Augusta Stern is forced to retire from her job. Her eightieth birthday is quickly approaching, but her (now former) employer thought that she was nearing seventy because Augusta needed to give herself more time with her job. Work is life for Augusta, and she doesn't know what she will do without it, until her niece picks out a retirement community for her in Florida. Rallentando Springs turns out to be quite the surprise, as Augusta comes face-to-face with people of her past, including the man who broke her heart decades ago.

Thank you Lynda Cohen Loigman and Macmillan Audio for the audio ARC of this heartfelt story in exchange for an honest review. Every thought depicted here is mine and mine alone.

This book had every element included in it that I love: mystery, love, and a touch of magic. I absolutely loved learning about pharmaceuticals in the early 1900s. The dual timeline gave such a rich perspective into both Augusta's early life and her late life, making the story complete and full. Love was depicted in such a rich way, especially with Augusta's relationships with her great aunt Esther, her father, her sister, her niece, and, of course, Irving Rivkin.

Although I liked the audio version of this book and I liked the narrator, I definitely will want to go back and purchase and read the physical copy. It is too intricate and cozy to not read twice. I absolutely recommend the audio version, but also think about purchasing a hard copy to read too. I know that I missed parts of the story listening to the audiobook.

A beautiful warm love story. You never too old to find your happiness. People cross your path in life for a reason and you never know what kind of impact you may have on another person throughout life. Thank you Net galley for the advanced copy of this audiobook. The characters are all amazing and you get wrapped up into their lives and stories. Narrators are so pleasant and get you wrapped up into the story. Told in dual timeline from the 1920 and 1980 from teenagers to a retirement village. Don’t miss this one coming out Oct 8!

I really liked this as an audio book. I think this was one of those books that I wouldn't have liked as much if I was reading a physical copy but listening to it as I was walking around or at work. The narrator was really good and I found the different voices she did for each character to be unique and I could easily follow along. Loigman created a wonderful story and after hearing the end notes about it I fell in love with the book more. It took a lot of twist and turns that I was expecting like the mafia side plot but it wasn't overwhelming and I found it fit well, and what I found most suprising was the feminist undertones in the medicine teachings. It was a wonderful story of women, life, second chances at love, and protecting those who you love.

What an incredibly charming book from start to finish. I love books with older female protagonists. I love Augusta. She's strong, smart, and she's still learning how to grow and change. This book is uplifting and warm, and I loved every moment I spent with it.

I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator did an excellent job differentiating the voices for all the characters. Her voice had the perfect tone for the book.

I'd like to thank Netgalley for the advanced listener copy. It was given in exchange for an honest review.

What a wonderful story! We are privileged to hear about Augusta Stern’s life, a tale that recounts her 80 years. From her time helping in her father’s pharmacy, sitting at her Aunt Esther’s feet, and attending pharmacy school, all revolves about her friendship with Irving Ripkin and her desire to be a healer. It’s a very full life. The ending actually brought tears to my eyes.

What a great book! I listened to the audiobook and the narrator wa terrific with all the accents.

Highly recommend! 4.5 stars rounded up to 5!

I enjoyed this novel! I read Lynda Loigman's previous book, the Matchmaker, and enjoyed that one as well.

The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern is told in dual timelines; I love books that almost seem like two novels in one.

Read this is you like:
- family relationships
- second chances
- life's decisions and how they shape a path
- rekindled friendships/relationships
- octogenarian characters
- Jewish culture (I love this theme!)

I appreciate the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio for my #gifted listening copy of The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern! TheLoveElixirOfAugustaStern #lyndacohenloigman #stmartinspress #MacAudio2024

𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐄𝐥𝐢𝐱𝐢𝐫 𝐎𝐟 𝐀𝐮𝐠𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧
𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫: 𝐋𝐲𝐧𝐝𝐚 𝐂𝐨𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐋𝐨𝐢𝐠𝐦𝐚𝐧
𝐍𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫: 𝐆𝐚𝐛𝐫𝐚 𝐙𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐦𝐚𝐧
𝐏𝐮𝐛 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝐎𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟖, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒

Gabra Zackman

𝟱★

Oh my heart! This book was everything! Lynda Cohen Loigman, you’ve done it again! This book brought forth so many emotions and I am so sad it’s over. Augusta was such an amazing character and I loved how this book was told in dual timelines, so we could see Augusta as a teenager in the 1920’s and then again as an 80 year old living in Florida. In both timelines, we see Irving Rivkin, who was the delivery boy at her father’s old pharmacy, and now, by chance, living in the same senior community in Florida.

Growing up, Augusta always wanted to be a pharmacist, just like her father, Solomon. After her mother died, her Great Aunt Esther moved in to live with her family. It’s not long before Esther, who considers herself a healer, starts offering Solomon’s customers her own remedies, including her homemade chicken soup and other powders and potions. Augusta can’t help but be attracted to these unconventional remedies. As time passes, and Augusta prepares for pharmacy college, and her feelings for Irving continue to grow, she decides to use Esther’s most potent elixir, but not without consequences. Now decades later, Augusta is face to face with Irving again. Is it too late for a second chance?

🥣Magical Realism
🥣Second Chance Romance
🥣Dual Timelines
🥣Jewish Representation
🥣Strong and Resilient FMC

🎧I loved the physical book so much, that I decided to do a re-read with the audiobook! Gabra Zackman was truly phenomenal! I loved everything about experiencing this book for a second time. If you want a phenomenal listening experiencing, this one out on audio!

Posted on Goodreads on October 4, 2024: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/144922955?ref=nav_profile_l
**Posted on Instagram - Full Review- on or around October 8, 2024: http://www.instagram.com/nobookmark_noproblem
**Posted on Amazon on October 8, 2024
**-will post on designated date

Augusta Stern, a pharmacist has been forced to retire just shy of her 80th birthday. Feeling lost, she reluctantly accepts her circumstances and moves from New York to a retirement community in Florida where she encounters a man from her past, Irving Rivkin. And so the dual time line begins: Augusta’s story from her childhood during the 1920’s is flawlessly braided into the present using flashbacks.

The story was captivating and the characters charming. The author created strong female characters in both Augusta and her aunt, Esther while exploring the role of women as healers both using traditional medicine and herbalism in the Jewish tradition. Each character has a solid distinct voice and even their names reflect their personality. Esther means star and that she is.

Excellent witty, sometimes acerbic, dialogue with a dash of apothecarial magic and a whole lot of love makes this a satisfying uplifting read. You’re never too old to learn, forgive, love or fulfill your dreams.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan audio for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

What a beautifully written story based loosely on a real person about first love, hardship, perseverance, and a little bit of magic (alternative medicine…) set in Stern’s Pharmacy and the Rollentando retirement community 60 years later.

Augusta Stern did everything in her power to delay retirement, including lie about her age. But on the cusp of her 80th birthday, it was time to trade the pharmacist life for a retirement community in Florida - where she is shocked to run into the love of her life. Over the course of the book past and present collide to reveal the truth, old love renewed, and friendships old and new.

This audio book is beautifully narrated, and I really enjoyed this story with its playful banter, scene setting, and character development. My only complaint is Augusta was a bit too much of a grouchy old woman with poor Irving, and aggressively pushed him away in the later timeline. I’m not sure I believe he’d continue to pursue her, but i enjoyed the story too much to read into this!

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for the audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Four stars for me. This long lost retirement home romance was funny, endearing, and cozy. Dual timelines give readers spunky main character Augusta’s childhood in the Bronx working in her father’s pharmacy and her current day retirement home life where she runs into the man who broke her heart 60 years ago. Poignant exploration of women’s health—and how often traditional medicine fails its female patients—and you’ll love the Aunt Esther character—representative of so many women who step in with homeopathic remedies and women-centered care. The narrator for the audiobook does a great job. My only complaint is the book was overall pretty predictable, so I found it dragged on a bit at the end.

This started a bit slow but I ended up really enjoying it! I loved the dual timelines, and I found them both interesting. The stories of life in her father’s pharmacy in 1925 Brooklyn were fascinating. But Augusta’s move to a retirement community in florida in 1987 and the old friends she met again was also really good. After the first 15% I found myself flying though the book and rooting for Augusta to get her hopes up and her happily ever after. I truly love Augusta, her aunt Esther, her niece Jackie, her new and old friends, her sister, and these characters truly came to life in this book. It’s a beautiful story.

I did a mix of audio and ebook and enjoyed both format. The narrator was good.

A sweet, wholesome story of a woman pharmacist and healer, who meets the man who broke her heart sixty years later. It’s filled with strong women, family, and humor. It was delightful.

Things I don't like: magical realism, anachronistic feminists, sappy love stories, the trend of elderly protagonists, historical fiction, narratives split between past and present.
This book had all of the above -- and I loved it.



Review copy provided by publisher.

1920s✓
Dual Timelines✓
Magical Realism ✓
Amazing Protagonist= sign me up

This story is fresh, it's interesting, and I stayed up all night listening to it.
This is not something I would normally choose, and had I not I would have missed out on a captivating story. The voice acting is so good it pulled me in immediately.

This was my first book by this author, but after this I will be looking for some of her past titles.
This is a dual timeline dual POV story about two young jewish teens growing up in Brooklin in the 1920s. This story revolves around a pharmacy where our two main characters meet - Augusta (Goldie) Stern and Irving Rivkin. Our others timeline is 1980s in Boca Raton Florida where our main characters end up bumping into each other at the same Retirement community 62 years after they last saw each other. This is a story of how two young lovers were separated by a number of factors and how they find their way back to each other. There is also a mythical element to this story in the form of Augusta's aunt, a healer who comes from the old country to live with them. She quickly finds her way into the lives of many of the neighbourhood women through her natural and perhaps magical medicine, and her chicken soup!!

While this story was a bit slow at times and I highly recommend the audio of this title, I smiled, laughed and cried along with our characters. The narrator was excellent. She was able to give a unique voice to all the characters. Thank you to the publisher for an audio copy of this story in exchange for my honest review.

Just when I think that I don’t enjoy magical realism, Lynda Cohen Loigman comes along with another one of her charming stories that I get completely lost in.

THE LOVE EXIXER OF AUGUSTA STERN has just a touch of magic, a tiny tincture if you will, but is otherwise firmly grounded in a typical Floridian senior community. We meet pharmacist Augusta Stern after her recent retirement at the ripe age of 80 when she reconnects with the man who left her broken-hearted 60 years ago.

Told in past and present timelines we witness the separate directions their lives took them and the ways fate brought them back together. Themes of found family, new beginnings, and a long-awaited second chance romance will make reader’s hearts swell.

Gabra Zackman brought the audiobook to life with her entertaining narration. I highly recommend this audio format!

RATING: 4/5
PUB DATE: October 8, 2024

READ THIS IF YOU:
enjoy reading age-positive stories
aren’t sure if magical realism is for you (it's just a touch–I promise!)
believe it's never too late for a new beginning

Many thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan audio for an ALC in exchange for an honest review.

The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern by Lynda Cohen Loigman

I have a bit of mixed feelings around this one. It was quite slow and repetitive and also predictable. But, the overall story and message behind it slowly won me over.

I appreciated the older characters, and how it showed how long life can be but how quick it can change.

I always love stories about the power of women, and the healing they offer, and the community that builds around them which this story delivered in a subtle way

Also I loved the authors note, sometimes these notes just bring it all together. The narrator was great and kept me engaged in the story.

#bookofthemonth #bookreview #bookrecommendations #bookstagram #bookthoughts #bookstagrammer #bookishthoughts #bookworm #reading

A nice breath of fresh air from all the thrillers that I've been reading. I loved the characters and the journey they all took. Every day magic and love, such a sweet story! Narrator did a lovely job.

This is a moving story about first love, coming of age and never being too old for second chances. This story is told is past and present timelines, following Augusta in present day at 80 years old finally retiring to a community in Florida where she runs into Irving, the boy who broke her heart 60 years ago.

The story then flashes back to the 1920s as Augusta and Irving work in the pharmacy Augusta's father owns. Major themes include grief/loss, self discovery and weathering hardships in life.

Thank you Macmillan audio for the ALC

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure I really had any interest in reading a love story about an 80 year old woman. Eeek! I know how ageist that sounds. Thank goodness this book proved me wrong! This is such a sweet and lovely story. I was given this audiobook by @netgalley from @macmillan.audio and it was lovely to listen to. The back and forth between Augusta’s teenage years in the 20’s in Brooklyn and the weeks leading up to her 80th birthday after she moves to Florida was done perfectly. It makes for quick chapters which keeps things moving nicely. While the book isn’t sad it is just a little heartbreaking that Augusta and the man she loved when she was 18 missed out on 62 years together. But Augusta is so youthful you can imagine her living for 62 more years to find love again, perhaps with the love from her youth. We’ve all read books about a misunderstanding keeping people apart but this was a fun twist on that.