The Apothecary Diaries, Vol. 10 by Natsu Hyuuga, Nekokurage, Itsuki Nanao, Touco Shino
Series Name: The Apothecary Diaries (Manga)
Genres: Drama, Historical, Mystery, Romance
Intended Age Group: Teen
Publisher: Square Enix
Edition: Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-64609-136-2
Rating: 4/5
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Description from the Book
When two beautiful foreign envoys with designs on the Emperor come calling, they spin a fantastical tale about a courtesan who once captured the imagination of their family patriarch. Now it falls to Maomao to concoct a theatrical scheme to give the ladies a whopper of a story to take home! And when the hubbub from their visit dies down, Maomao goes back to sniffing around the Inner Court for the perfume oils and spices sold by the caravan that could spell disaster for the throne’s future heirs. But the trail leads her back…to the Crystal Palace?!
Personal & Info
It took me longer than I would have liked to get around to reading this. I ended up doing a full series reread to refresh my memory, and just because I wanted to. The reread was immensely enjoyable. My review for volume eleven will be a little late, but I’ll get to it as soon as I can.
Characters
Maomao is wonderful, as always. I absolutely adore her.
Jinshi is ever present and extra stressed. He does not seem to be having a good time in this volume.
Shenlu is an older lady who runs the clinic. She’s far older than the typical court lady, likely due to her special skills.
Xing is the Head Lady-in-Waiting at the Crystal Palace. She works for Lihua.
Story & Thoughts
This volume is pretty jam packed. It has six chapters. Five of them are multipart events. Of course, the first one is the continuation of the final chapter from volume nine. But, aside from that, there is a three chapter event, and the last chapter is part one for another multipart event.
Part two of The Moon Fairy is fantastic. I was all smiles for that chapter. While I enjoyed it, I don’t think I can say the same for Jinshi.
The Inner Court has several rules that make important things, like medical care, more difficult than they should be. Maomao learns about more of these things, and sees some of the imminent problems the Inner Court is likely to face as an eventuality. It’s clear the current emperor has many things in a transitional state and has not yet fully addressed some of the policy reforms.
On that subject, I think the social aspects of the Inner Palace need addressing. That’s more of an issue for the consorts to deal with, though, and some of them are not aware of the things that need to be fixed. There always seems to be one problem or another at the Crystal Palace, but Lihua seems ready to start addressing those issues.. I hope Lishu can wise up to some of the negativity involving her own ladies-in-waiting at some point.
It’s pretty funny we only just now find out that Maomao has been breaking highly enforced rules this whole time.
I’m surprised Jinshi didn’t express anything to Maomao about the scratches on her face after the drama had passed. He’s usually more concerned about anything that hurts her. The face is also very important inside the Inner Palace because of how much of the social structure there is based on looks, so I thought there should have been a little more attention drawn to that.
All in all, the series is holding up very well. My usual rating tends to be a solid four, with only the occasional dip to a three. It’s definitely one of my current favorites.