Wow, wow, wow! Alice Hoffman is an amazing storyteller. Her novels read like fairy tales and I'm always so sad when they are over. Magic Lessons is a prequel in the Practical Magic series that introduces us to the very first of the Owens women. Set in the late 1600's when the Salem Witch Trials were at their peak. This book filled me with so many emotions. Anger at the idiot men that were so afraid of a woman with her own mind. Along with sadness, joy, fear and hope! I'm definitely going to re-read the other books in the series now.

4 magical stars! Alice Hoffman has such a way of weaving history, Magic and romance into one great story.
For me, I did have a rough time starting this book. It seemed so much darker than Practical Magic and The Rules of Magic, however as you move forward it does match the overall theme and setting of the Salem Witch Trials where this story is centered.
I love how each installment answers questions from the previous book and fills in holes and how this book tells of the origination of the Owens family curse which was a central plot line in all three books.
My only complaint is that some chapters read as history lessons vs blending into the story, but overall very well written.
Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this free advanced copy for review.

I was thrilled to receive a copy of Magic Lessons. The Practical Magic series is one of my favorites and I love the Owens women. Magic Lessons is a prequel to the prequel of the series. Alice Hoffman is working backwards and has finally made her way to Maria Owens - the first of the Owens women to arrive in the US and the one who put the curse on any man who dares to love an Owens woman.

After her birth in England, Maria is left in a field by her biological mother and is lucky enough to be found by Hannah, a local woman who practices the Nameless Arts. Hannah teaches Maria everything she knows, but notices that Maria has a natural aptitude of her own. She shows all of the signs of a bloodline witch. Maria is forced to flee Hannah's home after a terrifying incident. Maria finds her biological mother and father, who quickly sell her off as an indentured servant to wealthy people in Curaçao. It's there that she meets John Hathorne, the magistrate from Salem who becomes the father of Maria's child and the first recipient of the Owens curse.

This first half of the book was sprinkled with magic lessons - herbs and tinctures to mend what's broken. These magical lessons kept me interested in the novel, and the second half really gained steam.

The second half has Maria and her daughter, Faith, living in Salem and then New York City. We follow Maria and Faith through Maria's own witch trial in Salem and her escape from the gallows. While in jail, Faith is kidnapped by a jealous and petty woman and they run away to Brooklyn. Maria's magic tells her that Faith is in New York City and she spends years searching for her daughter. While in captivity, Faith slowly learns about her own bloodline powers, which she uses for dark purposes.

This is a fantastic edition to this series and is full of cozy witchy-ness that's perfect for this Fall season. You might find that the beginning is a bit slow, but hang in there. The second half easily makes up for it all!

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for an advanced copy of Magic Lessons in exchange for an honest review.

"In an unforgettable 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 “Unnamed 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 celebration of life and love and a showcase of Alice Hoffman’s masterful storytelling."

October is Practical Magic month, so what better way to celebrate than a new book about the Owens women?

The third novel in the Practical Magic series takes us all the way back to Maria Owens and the Salem Witch Trials, and I loved every second of it. Didn’t want it to end. The history, herbs, enchantments, heartache and adventure of a fiercely independent woman in the 17th Century. Read this when you are in the mood for a story of love and magic set in the 17th Century. It is The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne meets Burial Rites by Hannah Kent. Best paired with rum imported from the West Indies and a bag of oranges from Spain. XO, Tara

Loved this prequel to Practical Magic! I was absolutely fully immersed in Maria Owen’s life story from the moment I picked this book up!! It was amazing almost lyrical, definitely full of many heart thumping moments that had me almost wishing I could influence some of the character's actions as the story progressed. I’m not saying more because Definitely a beautiful story not to be missed! If you loved Practical Magic, then The Rules of Magic you will for sure this tale of love, revenge, and home. I am definitely going to reread/rewatch Practical Magic now too! Thank you SO much to NG for the ARC!

‘Rules of magic:
Do as you will, but harm no one.
What you give will be returned to you threefold.’

This took me a while to get into because the writing is ‘dry’/nonemotional?... not sure how else to describe it. Once I got used to this I really grew to enjoy the rhythm and appreciate how this lent to the overall feel of the story. A very well developed novel with characters to love and characters to hate... and characters that teetered in-between. I’ve not read the previous novel nor seen the movie (which I intend to now watch) and I think that this will be a real treat for readers that are already fans. 4 stars.

‘(Additional) Rule of magic:
Fall in love whenever you can.’

When I was a child, I enjoyed everything witchcraft and witches in a fun sorta Bewitched kinda way. Samantha Stevens is by far my favorite fantastical witch.

However, in my adult years I can never seem to grasp anything fantasy or science fiction that requires the use my rather dormant imagination.

I’ve been wanting to read this series and when I saw this offered on Netgalley, I thought well this would be the perfect place to start with a prequel of a series I am interested in.

I learned something about myself today which is I still cannot wrap my head around fantasy type books no matter how hard I try. I gave up and did not finish which makes me sad, but also I couldn’t endure much more.

The writing is quite good, but I simply could not connect to anything in this book which is of no fault of the author but rather my own lack of imagination. I am quite sure Alice Hoffman fans and readers of this series will find it quite good.

Thank you Netgalley for an ARC in exchange of my honest opinion. In the future, I will stick to trusted genres.

Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman is the prequel to her book Practical Magic that was made into a movie. Magic Lessons takes place during the witch trials during the 1600's in Salem, Mass. It tells the story of Hannah, Maria, and Faith Owens who are ancestors to the Owens sisters that you know from Practical Magic.

I wanted to love this book but it was just okay for me, and I can't really put my finger on the problem. The story was good, but seemed slow at times. There was a lot of descriptive paragraphs that set the scene, but maybe went a little long. I do think that if you read and enjoyed Practical Magic that you must read Magic Lessons.

Thank you to #NetGalley for allowing me to review and give my honest opinion of #MagicLessons.

Alice Hoffman is an author I recommend all the time, and I have enjoyed her past stories about the Owens women of Magnolia Lane. In Magic Lessons, Hoffman takes us back to the beginning of the Owens curse and fleshes out the life of Maria Owens, who started the whole thing.

Hoffman skillfully blends historical elements with lush and lyrical writing, telling stories of the women of the time and how their actions shaped the future of their descendants. All the emotions are here: love, loss, heartbreak, jealousy, betrayal, rage, compassion, tenderness - which all come together in a whirlwind of a story that starts in Essex England and ends in Essex Massachusetts.

Fans of Practical Magic will thoroughly enjoy this prequel; Hoffman fans in general will enjoy.

Magic Lessons gave me the same fairy tale feeling that I got from reading Practical Magic, but with a completely historical setting this time. I appreciated the feminist themes and the ways the women protected each other. It was interesting to get the back story to Practical Magic in this prequel, and have a better understanding of how family history affected their contemporary lives.

Alice Hoffman weaves her magic again and delivers the spellbinding prequel to Practical Magic and the history of the mysterious Owens women.

this started out a bit slow for me. i did like it in the end, but it just took a bit to get there. i do think you'll get more out of this book if you read and enjoyed the other two, even though it's a prequel.

For you fans of Practical Magic here is the backstory. This is the origin story of that curse on men who love Owens women. It is a very enjoyable read taking us from England to Barbados to New England. There is good magic and bad, a search for a child and a battle between good and evil. Yes, Alice Hoffman is giving us all the things in the story, including a very satisfying ending.

It started off slowly, much too slow, for my taste. The subject of magic was interesting and the suggested remedies were interesting to rrad.
Maria, brought up in the woods by a witch, learns first hand how these remedies work. As she grows older she will be quite powerful in helping others, especially in love, but love is something her magic won't help her find. What is real love is something she does not seem to find.
It was slow, then ok, then dragged enough that I skimmed until I finally felt it wasn't worth finishing.
Thank you NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest opinion

I read half of this book and just couldn’t bring myself to finish it. 😞 Unfortunately, my main takeaway from this book is that it is *so* narrow in its perspective—to the point where it feels like this book was not only just not written for everyone to read and enjoy, but that it was written *only* for people who exist in a non-intersectional white cis judeochristian heteronormative perspective.

I was never able to get into the story and I didn’t relate to any of the characters at all, nor did I ever really understand the motives behind their choices or feelings. And I think there’s a difference between writing a book *for* a certain perspective/identity/life-experience and doing so while still acknowledging a diversity of existences and experiences and reflecting more of an intersectional understanding of humanity that I felt like this book just didn’t accomplish.

I think in the end it was the primary theme of “blood makes a family”—the idea that unconditional love between people who are genetically related is both a norm and a value—as well as the misunderstanding of the role of nature in witchcraft (and especially the role of animals in witchcraft), in addition to the extreme cis-heteronormativity of the views and values expressed by the third person omniscient narrator, as well as the characters, that kept me from enjoying this book.

On top of that, however, was the lack of depth both in the book’s depiction of the historical time period in which it was set and the literary execution.

In particular the MC’s experiences onboard the various ships she traveled on was extremely unrealistic and the sugarcoating of the depiction of slavery in Curaçao as well as the erasure of the Indigenous experience in North America were rather upsetting. Especially coming somewhat fresh from reading The Devil and the Dark Water—which depicted life aboard a ship so vividly—and Washington Black—which demonstrated the pure evil of the reality of slavery (without turning into “trauma porn”, which I am not suggesting Hoffman should have done at all! just to be clear)—this book failed to keep up its promise of the “historical” part of historical fiction to the point where I felt that the lack of depth in this area very much detracted from the substance of the overall story.

In terms of the book’s literary execution (which I acknowledge is a point of personal preference) I felt that the story was told using too much narration and not enough of the action was played out for the reader to see. Characters’ feelings and perspectives were communicated by the third.per.om. narrator and not via the characters’ actions and dialogue. This style of writing almost always keeps me from being able to truly get to know the characters in a story and makes relating to them nearly impossible.

This book reminded me a lot of A Secret History of Witches which also fell flat for me for almost all of the exact same reasons. If you are looking for a book that is more of a romance novel than a historical fiction novel (and are ok with one that sort of trivializes the nature of witchcraft), your belief systems align with a judeochristian perspective, and you identify as a white cis hetero female, it is possible that you may enjoy this book more than I was able to, but unfortunately I walked away with the profound feeling that this book was just not meant for readers with a diversity of perspectives and experiences.

TW // lots of animals are murdered, a lot of binary-normative language (i.e. the phrase “men and women” is used a lit when the author means “people”, etc), strong anti-adoption*/blood-makes-a-family/a-“mother’s-love”-is-always-a-given sentiments, violence against women, domestic violence, slavery, torture, murder

*I know the relationship between Hannah and Maria was supposed to support the value of adoption, but the fact that Maria did not consider Hannah to be her “real” mother read a lot more like a disavowal of the validity of adoption to me.

I give this Five stars on Goodreads! Wow, what a saga to follow Maria’s story across seas and time and to make connections across her character and Faith’s. I enjoyed imagining Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Salem as they were depicted in the story. There is So much attention to detail woven throughout the book.

Loved it Alice Hoffman! This book, the prequel to Practical Magic and The Rules of Magic, beautifully takes us to the source of the curse in the Owens family. This is the story of Maria Owens who was abandoned in a snowy field in rural England in the 1600s. She was taken in and raised by Hannah Owens, who taught Maria everything she could about herbs and healing and incantations. One important lesson Hannah taught was to always love someone who will love you back.

The story starts in Essex, England and moves to Curaçao then to Salem, Massachusetts, and to New York City - Hannah traveled a great deal. Her life was filled with hardship and much of her story is very dark and sad. She is very mistrustful of love and is betrayed at several different ages by various people. The 1600s was very dangerous for women, especially if they were truly witches. It was important to keep their gifts a secret.

The book is masterfully written and gave me the feel of being in that time and how difficult it was for women. The characters were fleshed out well so I felt I understood them and what motivated their actions. I've enjoyed all the books in this series and loved the prequel - it explained so much!

Thanks to Alice Hoffman and Simon & Schuster through Netgalley for an advance copy.

Once again we return to the Owens family from Hoffman's previous books Practical Magic and The Rules of Magic. This time we learn about the woman who started the Owens line of witches. Maria Owens was left abandoned in the snowy woods and taken in by a kind woman who practiced witchcraft and taught young Maria the art. We follow Maria as she leaves England for Curacao, Salem, New York and back to Salem. We also get to see her daughter Faith, who winds up taking a different path than her mother. I like the Owens and will read anything written about them even though I think this outing was weaker than Practical Magic and The Rules of Magic, although it may have more to do with the fact that parts of the novel take place during the Salem witch trials and I absolutely loathe Puritans (I blame Hawthorne for that). However Maria and Faith are wonderful examples of strong women who strain against and obliterate the constraints of their times and the cast of side characters are each intriguing in their own way. Hopefully we see more stories about the Owens family of witches.

Fascinating story about the origins of the Owen's family and their matriarch. Set in the 1600’s at the height of "witch hysteria" A compelling tale of Maria Owen's being accused of witchcraft and the beginnings of the curse that will haunt generations of her family. Alice Hoffman delivers in this intriguing novel that you will not want to put down. Brilliant storytelling, highly recommend. A perfect read for fall. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to review.