Prequels are risky propositions- after all, how exciting can the journey be when you've already arrived at the destination? In the case of Magic Lessons, the task is twice as tricky as the novel is actually a prequel to a prequel. Alice Hoffman first wrote about the Owens women in 1995 with Practical Magic. If you didn't read the novel you probably saw the movie starring Sandra Bullock (Sally Owens) and Nicole Kidman (Gillian Owens)-although the movie had more in common with the campy '60's TV Show Bewitched than any Salem Witch Trial. Twenty two years later Miss Hoffman returned with The Rules of Magic-set several generations before Practical Magic it focused on Franny, Jet, and Vincent Owens. Both books touched on Owens family matriarch Maria and the curse that haunted the Owens women for centuries, but Maria's full story is now told in Magic Lessons. Abandoned as an infant, Maria is taken in by Hannah Owens who teaches Maria about the "Unnamed Arts"-the gift of magic that ultimately causes Maria to be accused of witchcraft and tried in Salem. But Hannah also teaches Maria her most important lesson-only love somone who will love you back. This theory is put to the test when Maria falls in love with John Hathorne. Although Maria believes her future is with John, to John she is just a diversion from his "real" life as a husband and father. After learning all that Maria endures it's easy to understand why she put a spell on herself and a curse on all future Owens women that any man who falls in love with them will die. While Practical Magic was lighthearted and dreamy, Magic Lessons is dark and depressing. As in the earlier books, the women in Magic Lessons are strong and capable, while (most) men are weak and incompetent. Very few could write as beautifully and eloquently as Alice Hoffman does about betrayal, prejudice, and the fear that led to the death of hundreds of women tried as witches. The words flow seemlessly off the pages of Magic Lessons and tear at your heart. There are "potions" for illnesses of the mind and body sprinkled throughout the book that add charm to an otherwise tragic story. Magic Lessons is the perfect beginning and end for Maria Owens. How she learns about the power of love, the unbreakable bonds of family, and the strength to endure the worst of circumstances is her lasting legacy. It's a beautiful story that will stir your soul practically like magic.

Thanks to Net Galley and Simon & Schuster for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. This book is simply amazing! I have read most of Alice Hoffman’s books and I am always impressed, but this one was extra special. Her ability to to bring the reader along in the story, visualize the setting and connect with the characters is truly superb. This story is the prequel to Practical Magic and follows the life of Maria Owens, and her daughter Faith, and explains the curse on the men who love an Owens woman. As you read the story you are drawn into the feelings and motivation of all of the women (and men) in the story and it is easy to become emotional at some of the outcome. The magic of her writing really shines in the section about Martha, who covets Maria’s daughter Faith. In a few paragraphs the author is able to convey all of Martha’s feelings along with the life experiences that generates the envy and compels her to take the action she does. It is the understanding of this woman’s motivation that truly draws you into the narrative. I really can say only positive things about this book.

Alice Hoffman is a queen in the world of magical realism, and for good reason. Her ability to deftly insinuate magic into the mundane, allows readers to slide effortlessly into a world where planting lavender for luck and heeding the grave click of a deathwatch beetle is common practice. The Rules of Magic, a prequel of sorts, more of a history really, to her widely acclaimed Practical Magic is a delightful return to the Owens family of women. Centered on Maria Owens, the book follows her winding journey from an orphan in the forests and meadows of England to a woman and mother who does “as she pleases” in 1690’s Salem Massachusetts. Along the way there is danger, love, both false and true, and a trial for both the soul of her daughter as well as the women of Salem.
All in all, Magic Lessons is a true Hoffman piece: magic, love, a red head drawn to mischief, and an ultimate happy ending. The magic, as always, is in the journey.

Lovely prequel for anyone who likes Practical Magic (book or movie). Great character development and historical setting. Romance readers will also be delighted by the read.

Practical Magic is one of my favorite books, a dearly loved comfort read I've reread numerous times. I was less enamored of Hoffman's prequel to that story, The Rules of Magic, and even less taken Magic Lessons. The story of the founding of the Owens family is interesting, but Hoffman's style has changed considerably between the first novel and this one, incorporating more and more elements of historical fiction and less of the fairy-tale style that I believe made Practical Magic so beautiful and deeply resonant. I think there are plenty of readers who will enjoy this expansion on the Owens mythology. I'm simply more in favor of preserving some of the mystery of the earlier characters and moving ahead rather than looking back.

Most of the books I read these days are Advanced Reading Copies. I try not to post reviews too far ahead of time, but lately, everything. Most of the books I read these days are Advanced Reading Copies. I try not to post reviews too far ahead of time, but lately, everything great that I've got in my stack is a Fall release. This prequel falls into that category with an October 6 release date.
Although this is part of a series, you do not need to have read either Practical Magic or The Rules of Magic to have a satisfying reading experience with this story. If you have read and loved either of these books, you'll also want to read it. Practical Magic published first in the 1990's has endured in its popularity in part due to the 1998 movie version. The Rules of Magic is the prequel to that story with the Aunts' childhood explored through the 1960s-1970s. Adding this prequel and going back to the 1600s leaves plenty of books/time to cover many years and Owens women to catch up until now.
Maria Owens is a name known as the witch who cursed all men who would love an Owens woman to an early death. It isn't too much else said about her in Practical Magic, and we know that she lived during the Salem Witch Trials and that she was so broken-hearted that she wished to save future Owens women from similar heartache. In this novel, we read Maria's story when she is an infant left behind by her biological mother for kind Hannah Owens to find and raise.
In many ways, this book reads more like historical fiction than the first two installments.
Maria becomes involved with John Hathorne, who was a judge during the Salem Witch trials, a rather evil one who never apologized for his actions, and who was also the great-great-grandfather of Nathaniel Hawthorne, the author, who may have added the w to his name to distance himself from his family.
Alice Hoffman in an interview with Library Journal
Once you add real people into a fictional story, it becomes undeniably more plausible that the story may be more accurate than not. I adored those details in this story. Maria travels from the old world to the new and then within the colonies, and the story turns and twists through real events, all while staying true to these fictional character arcs. ( And yes, I know the definition of magical realism)
The origin of Maria Owens wasn't a happy story, yet it is compelling in its realism. I felt like this is the perfect book to read in 2020, when so many of us are awash in terrible circumstances.
The traditional rules of magic ring true:
"Do as you will, but harm no one. What you give will be returned threefold."

5 out of 5 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

If there is magic in this world, then the art of storytelling is one of them, because Alice Hoffman knows how to weave a tale so binding the reader falls deep into the ocean of it. As it has been with all her books, so it is with Magic Lessons.

Here, we go back to before the time of Sally and Gillian Owens, before the Aunts, Franny and Jet. Back to the time of the Salem witch trials. But first, we start in a land far away from the gloomy and gray mayhem of the East Coast. We start in a cottage, where woman, Hannah, lives alone with her garden until one day she comes across a baby with a crow perched on her basket. Hannah takes in the girl who, although abandoned, was clearly loved, as the blue threads of protection are the binding of her blanket. Hannah takes Maria home and raises her as her own, loving her, teaching her The Nameless Art that she has taught herself.

But Maria wasn't born to a self-taught healer. She was born to a bloodline witch, one who thought she knew who she wanted in love, blinded by a man's ability to cloak himself in pretty lies. Rebecca, one fated day, comes to see the child she gave up, and brings death and destruction close behind.

Having watched the only woman she ever knew as mother burn, Maria sets off to find Rebecca, only to find a woman who, despite having been burned by the appearance of love, has fallen in love again. This time, with Maria's father, who promptly sells her off into servitude on a beautiful island where she walks barefoot and befriends women who have a different sort of magic.

After serving her five years, having been mesmerized and fooled by a man she thinks she loves, Maria boards a boat sailed by a Jewish father and son. Saving the son, Samuel, changes Maria's life in ways she doesn't understand at the tender age of 16. She is blinded by her own shortcomings. She is also pregnant, and searching for the man who gave her diamonds and a sapphire, who swam with turtles, and disappeared in the night.

The pages burn in neverland as I swipe from page to page on my phone, drowning in the beautiful story that tells of the love that a woman has for her daughter, be it her own or one that was put upon her, and the lengths she'll go, miles she'll travel, violences she will endure, and sleep she will forsake to find and save her daughter.

Maria, landing in Salem, finds that her beloved wants nothing to do with her, save a midnight tryst in the cabin he put her in in the woods, far away from the prying eyes of neighbors who may see his comings and goings. Eventually, that illusion fades, and Maria is as Hannah was...the woman in the woods, raising her daughter. But in a time where women are considered witches for reading and speaking and looking in a man's eyes, it is a wind-down clock ticking to when Maria is accused of witchcraft and taken to jail. It is at that time that another woman, one who always wanted a daughter but had none, steps in and offers to take Faith, Maria's six-year-old daughter, so that she does not have to suffer jail with the mother. So begins the steps down paths that cannot be untrod.

In Practical Magic, we were given the story behind the curse of the Owens' women, but only a small bit. Hoffman expands on that negative space and weaves a tale of love and hate, mothers and daughters, magistrates and witches, sea and land, curses, and the breaking of those curses. Beautiful and captivating as ever, if there was ever one who could cast enchantment on others, it is Alice Hoffman.

4.5 Stars

I have enjoyed several of Alice Hoffman’s later works, so I was very excited to have the opportunity to read a prequel to Practical Magic. I felt the beginning of the book was a bit choppy and tedious with the lists of spell ingredients, but by the end I was hooked and I look forward to reading the rest of the books in the series. It’s truly as much a story about love and what it means to be a woman than just about magic.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

There's something about the way that Alice Hoffman writes that transports you and you feel like you're a part of the story. I love the whole Practical Magic series, and this "origin" story prequel is just as good as every other book in the series. We finally get to learn about the original Owens woman, Maria Owens. Her story is not not a happy one, but if it was then we couldn't get the curse that would create such interesting stories like Frances, Bridget and Vincent (my favorite) or eventually Sally and Gilly. I love that by the end of the book, even if we have only spent a year in a the life of the character we feel like we know them. I hope that we get more amazing books in these series, though I'm not sure there are any characters left to discuss in great detail.

This fabulous story is about love, family, magic, and so much more! I loved reading this prequel, and I don't think it's necessary to have read any other books in the series to enjoy this one.

I thought Hoffman did a fabulous job with the storytelling of this book. It's got its own quality of magic in the writing that draws you in and refuses to let go! I think that readers that enjoy witches, magic, and stories of family will enjoy this book!

I was provided an advanced reader's copy of this book for free. I am leaving my review voluntarily.

This book is the prequel to Practical Magic and The Rules of Magic. In it we get to meet Maria Owens, the woman who was the ancestor of the Owens women and men who all had magical powers. Baby Maria was abandoned in a field in rural England near the home of Hannah Owens. Hannah, a witch, realized that Maria had the gift and instructed her in the Unnamed Arts.
Eventually Maria’s parents return and her father sold her to a sea captain heading for Aruba. It is while working as an indentured servant that Maria met a man from Salem Massachusetts who professed his love for her. He returned to his home and pregnant Maria followed him. When she got to Salem she discovered that she had been deceived. Then a jealous neighbor exposed Maria as a witch and she was put on trial. She was able to escape and leave Massachusetts.

The lesson she learned, always love someone who loves you, ruled her life and those of her descendants.

Hoffman is a master storyteller and has written a book the reader will remember for a long time. History buffs will also enjoy the tales of hysteria in Salem in the 1600s as well as those of the more tolerant inhabitants of New York City in the same period.

I received this ARC from Edelweiss and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

4.5
This is the story of Maria who was left as an infant in a snowy field in rural England in the 1600’s.
She was found by Hannah Owens who raises her with love and realizes early on that she has the gift, as does Hannah herself.. she’s a witch. Hannah teaches her all she knows of healing, herbal remedies, etc.
Maria will travel to Curaçao as a young woman after being sold into servitude by her birth father.. there she falls in love with a man who is visiting there from Salem, Massachusetts. This man betrays her and she ends up traveling to Salem to find him with her their young daughter in tow, during the Salem witch trials.
There are characters to love and hate, adventures, danger, the arts of witchcraft, and love.
This is all the background I’m going to give on the story.
I think most will very much like, if not love this story.
You do not need to have read any previous written books in the series, it just lets you know how it all started.
Enjoy!

Huge thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for this ARC!

Magic Lessons tells a story of where the Owens bloodline begins. Maria, abandoned at birth in a snowy field, is taken in by Hannah Owens. Hannah teaches Maria the "nameless art."
Lessons:
Be grateful to who you come from and what they teach you.
Love will take you by surprise. It may make you happy but it may also disappoint you.
Never depend on others. Protect those closest to you.
Know who you are, and what you are.

The story continues through Maria's life and that of her daughter, Faith. Above all, the story is about love and life, and what is worth sacrificing, and what is worth trying to break a curse.

Reading this book - really anything by Alice Hoffman - is true escapism. The Owens women cast a spell over your literary heart, making you want to believe in magic. I will never stop recommending this. Thank you Alice Hoffman for once again writing something worth loving!

Beautifully written. This story follows the story of witch Maria Owens around the time of the Salem witch trials but doesn't focus solely on that event. I actually really liked that it gave a little but of perspective of what other places thought of the trials. Love and family being more than just blood were just as central as magic to the heart of this book.
This book is a prequel to Practical Magic but can absolutely be read as a standalone.. Everything you'd expect from Alice Hoffman.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for giving me this book in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this gorgeously written book and did not want it to end.

I also want to re-read Alice Hoffman's other two wonderful books about the decendents of Maria and her daughter.
Practical Magic & The Rules of Magic

This is a spellbinding and interesting read. It is filled with devious characters and enlightened characters that tell a captivating story of love, betrayal, and danger.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I would rate this a 4.25. I do like Alice Hoffman but find that her writing can be inconsistent through her novels. I enjoyed The Dovekeepers, Faithful, The World that We Knew but was less enthusiastic about the Practical Magic novels. That being said, this one is definitely the best in the series. I really liked this book. It is the prequel to Practical Magic and takes part in the 1600s, where we learn about Maria Owens, the matriarch of the Owens women who are later featured in Practical Magic and The Rules of Magic. It's a fascinating story of Hannah, Maria's adoptive mother, her real mother, and Maria's journey to the US to escape the plight of women accused of witchery in Essex, England. Via Curacao, Maria ends up in Salem, Massachusetts where she herself is accused of witchcraft. I wish this had been the first novel as it explained so much about the events and people in the later novels and clarified so much. The historical details were fascinating, for example, what the town of Salem means, how Wall Street got its name, and many other interesting historical. tidbits. The book also goes into the reasons behind the "love" curse on the Owens women and their progeny. However, in addition to the extensive research on 1600s England, Massachusetts, the Salem witch trials and New York City, Hoffman does an excellent job in dealing with the issues of love, loss, the complexities of the mother daughter relationship, and evil. A very good read.

This was just "okay" for me. I thought it lacked the charm of the other books in this series. (And I must say that I hated the cover.)

Alice Hoffman's "Magic Lessons" was enchanting, captivating, heartbreaking, and joyous. This is the second book of hers that I've read.

Hoffman does an excellent job drawing you into the magical world of the Owens women. You follow the tragic journey on how their curse on love came to be. The reader feels so many emotions throughout this book. Her characters really take over and bring the story to life through her vivid descriptions. These strong women, making their way in a world where men have hurt them and everyone is against them is so inspiring. I'm so sad to have finished but will be looking forward hopefully more from this series.

Perhaps I am being nostalgic but I just walked in the steps of these characters through the beautifully written words of the author. Alice Hoffman gave us lessons on history, love, family, betrayal in addition to magic as is the book's namesake. Once I picked up this book up, I couldn't put it down- definitely enchanted from the start. As I followed Maria's story from the self-proclaimed practical girl she claimed to be and vowing never to follow in her own mother's footsteps when it came to love, only to be blind sighted later in life by false love - I commend this character's actions and the way her journey was written. Yes she went down the path of chasing after what she thought was love while ignoring an opportunity of true love right in front of her. How many times have we done that ourselves: chase the emotionally unavailable and friend zone someone who could truly make us happy all based on a false sense of what love should look like?!?! Maria and Dias' journey was at first heartbreaking but it all came together in the end after many hardships and harsh lessons are endured. As for Maria's daughter, Faith's journey, I was a bit conflicted but in life enduring certain hardships shapes a person's life and can affect individuals differently; either they learn and grow from it or burn everything in their path because they are still hurting from past events. Faith chose the latter, and acted the part of stubborn, destructive teenager even though I had to remember that during this time period she would have been considered a woman. But eventually she saw the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. Overall this is 100% a must-read, you will not regret it !!