Although I enjoyed The Physick Book a lot, there were some smallish things that I thought could have been improved.  I was not in love with the Boston accent approximations – I know these things are difficult to do, so I give her mostly a break on that.  I thought the book telegraphed punches a bit, with Connie failing to pick up clues that even I caught, even though she was supposed to be doing a dissertation on colonial America and I, um, took American history when I was in high school.

Throughout the book we flash back to Deliverance Dane and her daughter and her daughter’s daughter and this was really excellent – I wanted more of it!  The sections from the past felt much more immediate and real than the bits with Connie doing her researching and having her rather unbelievable fling with Sam.  Deliverance and her daughter Mercy, in particular, made me get a bit sniffly since, of course, it being the Salem Witch trials, Deliverance gets hanged. Oh well.

Final verdict: This book sounded like one of Barbara Michaels’ books, and it really was a lot like that.  Only less polished.  Barbara Michaels but less polished.  I’d love to see Katherine Howe write an entire book set Back in the Day.  I bet that would be really good, although I don’t tend to love books set in colonial America.  I would read one if Katherine Howe wrote it.  I believe in you, Katherine Howe!

Other thoughts:

Tara at Books and Cooks
Wendy at Caribousmom
Fyrefly’s Book Blog
book-a-rama
S. Krishna’s Books
Devourer of Books
Medieval Bookworm
Booking Mama
3 Evil Cousins
Joyfully Retired
TV and Book Addict
Bookfoolery and Babble
In Search of Giants
Shelf Love
I Smell Books
LitBites
Literary Fangirl
We Be Reading
The Book Splot
My Two Blessings
The Burton Review
Reading Rocks
Books for Breakfast, Drinks for Dinner

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