Our May Book Club Pick: 'The Lost Apothecary' By Sarah Penner

This month’s Scary Mommy Book Club pick is ‘The Lost Apothecary’ by Sarah Penner

We are excited to announce that our Scary Mommy Book Club pick for May 2021 is The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner.

Why did we make this pick?

What we love most about this book is its atmosphere: we are whisked back to Georgian London, where you could get lost in a maze of back alleys and mixed up in murder all too easily. We also loved the three central characters in the story, and how they learn from and lean on each other, even though some of them are separated by over 200 years. Finally, it’s a completely great page-turning summer book to bring on the plane, to the pool, or just your porch for a few minutes away from the real world (and your kid asking for a snack five minutes after eating a snack).

Buy The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner

‘The Lost Apothecary’ Book review

More than 200 years ago in a dark, twisting back alley in London, a mysterious apothecary provided poison to hundreds of women who wished to kill a man their lives. In the present day, another woman stumbles upon one of the apothecary’s strange vials washed up on the Thames and begins a search that will change her life.⁣

⁣ This atmospheric, witchy novel follows these two women—and a precocious 12-year-old-girl—through the streets of London as each approaches a crossroads in their lives. The apothecary, Nella, is doubting her long career of assisted murders; present-day Caroline is considering the next step after discovering her husband’s infidelity; and pre-teen Eliza has to choose her path just as she’s becoming a woman.⁣

A book about secrets, betrayal, disguise, and taking chances, ‘Lost Apothecary’ explores why we make the choices that we do, and how those choices can echo through generations. It’s also about female relationships and female power, and what can come from straining to hear women’s voices that have been lost to the past.⁣

⁣ A page-turner that may (or may not) contain a bit of magic, and that definitely contains a serial killer, this quick, dark, fun read is our pick for the month.⁣

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