her husband. Little does Nella know that this meeting will alter both of their lives as well as the life of present-day historian Caroline? the woman who is spending her anniversary alone after her husband has an affair. Which in my opinion if Caroline lived in the era of Nella, she would want one of the poisons to use on her husband. What propels the present-day story is a vile with a bear on it and the researcher in Caroline is awakened. She does anything and everything to figure out what about the magic that was Nella and Eliza and the magic of the shop. I will say that Sarah Penner has the write stuff. This was a great five-star read hands down.

So, I have attempted to read this twice.

The first time I started to read this I did DNF it. I got to 20%-25% before I DNF'd. The reason why is because I was not sure if I was bored, stressed out due to school, or just too overwhelmed with life. So, I put the book down and left it alone.

This time in 2022, I wanted to try to read this again because life has calmed down. I managed to make it to 45%-50% of the book before I DNF'd it once again. The characters did not leave an impression on me. As soon as I ended my 30 minutes a day reading time I would forget them. I was tired of the repetition. And, some other factors within this book.

I think 2 stars is appropriate, I might recommend this book to someone that has not read in a long time, or I would not recommend this at all.

I knew I was taking a risk because even though I love a good secret library book, it's so common for magic and witchcraft to be used to artificially deepen an otherwise dull plot these days. That's what it felt like happened here - the whole failing marriage aspect and then hidden history aspect didn't complement each other well enough to play off each other/together, and neither was well-developed enough to carry itself on its own.

I really wanted to like this one...
I didn't realize how much it annoyed me until I was relaying the plot back to someone out loud. The whole book was just poorly thought out. All the women wanted, with equal measure, to have babies and to kill men. All the men were unfaithful and/or too stupid to find a concealed door in the span of 200 years. Don't forget the psychopathic child that thought her period was the ghost of the man she murdered. Nope.

Woah boy, that was a ride.


First things first, I read this as a buddy read with 3 chapters each that. I think the best way to experience this book is to limit yourself and not rush through.

Now then. What can I say about the plot? Thrilling. Absolutely thrilling and nail biting. That also might just be being very easy to scare but also the book being that suspenseful.

I love the characters in this. At times there were people that get you so angry but at times some that just make you want to hug them.

Also, this book is not very plot-centric but rather character driven. It's hard to go into details without giving spoilers.


The flaws? One of the modern day Caroline and also one of our main protagonists, goes on her weekend anniversary trip alone after her finding out her ex cheated on her and finds something historical in her attempt to get away.

Not very original. And kinda unrealistic. I found myself questioning that how easy it must have been for someone to do the same things as her. Someone who lived in the very city.


All in all though, the ending created a lot of discussion in my group and while we had different yet welcome opinions, we all walked away appreciating this newest addition to our shelves treasuring all the characters and the adventure that this book made us experience.


Final thoughts:
Kinda cliche, at times unrealistic yet intriguing and personal at the same. I rate this 4/5 stars as a very enjoyable read.

Great read! The formatting is wonderful if you love different POVs and different time period shifts. Multiple twists that were unexpected; once you thought the story was done there was a final one that rounded out the novel perfectly.

Ok, I want to go to London right now. This was such a fun story to listen to. I love dual timelines, and this novel definitely did not disappoint. The narrators were spot on.

I definitely found Nella and Eliza's story more enjoyable than Caroline's. Caroline's seemed too easy and convenient. Putting aside all deep thought and reading into things, this book was flawless. There were a few things that weren't 100% believable, but that's the best part of fiction. I'll definitely be reading this book again.

I was a little disappointed that Caroline put her own dream on hold so her husband could follow his. I was glad that she finally got her act together at the end and put in her application to Cambridge, but it seemed a little rushed. I would think that she'd want to finalize her divorce before moving halfway across the world, but maybe she felt that 10 years was long enough to wait.

Also, I was worried for a while that Nella was going to push Eliza over the bridge railing. I don't really understand how she survived the jump, but maybe the elixir she drank really was supernatural and saved her life.

The Lost Apothecary was a fun book combining a period story with gothic tones with a contemporary drama. Overall this was an enjoyable book, although the plot felt a bit too neat and perfect. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Sarah Penner's debut novel The Lost Apothecary is an intriguing dual time-line narrative of three women. Nella lives in 18th century London, with its horse-drawn carriages and cobblestone streets. It's a time when women have little power over their lives and often find themselves in intolerable, abusive marriages so, in a secret space behind her regular drugstores, Nella concocts special potions which she sells to women to poison their oppressors. Into her shop one day comes Eliza Fanning, a precocious 12-year-old sent by her mistress to obtain the means to murder her adulterous husband. Through a series of mis-adventures, Eliza winds up becoming a quasi-companion and assistant to Nella, who is increasingly unwell, and their relationship forms a strong through-line in the book.
Penner's third protagonist is Caroline, visiting London in the present on what was to have been her 10th wedding anniversary before she caught her husband cheating and decided to take travel alone. While on a mudlarking expedition near the Thames, she discovers an old apothecary vial and on a lark, decides to spend time researching its unusual markings. This leads her to a new friend, Gaynor, who works at the British Library and eventually to an abandoned property where she discovers the ruins of Nella's long-buried shop and her journal detailing her clients and their purchases.
Like many dual time-line novels, one story often outshines the other. For me, the tale of Nella and Eliza proved vastly more compelling than the modern-day narrative, so I felt a bit disappointed whenever the focus left the streets of old London to describe Caroline's growing dissatisfaction with her life's direction and her amateur pursuit of the mystery of the secret apothecary. Her research into historical records never quite captured me as much as the older tale but I did appreciate her growth through the book and the life decisions she made in the last chapters.
With its themes of female power and agency, paired with an interesting mystery and historical underpinnings, this would be a great read for book clubs. Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an advance eARC in exchange for an honest review.

If you see your wife reading this book, ask yourself if you are doing all you can to make her happy :)

This book I listened to on audiobook while I gardened. I had 2 hours of work to do but stretched it to the entire length of the book. My family couldn't believe how hard I worked (I turned the same patch of the garden several times–ha!).

I found both the current timeline and the past timeline engaging. I love books with strong female protagonists and we had three here (two past, one present). The premise of going to a chemist to take care of the man who wronged you is dark and fun at the same time. Who hasn't secretly plotted the demise of a bully or jerk? But it wasn't handled flippantly. There was mystery, intrigue, chases, and secrets. What more could you ask for?

You could ask that the ending surprise you. Bingo!
Read this book. You will love it.

Eh. Love the cover, was excited to read some historical-pharmacist-murder mystery but it was none of those, basically.

In present-day London, Caroline Parcewell is taking a solo trip to London to recover from the shock of finding out about her husband's infidelity. While mudlarking on the River Thames, she finds a mysterious engraved vial that leads her on an investigative journey to find out the truth behind an “apothecary serial killer” from the 1790s.

While I never felt that the central mystery was boring per se, and I never felt like the book dragged, at the same time I also had no burning desire to find out anything about the characters, their relationship, or the answers to anything happening at all. The dual timelines happening here felt a little unnecessary, and I kind of wished that we had simply one linear timeline with more horizontal development for the characters and issues there.

I went into this a little worried that this was going to turn into a blanket “all men are trash” hate-fest. I'm all for female empowerment and exploring issues revolving around women, but I don't feel that this has to be achieved at the price of falling back on just another form of sexism. The book skirts around that, but luckily doesn't quite toe the line there, IMO. The narrative just shies away from going all out on the misandry, although there was certainly a lot more of that in the historical timeline (although understandably so given the gender inequalities of that time period).

What the book perhaps lacked doing was having actually more redeeming male characters. There were only two prominent male characters here (Mr Amwell and James) and I thoroughly hated both of them. The one and only redeeming male character, Tom Pepper, was barely around for 5 pages. I was also largely indifferent to the main female characters, Eliza, Nella, and Caroline. While both their timelines took turns being the more interesting one, I never really felt attached to any of them. The writing for Nella's perspective felt a little too involved, over-serious, and overwrought in a way, that I was either annoyed, or couldn't take it seriously. Eliza was slightly better, but nothing much happens with her or to her (aside from that horrifying incident with Mr Amwell which was thankfully averted - I really would not have wanted to read about that). Caroline and her marriage was just a constant source of frustration and annoyance to me throughout the book, although she got more tolerable as a character as the book wore on and as she drew further apart from James.

I just didn't understand what was the whole point of the adventures, both in 1790s and in the present-day, and why they were supposed to relate to each other? I get that Caroline had some character development in the sense that she went from gaslighting herself about how she felt about James, to properly realising that she needed to pursue her own dreams and get away from him - that's fine, but i don't feel like it was clear how that related to her whole adventure with the apothecary's bottle. I'm even more unclear about what Eliza's role was, aside from her last sacrificial act and magic trick of turning up alive again. Also, how did she make such a strong, amazing, and effective tincture to protect her from drowning and frigid waters on her first try?! She barely got any tutelage from Nella before this! I just felt like the connection between the storylines in the 1790s and present-day wasn't very strong.

The central mystery with Lady Clarence just really fell flat for me. When I checked my progress and saw it at about 75% through, I was like, “Wait, you mean this is the main mystery of the book?!” It all felt like a side story leading up to something bigger because the stakes never felt high to me. The overall ending was okay - I didn't even expect it to be super mind-blowing but it still fell a little flat for me. The twist about Eliza surviving her fall just felt a bit... eh whatever. And we never even really found out what happened to Nella after she reunited with Eliza at the end.

I was also super confused about this whole big deal they made out of this “apothecary serial killer” in both the blurb for the book as well as in the story itself. There wasn't a lot of focus on the whole apothecary aspect aside from those two poisons that Nella made. There wasn't a ton of serial-killing-ness as I was led to believe either since only two men died in the whole course of the book, really. In terms of the narrative, how on earth did she become associated as a serial killer or having it termed as "murders" when the police really only knew about her involvement with Lord Clarence's death?. The book felt mainly focused on these 3 women struggling with individual issues around their relationship with men, which is fine but definitely wasn't what I expected going in and didn't come through in the blurb of the book. Even then, I also felt like that wasn't properly explored because all those gimmicks around it regarding the dual timelines, the apothecary murders, etc. really distracted the narrative from that, so everything felt really disjointed and “what's the point of this?” in the end.

All in all, I'm hovering between 2 and 3 for this one. In the first 2 chapters, i was already feeling a 3/5 but hoped it would prove me wrong. Oh well.

I got this title through the Book of the Month and all I have to say is wow. At first, I was skeptical based on the book description and though it would be full of troupes. The typical wives kill husbands and marital disruption. But it is so much more than that. It is about finding oneself, the deep bonds of female friendship, and magic. Absolutely loved this book and it kept me turning the page to see what happens next.

Not quite what I expected, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. I have seen mixed reviews on this one and I can understand why. It's not a fast-paced read nor is it fantasy or witchy although it's touted by some as reading that way. I would say it's more of a historical/present day mystery which I found to be interesting. I enjoy dual timelines and the author does well with that here.

Even though this can be a tad slow, I would still recommend it. It's an interesting premise and does make for a fun read.

3.5 stars

This is a fun quick read for me. The cover is gorgeous, and one of the several reasons I picked it for my book of the month! I enjoy historical fiction and who isn't intrigued by a little shop of poisons? I wish it was pushed a little further (more mystery, more poison, more mystical), but I'm excited to see what's next for this author. She has all the right ingredients and it's a great first book.