The Lost Apothecary

3 women of direct ages, in 2 different ages, discover their own power, like it were passed through a baton in a relay.

One look at the cover and you are drawn towards the enigma it holds – a vial against a bluish-black background with different flowers. The cover itself feels mysterious and secretive – just like the characters in the book.The book is set in London – spanning two different times – the eighteenth century and the twenty-first century. The book starts with a woman named Nella in 1791, who receives a letter with the words “For my mistress’ husband, with his breakfast. Daybreak. Feb 4’’ at her shop in Back Alley. Nella knew what it meant – a maid would come to collect well-disguised poison for her mistress’ husband. Nella is an apothecary, but she only helped women who were wronged by tyrannical men. Though everything was kept a secret, she diligently maintained a register of all orders.Nella is surprised when a twelve-year-old girl named Eliza comes to pick up the poison. However, she hands over the poison to the little girl. Eliza comes back again as she felt that her master’s spirit was causing her pain. She felt Nella’s elixir will cure her. While, Eliza is at her shop, a rich lady named Lady Clarence comes to take her vial and it is then that Nella realizes that the woman needs poison to kill her husband’s mistress. Though Nella is reluctant to give it to kill another woman, she is forced to give it away for the fear of her life. But as fate would have it, the woman’s husband dies. The search for apothecary begins. Meanwhile, Eliza finds a book of magic spells and starts brewing tincture to reverse bad fortune.Cut to present – there is a parallel story of another woman named Caroline, a historian (not by profession but by heart), who has come alone to London on her anniversary trip because just before the trip, she discovered that her husband’s infidelity. Dejected and running from her own terrors, she meets a man who suggests him to go mudlarking at the Thames river. And here she finds a pale-blue vial, with a rudimentary etching of an animal – a bear. It reignites the history lover in her and as she searches for the origins of the vial, leading her to the woman apothecary at Bear Alley who gave poisons in vials for her woman patrons only.Caroline stumbles on Nella’s shop, which was in ruins. She accidentally finds the register which Nella maintained for her clients.She discovers the secret of the lost apothecary. The little secret should remain – between women because only women can save other women. In the process of this discovery, Caroline makes her own life’s decisions.The book is very high on literary content. The two timelines are woven together beautifully and not even once do the reader gets lost in time zones. The descriptions are vivid – you can actually feel them happening. An intriguing novel for people who love history and mysteries!

They copy received in Okay Condition, it was a bit defective too.Talking about the book!The Lost ApothecaryAuthor: Sarah PennerRatings: ⭐⭐⭐⭐Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery🧿 Before writing a review about the novel, let's appreciate the artwork of the cover page. Damn it's so beautiful, the colors, the detailing, everything is so on point.🧿 The Novel drives us through a eighteenth century apothecary shop who has a unusual client base. A mysterious woman named Nella is selling potions to various clients to use them against oppressive men in their lives. Nella's life is jeopardized when a twelve-year-old makes a fatal mistake and awaits consequences coming in their way.🧿 The novel on the other side, also takes us through a life of a historian named Caroline who spends her wedding anniversary alone in London, running from her own demons. In this current world she comes across a clue which collides whith the apothecary's life unfolding a twist of fate where everyone won't survive.🧿 It's a novel of secrets, I loved how the author has presented two timelines, further connecting each other with creating a lot of suspense through the stories. The supporting characters also play a major role to lead the story further. Overall it was a good read, the author taking us through life of multiple characters with some different storyline in Historical Fiction makes the novel really a good read.So yaa enjoyed reading the novel, and coming from Sarah Penner who is actually a Finance Person is quite impressive.

The Book was delivered as shown in the product description.cant wait to read it...The Book looks awesome and it's so aesthetically pleasing ✨

Bought this book simply by going over its cover. So much for "Don't judge a book by its cover".Jokes apart, I liked the story and the pacing - which goes backward and forward - about 200 years to the present. The characters were well thought of and the contents too. Though I suspect there might be a sequel, given the way the protagonist was last mentioned towards the ending of the book. It'd surely be interesting to find more about what happens to her next.And one of the interesting yet cool feature of the book is the subtle life messages the author gives, through the characters.All in all, a super read.

I enjoyed the parallel way of telling the story between the past and the present. The protagonists are really brilliant in this book. Reading this felt like living in it and witnessing the story unfold in front of my eyes. I absolutely adored this. The writing style was great. The whole Apothecary concept amazed me. Overall I recommend this book If you are looking for a fun Historical story with strong female characters. This was suspenseful and Fascinating.

This is bad. I wouldn’t put it up there with one of the worst novels I’ve ever read, but nevertheless this book is still quite cringe.This is one of those novels that time hops between different characters; Caroline in the present day and Nella and Eliza who lived two centuries before. The premise of the book is actually pretty interesting. A woman in the late 1700s named Nella is operating an apothecary where she provides customers with herbs that wouldn’t normally be toxic unless ingested in large amounts. She essentially helps her customers discretely kill troublesome men in their lives in a way that would appear natural to authorities. Nella meets Eliza, a young girl who visits her shop on behalf of her mistress and their story begins to unfold. In the present day, Caroline, a woman betrayed by her husband after 10-years of marriage, travels to London for a solo anniversary trip and discovers a vial that unearths the story of Nella and Eliza. The author obviously did quite a bit of research on poison and herbs, but wasn’t able to create a compelling story around her characters.Major spoilers ahead.The biggest issue with this novel is the complete and utter lack of character development. It’s hard for the reader to feel any emotion or connection to these characters. Caroline, the woman from present day is, quite frankly, a moron. She discovers the old apothecary and after spending hardly any time in there looking through its contents, comes to the determination that it’s most definitely a historical site that she discovered and must be preserved. She mentions several times throughout the book how she “trespassed” on this lost property and broke the law and heaven forbid if anyone found out that she committed such a major crime! Like girl, people knowingly and unknowingly trespass ALL THE TIME. Is it illegal? Yes. Is it going to get you tossed into a cell next to an axe murderer? No. Get a grip. Caroline also enlists the help of a librarian named Gaynor to uncover the lost history of this vial she found. Since she works at the British Library, Gaynor is actually the one that uncovers the news articles and resources that provide Caroline with the starting point or base for her “research.” Without Gaynor, Caroline’s research project would never have lifted off, which she somehow fails to see and withholds information from Gaynor for fear that she might want credit. Caroline, one of those people who read a few Jane Austen novels and now fancies herself a budding expert in Romanticism, constantly blows smoke up her own you know what by saying what a huge discovery she’s made all on her own in her 3 days as a London tourist. You would think this woman discovered remnants of the True Cross or the Holy Grail instead of an interesting local story. Everything is about her and how she did this entirely by herself. She’s quite unlikeable, narcissistic, and lacks any depth.Eventually Caroline ends up dragging Gaynor into her marital drama because somehow, after spending a very short amount of time with one another over the course of 2-3 days and sharing no personal information whatsoever, she sees Gaynor as her friend and as someone who’ll stick their neck out to help her. Developed in a way where her decisions make no sense to the reader, Caroline’s storyline is boring to read through, disjointed, and nonsensical. Every chapter for Caroline is a series of major coincidences that would make even the Brontë sisters roll their eyes. Caroline finds this historical vile only a few minutes after joining a tour group, she easily stumbles upon the hidden apothecary after getting directions from Gaynor. This apothecary happens to be in a busy area of London and coincidentally seems to have survived not only a number of construction projects, but also German air raids during WWII. And wow, the door just so happens to be open and only Caroline, within a matter of seconds with only the light from her phone, finds the hidden back room. And when she finds Nella’s registry, she easily deciphers what it means and how these herbs when ingested in large quantities can be lethal. Then she just randomly applies to Cambridge, one of the most reknowned universities in the world, for a 9-month master’s degree program apparently culminating in the submission of a dissertation. What?! From my understanding, dissertations take years to research and write. But not for super tourist Caroline! She’ll be earning her master’s in only 9-months!Then there’s Nella and Eliza. So much potential here squandered. The first thing that is amiss with this storyline is that Eliza, a girl of 12/13 years old, has never heard of her period. Anyone that has read history books or historical fiction knows that “the bleed” was something young girls knew about during this time period because it was an indicator of when they could be married off or begin reproducing for their current or future husband. Eliza has never heard even a whisper of this and she automatically thinks her period is an evil spirit that is haunting her. Yes, I am being serious. Her mistress, who she has a close relationship with, notices the blood and apparently does nothing to explain menstruation to her. Eliza begins to take actions based on this idea that she’s being haunted. It becomes this obsession until finally, about 260 pages in, Nella tells her it’s a monthly occurrence. Eliza is written as if she’s actually 7 or 8 years old as opposed to a 12-13 year old with a job and responsibilities.Then there’s Nella, the apothecary who turns to providing women with the means to off their husbands because she was majorly betrayed by a man from her past. Nella was probably the most interesting of the three characters, but that honestly didn’t require much. She kept a record of all who came to her shop and what they purchased. There was this focus that the record that Nella kept was to keep these women’s memories alive; but surely had Nella asked any of her customers if they wanted to be outed as a murderer 200 years later, I would imagine their answer would be a resounding no. Their lasting impression on earth to be a snapshot of a decision made from a place of anger, heartbreak or pain that would paint them as evil in the eyes of those without context. And Nella was the one who decided that this is what those women would be remembered for. Super empowering 🙄.Overall, this is a book that should’ve spent less time on the mundane (such as paragraphs about climbing a fence and phone batteries dying) and more focus on the actual characters and plot development. This could’ve been one of those books that challenge your idea of what’s right and wrong. Instead of simpleminded Caroline, the author could’ve used the customers of the apothecary as characters and gone more in depth on their desire to resort to murder. Was it a last resort? Was it for fear of safety? Was it out of anger, revenge, bitterness, fear? The stories of the women who sought out the apothecary rather than the idiot who, with significant help, stumbled upon its remnants, would’ve been vastly more interesting. But alas, here we are. A generous two measly stars for this abomination.

I loved THE LOST APOTHECARY. The author, Sarah Penner, did an amazing job with writing two tales that went back and forth between the late 1700s and present day London. The older tale involves a woman who inherited an apothecary from her mother. She's often sad and lonely, missing her mother and a family life that she never had. In addition to creating medicine to help people, she secretly creates poisonous tinctures to help wronged women in London get revenge on their husbands. It's only known by word of mouth.In present day, a woman comes to London from the U.S. to for a trip that was supposed to be a tenth anniversary trip for her and her husband...until she finds out right before the trip that he cheated on her. So she goes alone. While there, she goes "mudlarking" in the Thames River on a tour, and discovers an old apothecary bottle that once was used to dispense poison to one of the women of London in the 1700s.Penner does an amazing job penning (pun intended) these two interweaving stories, leaving the reader hanging from chapter to chapter with a mini cliffhanger that forces the reader to keep going. I was really impressed with Penner's writing skills and use of words. She's definitely talented. And I'm a bit envious. The character development of the main characters was fantastic, and I loved the clever, little twist that was added (no spoilers!).While there's a mystery throughout the novel, it's not a "thriller" type of book. But the author really held my interest throughout each and every chapter. I'm looking forward to reading Penner for years to come.

I enjoyed this tale about an apothecary and her apprentice of sorts. It also mixed well with an incredibly sad modern day story.

Everything about this book was great. The characters were entrancing.I really love the art of plants as medicine . The history in itself was intriguing and the setting also was wonderful. You could actually feel what is may have been like at the time. It wakes you up to the injustices of women , i love the fact that its a book about women helping women in there own kind of womanly ways.If you want a quick interesting read, read this you won't be dissapointed.Now i must read her next book on the seance.

This book was so beautiful and riveting in its own right. I loved the way it went between Nella and Caroline, the storylines eventually intertwined. The ending was beautiful and without giving too much away, this book has a much deeper meaning to be experienced than the average book. Look within yourself and keep your mind and heart open. It will find you. Fate, if you will.