**spoiler alert**
Don't you hate when a book has all the potential of an enthralling novel but then falls waaayyy short??? That's how I'm left feeling about 'The Lost Apothecary.' Let down. Let down for all the ways a hidden, back alley, centuries old apothecary, dispensing poisonous tinctures and potions (only to women, for use solely on men) could leave me without a single breathless moment. Just look at all those awesome elements the author had at her fingertips ~ and yet, they did not come together for me in a way that left me on the edge of my seat, gleefully satisfied and sad to find no more pages in the book.
It's a dual timeline novel, which I do typically enjoy and as usual the older timeline was far more interesting than the modern one. It's the one that held all the fascinating pieces yet tripped me up with its incongruities. I have more questions about the apothecary owner Nella than the book coughed up. What the devil was wrong with her?? She kept talking about this debilitating sickness but it was never explained? The same sickness that turned her bones hard, gave her swollen ankles yet she leap over stone walls and outran constables?? Switching the apothecary from above board benign potions to secretive lethal ones because one man played her? That's taking "a woman scorned" to the extreme. Writing down the purchaser & the intended victims names seemed more like a way to potentially incriminate women instead of help them? I seriously doubt one of those women would have wanted to be immortalized for resorting to that particular action. Eliza turned out to be the bright spot of the book and the older timeline. The twist about her at the end was a positive moment.
The modern timeline was completely unmemorable. Caroline was a flat, flat character. For all the upheaval the author imparted about her life, I felt zero investment. The police could have locked her up to atone for Nellas sins and I wouldn't have spared her a shrugged shoulder. That sounds harsh but she just wasn't likable. Not all characters need to be likable but at least make me hate them or feel disgust or something about them! She discovered 'The Lost Apothecary' but it was glossed over as quickly as her phone battery ran out. Never to be revisited then kept secret to boot?? wth?? r
I regret that the review couldn't be more positive. The book had been much hyped. I immediately put it on my wtr list but unfortunately when I finished, it disappointed and I couldn't be more bummed about that outcome.