Book Reviews – Page 2 – Jenn V. Reads

By Sarah Penner

“To me, the allure of history lay in the minutiae of life long ago, the untold secrets of ordinary people.”
The Lost Apothecary

All right-I need to preface this review with the following: I read this book last year, but am reviewing it to make sure the blog has some content at the beginning. There isn’t going to be too much of a summary of the plot since I read a library book and don’t have it for reference anymore.

Now that that’s settled…

Summary

The Lost Apothecary is a historical fiction novel of sorts. A portion of the book is based in modern day London, while the rest is based a few centuries before. The book follows 2021 Caroline, alone on her 10th wedding anniversary. She and her husband are having some problems. While roaming the streets she comes upon a group of people going mudlarking. (Mudlarking is where you go down to a river at low tide and look for very old objects that had been discarded in the river long ago.) While with this group, Caroline finds a small apothecary bottle with the image of a bear etched onto it. This prompts Caroline to channel her inner historian to learn the history of the bottle and why it was thrown into the river.

200+ years earlier, Nella uses her knowledge of herbs to create potions specifically for women. She has two rules with these potions…1) the potion must never be used to harm another woman, and 2) both the murderer and victims names must be written in her ledger. For years, Nella has flown below the radar of Scotland Yard-but a chance encounter with a 12 year old girl puts everything in jeopardy.

My Thoughts

Plot

Ok, so I LOVED this book! The format of the plot is not particularly new. The dual time period books are very Fiona Davis. However, I really appreciate that the two main characters are not related, and how the story in the past does not directly affect the story in the future-meaning the outcome of one is not dependent on the other. I also loved the idea of a murderous woman apothecary. At that time, women apothecaries were not looked upon well. And an apothecary that catered predominantly to abused women was just so interesting. I was engaged the entire time!

Format

I listened to it as an audiobook, which I normally only do on my commute, but I just couldn’t stop. I think I finished this book in like 2 days. Like normal, I did read it on a faster speed, but that had nothing to do with the narration.

I loved the distinct voices of the different characters. In some audiobooks it is not always clear when different characters are speaking-especially if each chapter is in a different characters voice. But in this book, I could easily follow which time period we were in and who was talking just by the timbre of the voice.

I did buy this book in print recently, and I’m considering reading it again. I expect I will love it just as much.

Writing

Like I’ve said in other places in this review, I was thoroughly engaged in the entire book. I kept going because I wanted to know what happened next. As someone with a history background, I appreciated a lot of the references-but those references were not so obscure that people without the background would be lost.

One of my favorite parts of the writing was the different voices. Not only did the narrator do a great job, but the author also. Even just the way each character formed ideas and sentences made them so distinct. This is a skill many writers lack since they write with their own voice.

Characters

Caroline-I loved Carolines development throughout this book. She started out so miserable and really grew into herself through her adventure. She had so much strength and passion, that I was always rooting for her!

Nella-What can be said about the murderous apothecary other than I so related to this woman on so many levels. She was almost like a feminist locked in the late 1700s, supporting women who were in awful situations and putting herself at risk in the process. As we move through the story, it becomes clear that there is a reason for Nella’s behavior. But regardless of that, I never saw her as a villain or even as a bad person. I think that is what makes Nella’s character so unique, and it brings up an interesting conundrum. If good people do bad things for good reasons, are they actually a bad person?

Eliza-Eliza is an interesting character in that she was almost not a character. If things had not gone wrong, Eliza would have just been another name in Nella’s register. But since things obviously did go wrong, Eliza becomes the downfall of everything. But she has such a good soul-and while it’s the situations that make everything difficult for her, it’s how she handles them that make her a compelling character

Final Conclusions

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. 4 stars.

By Susan Wiggs

“You’re never alone when you’re reading a book,” Mom used to say.
The Lost and Found Bookshop

Summary

Natalie Harper had a job she couldn’t stand. But the job was stable and predictable, so she stayed…until one fateful day when she received news that would change her life. Her boyfriend and mother were both killed in a plane crash, leaving Natalie alone to care for her ailing Grandy and the struggling bookshop.

Natalie’s plan was simple: sell the bookshop and go back to her old job. But when it turned out that Grandy was technically the sole owner of the store and he wasn’t going to sell, Natalie had to find another path. First, she quit her job to return to the shop full time. Second, she hired a handyman (Peach), who happened to be the father of one of the shops most loyal young customers, to help with all of the building repairs. Lastly, she tried to drum up some interest in the bookshop in an attempt to save it from disaster.

Natalie, Peach, Grandy, and their friends find hidden artifacts, make new friends, and find love, all in an effort to save The Lost and Found Bookshop.

My Thoughts

Plot

I had been in a reading slump for a bit before picking up this book, so I had been looking for something quick and easy to read. Boy was I in for a surprise. This novel was much sadder than I had ever expected-not that that is necessarily a bad thing. Natalie losing her mother and boyfriend, Grandy forgetting, maybe losing the bookshop?

For me, the most difficult part was Grandy forgetting. I recently lost my Grandfather, and my Grandmother has dementia-so she sometimes forgets he has passed. Just like with Grandy, every time we tell her that Pop is gone, her heart breaks all over again.

Was I worried about them losing the bookshop? Not really. I would place this book pretty squarely in the chick-lit genre, so picking it up, I expected everything to work out in the end. That wasn’t a deal breaker for me though, since the joy of reading this type of book is the journey more than the destination.

And the ending-I feel like everything was wrapped up in a neat and tidy little bow way too quickly. I was left feeling like the last little bit was super rushed when the rest of the book kind of dragged.

Format

For this title, I did listen to the audiobook at 1.5 speed. For me, all audiobooks read extremely slow, so I speed up everything. Emily Rankin read the audiobook, and she has been the reader on many other books I have listened to. Her voice is easy to listen to, and she is good at portraying emotion in her voice. I have no issues with format.

Writing

I felt that this book was pretty predictable. Early on, Natalie calls an author’s agent and was told that he wasn’t available to do a book signing for 2 years-at that point, I knew he would come into play at some point. When they introduced Peach, I knew he would end up with Natalie. For some readers, this might be a turn off. For me, it’s hit or miss. In this case, I wanted something short and predictable. Some readers might take pause at the language in this book-but in my opinion, those people need to get over themselves. If you want a clean book, then go read some Amish fiction, not a chick-lit title where you will expect at least one sex scene. There were also some descriptions in this book that didn’t make sense to me. For example, there are comments about how in shape Natalie is, but never once do we see her even attempting exercise. The same is true for Peach-though his could be explained away by his job.

Characters

This book should have been a character driven book, and I was mostly disappointed. The exceptions to this disappointment are Grandy and Dorothy. In the sections from Grandy’s point of view, I could really feel his pain, confusion, and fear with knowing he is forgetting things. I felt you could really see the world from his eyes. And Dorothy-don’t get me started on this adorable little girl. She was spunky and resourceful, and a great side character.

The rest of the main cast of characters were sub-par for me.

Trevor-Trevor is portrayed as this Adonis of a character that swoops in to save everything. Do I think he was poorly written? No. But because of the predictability of the book, I knew he wasn’t going to last. His perfectness was a weird turn off for me too. Like, from the moment he was introduced, I was waiting for the shoe to drop.

Peach-A sexy handyman/walking encyclopedia/divorced father/avid reader? What can this man not do? Well, except tell Natalie that he likes her for like 98% of the book. His name comes from his military service/his Georgia birthplace, and it kind of sucks. And he’s obviously attracted to Natalie, but sometimes it seems almost creepy when he is in the bookstore. I mean, you know he and Natalie are going to get together in the end, but there was never a point where I was rooting for them.

Natalie-OK, so this girl was so confusing. On one hand she is described as a toxic boss, but then on the other she is described as this sweet, caring individual. She starts the book pretty full of herself, and you would expect that over the course of the book she learns to not be, but that just doesn’t happen. She is proud of Grandy for returning the found items to their owners-but she shouldn’t be surprised since he’s already done it at least one other time in the book. She dates Trevor even though throughout the book she finds herself continuing to be interested in Peach. She doesn’t take the time to get to know people, and doesn’t seem to take the time to care about the people she already does know.

Final conclusions

I mean, I finished the book, which means it did what it was supposed to do. Would I recommend it to others? Probably not. 2.5/5