By Melissa Barbuzzi
In The Lost Apothecary, Caroline finds herself alone in London on her tenth wedding anniversary after discovering her husband's infidelity. As an aspiring historian, she decides to explore the city and finds an old apothecary vial that she can't resist investigating. As she deepens her investigation, Caroline’s world begins to collide with the history behind the vial.
I love, love, love the concept of this book, and the narration was great on audio! An apothecary that’s trying to right the wrongs of the world? Sign me up. Any type of historical fiction? I’m in!
The Lost Apothecary is historical fiction (based around the 1790s) that bounces back and forth with present-day POVs. I loved the multiple POV/split time period aspect as seeing the apothecary from the past and present perspectives added a different element to the story that I loved. I do wish that we got more of the past story and the history of the apothecary. I think Nella’s story deserved so much more attention and depth—it definitely left me wanting more. I did enjoy the present-day perspective, but I did think it took away from the whole apothecary piece. To me, it felt like a bit from a different story that was kind of just plopped into this book.
Regardless of the past and present aspects, I still really loved this book. It was filled with strong female characters who were always chasing their dreams. I absolutely loved the witchy apothecary/spells piece, I thought that was really interesting, and I would love to learn more about apothecaries now.
This book was recommended to me for ages, but I always pushed it off as I was unsure about it. I’m so happy I finally decided to read it, because it is definitely worth the hype, in my opinion.
Overall, I rated The Lost Apothecary a 4 out of 5 stars. There was so much that I loved like the history aspect, the apothecary, and the binge-worthiness. This was a super fast-paced and exciting book, and I haven't read anything similar to it in the past. If you love historical fiction or apothecaries, this book is right up your alley. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and if you’re going to pick it up, it was amazing on audio!