The love elixir of Augusta Stern A novel

Lynda Cohen Loigman

Book - 2024

"It's never too late for new beginnings. On the cusp of turning eighty, newly retired pharmacist Augusta Stern is adrift. When she relocates to Rallentando Springs-an active senior community in southern Florida-she unexpectedly crosses paths with Irving Rivkin, the delivery boy from her father's old pharmacy-and the man who broke her heart sixty years earlier. As a teenager growing up in 1920's Brooklyn, Augusta's role model was her father, Solomon Stern, the trusted owner of the local pharmacy and the neighborhood expert on every ailment. But when Augusta's mother dies and Great Aunt Esther moves in, Augusta can't help but be drawn to Esther's curious methods. As a healer herself, Esther offers Solom...on's customers her own advice-unconventional remedies ranging from homemade chicken soup to a mysterious array of powders and potions. As Augusta prepares for pharmacy college, she is torn between loyalty to her father and fascination with her great aunt, all while navigating a budding but complicated relationship with Irving. Desperate for clarity, she impulsively uses Esther's most potent elixir with disastrous consequences. Disillusioned and alone, Augusta vows to reject Esther's enchantments forever. Sixty years later, confronted with Irving, Augusta is still haunted by the mistakes of her past. What happened all those years ago and how did her plan go so spectacularly wrong? Did Irving ever truly love her or was he simply playing a part? And can Augusta reclaim the magic of her youth before it's too late?"--

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1st Floor New Shelf FICTION/Loigman Lynda (NEW SHELF) Due Jan 13, 2025
Subjects
Genres
Historical fiction
Romance fiction
Novels
Published
New York : St. Martin's Press 2024.
Language
English
Main Author
Lynda Cohen Loigman (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
312 pages ; 25 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN
9781250278104
Contents unavailable.
Review by Booklist Review

When Augusta Stern is forced to retire from her job as a hospital pharmacist (she may have faked her age on her application), she moves to Rallentando Springs, a retirement community in Florida. There she sees Irving Rivkin, who worked as a delivery boy for her father's Brooklyn pharmacy. As the narrative alternates between the 1920s in Brooklyn and the 1980s in Florida, Loigman (The Matchmaker's Gift, 2022) slowly reveals the development of Irving and Augusta's relationship and what caused their ultimate rift. Young Augusta, her sister, and her grief-stricken father, Solomon, also contend with the arrival of Augusta's great-aunt Esther, who offers desperate residents remedies from an ancient apothecary kit that often work better than Solomon's more traditional medicines. Augusta is fascinated by both forms of healing until a fateful love-elixir concoction turns her against her aunt's ways for good. Or until she sees Irving again. Loigman presents two fully realized time lines, each full of Jewish cultural touchstones, in this charming love story that proves it's never too late for a second chance.

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In this poignant tale of late-in-life love, Loigman (The Matchmaker's Gift) showcases her talent for transporting readers into recent history through lovingly researched details and a touch of magical whimsy. In 1987, pharmacist Augusta Stern, reluctantly retired at nearly 80 years old, relocates from New York City to Rallentando Springs, a retirement community in Boca Raton, Fla. When she bumps into fellow resident Irving Rivkin, her father's delivery boy in the 1920s, it triggers painful memories of the courtship Irving abandoned unexpectedly. Loigman uses this renewed connection to flash back to Augusta's youth in Brooklyn with her father, her older sister, and her great-aunt Esther, who joined the family after Augusta's mother died. Her father, a respected pharmacist, looked the other way as Aunt Esther saw her own customers in their home above the pharmacy, offering chicken soup and herbal remedies, some of which magically gave users "clarity" into their desires. As the two timelines unfold, readers will hope that Augusta gains clarity herself, earning a second chance at love with the boy who got away. This is a charmer. (Oct.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Kirkus Book Review

An octogenarian's past comes bubbling to the surface when she begins a new chapter in her life. Growing up in 1920s Brooklyn, Augusta Stern had two heroes. First, her father, Solomon Stern, a well-respected pharmacist. Second, her great-aunt Esther, who moved in with the Sterns after Augusta's mother died and deals in medicinals in a less conventional way. Watching her great-aunt brewing healing concoctions in the kitchen in the middle of the night after seeing her father measuring out dosages and counseling patients in the back of his drugstore during the day, Augusta dreams of becoming a pharmacist herself. And she does just that, for decades, until a hospital employee figures out that Augusta, pushing 80, has doctored her records to show that she's in her 60s. Forced to retire, Augusta begrudgingly moves to a retirement community in Florida, and on her first morning there runs into the last man she ever wanted to see: Irving Rivkin, her father's former delivery boy and her first love. Irving is delighted to see Augusta, whom he lovingly/annoyingly calls by her childhood nickname, Goldie, but this feeling is certainly not mutual. The complicated history between the erstwhile lovers is slowly uncovered as Loigman alternates Augusta's present with her past. A hefty dose of theatrics bordering on the soap-operatic frequently makes the story hard to swallow. That said, Augusta and Irving's love story is charming without being saccharine, and Augusta's tongue-in-cheek wit combined with her renewed hopefulness makes her the perfect unexpected heroine for new beginnings: "Oh, how she wanted to be that woman again--a woman who, yes, had suffered losses, but whose heart had not yet been broken beyond repair." For anyone who believes in second chances. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.