#The Love Remedy by Elizabeth Everett

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Cover Reveal: The Love Remedy by Elizabeth Everett

I am so excited to be helping Elizabeth with the cover reveal for her next novel, The Love Remedy. The Damsels of Discovery is a brand new series set in early Victorian London and it features new characters and settings alongside appearances from some of your favorite characters from the Secret Scientists of London series. Keep scrolling to see the gorgeous cover, who and what it’s about! ©…

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Blog Blitz: The Love Remedy by Elizabeth Everett

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Publication Date: March 19, 2024

Welcome to The Love Remedy book blitz with Berkley Publishing Group. (This blog blitz post is also posted on my Wordpressbook blog Whimsical Dragonette.)

Synopsis:

When a Victorian apothecary hires a stoic private investigator to protect her business, they learn there’s only one way to treat true love—with a happily ever after. When Lucinda Peterson’s recently perfected formula for a salve to treat croup goes missing, she’s certain it’s only the latest in a line of misfortunes at the hands of a rival apothecary. Outraged and fearing financial ruin, Lucy turns to private investigator Jonathan Thorne for help. She just didn’t expect her champion to be so . . . grumpy? A single father and an agent at Tierney & Co., Thorne accepts missions for a wide variety of employers—from the British government to wronged wives. None have intrigued him so much as the spirited Miss Peterson. As the two work side by side to unmask her scientific saboteur, Lucy slips ever so sweetly under Thorne’s battered armor, tempting him to abandon old promises. With no shortage of suspects—from a hostile political group to an erstwhile suitor—Thorne’s investigation becomes a threat to all that Lucy holds dear. As the truth unravels around them the cure to their problems is they must face the future together.

Author Bio

Elizabeth Everett lives in upstate New York with her family. She likes going for long walks or (very) short runs to nearby sites that figure prominently in the history of civil rights and women's suffrage. Her series is inspired by her admiration for rule breakers and her belief in the power of love to change the world.

Photo credit: Asa Shutts; from Elizabeth Everett's website.

My Rating: ★★★★★

*My Review and Non-Exclusive Excerpt below the cut.

My Review:

This is an engaging story about two people who are each carrying heavy burdens learning to let each other in. There are fun cameos from the women scientists books if you recognize them, but you can also read it without reading the other series.

I really liked all the characters. They were complex and felt very real. I loved Sadie and her gleeful recounting of all the facts she learned at her science school. Lucy was strong and determined but also bent to the point of breaking under the weight of her responsibilities. Thorne was closed off and rigid and desperately in need of someone breaking him out of his self-imposed shell.

The romance wasn't swoony but was more subtle, a gradual and reluctant giving in to a partnership of mutual appreciation and aide. I really liked that. I prefer a quiet partnership to a grand passionate romance anyway.

What I appreciate most about this story though, is how fiercely feminist it is. Lucy is determined to continue running the apothecary and providing real cures to people who can't afford them. Her sister Juliet works to provide medical and reproductive care to women in need. Her brother David seems flighty but has his own crusade. Lucy is also determined that every woman should be given the method and means to prevent pregnancy and induce menses if that choice is taken from them.

All of this flies in the face of Thorne's upper-class upbringing of what a 'good' woman should do and know, and serves to create the major conflict between them. Lucy refuses to compromise on her ideals and she shouldn't have to.

The author's note at the end brings that struggle into even starker relief. Elizabeth Everett makes it very clear where she stands on the issue of women's reproductive rights and more power to her. It's an issue that deserves fighting for and taking a strong stance on.

I would say that the writing and character development of this is even better than the women scientists series and I look forward to her next book.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley for providing an early copy for review.

Non-Exclusive Excerpt:

Lucy's guilt had been squeezing the breath from her lungs for weeks. On the counter, slightly dented from having been crushed in her fist, then thrown to the ground and stepped on, then heaved against the wall, sat a grimy little tin. Affixed to the top was a label with the all-too-familiar initials RSA. Rider and Son Apothecary. Rider and Son. The latter being the primary reason for this very worst of days. The longer she stared at the tin, the less Lucy felt the strain of responsibility for running Peterson's Apothecary and keeping her siblings housed and fed. Beneath the initials were printed the words Rider's Lozenges. The ever-present exhaustion that had weighed her down moments ago began to dissipate at the sight of the smaller print beneath, which read "exclusive." The more she stared, the more her guilt subsided beneath a wave of anger that coursed through her blood. "Exclusive patented formula for the relief of putrid throats." Exclusive patented formula. The anger simmered and simmered the longer she stared until it reached a boil and turned to rage. Grabbing her paletot from the coatrack and a random bonnet that may or may not have matched, Lucy stormed out of the shop, slamming the door behind her with a vengeance that was less impressive when she had to turn around the next second to lock it. Exclusive patent. The words burned in her brain, and she clenched her hands into fists. One warm summer afternoon four months ago, Lucy had been so tired, she'd stopped to sit on a park bench and had closed her eyes. Only for a minute or two, but long enough for a young gentleman passing by to notice and be concerned enough for her safety to inquire as to her well-being. While the brief rest had been involuntary, remaining on the bench and striking up a conversation with the handsome stranger was her choice, and a terrible one at that. Lucy had allowed Duncan Rider to walk her home, not questioning the coincidence that the son of her father's rival had been the one to find her vulnerable and offer his protection was down to her own stupidity. Now, as Lucy barreled down the rotting walkways of Calthorpe Street, she barely registered the admiring glances from the gentlemen walking in the opposite direction or the sudden appearance of the wan November sun as it poked through the gray clouds of autumn. Instead, her head was filled with memories so excruciating they jabbed at her chest like heated needles, rousing feelings of shame alongside her resentment. Such as the next time she'd seen Duncan, when he appeared during a busy day at the apothecary with a pretty nosegay of violets. He'd smelled like barley water and soap, a combination so simple and appealing it had scrambled her brains and left her giddy as a goose. Or the memory of how their kisses had unfolded in the back rooms of the apothecary, turning from delightfully sweet to something much more carnal. How kisses had proceeded to touches, and from there even more, and how she'd believed it a harbinger of what would come once they married. A shout ripped Lucy's attention back to the present, and she jerked back from the road, missing the broad side of a carriage by inches. The driver called out curses at her over his shoulder, but they bounced off her and scattered across the muddied street as Lucy turned the corner onto Gray's Inn Road. Halfway through a row of weathered stone buildings, almost invisible unless one knew what to look for, a discreet brass plaque to the left of a blackened oak door read: Tierney & Co., Bookkeeping Services Lucy took a deep breath, pulling the dirty brown beginnings of a London fog into her lungs and expelling it along with the remorse and shame that accompanied her memory of Duncan holding her handwritten formula for a new kind of throat lozenge she'd worked two years to perfect.

"I'll just test it out for you, shall I?" he'd said, eyes roaming the page. Duncan and his father had long searched for a throat lozenge remedy that tasted as good as it worked. Might Duncan be tempted to impress his father with her lozenge? His lips curled up on one side as he read, and Lucy recalled the slight shadow of foreboding moving across the candlelight in the back storeroom where they carried out their affair. "I don't know," she'd hedged. Too late. He'd folded the formula and distracted her with kisses. "I've more space and materials at my disposal. I know you think this is ready to sell, but isn't it better that we take the time to make sure?" It might have been exhaustion that weakened Lucy just enough that she took advantage of an offer to help shoulder some of her burdens. However, the decision to let Duncan Rider walk out of Peterson's Apothecary with a formula that was worth a fortune was due not to her sleepless nights, but to a weakness in her character that allowed her to believe a man when he told her he loved her. Now, four months later, somehow Duncan had again betrayed her. Having already lost the lozenge formula to Duncan's avaricious grasp, Lucy had been horrified to find a second formula missing. She'd come up with a salve for treating babies' croup, a remedy even more profitable than the lozenges. What parent wouldn't pay through the nose to calm a croupy baby? Lucy was certain that Duncan must have found out about her work and stolen both the formula and ingredient list for the salve. This time, Lucy would not dissolve into tears and swear never to love again. This time, she was going eviscerate her rival and get her formula back. Then she would swear never to love again.

Excerpted from The Love Remedy by Elizabeth Everett Copyright © 2024 by Elizabeth Everett. Excerpted by permission of Berkley. All rights reserved. 

[love-enchanted]

2024 READING LIST

JANUARY - JUNE

1 - Such Sharp Teeth - Rachel Harrison⭐⭐ 2 - The Kiss Quotient - Helen Hoang⭐⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ 3 - The Bride Test - Helen Hoang⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️🌶️ 4 - My Roommate Is A Vampire - Jenna Levine⭐⭐🌶️🌶️ 5 - Good Girl Complex - Elle Kennedy⭐⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ 6 - Bad Girl Reputation - Elle Kennedy⭐⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ 7 - The Summer Girl - Elle Kennedy⭐⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ 8 - Wreck the Halls - Tessa Bailey⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ 9 - Set On You - Amy Lea⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️🌶️ 10 - Exes & O's - Amy Lea⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️🌶️

11 - Four Weddings And A Puppy - Lizzie Shane⭐⭐ 12 - The Boyfriend Candidate - Ashley Winstead⭐⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️🌶️ 13 - The Pumpkin Spice Cafe - Laurie Gilmore⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ 14 - Business or Pleasure - Rachel Lynn Solomon⭐⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ 15 - Faking Christmas - Kerry Winfrey⭐ 16 - Last Call At the Local - Sarah Grunder Ruiz⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️🌶️ 17 - Change of Plans - Dylan Newton⭐🌶️🌶️ 18 - Romantic Comedy - Curtis Sittenfeld⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️🌶️ 19 - The Bodyguard - Katherine Center⭐⭐⭐⭐ 20 - The Neighbor Favor - Kristina Forest⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️ 21 - To Woo and to Wed - Martha Waters⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️🌶️ 22 - Not Bad For A Girl - Anastasia Ryan⭐ 23 - The Heart Principle - Helen Hoang⭐⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ 24 - Ship Wrecked - Olivia Dade⭐⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

25 - Starling House - Alix E. Harrow⭐⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️ 26 - Divine Rivals - Rebecca Ross⭐⭐⭐⭐🌶️ 27 - A Good Girl's Guide to Murder - Holly Jackson⭐⭐⭐ 28 - Powerless - Lauren Roberts⭐⭐⭐🌶️ 29 - Good Girl, Bad Blood - Holly Jackson⭐⭐⭐ 30 - As Good As Dead - Holly Jackson⭐⭐⭐⭐ 31 - A Grave Robbery - Deanna Raybourn⭐⭐⭐ 32 - Assistant to the Villain - Hannah Nicole Maehrer⭐⭐⭐⭐ 33 - My Best Friend's Exorcism - Grady Hendrix⭐⭐⭐ 34 - Icebreaker - Hannah Grace⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ 35 - Fangirl Down - Tessa Bailey ⭐⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ 36 - The Luminaries - Susan Dennard ⭐⭐ 37 - The Hunting Moon - Susan Dennard⭐⭐

38 - The Catch - Amy Lea⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️🌶️ 39 - The Love Remedy - Elizabeth Everett⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️🌶️ 40 - Fourth Wing - Rebecca Yarros⭐⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ 41 - Happily Never After - Lynn Painter⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️ 42 - Iron Flame - Rebecca Yarros⭐⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ 43 - Serpent & Dove - Shelby Mahurin⭐⭐🌶️🌶️ 44 - Blood & Honey - Shelby Mahurin⭐⭐🌶️🌶️ 45 - Gods & Monsters - Shelby Mahurin⭐⭐🌶️🌶️ 46 - Butcher & Blackbird - Brynne Weaver⭐⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ 47 - Wildfire - Hannah Grace⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️🌶️ 48 - Bride - Ali Hazelwood⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️🌶️ 49 - Kill Joy - Holly Jackson⭐⭐⭐

50 - Do Your Worst - Rosie Danan⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️🌶️ 51 - A River Enchanted - Rebecca Ross⭐⭐⭐🌶️ 52 - Hello Stranger - Katherine Center ⭐⭐⭐ 53 - Betting On You - Lynn Painter⭐⭐⭐ 54 - These Hollow Vows - Lexi Ryan ⭐⭐⭐🌶️ 55 - These Twisted Bonds - Lexi Ryan⭐🌶️🌶️ 56 - Ruthless Vows - Rebecca Ross⭐⭐⭐⭐🌶️ 57 - The Ex Talk - Rachel Lynn Solomon ⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️🌶️ 58 - Weather Girl - Rachel Lynn Solomon⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️🌶️ 59 - All the Feels - Olivia Dade⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ 60 - Once Upon a Broken Heart - Stephanie Garber⭐⭐ 61 - The Ballad of Never After - Stephanie Garber⭐⭐⭐🌶️ 62 - A Curse For True Love - Stephanie Garber⭐⭐

63 - On The Plus Side - Jenny L. Howe⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️ 64 - One Last Shot - Betty Cayouette⭐⭐⭐🌶️ 65 - The Body in the Garden - Katharine Schellman⭐⭐⭐ 66 - Silence in the Library - Katharine Schellman⭐⭐⭐ 67 - Death at the Manor - Katharine Schellman⭐⭐⭐ 68 - Murder at Midnight - Katharine Schellman⭐⭐⭐ 69 - Hotel Magnifique - Emily J. Taylor⭐⭐ 70 - The Rule Book - Sarah Adams⭐⭐⭐🌶️🌶️🌶️ 71 - Better Than the Movies - Lynn Painter ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 72 - Caraval - Stephanie Garber⭐⭐ 73 - Legendary - Stephanie Garber⭐⭐ 74 - Finale - Stephanie Garber⭐⭐

[bookwyrmshoard]

The Love Remedy, by Elizabeth Everett

A well-written, well researched historical romance

I loved The Love Remedy! This historical romance is well written, well researched, and deals sensitively with issues of women’s health and women’s rights that are as relevant today as they were in the 19th century. The main characters and their emotional journeys are both believable and relatable, and Ms. Everett has done an excellent job in making them sympathetic to modern readers while still maintaining historical sensibilities.

The plot avoids many of the familiar tropes of historical romances set in the 19th century. To begin with, both main characters are working-class, in their lifestyle if not (in Thorne’s case) by birth. There are no balls, house parties, or soirees; no fake engagement or forced marriage; no huge misunderstanding that could easily be solved with a simple, adult conversation. There is, however, a problem that Lucy needs to have solved if she is to keep her family from sinking into poverty, and Thorne is the inquiry agent she hires to solve it. Lucy and Thorne feel like real people, dealing with real, everyday struggles, loving their families, working out their different views of the world, and doing their best to survive. Their romance isn’t the stuff of high drama, but it’s highly satisfying nonetheless.

And it is set in a London that is diverse and alive, with characters of various ethnicities, races, classes, and gender identities… again, well-researched and written believably. If your mental picture of 19th-century England is based on older traditional historical romances (particularly when it comes to racial diversity), this novel’s milieu may come as a surprise to you—but trust me, it’s more accurate.

Speaking of diversity, I particularly appreciated Ms. Everett’s nuanced and sympathetic approach to her characters’ faith in God. This isn’t a Christian romance in the subgenre sense of the term; it’s not primarily intended for a Christian audience, and it doesn’t preach or hold up Christianity as the best or only true way to think, believe, and live. Instead, The Love Remedy accurately reflects the fact that people believe in God in a variety of ways and to varying degrees, from not at all to deeply. Some people are sustained by their faith; some find it constraining. Although 19th-century London was far more diverse culturally and spiritually than many historical romances portray it, at the time and place when The Love Remedy occurs, the majority of religious believers in London were probably following some form of Christianity. Ms. Everett’s characters are a completely believable mix in this regard; they hold differing interpretations of Christianity, and their participation in it ranges from disinterested to devout. Thorne, a recovering alcoholic, is also a practicing Methodist; he finds Methodism’s strict rules helpful in staying sober. Lucy is not a regular church-goer, but she does believe in God and strives to see the good in everyone, and this belief is reflected in her life and her business practices.

A final note: Ms. Everett explores several women’s issues in the course of the book, from the right to study and practice science and medicine, to contraception, abortion, and the right to control one’s own body. Lucy’s views on “restoring menses” and the question of when human life begins may trouble those in the pro-life/anti-abortion camp as much as they resonate with those in the pro-choice camp. Her beliefs in these matters are, however, historically accurate.

I enjoyed The Love Remedy so much that I immediately bought the first book in her earlier, related trilogy, The Secret Scientists of London. Some of the characters from that series appear in The Love Remedy, and I can’t wait to read A Lady’s Formula for Love. I’m also looking forward to the next book in the Damsels of Discovery series.

Challenges: COYER Unwind (2024), Chapter 2; NetGalley and Edelweiss Reading Challenge 2024

[reviewsbyblue]

The Love Remedy by Elizabeth Everett

About the Book:  When a Victorian apothecary hires a stoic private investigator to protect her business, they learn there’s only one way to treat true love—with a happily ever after.When Lucinda Peterson’s recently perfected formula for a salve to treat croup goes missing, she’s certain it’s only the latest in a line of misfortunes at the hands of a rival apothecary. Outraged and fearing…

[honolulubelle]

Book Review:  The Love Remedy (The Damsels of Discovery #1) by Elizabeth Everett   @elizabetheverettauthor

The Love Remedy (The Damsels of Discovery #1) by Elizabeth Everett Amazon  / B&N / Apple / GP / BB   When a Victorian apothecary hires a stoic private investigator to protect her business, they learn there’s only one way to treat true love—with a happily ever after. When Lucinda Peterson’s recently perfected formula for a salve to treat croup goes missing, she’s certain it’s only the latest in…