A review by bookishplantmom
The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

This book tells parallels stories of women in two periods linked by a curious artefact which survived several decades. Nella ran an apothecary in the past and in current day Caroline finds a vintage vial from the mysterious shop which leads her to unravel historical secrets. There is more to Caroline’s part of the book but it’s all kind of… pointless to me? I didn’t care one bit about her arc. I was most interested in her investigation. So while the narrative structure was interesting I don’t know that it added anything to the story because I didn’t care about the context Caroline was in. I can’t help but wonder if the book would have been better off simply sticking to Nella and telling her story straight on. It was cute and all following Caroline but because her investigation kept being interrupted by plot points which were ultimately anti-climactic I was left underwhelmed. Overall the book was steadily paced which wasn’t slow per se but monotone. The writing was ordinary to me nothing particularly whimsical or poetic which I was hoping for when I picked it up. Generally I had a good time with the book. 
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