The Apothecary's Daughter
By: Julie Klassen / Narrated By: Davina Porter
Length: 13 hrs and 43 mins
Oh thank gosh; this was sweet and delightful and cleeeeean!
Here’s the thing: Author Julie Klassen is a favorite author of SEVeral fellow Accomplices, so for this celebratory 3rd anniversary month, I’ve been choosing audiobooks from y’all’s Faves: GOTTA have a Klassen…!
So I started out with Lady Maybe also by Ms. Klassen, and oh good cow!!! Noooooo!!!
It was as tho’ a different author wrote it! FRAUGHT with lusty glances and swelling breasts, the heroine a dithering mess? Oh good heavens, it was soooo looking like THAT audiobook was going to land in “I Want My Hours Back” and that’s never a good place for an Accomplice Fave to be—kinda spoils it for one and all.
This left me with a couple other options (Fortunately Ms. Klassen is an absolute Fave of my own as well), and I chose The Apothecary’s Daughter cuz it got sweet reviews and, dude! it has Davina Porter as narrator! I mean, can that talented woman possibly do ANYthing rotten? Nooooo, she can’t, so Mighty Huzzahs all around.
Our heroine Lillian Haswell is daughter of the apothecary of a small village. She’s rather brilliant herself, knowing herbs and other ingredients that can help the needful townsfolk, and she’s forEVER helping the young apothecary assistant as he flails about, struggling to keep up with demand and specific ailments. Her aging father, her brother (Who has some intellectual delays, loved a cat so hard it ran away), are basically her entire world, and danged if she ain’t just a trifle twitchy. She’d like more from her life, but alas, she’s bound by love, bound by duty.
Until a long lost aunt and uncle turn up, brimming with good will and even more money. After a discussion of taking her brother away, groom him to be an heir, goes awry cuz o’ his impairments, the offer is made to Lilly to traipse off with them and have a Season or two in London.
Lilly jumps at the chance, and once there is whirled into the social circles and all the heady picnics and balls and parties and such. She meets many a fine man, but with such a small dowry, her prospects are rather limited. Soon, all that is moot as she receives word that her dearest papa is ailing, and she hauls it back to her hometown, leaving London Society behind.
Now the Publisher’s Summary has her illegally becoming an apothecary (Women were NOT allowed to hold such a position!) to assist her father and keep their little shop afloat, whilst also trying to stay relevant now that there’s a new apothecary vying for the public’s patronage. But that’s only, like, a teeeeeny bit of the story.
There’s not much else that goes on, it all becomes the day to day world of Lilly back at home, of her growing relationships with villagers, with a trio of menfolk who happen to catch her eye. To be fair, sluggish but never boring. Building relationships, friendships rekindled, a new reality to come to terms with -Plus- a bit of a twist at the end that goes with a touch of sorrow, such a bittersweet ending (My FAVorite kind!).
Davina Porter! I thought she might sound too old for Lilly, but she does her just perfectly, from an intrepid young assistant/daughter, to a young woman capable of holding her own against sassy men, being sassy in her own right. There are some truly DOWER men within the bracketed time the story goes on for, but Lilly’s sweetness and her courage come through really quite well. Also, don’t believe I’ve ever heard Ms. Porter relay male voices poorly. Yeh yeh yeh, the remaining Hero sounds a bit wimpy and woebegone, but I’m s’posing it’s cuz he IS a bit wimpy and woebegone. Grand job, Ms. Porter!
Plenty here to keep a person entertained, lots and lots of info of medicine/apothecary concoctions of the day to fascinate. And really pleasant characters, which was SOOOO what Lady Maybe was missing. Here, there’s also the Christianity that is a hallmark of Klassen’s work, where the characters live their faith with only a bit of minor preaching about the power of prayer. And it was verrrry nice that miracles happened after prayer, but they’re NOT what the characters asked for but were what the characters needed.
No, quite a nice audiobook, and dude! what a relief that this ain’t going into the Time Wasted category!!!
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