The Apothecary Diaries 4

It's tough finding a rating when the book simply elevates itself above the previous five-star entries. Everything here is the peak of the series so far: the mystery is engaging and has great impacts on several characters, Maomao's interactions with everyone show depth that she's normally reluctant to acknowledge, the romance is actually interesting, and there's even a bunch of well done action scenes to take the whole thing home. If I had one complaint, it's that it takes a little while to really kick things off, but even then the slow start finds relevance as the book progresses.

It's rare to find a series that genuinely gets better and better as time goes on. The Apothecary Diaries has seen Maomao's situation morph regularly, and the situation in the Rear Palace edge away from where we started, but even as the series slowly moves away from the place it started it simply finds new ways to impress.