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 1920s 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 Solomon’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?

One of the most well-loved romantic tropes is when two characters reconnect with their first love. The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern tells such a story—but it is so much more than that.

Eighty-year-old Augusta, a trained pharmacist, has finally been forced to retire. Beyond the culture shock of moving from New York to Florida, she finds her first love Irving living at the same assisted living facility. We travel back in time to 1920s Brooklyn as Augusta recounts not only her budding relationship with her pharmacist father’s delivery boy, but also her memories of the aunt who raised her. An aunt with special knowledge of herbs and potions and teas, which not only had healing properties, but seemed to conjure magic as well.

I loved this story largely because I loved Augusta, the younger and the elder. She is no-nonsense, smart, insightful, but also curious about the world and wanting to do her very best. She came to life for me as someone I would want for a best friend. I loved spending this time in her worlds—both the practical, scientific pharmaceutical world and the healing world of nature. I found this book comforting to the very last page.