The Lost Apothecary

The premise was much cooler than the actual story. I've had this opinion on several books recently though so maybe it's just me.

It's a really exciting concept, but nothing substantial has happened in the first 200 pages of the book. DNF. This was my first BOTM purchase.

I'm disappointed. I was quite enjoying this until I neared the latter third and then it completely dissolved for me. Still, I was entertained, even if I was annoyed in the final sections with the tidy wrappings, the improbable explanations and the general silliness.

I liked Nella and Eliza's storyline but it was hard to get into Caroline's narrative. I also found the connection between the two timelines way too convenient. The writing and bones of the story had promise but it was just missing something for me.

CAWPILE Breakdown:
Characters: 9
Atmosphere: 8
Writing: 10
Plot: 10
Intrigue: 8
Logic: 8
Enjoyment: 10

I loved this book. It was so well written and I loved seeing how the women's stories intertwined. It was also fascinating to see how the past affected the future. I normally am not a fan of dual timeline books but I thought this one was so well done and added so much to the story.

I do love a good dual-timeline story! And The Lost Apothecary is quite good. It's told from the point of view of three main characters: Nella, the titular apothecary, dispensing medicines to heal or to kill; Eliza, who comes to Nella for a permanent remedy to a problem and becomes her assistant, of a sort; and Caroline, a modern-day woman who finds her marriage on shaky ground and who is struggling to find herself.

I really enjoyed this book! The premise drew me in, and the marvelous storytelling kept me hooked. The story isn't about women getting back at men, so much, although I can see where someone might think that. It's more about the choices women make and the consequences of those choices, and women finding their path even within the societal expectations of their time.

In Nella's timeline, 1791, women had very few rights. They couldn't divorce their husbands for abuse or unfaithfulness. Nella was trying to help women the only way she knew how. When she broke her own rule, that her poisons must never be used against women, that set into motion a devastating chain of events. Eliza wanted to help Nella. In trying to help, she made a choice that brought undesirable attention to Nella's secret shop.

Claire made the choice, when she got married, to give up on her dreams. She didn't enroll at Cambridge like she wanted to. Instead, she took the job that provided steady income and supported her husband's goals. She lost sight of her hopes and dreams in the process. When she found the small vial half-buried in mud, she made a choice to see what she could find out about it. That choice changed the course of her life.

This is a story well told. The ending left me with a little bit of a sense of mystery. What was of this world and what might not be? Not a cliffhanger, just enough of a question to let the reader envision what the future might be like. Delightfully gothic, mysterious, and with characters you will embrace, The Lost Apothecary gets five stars from me. I loved it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Park Row Books for an advance copy. All opinions here are mine, and I don't say nice things about books I don't like.

This book was frustrating.

There were parts, whole sections even, that I liked. And then it'd come back to Caroline's perspective, and I'd have to restrain myself from yelling at her.

Caroline drove me up the wall. She's in London by herself on what's supposed to be her tenth anniversary trip with her husband. Caroline just discovered he's been having an affair. Still, she decided to make the trip anyway to have space to sort through her feelings. Caroline comes across an old vial while on a mudlarking tour of the Thames. She dives into researching its history, partly as a way to avoid her problems at home. What follows is a former history student breaking into a historic site, disturbing it, hiding it from people with actual knowledge of the period and how to process sites (not to mention her new friend that works for the British Museum) and manages to be suspected of murder because she's so protective of this site she won't explain why she was researching poisons. Or hey, maybe showing the cops THE PICTURES ON YOUR PHONE OF THE REGISTER WITH THE SUSPICIOUS INGREDIENTS YOU WERE GOOGLING (Oh, sorry, not googling. Or searching. Navigating to the phone's web browser).

My issues with the story that aren't based on my dislike of Caroline:
• There were attempts to create suspense and mystery when it wasn't there and just made the story lag. Honestly, if I had been reading the book instead of listening, I would have skimmed large chunks of the text because it just wasn't necessary.
• The descriptions around any use of technology were weird and just too descriptive. For example, Caroline would navigate to her camera app. I'm not planning on visiting the British Library and replicating her archival searches, so I didn't need a step-by-step guide on using the filters.

I did not like the ending whatsoever, but perhaps my biggest problem with it is that Caroline throws the vial back in the river. The vial that led Caroline to this whole journey of uncovering the apothecary, which she'll be writing her dissertation on at Cambridge. And she threw it away because she was keeping Eliza's story to herself? Was this a purposeful juxtaposition to Nella keeping a register of customers so history wouldn't forget those women? At the same time, Caroline quite literally throws a record away? Either way, it was a stupid and unnecessary ‘symbolic moment.'

Audiobook Review: All of the narrators did a good job, but I'd sometimes up the speed during Caroline's sections to get through them faster. Perhaps that's because I'm from the US, and the accent sounded bland and neutral compared to Nella and Eliza's sections. Perhaps it's because the character was annoying. Who knows. I especially loved the performance for Nella's sections – the raspiness and the slowness just felt perfect for the character.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars - Caroline has fled to London alone to reevaluate her life after finding out just days before that her husband has been cheating on her. During a tourist adventure she accidentally stumbles upon, she discovers an artifact that rekindles her passion for history and draws her into the mystery of an apothecary who lived in the same area over a century earlier. Nella's shop is different from other apothecaries - it is just for women. Not only that, if you are a woman who has been wronged or betrayed by a man, Nella can help you get rid of that problem with a seemingly natural death.

In The Lost Apothecary, Caroline's and Nella's stories are intertwined with that of a young girl, Eliza, who briefly becomes part of Nella's life. All of the women have been betrayed by men, and uncovering Nella's story helps Caroline process her own feelings. This is a fun combination of modern and historical fiction with some elements of mystery and lots of girl power. I wasn't entirely satisfied with the ending, but still enjoyed the book overall, and it was a quick read.

The premise sounded strong and promising, but I can't help but feel a little disappointed at how things played out. It wasn't thrilling enough to be a thriller or mysterious enough to be a mystery, and while I really enjoyed the historical setting, it just wasn't enough for me to rate the book much higher.

This book covers two different points in time: Caroline in present-day London who is trying to make the best of an anniversary trip despite her marriage being on the rocks, and the dual viewpoints of Nella the apothecary and her brief young assistant Eliza in the 1790s. Nella has been a secret dispenser of poisons, with a very strict set of rules about who they can be used on. This personal code is called into question with one very particular client, and the book largely centers around the buildup and resolution of this one particular case. Caroline, in present-day London, stumbles on the mystery of these two individuals through finding a relic from Nella's shop while out on a spur of the moment mudlarking trip, and spends the rest of her trip unravelling the details while also trying to figure out how to move forward with her personal life.

I have to admit that I was not interested or invested in Caroline's viewpoint at all. She felt a bit bland, and her personal struggles with her marriage and life choices felt tired and not all that compelling. I feel like she existed solely to tell the reader the story of Nella and Eliza, and her personal struggles only existing so the reader can draw obvious parallels between the two points in time.

I also was disappointed at how Nella and Eliza's story played out. I was expecting something a bit darker and mysterious given the premise of a female apothecary who poisons men, but very little of the business of being an apothecary was shown. This just didn't quite scratch the I-want-to-read-about-poisonings-please itch I was expecting it to.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Didnt mesh with this one. Felt flat, 3 points of view, two timelines, and one voice. The mystery in present was fun to follow and the book has a touch of magic and a satisfying ending. Overall just okay for me.

Many thanks to Park Row for the opportunity to read this advance copy in return for an honest review!
A woman on a London vacation at an inflection point in her life happens upon an antique bottle with a bear inscribed on it. Her love of research and historical connections leads her to not only solve a mystery that no one was aware of, but also gain clarity about her own desires for the future. A dual time line is set in 1791 London and features a woman apothecary who not only dispenses healing herbs and medicines for other women, but also helps them deal with men in their lives who have done them wrong.
The story grabbed my attention at once, and the dual time line was very well done, without giving the reader whiplash about which time period you were reading about. The idea of women supporting and taking care of other women is brought up over and over again in the novel, with the acknowledgement that many women have little about their lives that leave a mark on the world that they can claim, particularly in the 1791 story. The reader comes to love these characters, in particular the apothecary and the present day woman. There are some twists and turns in the story that I didn't see coming, along with some outcomes that were easy to spot ahead of time. Overall this is a well-written, enjoyable read that was just right for my reading life right now.

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