I didn’t feel like there was any real danger or threat in almost every situation. So it was kind of downhill from there.Įverything just kind of came together a little too easily for all the main characters. I know that sounds kind of silly – especially since I didn’t live back then and couldn’t possibly know – but I think it started my inability to suspend disbelief. However, there was a very annoying instance of them using a word in a context I can’t remotely believe would have been used in the late 1700s. That being said, I did find the past storylines a little better. The same goes for the other characters in the present day – they didn’t feel real or very interesting and most of their behaviors were a little too convenient. The main character of the present storyline didn’t feel fully fleshed out. A book I read and loved a while back did something similar ( check out that book here) but I think this story was lacking in the present dayparts. Let me explain why…įirst of all, I really liked the back and forth timeline in theory. In any case, my friend never finished and I felt a little obligated to push through, even though I didn’t find it particularly enjoyable.

Or perhaps it just didn’t resonate with us the way it did for other people? Well… The description may have been a bit more aspirational than actual. We both read the description and thought it would be a fun, female-focused story. I chose this with my friend back in March 2021 for our Book of The Month. With crackling suspense, unforgettable characters and searing insight, The Lost Apothecary is a subversive and intoxicating debut novel of secrets, vengeance and the remarkable ways women can save each other despite the barrier of time. When she stumbles upon a clue to the unsolved apothecary murders that haunted London two hundred years ago, her life collides with the apothecary’s in a stunning twist of fate-and not everyone will survive. Meanwhile in present-day London, aspiring historian Caroline Parcewell spends her tenth wedding anniversary alone, running from her own demons. But the apothecary’s fate is jeopardized when her newest patron, a precocious twelve-year-old, makes a fatal mistake, sparking a string of consequences that echo through the centuries. Women across the city whisper of a mysterious figure named Nella who sells well-disguised poisons to use against the oppressive men in their lives. Hidden in the depths of eighteenth-century London, a secret apothecary shop caters to an unusual kind of clientele.

“A bold, edgy, accomplished debut!” -Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Alice NetworkĪ forgotten history.

March 2021 Indie Next Pick and #1 LibraryReads Pick Named Most Anticipated of 2021 by Newsweek, Good Housekeeping, Hello! magazine,, Bustle, Popsugar, Betches, Sweet July, and GoodReads! Lost Apothecary’s Back-of-Book Description

The lost apothecary book review