The pharmacist's wife - Vanessa Tait

Love. Desire. Vengeance. A deadly alchemy.

When Rebecca Palmer's new husband opens a pharmacy in Victorian Edinburgh, she expects to live the life of a well-heeled gentlewoman. But her ideal is turns to ashes when she discovers her husband is not what he seems. As Rebecca struggles to maintain her dignity in the face of his infidelity and strange sexual desires, Alexander tries to pacify her so-called hysteria with a magical new chemical creation. A wonder-drug he calls heroin. 

Rebecca's journey into addiction takes her further into her past, and her first, lost love, while Alexander looks on, curiously observing his wife's descent. Meanwhile, Alexander's desire to profit from his invention leads him down a dangerous path that blurs science, passion, and death. He soon discovers that even the most promising experiments can have unforeseen and deadly consequences...

Paperback, 400 pages
Published April 5th 2018 by Atlantic Books
Historical fiction
For review

My thoughts:
This was horrible, I mean what was done to her! Poor Rebecka.

She is newly married to pharmacist Alexander. And he is always tinkering with new recipes. And he has ideas. Sigh, what a man! He is of the lie back and think of England variety. Any emotion from a woman is wrong. But she really tries to make it a happy marriage. What else can she do. Her husband is her keeper.

And then the horrible part. He gives her heroin and says it will make her feel better. And then thing is, he really thinks so. It is not the first drug that was used as a cure it all. Heroin! Of course she gets addicted and he just watches. Because after all, what a great experiment. Horrid man!

Though I must say, for a woman with no choices, she really gets a backbone. And she has ideas and she deserves so much more than this idiot of a man.

There is also questions about her husband, Doubts, flashbacks to her one true love and the dark side of addiction.

Men were not as clever as they thought. Heroin! I can not say it enough.

Interesting.

The looking glass house - Vanessa Tait

Vanessa Tait, great-granddaughter of the Alice who inspired Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, tells the fascinating story of the childhood classic's strange beginnings through the eyes of a naive and deceived governess.

What happened before Alice fell down the rabbit hole?

Oxford, 1862. As Mary Prickett takes up her post as governess to the daughters of the Dean of Christ Church, she is thrust into a strange new world. Mary is poor and plain and desperate for change but the little girls in her care see and understand far more than their naive new teacher. And there is another problem: Mary does not like children, especially the precocious Alice Liddell.

When Mary meets Charles Dodgson, the Christ Church mathematics tutor, at a party at the Deanery, she wonders if he may be the person to transform her life. Flattered by his attentions, Mary begins to believe that she could be more than just an overlooked, dowdy governess.

One sunny day, as Mary chaperones the Liddells on a punting trip, Mr Dodgson tells the story of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. But Mary is determined to become Mr Dodgson's muse ­ and will turn all the lives around her topsy-turvy in pursuit of her obsession. 

My thoughts:

The story of Alice, but not really, it was the story of Alice's governess, and in turn about Alice.

Mary is from a poor family, but finds herself lucky to become a governess to the Lidell children. Maybe she even can find a match for herself.

Fiction and history is mixed since we can't know everything for sure. Mary is pretty blind at times, but she was a woman of her time. She fell for Hodgson, and thought he liked her back. She also disliked Alice a lot since Alice stole the attention she wanted. Of course she never questioned why a grown man wants to spend so much time with a kid. So she was jealous, blind, but still yes I got that she wanted more from her life.

Alice then. We only see Alice through Mary's eyes, and Alice is a spoiled child who gets way too much attention and revels in it. I can't say I liked Alice, but then, would she have been liked that if she had not been told how special she was? Oh and sidenote, I found it so interesting to see what happened to Alice when she grow up. There is another story there!

Right, the elephant in the room. We can't know, but really, he took those pics, he wrote creepy letters. Yeah. And little by little he gets creepier and creepier. Just by things he says when you think about it.

I thought it was interesting, and so creepy, about the historical explanation why he could spend time with kids. He could not have spent time with a young woman, that would have been wrong. But little girls that was ok in those times. Cos yes, who would do anything wrong? No one is that weird..right.

Conclusion:

It was an fascinating look at the family. And I totally think there should be a book about Alice as a woman.

cover

nice

Hardcover, 304 pages
Published July 2nd 2015 by Corvus
Historical fiction
for review