What a great book. I loved it!

Augusta Stern has finally (reluctantly) entered retirement, and is dismayed to see none other than Irving Rivkin living in the retirement community she has relocated to. As the days and weeks pass, more connections from her past are made, and she is challenged to reconsider her view of pivotal moments.

Here's what worked for me about The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern:

-The cast of characters. They made me think of a mix of the characters from A Man Called Ove and The Thursday Murder Club.
-The feel-good nature of the story
-Just a touch of magical realism (this usually doesn't work for me, but it did here)
-Second-chance romance (bonus that the leads are retirees and not twenty-somethings)
-A peek at the history of pharmacology and how women were treated in that realm

Definitely recommend if you want a story that will leave a smile on your face. Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the advanced review copy. All opinions are my own.

This book was amazing.. I like how the author went back and forth the time Explain how this girl AUG.U.S t a s oh Was a young girl who worked in her father's pharmacy. When her mother died her aunt esther came to live with The family. She had an older sister as well. This was Brooklyn in 19 twins. And then could go to the eighties. In florida. Augusta Had A boyfriend named Irving. Her aunt did a lot of things in the neighborhood with her POTIO. N.. Her famous thing was the Chicken Soup.And you make this a lot of love. When Irving was very sick.She bought that chicken Soup over to him and he got better. He also worked in the pharmacy with her. Her sister also worked with a boy named george and they eventually got married. I like when they were talking about the twenties and how they had a lot of fun. Irving helped a little boy whose father was a gangster in the neighborhood. His bike was taken in for exchange and the father of a little boy bought on a new bike. For irving because he helped this little boy. Irving also got involved with The father again because he needed to make money to buy an engagement R I n g for augusta. This led to a lot of different consequences. Irving ended up going to chicago with the gangster's daughter. Augusta ran the pharmacy for a long time and then she went to hospitals. Her niece helped her out a lot too. When she retired , she moved to Florida. She ran into irving again They had a lot of SH ARE history together. This is a beautiful love story in the past and the future T h e author and great way to put this together and it tied it all so beautiful and you get the very clear picture of it all

I'm very much a mood reader so I think these last few weeks/months I haven't really been in a general historical fiction mood, so this one was REALLY hard to get into since there really isn't another angle beyond second chance romance (and honestly I find this to be extremely cute!!), which I am lukewarm on as a trope at best. I sincerely wish I could give a more concrete reason as to why I just didn't click with this, but I suppose I was expecting it to be more . . . witchy, rather than the intersection of medical science and traditional herbology. Am I a little let down? Yeah. Did I hate it? No.

In a Nutshell: A dual-timeline narrative promising historical fiction, romance, and magical realism. The first is exceptional, the second is annoying, and the third is almost non-existent. It is not a bad book, but it is also not a very convincing book, at least in the contemporary timeline. That said, it is easy to see why a majority of readers are gushing over this tale. Mine is a slightly outlier review.

Plot Preview:
1987. Soon to turn eighty, Augusta Stern is forced to retire from her job as a hospital pharmacist. Single and unsure about what to do next, she joins an active retirement community in Florida. The last thing she expects here is to bump into Irving Rivkin, who worked in her father’s pharmacy as a delivery boy and had broken her heart sixty years ago. Augusta is determined not to allow Irving a second chance.
1920s. Brooklyn. Augusta Stern is determined to become a pharmacist some day and assist her father in his pharmacy. After her mother passes away, Great Aunt Esther moves into her nephew’s home to help. An iconoclast healer, Esther soon wins over some of the neighbours with her unconventional healing methods, much to the chagrin of her nephew and the fascination of Augusta. Now torn between pharmacy and alternate healing, Augusta has to decide if there is indeed any validity to Esther’s remedies. At the same time, she is also navigating a potential relationship with young Irving, which isn't as smooth as they thought it would be.
The story comes to us in the third person perspective of Augusta from the two timelines, with some random interludes from Irving and other characters.

PSA: The Goodreads blurb reveals too much.

Bookish Yays:
🌿 The setting of 1920s Brooklyn, with its lifestyle and atmosphere captured wonderfully. The plot highlights the Prohibition era, the gangs, the importance of pharmacists and the role of a traditional pharmacy, and close neighbourly bonds and friendships.
🌿 Esther – the best character of the book in terms of depth, complexity, and sensibility. She has a sense of mystery about her, which further adds to her charm.
🌿 The focus on girls in STEM in the historical timeline, and the challenges and discrimination faced by them. Gender roles come out brilliantly in this timeline.
🌿 The biased view against traditional healing as against allopathic and pharmaceutical knowledge. Coming from a country where traditional healing is at least as valued as allopathy, I found this arc amusing at times. Those who look down on natural remedies don’t know what they are missing.
🌿 The author's note, which really took me by surprise. I didn’t expect any actual people to be the basis of this plot, but they are!


Bookish Mixed Bags:
💊 Historical Augusta is a brilliant young girl who knows what she wants in life and isn’t afraid to chart the path not taken. Contemporary Augusta is rude and judgemental, though she is still intelligent and an achiever. The judgemental part, I could have done without.
💊 The historical timeline is way better in terms of plot, characters, as well as common sense. The contemporary timeline has no common sense, barely any plot, and immature characters. (Which is quite ironic considering the average character age in this timeline. More on this below.) The contemporary timeline drags the overall book down.
💊 The title tells us well in advance that the “love elixir” was prepared/used for/by Augusta Stern, but the mention of the elixir in Augusta’s context comes up only in the last quarter of the book. So the title is quite attractive but it also works as a semi-spoiler. That said, there are some sweet moments towards the end thanks to the titular potion.
💊 We see a couple of tiny glimpses of Jewish beliefs mostly thanks to Esther, but on the whole, there is hardly any Jewish feel to the plot despite the characters being predominantly of that faith. This could have been handled much better, especially in the historical timeline where the atmosphere was more true to life.

Bookish Nays:
💉 In Hindi, there’s an idiom: “budhaape mein doosra bachpana”, which roughly translates to: in old age, people live a second childhood by reverting to childish behaviour. Everyone main character in the 1987 timeline proves this adage. The issue isn’t with having a second-chance romance while in the eighties. But to see eighty-year-olds act like lovesick teenagers is annoying! Romance for the eighties age group cannot be written the same way as romance for characters in, say, their thirties or their fifties; the priorities of life are so different at each stage. But this book is so standard about the romance that the characters read like they were in their early twenties. After a while, I felt like I was reading a YA love triangle. (Yeah, love triangle! SMH!)
💉 On a related note: Would I really want to reunite with a man, even if he was the love of my teenage years, if he recognises me after 62 years saying “I’d know that *tuchus* anywhere!” Ugh!
💉 Moreover, the age depiction in the contemporary timeline is unrealistic. There is absolutely nothing to indicate that these were eighty-year-olds. I'm not saying that the characters should have been portrayed as senile or physically weak, but at least have some indicator of their age, either through their behaviour or through some physical ailments and aches. How is every single senior citizen in the book not just healthy but also thriving with peak physical fitness?
💉 There is no logical reason as to why “contemporary” is 1987, except that the historical timeline needed the Prohibition era, and the only way to ensure characters from that time were alive was to set the other timeline in 1987. There is absolutely nothing in this timeline to create the 80s atmosphere. No pop culture references, no 80s clothes or hairstyle hints,… Except for the obvious lack of digital tech, the timeline is generic.
💉 The miscommunication trope is overused in both timelines, but especially in the 1987 timeline.
💉 Augusta has had a long and fulfilling career and a loving relationship with the rest of her family, yet her companions consider her life incomplete because she had "no one to share her life with." Sheesh! Can we get rid of this antiquated idea?

All in all, the historical timeline had more than enough meat to carry the novel successfully, but the juvenile behaviour in the 1987 timeline spoiled all the fun.
Do note that there’s barely any magical realism in the book. To be clear, the publishers have marked this only as historical fiction and women’s fiction. But several Goodreads reviewers have tagged this book under ‘Magical Realism’, which is incorrect. There is a minor thread of something inexplicable, but no magic as such. Merely using herbal remedies and chanting some prayers doesn’t indicate magical realism.
Recommended to those who enjoy a powerful historical narrative and dual timelines and don’t mind second-chance romances and geriatric characters acting like lovelorn hormonal teens.
3 stars, entirely for the historical timeline.

What a wonderful story or love, loss, self-discovery, and friendship. I thoroughly loved the two timelines of then and now. The characters were charming. The story line was engaging and endearing. So often these essential elements are missing - but not here! Highly recommend!

I enjoyed this sweet, second chance romance featuring octogenarians from Brooklyn! August and Irving were teenage sweethearts who were nearly engaged, only to have it all fall apart. Irving married someone else, and Augusta settled into the single life, focusing on her pharmacist career and running her family’s drugstore. They run into each other again after Augusta retires and moves to the retirement complex in Boca Raton where Irving now lives, and Augusta has very complicated feelings about it.

The story includes both dual POVs and timelines, switching back and forth between Prohibition-era Brooklyn, when gangsters ruled the streets, and late 80’s Boca, full of fellow active seniors enjoying their golden years. There’s a little mix of magic woven into the book, handled in a very subtle way that made it feel more believable than fictional. We slowly learn more about what happened to cause them to go their separate ways in the past at the same time as they are coming back together in the future.

This was a lovely, low-stakes light palate cleanser for the more dramatic romantasies and thrillers that I tend to favor! If you like a little historical fiction with your romance, I expect you’d enjoy this one too.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press Publishing for sending this DRC for review consideration.

Thank you St. Martin’s Press #partner for the finished copy of The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern in exchange for my honest review.

Lynda Cohen Loigman is a favorite author and as soon as I saw this book, I immediately requested it. I’ve loved her previous books and just know when I pick up one of her books, I’m in for an excellent read!

This is the type of historical fiction I love getting my hands on because it’s not heavy by any means. And some might not even realize it is historical fiction, though it is. I loved not only the characters, which I will get to in a bit, but also the dual timeline, moving back and forth from Augusta’s present day as we approach her 80th birthday to her teen years and on, which take us back as early as the 1920s. I loved seeing Brooklyn through the eyes of our character in those early days and seeing some of what was expected for women as Augusta approached adulthood as well as other societal norms.

I love the characters that this author creates. They are so real and relatable. I especially loved the relationship between Augusta and her great-aunt Ester in the past timeline, and the one between Augusta and Jackie in the present. There is so much care put into developing these relationships and it comes across on the page. And of course, there is the love story between Augusta and Irving. This just brought a smile to my face because it was not without its challenges, but it was sweet.

I could gush about this book forever but I’m not going to because I want you to read it. It’s such a charming story, one I know I’ll be recommending to anyone and everyone. I don’t think there is just one audience for this book. It has a wide appeal, and I think if you love stories about second chances, secrets, a little magical realism and want a story that has some historical aspects but is not too heavy in that area, this one is for you!

This was a wonderful book and I’m grateful for the review copy and I’m glad I chose it for my September book of the month book. I look forward to reading more books by Loigman.

Augusta Stern lives and breathes pharmacology. So much so that she never married and doesn't have any kids. Imagine the change to her life when she was gently encouraged to retire at 80. Initially, Augusta came across as brash and not very likable, but she grew on me and softened my heart.

The dual timeline, 1920's Brooklyn NY and Florida 1987, worked really well to understand Augusta and the people that orbited her world and the importance of being a pharmacist. Two such characters which were my favorite were her aunt Esther and her nontraditional ways of healing and her love interest Irving.

This is a sweet story about family, second chances, and the magic of love. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an early copy.

This was a cozy read. A romance 60 years in the making. A bit of magical realism was just the right amount.
I loved the dual timeline. I was very vested in Augusta’s story. And I loved Aunt Esther!
Just a lovely story. Definitely worth the read

I loved everything about The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern by Lynda Cohen Loigman! It was so unique to have a pharmacist heroine.

This is the “second chance romance” story of Augusta and Irving in two timelines, as teens in the 1920s and as senior citizens in the 1980’s. They fell in love in Brooklyn while Irving worked for Augusta’s pharmacist father, but then life circumstances took them in very different directions. They reconnect just before Augusta’s 80th birthday when she retires to Florida. (It’s clever that the retirement community’s name is Rallentando Springs as rallentando is a musical term that means ‘slowing down.’)

The novel is filled with humor and heart, and the character interactions felt genuine. I thoroughly enjoyed both timelines which isn’t always the case for dual timeline stories. I appreciated the relationships Augusta has with her aunt Esther and with her niece Jackie. It’s interesting that the plot juxtaposes the science of pharmacology and the magical realism of Esther’s chicken soup.

This is the first novel I’ve read by this author and am so looking forward to exploring her backlist.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and the Thoughts From a Page podcast for the egalley of this wonderful novel.

This was the sweetest book! If you need hope that true love is possible, this is the book for you. An inspiring family drama with a little bit of mystery.

An amazing historical fiction read. I loved the dual timeline of Augusta's younger years and later on in life. This novel really explored the themes of independence, self-discovery, and the magic of self-empowerment.

read if you are in the mood for: Jewish folklore, a bit of magic, love stories that span decades, old wives tales, female empowerment

I am constantly talking about how I love a genre bender, and you can def add this one to the list. AUGUSTA STERN is a historical fiction romance with a hint of magic between its pages. i have yet to read a book that explores Jewish folklore or set in this time period/location, so i really loved the 1920s chapters and found myself gravitating toward them so much!

Augusta stern has thrown herself into her work her whole life and is finally forced to retire from her job as a pharmacist in her 80s. she moved to Rallentando springs retirement community in FL and runs into none other than Irving Rivkin, the one who broke her heart 60 years ago. bouncing between 1920s Brooklyn and 1980s Florida we learn about Augusta and Irving’s stories then and now, and ultimately what led them to end up living the lives they do now.

this is such a sweet story filled with really interesting explorations of new beginnings and second chances. it’s a story that spans decades and generations, a really beautiful family saga and think piece on can ambition and love coexist for women like it can for men, like the author says in her note. it is rather character driven so the story unfolds slowly, but if you enjoy HF I think you will like this! It’s not super long and honestly at times felt a bit like the Notebook, with the past and present stories going on at the same time.

Author Lynda Cohen-Loigman did it again…wrote a five star book! I loved this charming magical realism story where the author used a dual timeline. I equally enjoyed both timelines. This story was heartwarming and even made me laugh out loud. If you enjoy second chance stories full of love and hope, this one is for you!

I loved this book with my whole dumb heart.

First off, I love that the MCs are ‘of an age’. As much as I love Romantasy, I’m over 24-year-old characters, whose brains aren’t fully cooked, yet are tasked with saving the world.

I loved the reverse Grumpy Sunshine trope, ‘though Augusta is less Grump and more ZERO NONSENSE.

The dual timelines was lovely. Some books require you to make a detailed red-thread board, but this author filled in knowledge gaps clearly and concisely.

The two settings were fantastic. 1920s Jewish Brooklyn and 1980s Seniors’ Florida were both vibrant in a way my brain translated into music.

The interplay between ‘modern’ and ‘traditional’ medicine was super-interesting. I loved how the author didn’t land on one or the other as ‘better’ but sat firmly on the fence.

The only thing I didn’t like, was all the non-communication (The Miscommunication Trope’s bastard cousin). Y’all need to read some Brene Brown and TALK TO EACH OTHER.

I had thought The Matchmaker’s Gift was this author’s only other book. Can’t wait to track the other two previous works down.

Thanks to NetGalley, St Martin’s Press, and Macmillan Audio for this fantastic ARC.

Upon her retirement from a career as a pharmacist and on the cusp of her 80th birthday, Augusta Stern retires to Florida and coincidentally connects with an old flame, Irvin. She’s quite salty with him; after all, they have a history of hurt feelings! Told in dual timelines, the reader gets to explore 1920s NYC from a local pharmacy (there’s a fun subplot here involving a great-aunt and her apothecary shop) and slowly learn the events that led to Augusta and Irvin going separate ways. Themes include aging, women in science, found family, and finding love later in life. Despite my cynical ways as a reader, I found myself charmed! Read the author’s note here, it bumped my rating up a notch for sure.

Thanks to the publisher via NetGalley for the e-arc.

This is a charming romance cloaked in a dual timeline. Augusta Stern has spent her life as a pharmacist in the NYC area. Now approaching eighty she has relocated to a small retirement community in Florida. But that community is not as small as she thinks. Her path once again crosses with Irving Rivkin, the delivery boy who worked at her father’s pharmacy back in Brooklyn during the 1920s. Her feelings about him are still very mixed. Loigman traces back to Augusta’s early days when she lived with her adored Dad and her enigmatic Great Aunt Esther, who was a healer in her own way. Then Loigman pivots back and forth to modern day Florida. Is it too late to learn what happened back then? Will it make a difference going forward? Light, enjoyable novel. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this title.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for access to this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

My Canadian Thanksgiving reads have been the highlight of October. In her main protagonist, Augusta Stern, Lynda Cohen Loigman has created one of the most delightful and heartwarming characters. A second chance romance between characters in their eighties? It made me laugh and cry (even long after I closed the book). Just when I felt that I might be tired of dual timelines( this one is 1920's/1980's), I stand corrected and have a book that I am going to recommend that everyone must place on their list!!


Publication Date 08/10/24
Goodreads Review 15/10/24

Using two timelines, the 1920s and the 1980s, author Lynda Cohen Loigman tells a compelling tale of starting over and second chances.

At the novel's open in 1987, Augusta at a spry 80-years-old is forced to retire from her job at a hospital. Feeling upset and at loose ends, she decides to move to a condo in a small retirement community that her niece Jackie found for her in Florida. Augusta is a woman who likes her routines and plans, and has no desire to change once she moves to her new apartment. She is horrified and experiences a rush of emotions when she discovers that her old flame Irving is living in the same condo. Despite doing her best to avoid him, she is forced to begin to confront memories of her adolescence.

Teenaged Augusta and her sister Bess and their father Solomon lived in together in Brooklyn in the 1920s. Augusta looked up to her pharmacist father, Solomon Stern, who was a respected and trusted figure in their neighbourhood, and Augusta yearned to learn how to be a pharmacist, just like him.

After Augusta's mother died from diabetes, and Solomon was unable to do anything to prevent it, he fell into a depression. Then, Augusta's great aunt Esther moved in with them. Esther, though not a pharmacist, had her own cures for situations, and Augusta was drawn to the woman, even while Solomon fumed that his authority was being undermined every time someone asked Esther for one of her treatments, such as something as seemingly benign as soup, or an order to wear boots instead of high heels.

Though Solomon was mired in grief, he reluctantly allowed Augusta to learn a little from him, and she chose to learn from Esther. Augusta also became fascinated, and later fell for, her father's delivery boy Irving, a kind person who was equally enamoured with her. Their lives together seemed a given, but something sent them off in separate directions. Augusta was convinced it was her misuse of one of Esther's concoctions, and consequently refused to countenance anything but medically-approved drugs, rather than Esther's homemade cures. Augusta also never found anyone to spend her life with, but had a wonderful relationship with her beloved niece Jackie.

The author does a great job of bringing the two timelines and their many characters to life, though I will confess to enjoying the 1987 period a little more, probably because we see the professionally successful and personally lonely Augusta get a chance to change her life.

I loved the way Augusta and Irving did eventually find their way back into each other's lives, and Augusta finally began to open herself up to new relationships and friendships. There is plenty of sadness and humour throughout the story, and much as I liked Augusta and enjoyed her gradual transformation, proving that it's never too late to embrace new things in life, I loved some of the side characters, particularly Esther, whose homespun treatments could have been just sensible, or could have been a touch magical? Either way, this was an enjoyable story, and I'm interested in checking out other works by this author.

I went back and forth between the text and the audio, and greatly enjoyed the talented voice work of Gabra Zackman, who injects emotion into every character, bringing each alive with humour and compassion.

Thank you to Netgalley and to St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio for these ARCs in exchange for my review.