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A review by samanthampg
The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner
3.0
I believe this book suffered from a case of inappropriate marketing. This was promoted as a mystery/thriller - and from the description that's kind of what you'd expect. Except not once did I feel like I was reading such a book.
In short - the story fell flat from the expectations that I had for it. A novel about a lost apothecary who sold poisons to ONLY kill men and the modern day historian who is uncovering her truth sounds enticing and wonderful! It's something that I was expecting to rip me out of my world and into theirs. But it didn't.
Instead what we got was a short and simple tale about an ailing apothecary who still grieves for her losses in life, her child friend who is scared of ghosts and a modern day historian going through her own marital/life issues. The story itself was not BAD and that's why I'm giving it three stars. I think if the book was promoted as what it really was, my disappointment might not have overshadowed the rest of the story.
I think there was a good message in the story, Caroline (modern day) took a lot from the past and it helped guide her future. However, I felt unsatisfied with the ending of both stories as they were both vague. Some people might like that, I do not.
Overall, I think there was a lot of room for growth with this book, and the premise was an incredibly clever idea. Had it been promoted as a historical fiction, or a contemporary novel than I think it would have left more people praising it for it's descriptive writing, it's important messages and it's strong female characters!
In short - the story fell flat from the expectations that I had for it. A novel about a lost apothecary who sold poisons to ONLY kill men and the modern day historian who is uncovering her truth sounds enticing and wonderful! It's something that I was expecting to rip me out of my world and into theirs. But it didn't.
Instead what we got was a short and simple tale about an ailing apothecary who still grieves for her losses in life, her child friend who is scared of ghosts and a modern day historian going through her own marital/life issues. The story itself was not BAD and that's why I'm giving it three stars. I think if the book was promoted as what it really was, my disappointment might not have overshadowed the rest of the story.
I think there was a good message in the story, Caroline (modern day) took a lot from the past and it helped guide her future. However, I felt unsatisfied with the ending of both stories as they were both vague. Some people might like that, I do not.
Overall, I think there was a lot of room for growth with this book, and the premise was an incredibly clever idea. Had it been promoted as a historical fiction, or a contemporary novel than I think it would have left more people praising it for it's descriptive writing, it's important messages and it's strong female characters!