In this “ bewitching” (The New York Times Book Review) novel that traces a centuries-old curse to its source, beloved author Alice Hoffman unveils the story of Maria Owens, accused of witchcraft in Salem, and matriarch of a line of the amazing Owens women and men featured in Practical Magic and The Rules of Magic.
Where does the story of the Owens bloodline begin? With Maria Owens, in the 1600s, when she’s abandoned in a snowy field in rural England as a baby. Under the care of Hannah Owens, Maria learns about the “Nameless Arts.” Hannah recognizes that Maria has a gift and she teaches the girl all she knows. It is here that she learns her first important lesson: Always love someone who will love you back.
When Maria is abandoned by the man who has declared his love for her, she follows him to Salem, Massachusetts. Here she invokes the curse that will haunt her family. And it’s here that she learns the rules of magic and the lesson that she will carry with her for the rest of her life. Love is the only thing that matters.
Magic Lessons is a “heartbreaking and heart-healing” (BookPage) celebration of life and love and a showcase of Alice Hoffman’s masterful storytelling.
I loved this prequel to Practical Magic. It follows the life of Maria Owens and how she ended up in Massachusetts after being abandoned in a field in England as a baby, during the 1600s. This book is intense and detailed as it chronicles the life of Maria Owens.
I found this book to be the most unsettling of the Practical Magic series. It’s due to the time period and the brutal way women were treated back then, especially if the woman was a witch or at least thought to be a witch. I was especially intrigued by the way the women all helped each other and found ways to thwart the evil of the men around them as much as they could.
But, the story is rich and moving, as we see Maria get stronger and stronger as time goes on. Maria is raised by Hannah Owens who teaches her the “unnamed arts” as well as many other skills that will come in handy over her lifetime. After Hannah is killed, Maria eventually ends up in Salem Massachusetts as we see the Salem Witch trials from her point of view.
The book is very long and very detailed, but also fascinating and somewhat inspiring. The writing is beautiful and full of the tiniest of details on how Maria lived during those early years, and it brought her to life as I felt like I struggled alongside Maria. And most importantly we learn about the curse and how it started.
An instant New York Times bestseller and Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick from beloved author Alice Hoffman—the spellbinding prequel to Practical Magic.
Find your magic.
For the Owens family, love is a curse that began in 1620, when Maria Owens was charged with witchery for loving the wrong man.
Hundreds of years later, in New York City at the cusp of the sixties, when the whole world is about to change, Susanna Owens knows that her three children are dangerously unique. Difficult Franny, with skin as pale as milk and blood red hair, shy and beautiful Jet, who can read other people’s thoughts, and charismatic Vincent, who began looking for trouble on the day he could walk.
From the start Susanna sets down rules for her children: No walking in the moonlight, no red shoes, no wearing black, no cats, no crows, no candles, no books about magic. And most importantly, never, ever, fall in love. But when her children visit their Aunt Isabelle, in the small Massachusetts town where the Owens family has been blamed for everything that has ever gone wrong, they uncover family secrets and begin to understand the truth of who they are. Yet, the children cannot escape love even if they try, just as they cannot escape the pains of the human heart. The two beautiful sisters will grow up to be the memorable aunts in Practical Magic, while Vincent, their beloved brother, will leave an unexpected legacy.
Alice Hoffman delivers “fairy-tale promise with real-life struggle” (TheNew York Times Book Review) in a story how the only remedy for being human is to be true to yourself. Thrilling and exquisite, real and fantastical, The Rules of Magic is “irresistible…the kind of book you race through, then pause at the last forty pages, savoring your final moments with the characters” (USA TODAY, 4/4 stars).
The rules of Magic follow Maria Owen’s descendants in New York City in the early 1960s as they discover their own magic and the curse that Maria Owens placed on the family. Susanna Owens has three children, Franny, the oldest and most obstinate, Jet, beautiful and shy, and Vincent, as handsome as the devil and full of charm. Susanna refused to tell her children anything about their magical heritage and they never knew they have relatives in Massachusetts who practice the Unnamed Arts. As the children get older, they start to realize they have magic too.
I loved finding out the backstory to the two aunts from the original Practical Magic book, and more about the curse and how it affected the aunts. We find out why Franny and Jet become the reclusive aunts that saved Gillian and Sally when they came to live with them. The Owens curse doesn’t miss either Franny, Jet, or Vincent, and The Rules of Magic show us how devastating the curse is to Maria Owen’s descendants.
*25th Anniversary Edition*—with an Introduction by the Author!
The Owens sisters confront the challenges of life and love in this bewitching novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Rules of Magic, Magic Lessons, and The Book of Magic.
For more than two hundred years, the Owens women have been blamed for everything that has gone wrong in their Massachusetts town. Gillian and Sally have endured that fate as well: as children, the sisters were forever outsiders, taunted, talked about, pointed at. Their elderly aunts almost seemed to encourage the whispers of witchery, with their musty house and their exotic concoctions and their crowd of black cats. But all Gillian and Sally wanted was to escape. One will do so by marrying, the other by running away. But the bonds they share will bring them back—almost as if by magic...
“Splendid...Practical Magic is one of [Hoffman's] best novels, showing on every page her gift for touching ordinary life as if with a wand, to reveal how extraordinary life really is.”—Newsweek
“[A] delicious fantasy of witchcraft and love in a world where gardens smell of lemon verbena and happy endings are possible.”—Cosmopolitan
Practical Magic is the first book written in the series, but the timeline is third in the series of books. The time period is approximately 20 years ago when the book was written. This book follows Gillian and Sally as they are suddenly orphaned when their parents die. Gillian finds their aunts, Frannie and Jet, who agree to take them in. Gillian and Sally grow up in their small New England town as pariahs, because everyone knows that the aunts are strange and probably evil. The aunts have cultivated this impression, but it doesn’t help the young sisters as they grow up. Eventually, Gillian leaves town as soon as she can, and Sally stays in town, marries, and has a couple of girls of her own. But, when Gillian comes back, trouble follows her.
I thought Practical Magic was quite a bit darker than the movie, it also included many more details about the Owens family, that were not included in the movie. But, after reading the prequels, I understood the aunts and the curse much better than I did when I watched the movie. Although the story was very long, and I thought it could be condensed a bit, I thoroughly enjoyed the story.
Master storyteller Alice Hoffman brings us the conclusion of the Practical Magic series in a spellbinding and enchanting final Owens novel brimming with lyric beauty and vivid characters.
The Owens family has been cursed in matters of love for over three-hundred years but all of that is about to change. The novel begins in a library, the best place for a story to be conjured, when beloved aunt Jet Owens hears the deathwatch beetle and knows she has only seven days to live. Jet is not the only one in danger—the curse is already at work.
A frantic attempt to save a young man’s life spurs three generations of the Owens women, and one long-lost brother, to use their unusual gifts to break the curse as they travel from Paris to London to the English countryside where their ancestor Maria Owens first practiced the Unnamed Art. The younger generation discovers secrets that have been hidden from them in matters of both magic and love by Sally, their fiercely protective mother. As Kylie Owens uncovers the truth about who she is and what her own dark powers are, her aunt Franny comes to understand that she is ready to sacrifice everything for her family, and Sally Owens realizes that she is willing to give up everything for love.
The Book of Magic is a breathtaking conclusion that celebrates mothers and daughters, sisters and brothers, and anyone who has ever been in love.
I loved to see the Owens family all together again to fight the curse that Maria Owens started. The curse has caused too much heartache over the generations and now it must be stopped.
The first part of the book is a recap of the first three books, and since I listen to these all in order it was a bit redundant for me. But, I understand that it had to be done, and I was ok with it, as I believe it’s a good refresher.
This book, as well as the others, is so well-detailed and believable. I felt the suspense and enjoyed the story so much.
The book was full of ups and downs, and it was a fantastic family drama with a bit of magic thrown in. Three generations of Owens work together to save the family and future generations from the curse that has plagued the family for years. Like the other books in the series, it’s a bit long-winded at times, but overall I found The Book of Magic a satisfying end to a wonderful series.
About Alice Hoffman
Alice Hoffman is the author of more than thirty works of fiction, including Magic Lessons: The Prequel to Practical Magic, The World That We Knew, The Rules of Magic, The Marriage of Opposites, Practical Magic, The Book of Magic, The Red Garden, the Oprah’s Book Club selection Here on Earth, The Museum of Extraordinary Things, and The Dovekeepers. She lives near Boston.
[…] Audiobook Reviews: The Practical Magic Series by Alice Hoffman Monday: Book Tour and Book Review: Beneath His Silence by Hannah LinderTuesday: Top Ten Tuesday […]
I have Practical Magic on my TBR and am hoping to get to it this year but if not will get to it next year. Somehow I’ve never seen the movie but I know so many people who love it. Thanks for sharing all the reviews for the series. It has me excited to get into these!
Interesting how each book had a different narrator, although there were years between some of the books so I guess that’s understandable. It’s great to see that you enjoyed the whole series. There are definitely certain books/series that I have listened to on audio and can’t imagine enjoying them as much any other way.
I have wanted to read Practical Magic for ages. I love the film. I am a bit concerned though when you say that the story is long and detailed. My attention span of an evening (when I do all my reading) is suffering a bit (more!!) at the moment.
Great reviews though that have given me something to think about.
I’ve only managed to read one of these, Magic Lessons. I started the Rules of Magic once but it never stuck. Audio might be the way to go if I ever decide to try these again!
Magic Lessons 
The Rules of Magic
Practical Magic
The Book of Magic
[…] Audiobook Reviews: The Practical Magic Series by Alice Hoffman Monday: Book Tour and Book Review: Beneath His Silence by Hannah LinderTuesday: Top Ten Tuesday […]
I have Practical Magic on my TBR and am hoping to get to it this year but if not will get to it next year. Somehow I’ve never seen the movie but I know so many people who love it. Thanks for sharing all the reviews for the series. It has me excited to get into these!
I’ve read all but the first one, Magic Lessons. It really is the perfect series for Halloween. Great reviews!
Interesting how each book had a different narrator, although there were years between some of the books so I guess that’s understandable. It’s great to see that you enjoyed the whole series. There are definitely certain books/series that I have listened to on audio and can’t imagine enjoying them as much any other way.
Yes, but the different narrators didn’t bother me at all.
This sounds like an amazing series, great reviews 😊
Thank you, Jenny
I’m so happy you loved these! Happy Halloween. 🎃
Thank you, La La!
Oh, wow! This series is on my TBR and I even have the first book, I think. Excellent review!
Thank you, Tessa! I hope you enjoy them!
I have wanted to read Practical Magic for ages. I love the film. I am a bit concerned though when you say that the story is long and detailed. My attention span of an evening (when I do all my reading) is suffering a bit (more!!) at the moment.
Great reviews though that have given me something to think about.
It’s pretty long, Emily. I listened to them, so that’s a bit easier for me for long books.
Great reviews! I’m glad you liked them all.
Thank you, Kristi!
Awesome reviews Wendy!🤗📚💜
Thank you, Susan.
I haven’t read this series and appreciate your wonderful reviews. Happy Halloween Wendy!
Thank you, Jodie!
Oh, I still haven’t read these. Great post!
Thank you, Rae!
I’ve only managed to read one of these, Magic Lessons. I started the Rules of Magic once but it never stuck. Audio might be the way to go if I ever decide to try these again!
I’m not sure I would have enjoyed these as much on ebook or paper.
I just couldn’t get into these books, I tried several times.
They are not for everyone.