The Love Remedy sounded so promising.. an apothecary seeks the help of a grumpy private investigator to uncover who may have stolen her formula to treat croup. Working side by side to solve the mystery, the main characters break through invisible walls each have built strong their hearts.

The book was fine. The writing was good, I could tell the author is talented in her style and expression. I was expecting more mystery, and unfortunately, the romance overshadowed the mystery. The pacing was a hurdle. As I found it to be so slow, I struggled to continue picking up the book. The main characters lack chemistry. There wasn't an urgency to the plot, and I missed that. There were some important themes and issues tackled within the story, and I appreciate the authors portrayal of ideas. Many of these issues we still struggle with today. I do want to point out that regency romance isn't a normal vibe for me, so my review should be taken with a grain of salt. If I'm honest, I would have dnf'd if not for the fact I was provided with an advanced copy. It wasn't a bad book or poorly written, I just didn't connect to the characters and lacked any interest in the outcome.

What worked?
Strong female main characters
Feminist ideas and gender stereotypes discussion
The cover

What didn't work?
Slow pacing
Flat characters
Mystery was a secondary plot

Who should read? I think those who love the Regency Era romance genre would really enjoy this novel. There's plenty of 4 and 5 star reviews, so I'm obviously in minority.
Rating: ⭐️⭐️ it was okay

Funny, tender, steamy, and smart! While this is linked to the author's previous series, it fully stands alone. Stay tuned through the author's note for the historical context!

The Love Remedy had so much potential for an intriguing mystery and steamy romance. I love a story about a strong female character who is willing to ignore society’s rules about what is "proper" for a woman. Lucy was trained by her father and inherited his apothecary but in London society it is an unheard of occupation for a woman. In spite of how hard she works, Lucy's shop isn’t doing well and when her suitor steals and patents her lozenge formula, she is furious. She hires a private investigator, Jonathon Thorne, to help recover the formula and another missing recipe.

I liked Lucy and Thorne, and Thorne's daughter Sadie was a delight. The focus on women's health and reproductive rights in 19th century England was an interesting story as well. And although Thorne is biased by his aristocratic upbringing, I appreciated his willingness to listen to Lucy and her sister Juliet and adopt less rigid beliefs.

But the story itself seemed choppy and the writing and execution left a bit to be desired. There isn't much depth to the mystery and most of side characters are rather one-dimensional. There are some spicy open door scenes between Lucy and Thorne, however, that many readers will love.

If you have read Everett's series The Secret Scientists of London (which I have not), I gather that a few of the characters show up in this story as well. If you enjoyed that series, this one may resonate more with you.

I appreciate the publisher and Netgalley for the copy I received in exchange for reading and reviewing honestly. I liked the cover and I thought the premise had a lot of promise. I love a story about a strong female character, especially when she is ignoring society’s rules about what she should or should not do. Lucy is an apothecary despite it being pretty much unheard of for a woman. Despite how hard she’s working her business isn’t doing well and when her suitor stole and patented her lozenge formula she is furious. Disillusioned about love and determined to take care of herself she is beyond the moon angry when she realizes her next formula for treating croup has gone missing. She hires Jonathan Thorne a bookkeeper who works for an agency that also dispenses justice to prove her ex Duncan stole the recipe and get it back. Thorne and his daughter have been on their own since her mother died and his parents disinherited him when he refused to foster out his mixed blood daughter. This is a romance/historical fiction/light mystery. I found the mystery to be the most interesting so I was disappointed it was barely mentioned and not fully developed. Jonathan and Lucy didn’t have chemistry and their relationship felt bland for me. I actually thought that all of the characters weren’t as developed as they could be and the only character I liked in the whole book was Sadie (who doesn’t like a young girl obsessed with animal anatomy?).

This historical romance is set in 1843 London, where women’s choices were certainly limited. Lucy and her sister, Juliet, were encouraged by their parents to become apothecaries, an option traditionally reserved for men. Lucy feels the weight of responsibility for keeping their parents’ business going after their death, for both her brother and sister. When a formula for a throat lozenge is stolen from her, Lucy hires Thorne to investigate. Thorne is a unique character, a former boxer and a disinherited nobleman. The chemistry between Lucy and Thorne sizzles. I really appreciate the feminist sensibilities of today imprinted on a story in the past. Recommended. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

The Love Remedy by Elizabeth Everett 💚
The Damsels of Discovery, Book 1
Interconnected Standalone

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Adult • Romance
ARC Review
352 pages
🗓️ March 19th

💚 historical romance
🧪 single dad
💚 grumpy x sunshine
🧪 “I shall never fall in love again”
💚 suspenseful romance
🧪 women of science

📍 “How come good things have to be hard? Why can’t being happy be easy?”

If there’s a book to be read now, it’s this one.
If there’s a book of old that is so clearly relevant right now, it’s this one.
And if you want to be terribly entertaining with all kinds of banter and angst and all the good literary things in a romance, this is it too.

Something called me to request this book. A feeling. A sixth sense. Women’s intuition. Whatever it was, I thank the stars for that. This was exactly what I needed, when I needed it.

Lucy, our apothecary owner and woman of science, has been wronged. The outraged! By a young man with sweet lovely lies and apparently no qualms in stealing formulas from his own lover 🤨 The traitor! But she won’t let him get away with it. Oh no! She shall hired the services of Mr. Thorne to prove her former would-be-fiancé is indeed a thief 😠

Only things get complicated. Most isn’t as it seems and maybe… just a little bit… kinda… sort… the need to kiss Mr. Thorne surfaces every time Lucy sees him. But don’t worry, she will never ever give her heart again. And he will never ever fall in love with a beautiful woman again. See, not *that* complicated.

Oh and there are frogs in this one too. 🐸

A great historical fiction romance between a single female apothecary and the single father detective who helps her track down and prove her ex stole the formula to what is sure to be a lucrative tonic. This was well researched, full of strong female characters and perfect for fans of authors like Evie Dunmore. I also really enjoyed the audiobook version narrated by Elizabeth Jasicki. Many thanks to NetGalley, Berkley and @prhaudio for a complimentary digital and audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

I sometimes have a difficult time with regency books, because there are often outdated ideas about women, sexuality, morals, etc. that if not portrayed well can be tough to get through. Balancing the reality of the time period you're writing in and how we've evolved as a society is difficult and, for me, The Love Remedy didn't always strike the right tone.

There were things I really enjoyed in this story. I liked how dedicated Lucy was to giving women and girls the opportunity to learn about science and math and that she was unwilling to compromise what she wants out of life. I liked the idea of Lucy and Thorne working together to solve the mystery of her stolen formula, but that plot line felt kicked to the sidelines a bit which was disappointing.

There were a few parts that I struggled with. I needed Thorne to grovel 150% more than he actually did. He basically calls Lucy ungodly and that he wouldn't marry her since she's had sex before marriage (even though he was a fully willing participant in the deed) and it was absolute BS. You could tell he was struggling and trying to change his mindset from how he was raised and what society expected, but it wasn't clear enough that he understood how much of a hypocrite he was being.

Also, although this is the start to a new series of interconnected stand-alone's, there were a decent amount of references to people and plot lines from a previous series and it made me feel like I was missing potentially necessary context and it became confusing at times.

Overall, this was sadly not one of my favorites, if you are someone who has read and enjoyed the first series (The Secret Scientists of London) I think you would probably also enjoy this. Thank you to Berkley for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for this arc.

I’ve been trying to get through this book because I want to leave an honest review for the whole book. I have been in it for almost a week and I can’t get past 20%

I’m just a bit bored with it. It feels so disconnected to me. I don’t feel like I’m getting to know the characters or situation and the writing has a tone that is hard for me to stick with. I keep having to reread parts because it feels monotonous and my brain turns off.

I feel kind of bad for not finishing because I hardly ever dnf, but I don’t think I can enjoy this book. I feel like if I actually finished I’d probably rate it lower, but because I didn’t, I’m rating three stars.

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for this arc in exchange for an honest review!

This one ended up being disappointing, though I'm finding that I'm REALLY enjoying regency era romance lately. This one definitely had potential, but most of the story seemed to far removed for me. There wasn't enough...intimacy in a lot of these scenes, and I don't mean sexually. There was just no description really on what the characters were doing throughout scenes. Just a lot of dialogue and internal dialogue. Not all scenes were like this but it was something that stood out for me.

And Thorne didn't grovel NEARLY ENOUGH. He essentially tells her that she's not marriage material and is ungodly (that obviously wasn't issue enough to fuck her though), and he basically says one her two things and that whole part of their issues just goes away? Nah, fuck that guy. I liked Thorne, and I think what I'm really starting to enjoy in regency romances are the MMC's that are spitting in the face of "tradition" and treating the FMC with nothing less than respect and support. Thorne had that for a bit but that whole conversation that led to their third act breakup was infuriating.

I'd be interested to see what EE comes out with after this; I think she has the ability to produce some good romances but not quite what I'm looking for yet.

The Damsels of Discovery series is a spin-off of this author’s Secret Scientists of London series. Athena’s Retreat is still mentioned, but not featured; Winthram (the doorman from Athena’s) is here, and Victor Armitage and his Guardians of Domesticity are here as background noise in this book. I don’t know if they’ll feature in upcoming books, but I’d love to see them brought to their knees. I do like this story featuring ordinary folks and not aristocrats as in the earlier series.

Jonathan Thorn is the disgraced, disowned third son who made his living as a boxer. That career gave him a disfigured face, and the discovery of his illegitimate daughter gave him a new lease on life. He is now a sober, morally straight, churchgoing, single father who works as an investigator for Tierney & Company. He has considered marrying his landlady, the pious Mrs. Merkle, to provide a mother figure for his nine-year-old daughter, Sadie. Mrs. Merkle, however, has sold the rooming house and moved to the seaside – so Thorn and Sadie take lodging above the apothecary that is his next assignment.

Lucinda Peterson is a fully accredited apothecary – one of only two female apothecaries in London (maybe England). The other is her sister, Juliet, who works tirelessly to relieve women’s suffering in the East End. Lucy is a brilliant chemist who developed a formula for a throat lozenge – only to have it stolen by her erstwhile lover, Duncan Rider. How could she have been such a stupid fool? Love is definitely NOT for her. Now, she’s developed another formula for a salve to treat baby’s croup. A patent on that formula could earn enough money to save her apothecary and allow her to hire assistants to run the shop so she could concentrate on her formulations. Except, that formula has gone missing. She just knows that somehow Duncan Rider has stolen it also. Since she’ll not stand idly by this time, she goes to Tierney & Company to hire a detective to catch Duncan red-handed.

I enjoyed this author’s writing style and was generally pleased with the storyline. I liked Lucy and I liked Thorn very well. Both were good solid characters – each with their own set of flaws to overcome. I thought Lucy was much, much, much too forgiving and was a doormat. I also didn’t feel the romance – the lust, yes – but not the romance. An epilogue would surely have helped the feeling of the romance and could have given us some grounding for their future. Do the grandparents participate in the future? Do they reside over the apothecary? Oh! One more thing. I detest that the villain(s) got no punishment – none – nada – zilch. I’m glad to have read this book, but I wouldn’t read it a second time. However, I will try the second book in the series to see how it goes. I wonder if the next books in the series will feature Lucy’s sister, Juliet, and her brother, David. That could be interesting since I didn’t care for either character in this book.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

🅑🅞🅞🅚 🅡🅔🅥🅘🅔🅦
🧪 The Love Remedy 🧪
Elizabeth Everett
#BerkleyPartner

My favorite historical romances usually fall into the Regency category, but this was a totally different take on historical romance with a bit of a mystery mixed in. There is also a strong theme of women in STEM and how women were treated during the Victorian era. This was also way steamier than I was expecting, which I never complain about!

In a Victorian tale, apothecary Lucinda Peterson seeks the help of private investigator Jonathan Thorne when her prized formula goes missing. As they navigate challenges and a growing connection, they discover that the remedy to their troubles lies in embracing a shared future filled with love and happiness.

Thank you @berkleyromance for the gifted copy of this book! It releases on March 12th!

Read if you enjoy:
💛 Historical Romance
🧪 Apothecaries
💁🏼‍♀️ Feminist Themes
👨‍👧 Single Dad
👩‍🔬 STEMinism
🎭 Family Drama
🔎 Who Dunnit

it had a little too much religion for me (any religion is too much religion for me), and I didn't appreciate the hero's biases.

The premise of The Love Remedy was so promising. Another feminist historical romance from Everett with a female apothecary, a former gentleman prizefighter single dad, and a stolen medicine formula was bound to be wonderful. And all of those things *were* wonderful. Add in an adorable kiddo, a trans side character, a bisexual brother, and an abortion/reproductive health clinic and this had the makings of a perfect story for me.

Unfortunately, I was just…bored. A lot of the story is Thorne, our MMC, walking around investigating the missing formula without us actually seeing him make any headway. Or Lucy, our FMC, treating people that come into the shop and then lamenting her stolen formula/the apothecary’s slip into ruin. There’s not much happening. And I don’t even necessarily have to have a big ole plot going on. But all of these scenes didn’t feel like they were doing much besides taking up page count. Plus I felt exactly zero chemistry between Thorne and Lucy, no matter how much I wanted their to be.

I mean, Everett nails the historical research as always and I’m always a bit sad when I don’t enjoy a historical romance in this vein. Because the historical part is awesome and really digs in to pieces of history I don’t know as much about. Plus it highlights the fact that queerness, women’s healthcare/bodily autonomy, and feminist movements aren’t something new.

The execution just fell really flat and I couldn’t get the book to hold me interest.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for an ARC as a Berkley partner! All thoughts and opinions are my own!

A lonely apothecary meets a grumpy private detective in this historical romance. I'd recommend you give this book the time it deserves to set the stage for the story, as the second-half is better than the first. Romance blossoms, a mystery unfolds and secrets are revealed in this love story. The Love Remedy story line features inspiring aspects such as women in science, a single father and fear of letting go for love.

There's plenty of tension, angst, and a bit of spice I didn't see coming. Its scary we are still battling many of the same health issues Lucy and her sisters fight so hard to provide women of this time.

Look forward to the next installment in the The Damsel's of Discovery series.

Thank you, Berkley Publishing Group.

I really enjoyed this story and the slow-burn romance between Lucy and Thorne. I loved Thore, he is grumpy and filled with soft squishy marshmallows, especially regarding his daughter. She was adorable, and I loved watching her discover her love for scientific things. I really enjoyed Lucy and how hard she worked to help the people in her community, and what she was willing to do to uncover/prove who she thinks the person is who stole her formula.
Her frustrated rants, when she goes to hire Thorne, had me laughing out loud. I had a lot of different feelings for her siblings. It felt like a lot of things between them could have been resolved if they just had a conversation, and when certain things came out they were forgiven pretty easily and I would have liked to have seen them grovel at least a little bit. I loved all the customers who came into the shop and loved Sadie, Thornes's daughter.
I thought this was a sweet romance with great side characters and a pretty decent mystery. I would read more by this author.

THE TENSION AND ANGST IN THIS ONE!!!!

What a thoroughly enjoyable and addicting read! This was a page-turner for me, and I stayed up reading so I could finish it. The premise was so interesting and I did like a lot of the plot, but what I most enjoyed was the chemistry, banter, and tension between Lucy and Thorne. I am not a single-dad lover, but I loved this one, even though he is very flawed and throughout the book has to wrestle with his society-set biases. Lucy is a great main character also, and I love how she and her sister confront (what I imagine to be) real issues with medical care that were present in their time period.

This book was spicier than I would've thought, but I actually really liked the smut and the tension leading up to it made it even better!

I wish the ending hadn't been so rushed, because I didn't feel completely satisfied by the resolution but overall I really liked this and will definitely read more from Elizabeth Everett.

The Love Remedy is the first in a new series by Elizabeth Everett. Everett has become an auto-buy author for me as I love all of her stories and don't expect that to change. They feature strong female characters in a time when women weren't necessarily in charge of their world and I'm here for it.

Lucy is our fmc and she owns / runs an apothecary. When her recently perfected formula for a salve to treat croup goes missing, she is convinced the thief is someone who wronged her in the past. To get the proof needed (and her formula back) Lucy hires a private investigator. Enter Jonathan Thorne.

Jonathan works for Tierney & Co but he hasn't always. His past includes being a rich wastrel and a boxer. But as a single father, he has changed his ways and now does whatever he can to provide for his daughter. When he is assigned a case to find a missing formula, he meets Lucy and is intrigued. As they work side-by-side to find the culprit, they are drawn to each other in more ways than they expected.

I truly enjoyed this story. Both Lucy and Jonathan have been beat up (literally and figuratively) and they are doing whatever they need to in order to survive. But it's hard and they form a connection that eventually turns to more than just a friendship. I loved the side characters in this story too - Lucy's brother and sister, Jonathan's daughter, and all the customers that engage at the apothecary, they all had a role to play and only enhanced the main characters and their stories.

As I said, I'll be picking up more from Everett in the future. Her books pull me into the character's lives and won't let me go until I turn the last page and I love that about them. If you're looking for a new historical romance, definitely pick this one up and don't forget about the other books too! They all have a secure place on my bookshelves and I look forward to adding more.

Lucinda Peterson, a pharmacist at her wit’s end, is trying to keep the family business going. When her missing Rx recipes turn up at her former lover & rival pharmacist’s shop, making him rich, Lucinda is determined to set things straight. Enter private investigator (and bookkeeper) Jonathan Thorne who lends Lucinda a hand in her business and personal affairs. This Victorian romance has smart women, an “ugly” leading man, and steamy sex scenes. Romance fans will love the first book in this new Damsels of Discovery series.

A spirited, but lonely apothecary meets a grumpy former fighter-turned-private agent in this historical romance.

This was a nice, easy read for me. I finished it in a day and am floundering between rating it three stars or four. I have settled on three for now, but that could in fact change. I did enjoy the book, however, there were aspects that I think could be improved upon.

The romance, for example, was underdeveloped. I believed in the two main character's chemistry and attraction to one another. But I never quite bought they were fully in love versus lust. Secondly, the resolution to the ongoing "mystery" was lackluster and honestly a bit silly. And lastly, so many issues could have been avoided if the siblings had just sat down and had an honest conversation. Half the time it felt like the most mature person in the room was Sadie, Thorn's nine-year-old daughter.

That being said, overall, I liked Lucy and Thorne as individual characters. I only wish we would have seen a little more growth on their end. Still, I was entertained so I'll probably check out the rest of the series in the future.