This was my first Alice Hoffman book -- and it completely won me over. Set in England, Curacao, and Salem (MA), Absolutely engrossing historical fiction about the period at the very end of the Salem witch trials. I loved the settings and the main characters. The characters' differing attitudes toward magic interested me -- and I loved how genuine those attitudes all were. I'll be back to read much more Alice Hoffman.

I took my time wth this book, savoring each page, not rushing because I knew I would want it to go on as long as possible. It seems that everyone knows and loves Practical Magic, both the movie and the book. Next came The Rules of Magic, which takes place prior to the beloved story. It is a deeper loo at the personalities of the well known aunts, and shares some of the rules they had to learn.
Now we go back in time once again, all the way to the beginning, back to a time where being accused of witchcraft easily means death - and not an easy death! We learn about historical philosophy, the thoughts of the general populace, how love can be a blessing or, more often, a curse. Why the Owens descendants should avoid love, for more reasons than just emotional pain.
We learn how the significance of RED, hair and shoes or boots. We feel the pain of betrayal and abandonment and never being included. Being different or even unknown means not to be trusted and included.
For some, the book may seem to start slowly, a bit disparingly dark. Stay with it. You will take these women (and children) into your heart and find you can relate to their experiences.
Even if you don't, this is a wonderful story.

What is there to say, really? Alice Hoffman is such a master story-teller, I knew the book would be amazing. And it was. Hoffman takes us all the way back to the 1600’s where we meet Maria Owens, the matriarch of The Owen’s Family featured in The Rules of Magic and the Practical Magic Series.

Maria’s life isn’t easy, orphaned at a young age, and then left to take care of herself after she loses her foster mother, she basically has nothing. Only her magic. She pulls herself up by the bootstraps and goes on a journey from Curacao to NYC, to Salem, just in time for the witch trials.

It’s an amazing story of resilience, fortitude, and love. But not just the good part of love, the part that tears us apart and rips us down and jeopardizes everything we hope to become in life. No spoilers here. This is a book that you want to enjoy as you pull back each layer one by one.

Magic Lessons releases on October 6, 2020. A welcome distraction from our current situation as summer turns to fall. Special thanks to Simon and Schuster and Netgalley for an advanced e-galley in exchange for my honest review. My review will be posted to my blog, Women in Trouble Book Blog on September 23, 2020.

Introduces us to Owen's women dating back to 1600’s, their paths and obstacles in the way. Story of relationships, family ties that go beyond bloodlines, bonds formed in love or selfishness.

We meet the Owen's women whose courage was to pursue intellect, nurture their gifts, help others, and choose between use of talent without self-interest and horrors of evil. Well written story of bonds of love, mother/daughter, animals, and nature.
The story also gives us a glimpse of women who have been given no voice in their lives, destined to live a life of servitude and how the Owen woman broke these barriers while others did not.

A beautiful story of character's/.character and life's messages. Appreciated the richness of story-line. Valued the reverence to nature weaved into story.

Wonderful story, held my attention reading. I found many special life's messages throughout book. Magic Lessons does not disappoint. Alice Hoffman once again performs magic with her words.

Some of my favorites I have highlighted are:
"Achingly beautiful weather made the loss cut more deeply"
“Words have power. And they can't be taken back"
“Do as you will, but harm no one. What you give will be returned to you threefold.”

For a good read, gets my thumbs up.

Magic Lessons
How does a bastard, orphan, daughter of a witch and a criminal Englishman dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean grow up to be a heroine and a mother? Chronicling the nearly but not quite tragic then triumphant origin story of the matriarch of the illustrious Owens clan, Magic Lessons (Simon & Schuster, $27.99, 9781982108847), is an overwhelming triumph. Alice Hoffman’s prequel to Practical Magic is lush, evocative and enchanting. Maria Owen was found abandoned on the banks of the river as an infant. By the age of 19 she’s witnessed ample evidence of love’s destructive power -- her birth mother who had to give her up and her adopted mother Hannah, accused of being an abomination by a man she thought loved her. Women beaten, betrayed, bought and sold by men who should have protected them. So when she meets a good man who only wants to love her, she doesn’t trust it.

The truly terrifying part is that Magic Lessons is steeped in history as well as horror. The real horror is the persecution of these women in the 17th century. The story is bracing. Hoffman is at the height of her powers. There are two stories of true love interwoven into this multigenerational tale-- the love of a woman and a man, the love between a mother and a daughter. A child is stolen and neglected. Animals are hurt in this story, but it is not gratuitously or casually told. Their lives feel as precious within the context of the story as those of almost anyone else in this cast, and it is completely convincing.

Feminist in the most organic and optimistic way. A woman with little power rises but she finds a way to not just save herself but make systemic change along the way. It is heartbreaking and heart healing.

A magical and incredibly addictive book. The story takes place during the seventeenth century, Maria Owens has been unlucky enough to be abandoned during a freezing night in rural England. Fortunately, Maria is adopted by Hannah who raises her and teaches her many important skills. Among those skills that Maria learns are the "Unnamed Arts", as she has a talent for learning that knowledge. But the most important lesson that Maria learns is to always love back whoever loves her. One day, Maria sets sail for Salem, Massachusetts, as the man who swore true love to her abandoned her. Maria wants to invoke a curse on this man's family. But also, in this city, she will have the opportunity to learn the rules of magic and many more lessons. A magnificent book, which describes the problems of Maria and her surroundings. I loved that the story describes some of the ancient languages ​​that were supposedly utilized for magic like Latin, Greek, etc. The city of Salem has always intrigued me, reading a book in which it is mentioned excites me because I have always wanted to know how people thought during this time. I find Maria's intelligence fascinating not only for magic but for everyday life. I am very happy to have read this book that I definitely recommend. I thank NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

I LOVED THIS BOOK! Let me start by saying, I did not read Practical Magic, but it is one of my favorite movies. I did read Rules of Magic and I liked it, but in my opinion it did not compare to this story.

This is the story of Maria Owens and how the curse of the Owens' women came into fruition. This novel was dark, witchy, intelligent, and emotional. I caught myself yelling out to the characters and actually putting my ereader down at times to prepare myself for what I knew I was about to read.
This story ties in true facts from the Salem Witch Trials and teaches us that "Love is the only answer".

Easily one of my favorite reads this year! 5 stars!

This one started so very slowly... I almost gave up on it. About halfway through it picked up and was pretty good from there. I wasn't a huge fan of the movie Practical Magic and never read the book but I really enjoyed Maria's history as it was given here.

I know I am eternally biased to the genius that is Alice Hoffman, but I really did love this book. It took a little bit to warm up, but you begin to care so much about Maria's story. If you have ready Practical Magic & Rules of Magic, you know not everything is going to go great- but you still want to know all that happens. Heartbreaking in usual Hoffman fashion, this book delivers.

his is the story of Maria Owens and Faith, her daughter. It is the prequel to the Practical Magic books, which I loved so much! Finally, we know how the Owens women became so powerful and feared. What a story!

I first saw Practical Magic when it came out as a movie with Sanda Bullock and Nicole Kidman. I was mesmerized and enchanted. I bought the soundtrack. I sang along to my favorite white witch, Stevie Nicks, rock goddess, Gold Dust Woman. I loved everything about the movie. I owned the CD and watched it more than a few times. It was, well, magic. I did not know who Alice Hoffman was.

Years later, I have found goodreads....I am a NetGalley reader; and I begin seeing Rules of Magic coming out on my news feed. I request in and I get it instantly. I am giddy! I loved that book. I loved knowing about the sisters and their backstory. The aunts that danced around the kitchen making margaritas and singing "lime in the coconut". The book was dark but positive too. It was a feel good for me. I did go back and read Practical Magic, needing to know the whole story as Hoffman wrote it. In some ways, I enjoyed the movie more tho. Maybe it was just so familiar. And beautiful.

So..fast forward and now I get an invite to read this one...Magic Lessons. Heck yeah!!! I must know everything about this family. The beginnings. The makings of these strong women. I was soooooo excited. I read it right away. I want to say here tho, it was very dark. Much darker (for me) than the other two books. I was struggling at the beginning. But I was sooooo glad when Maria did not die when I thought she might. I kept on. I had to know what happened and how she survived against all odds. The ending I was hoping for came. No spoiler. It might not be the ending you want. It was right. There are a lot of troubling scenes. Deaths I wish had not occurred.

It is so well written I can't find any fault with the author. The story is heavy. A lot of sadness. But, I was so invested with the characters of Faith and Maria. I cared a great deal about what happened to them. I wanted to hurt those that hurt them.

This is one of my favorite and most memorable reads of 2020. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital copy to read for review. I highly recommend it!

I'd like to thank the author, publisher and Net Galley for providing a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I love anything to do with the Salem Witch trials. The subject has always been an interest of mine and I have read everything on the topic - even slightly related - or so I thought. I'm not sure how I missed this author and her books, but I haven't read any of these books. Maybe because I didn't care much for the movie, Practical Magic. So I wasn't sure what to expect going into this book.

Overall, I enjoy the book. The character development, setting and overall story telling was engaging. I actually felt like I was getting to know these characters rather than just reading words on a page. I felt like the author has probably done research and has an interest in the subject and that shows in the writing.

Overall, I'm not dashing out to get the other books by this author, but I will keep those other books on my list to look for. For a subject that I've read and researched so much about, it can be tough to really judge a book by just the book. But hearing another point of view or different aspect of the story can be interesting too.

Alice Hoffman did it again. From already being one of my top 5 FAVORITE authors. She blew me away with this one. I loved reading this like I loved reading all the rest. I felt like I was right in the story!

Beautiful. This is an entrancing story. Loved it. Everyone should read it. You do not have to have read the other books to enjoy this one.

Wonderful addition to the Practical magic series! Alice Hoffman did not disappoint! A Must read for fall 2020, just in time for Halloween!

Like the other two books in this backwards-facing series (they are prequels of each other, rather than the standard sequels), I struggled with Magic Lessons from nearly the beginning. To be fair, it is the same style and the same storytelling method as Hoffman employed in both Practical Magic and The Rules of Magic I just simply don't care for it.

There is almost no depth to the story, the characters, or the atmosphere. The narrator (third person) is incredibly removed from the story and distant. What there is a lot of ... is page after page, paragraph after paragraph, of lists of things. Lists of magicky sounding phrases and reminders, formulas and ingredient lists. Lists of feelings at that moment, followed by lists of metaphors and/or similes to further describe said feelings. Lists of things noticed in the scene and then remembered from another, which may or may not spark other lists of other remembrances. Utterly exhausting.

There's an extraordinarily small amount of dialogue throughout the entire book and Hoffman handles the rest of her story by simply and directly "telling" — it is blunt, it is to the point, and it is boring. There is no subtly in any of the story, and I cannot imagine the draw to the entire book being delivered this way (nay, the entire series).

I loved Practical Magic, so this book had a lot to live up to! It definitely did! I love this prequel. It gave so much more information about the family and the characters. I fell in love from the very beginning! I highly recommend this. Love love love the Owens Family!!

Magic Lessons was a beautiful story of the origin of the Owens family. This really tied the other books together. I loved every second of this book. Alice Hoffman wove her magic again. I loved the historical references as well

I came to the Owens family story through Rules of Magic, published years after the first Owens family novel, the immensely popular Practical Magic. I had liked the characters in Rules and realized their story was rooted in the very real struggles of young adulthood. Afterward, I finally read Practical.

The prequel to Practical Magic, Magic Lessons, which begins in 1664 in Essex, England. It is the story of the first Owens witch who cursed all the Owens women's loves.

The teenage witch Maria tragically loses her mentor and adopted mother. Her biological parents send her to the New World as an indentured servant. On St. Kitts, she honed her craft as a healer. Maria falls in love with the New England merchant John Hathorne, who abandons her without knowing she is pregnant. Maria travels to New England to find John.

She finds passage in exchange for nursing and healing the pirate Samuel Dias, whose Jewish family had fled Portugal. He falls in love with Maria.

Her troubles increase when she does find John. Her very life is threatened by the witch hunters of Salem, her daughter stolen from her.

John Hathorne in the novel is based on the actual magistrate who condemned women accused of being witches to death. (Nathaniel Hawthorne, our great early novelist, added that 'w' to his name to disassociate himself with his ancestor.)

Oh! the ways women have been controlled and punished for overstepping the narrow lives men ordained for them. If a woman reads, she must be a witch. If a woman stands up for herself, she must be punished. If a man is attracted to a woman, she has bewitched him and is evil. Bind them in iron and drown them! Nail their feet to the ground and burn them!

And women are still fighting this battle.

Maria understood that a woman with her own beliefs who refuses to bow to those she believes to be wrong can be considered dangerous.~from Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman

The heart of the novel is, of course, love. How women love the wrong men and suffer for it. "Love someone who will love you back," Hannah advises. But how do we know love when we find it? Young people confuse lust with love, always have. We ignore the signs that later seem obvious. Maria rejects her true love, first because of her passion for John, and later because she vows never to love again.

Love was risky, for marriage required women to abdicate all self-determination and choice. Maria's magic helps women from men who abuse them.

I had a neighbor who said, "What goes around, comes around." Hoffman's rule of magic is similar: you get back threefold whatever you do. Best to do good! What magic you bring into the world becomes your responsibility.

Hoffman weaves her stories with flawed characters whose struggles we recognize, for even if they have magic at their command, they are very human. It is no wonder these books are so popular with readers. They offer romance, challenges, strong female characters, life lessons, and in this book a heavy dose of history.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

I will admit it-I never read Practical Magic, but I loved the movie. So when I got a chance to read Magic Lessons I was very happy to read the books in more of the order that they actually took place. And Magic Lessons is truly magical. Set in the 1600's we meet Hannah Owens, a witch/healer, who finds an abandoned baby girl in a basket guarded by a crow. She names the baby Maria Owens, and recognizing her gift for "the unamed arts," teaches her everything she knows, until she is murdered by fearful men. Her parents claim Maria but her father sells her as an indentured slave in Curacao. Growing up as a servant she meets John Hawthorne and falls in love with this magistrate from Salem. Hawthorne leaves, Maria has a baby girl and vows to follow him so they may wed. She books passage on a ship to the New World and promises to heal the ship's navigator who falls in love with her on the voyage. Thus begins the love triangle at the heart of this beautifully written novel. Maria's story answers a lot of questions brought up in Practical Magic and gives the reader insights into how to use herbs and flowers to cast effective spells. It even dabbles in the black arts and the harm that it might bring to those who use them.
If you have read Practical Magic you will have to reread it after reading Magic Lessons to get the backstory of the Owens sisters. If you haven't read it yet, do yourself a favor and read them in order-the Owen curse will make more sense that way.

I am a big fan of Alice Hoffman’s! I love her writing style as well as the stories she tells. Magic lessons gives us the opportunity to learn life lessons through the eyes and experiences of a family of women who have ‘special skills’. Their experiences put them in positions where they sometimes impetuously choose to use their ‘special skills’ in negative ways. But many times they use their ‘special skills’ to help others. And through all of,these interesting and disturbing experiences they become the person they are meant to be. And, isn’t that what we hope will happen to,us?