Thank you to the publisher and to Net Galley for the opportunity.
My review opinion is my own.

The author is a renowned herbalist so I was pleased to receive this book for review. I have used herbal healing all my life and I always want to expand on my own knowledge. This was a very comprehensive review of the use of herbs for treatments and discomforts. The author has beautifully organized the book by treatments and discomforts for ease of finding what the reader needs. I appreciate the author's excellent approach to use of herbs in foods, natural beauty products and receipes included are varied and useful. I would highly recommend this guide for all who want to use natural healing . A excellent guide that I will be buying for my home bookshelf.

I need to stop reading non-fiction books on herbs, crystals, witchcraft, and other natural living topics because I keep finding books I want to add to my reference library. Natural Woman by Leslie Korn will be another addition!

This book is great for the beginning to the more experienced herbalist or person who enjoys gathering knowledge and recipes with herbs. Korn incorporates the beauty, food, and medicinal recipes throughout the book when she is giving your information on a particular herb. I really enjoyed this way of writing the book because you read about an herb and it interests you, and then you have a recipe right there that can help you improve your life.

As a Certified Aromatherapist, training to become a Clinical Aromatherapist, I always pay close attention to how authors talk about essential oils. Korn did okay in some aspects such as when it came to the amount of drops added to recipes (you really don’t need a lot, and some oils such as Ylang Ylang are so strong in scent that in most cases one drop is enough), but she said to put a drop of essential oil right on your temples when you have a headache. You should not put essential oils directly onto your skin, instead adding it to a carrier oil. If you are absolutely in a pinch, every once in awhile is okay. But over time you can develop a sensitivity to essential oils, to such a point that you can’t even use that particular oil any more without it irritating your skin.

Another wonderful aspect of this book was the rituals that she incorporated, information on psychoactive herbs, and end of life care with herbs. A lot of people shy away from talking about psychoactive herbs, but my thought is the more knowledge one has, the better. And end of life care is not usually a topic included in herbal books, unless that is the topic of the book, so reading some information was great.

Highly recommend, and am excited to get my physical copy in the mail!

This is an excellent resource for women who are interested in learning a lot about natural herbs and other remedies for all kinds of health conditions, along with other ailments. The author has an impressive background, having spent ten years learning and practicing this in the Mexican jungle while also being Harvard educated and working in this field for decades. I also appreciate her sensitivity regarding gender identity, neurodiversity, and issues like the effects of systemic racism and domestic violence on women's health.

Korn gives an extensive primer on the types of herbal preparations and lots of helpful herbs and spices. Many of these can be foraged in North America, which I appreciate as our family forages and uses many medicinal herbs like nettles, elderberries and elderflowers, catnip, raspberry leaf, echinacea and hawthorn berries (most of which are mentioned in this book -- For a more comprehensive guide to medicinal plants you can forage in North America, see Euell Gibbon's Stalking the Healthful Herbs).

I disagreed with a few of Korn's recommendations and didn't feel the need for some parts like the rituals at the end, but for the most part thought it was very thorough and well done. The book is over 300 pages and this is all text. There are no photos.

Do note that each herbal author seems to have her preferred means of delivering remedies. Some offer tons of tea recipes for instance. Korn's recipes tend to be for fruit smoothies, generally with fruits like blueberries and a non-dairy milk like oat or almond, and then powders and tinctures and other add-ins. This isn't my preferred delivery but I can deconstruct it and do my own thing. Don't expect a lot of recipes other than smoothies though, and be prepared to purchase supplements for most of them in addition to foods.

All in all, this is one of the best herbal books I've read in a while. It would make a great addition to an herbal library. I would also recommend one of Rosemary Gladstar's books (her family herbal remedies book has many of them compiled into one), Winston and Maimes' comprehensive but academic Adaptogens, and Gibbons's healthful herbs book, among others.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

The author has a PhD, but gleaned much of her knowledge of traditional herbs from living in Mexico. This book offers a comprehensive listing of many herbs, spices, and natural remedies, from traditional (cinnamon tea) to unusual (coffee enema). There is a chapter on spirit plants, which “enhance our consciousness, settle our nerves, increase our energy…and as a route to communication with the divine.” Also discussed is the care of the gut, our “second brain,” and herbal remedies for stress, depression, insomnia, and fatigue. There is a separate chapter discussing the use of herbs for children, and a discussion of end of life care.