The characters in this book were all quite loveable or at least relatable. How do they intersect? This will be the biggest mystery of them all in this thrilling historical narrative. We follow both timelines as they parallel each other in more ways than one would imagine two lives two centuries apart. The modern day witnesses the perfect marriage falling from grace. The historical time line revolves around a fallen apothecary that once dispensed healing remedies, now poisons. The Lost Apothecary is a historical fiction that revolves around two timelines, one in the late eighteenth century and the other in modern day. But that gives it such a negative connotation, it’s better for you to all see it for the merits that I’m giving it 4.5 Drink Me Potions, and let me guide you through that below! This was one of my anticipated reads since March, and I finally got around to it! I’m quite torn between giving it 5 Drink Me Potions or not, but in the end I decided that it wasn’t quite worthy of the last little half potion.

As she deepens her search, Caroline’s life collides with Nella’s and Eliza’s in a stunning twist of fate-and not everyone will survive. When she finds an old apothecary vial near the river Thames, she can’t resist investigating, only to realize she’s found a link to the unsolved “apothecary murders” that haunted London over two centuries ago.

In present-day London, aspiring historian Caroline Parcewell spends her tenth wedding anniversary alone, reeling from the discovery of her husband’s infidelity. But when her new patron turns out to be a precocious twelve-year-old named Eliza Fanning, an unexpected friendship sets in motion a string of events that jeopardizes Nella’s world and threatens to expose the many women whose names are written in her register. Once a respected healer, Nella now uses her knowledge for a darker purpose-selling well-disguised poisons to desperate women who would kill to be free of the men in their lives. One cold February evening in 1791, at the back of a dark London alley in a hidden apothecary shop, Nella awaits her newest customer.

Rule #2: The names of the murderer and her victim must be recorded in the apothecary’s register. Rule #1: The poison must never be used to harm another woman.

A female apothecary secretly dispenses poisons to liberate women from the men who have wronged them-setting three lives across centuries on a dangerous collision course.

The apothecary sarah penner