To Best the Boys by Mary Weber
This is an audiobook I listened to for a few hours, realised I didn’t really care about what was going on and then never picked it up again. I didn’t even get around to tracking it anywhere so it’s not even an official DNF on either Goodreads (which you couldn’t do at the time) or StoryGraph.
To Best the Boys had been on my radar for quite some time, and it’s probably something I would have enjoyed at a younger age, but adult me wasn’t invested.
Synopsis: Every year for the past fifty-four years, the residents of Pinsbury Port have received a mysterious letter inviting all eligible-aged boys to compete for an esteemed scholarship to the all-male Stemwick University. The poorer residents look to see if their names are on the list. The wealthier look to see how likely their sons are to survive. And Rhen Tellur opens it to see if she can derive which substances the ink and parchment are created from, using her father’s microscope.
In the province of Caldon, where women train in wifely duties and men pursue collegiate education, sixteen-year-old Rhen Tellur wants nothing more than to become a scientist. As the poor of her seaside town fall prey to a deadly disease, she and her father work desperately to find a cure. But when her mum succumbs to it as well? Rhen decides to take the future into her own hands—through the annual all-male scholarship competition.
With her cousin, Seleni, by her side, the girls don disguises and enter Mr. Holm’s labyrinth, to best the boys and claim the scholarship prize. Except not everyone is ready for a girl who doesn’t know her place. And not everyone survives the deadly maze.
Welcome to the Labyrinth.
The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner
I don’t think I’ve ever felt as much rage towards a book as I did this one. I’ve never read something so boring in my life. You’d think a book about an apothecary that sells poison to women to kill men that have wronged them would be exciting and a little mysterious, but no.
My first mistake with this book was listening to the audiobook, which I only did because I was using the “free” Spotify listening hours (they’re not free, you’re actually paying for them because it’s a different subscription tier). The narrator would shift between an American accent for one of the main character’s dialogue and British for everything else. It would have made way more sense for Caroline’s chapters to be narrated fully in an American accent.
This part of my review still makes me laugh every time I read it “Another laughable moment is Caroline deciding to not get a masters degree because she got engaged. Apparently women can be educated or a wife, but under no circumstances can they be both. Also, postgraduate study doesn’t exist in the US according to this author. Caroline decides to not get a masters as her fiancée wants them to stay in the states and we all know America doesn’t have any universities. I legit thought this character was in 1791 as well, which would have made the reason for her dropping her education to get married more believable. But no, this is a modern woman”
Synopsis: A female apothecary secretly dispenses poisons to liberate women from the men who have wronged them – setting three lives across centuries on a dangerous collision course.
Rule #1: The poison must never be used to harm another woman.
Rule #2: The names of the murderer and her victim must be recorded in the apothecary’s register.
One cold February evening in 1791, at the back of a dark London alley in a hidden apothecary shop, Nella awaits her newest customer. Once a respected healer, Nella now uses her knowledge for a darker purpose – selling well-disguised poisons to desperate women who would kill to be free of the men in their lives. But when her new patron turns out to be a precocious twelve-year-old named Eliza Fanning, an unexpected friendship sets in motion a string of events that jeopardizes Nella’s world and threatens to expose the many women whose names are written in her register.
In present-day London, aspiring historian Caroline Parcewell spends her tenth wedding anniversary alone, reeling from the discovery of her husband’s infidelity. When she finds an old apothecary vial near the river Thames, she can’t resist investigating, only to realize she’s found a link to the unsolved “apothecary murders” that haunted London over two centuries ago. As she deepens her search, Caroline’s life collides with Nella’s and Eliza’s in a stunning twist of fate – and not everyone will survive.
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Like this post? Why not read this one too: ARC Review: The Court Charade by Flore Vesco