The Apothecary Diaries 01 (Light Novel) (The Apothecary Diaries (Light Novel)) Paperback – May 14, 2024

The light novels are wonderful and it's so nice that they are available in English! This series is rich, exciting and has many volumes. The hardest part is the price per volume versus the time it takes to read through it is difficult to bear. The illustrations are so very well done, and this version is exactly like the anime, so nothing is lost.

I started by watching the anime, then became impatient and started the manga. I've become impatient with that now that the author is on a hiatus and started reading the light novel. I'm really enjoying each version of this story. Totally buying vol 2!

Just love the series and started collecting the books which are fantastic! Quick shipment delivery and great customer service! Highly recommend! I will be returning as additional books are released to add to my collection! For all ages. Thank you.

I’ve watched he anime. This light novel definitely explains more and gives more detail to the story. I am enjoying it

A story about maomao an apothecary who is kidnapped and sold to the palace. She solves mysteries and works her way up to the rear palace. In this story there always seems to be something going on so there aren’t any lulls & the characters are fantabulous.Now on to my biased opinion. I absolutely adore this series. The show & manga are both 10/10 so I decided I needed to get my hands on the light novel. They do give a little more information than the other two (bc it’s a novel duh) and there are so many insights into more than just maomaos thoughts that are lacking in the other 2 forms. Definitely worth checking out if you love this story.I gave it a 4 star bc there were some moments where the descriptive words used were just weird. I’m guessing maybe a translation thing? Not a big deal I just went “oh okay” and kept it pushing.

I have to say that in the last 20 years, my only reading has been non-fiction. I am overjoyed to have found this series of light novels. I do not enjoy manga all that much because of the way it seems to jump around and I tend to get easily lost and have to reread it a couple of times before I get the jist of things (not dumb just too easily distracted). There are not too many animes I will watch, in this case I found too many of them are just not that interesting. So I can name the ones I do like on 2 hands. My son knowing my tastes occasionally gives me names of anime to watch, I have a CrunchyRoll paid account that I rarely use. So, after binge watching The Apothecary Diaries and knowing that they are just being released now to the U.S., I actually went looking for the manga so that I could keep on with the story, even though it is not my favorite way of reading. When I found it, I also found the light novels and immediately bought up the first 10 of them about 4-5 days ago. I am already through book 4 and felt it was necessary to post a review.So, the story revolves around a young girl, Maomao, who was raised by an apothecary and when growing up learned all about medicines and how to use them. When she is kidnapped and sold to the palace to work in the rear palace, where the concubines and their servants live, she tries to keep her head down vowing to work off the two years as a lowly servant. But she cannot help but get involved when she sees that the emperors two new children are dying a slow death and she knows why.The story is really quite fun to read, especially since she just can't let something go that has her curiosity awaken or that she has the knowledge to make better. One of the reviewers mentioned that sometimes the descriptive words used were just weird. There were moments in the story when I was a bit confused as to what they were trying to say. But I found just moving forward into the story resolved those moments of confusion. After 4 books I have to say that I can't put it them down. I am looking forward to the rest of the anime and I really hope that they make all of it. My only suggestion is to watch a few of the episodes before starting on the books so that you have the images in your mind to go along with the story. Like I said, it is on CrunchyRoll and I remember at one time they had a free version and you just had to watch commercials.

Good

I watched the anime and now I want to read the light novel. And I'm not disappointed at all. It is really good.