I feel like I've been a witness to the lives of the Owens witches for a very long time, and I guess that is true. What a privilege it has been. As always, Alice Hoffman does not disappoint. I took my time with The Book of Magic. I didn't feel ready for this story to come to its conclusion, not even after twenty some odd years. That right there should tell you all you need to know.

The death of a beloved character is how this tale begins. And with that loss, comes the return of a familiar face. Then the curse once again comes for the love of another unfortunate member of the Owens family and for her, it's not enough to be sad about their fate. This time, something has to be done and a payment far too high must, once and for all, be paid.

As per usual with any Hoffman story, these pages are filled with love, magic, loss, and beauty. Feeling nothing but gratitude for having been once again granted the opportunity to watch this wonderful story unfold. No doubt, it won't be long before I return to the beginning of the series and start all over again. That's what we do with the good ones, after all.

Thank you to the author and publisher for providing me with a digital ARC of this title via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

I love Practical Magic and have enjoyed other books from Alice Hoffman as well. I was so excited to see that she had a sequel for Practical Magic and was delighted to be given the opportunity to read it early. I loved it. So fun to reconnect with the Owen women and to finish their story, although I'm sad to have it over. I loved the look into the Aunt's lives and how they prepare as they hear the death beetle. I loved Sally's daughters as the next generation and watching their stories unfold. Hoffman has done such a wonderful job weaving the different generations together around their magic and the curse started by Maria. So enjoyed this title and only wish we could reconnect the Practical Magic cast together to make a second movie. I'd watch!

5 magical stars!

Not me crying that this series is now actually over.

While I am devastated there will be no more books with my beloved Owens family, this was the perfect way for it to end.

I got to spend more time with ALL of my faves from the three other books. It felt truly magical to have them all together, in one final book.

I laughed.

I cried. (A few times.)

I smiled.

Mostly, I yet again had major FOMO that I am not a witch.

I love the way Hoffman writes. Her books always feel so cozy and are something you can get totally list in. And this book was the epitome of all of that.

Ugh, if you need me I'll be in mourning that there will be no more books in this series.

But man, what a beautiful series this was.

The biggest thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for the ARC and wanting my honest opinion!

This kind of fell flat to me, but I already know that I'm going to read it again. I want to read the Practical Magic series in chronological order someday. (That's Magic Lessons, The Rules of Magic, Practical Magic, and then The Book of Magic. And then probably read them in the order they were written again.) Having said that, I went through this fast, but it started to get on my nerves a bit. Maybe because there were so many characters that they didn't all feel developed, even though the fact that it brought three generations of the Owens family together was what excited me so much when the book was announced. I will say that I liked Francis and Jet the most of the three generations, and enjoyed the mentions of Maria Owens. One of the characters, Sally Owens, takes over the town library, which got on my nerves. People in books and movies who decide to fall back on librarianship can always get a full-time job while some of us who got a degree have a horrible time catching a decent job. I forgave her though because apparently it isn't a public library and her family owns it or something. (Weird?) There's alot of love at first sight which I liked in the first book but there's just so much of it. Much of the book centers around Sally's daughter Kylie, but after having read it, I couldn't describe except that she's tall and described as "a true beauty." This is a good deal of complaining for a book I've already said that I'm going to read more than once, but sometimes I fly through a book to see what happens and then go back and read it slowly. And I think that maybe I have to be in the right mood for something like this. Some cool, dark day late in autumn, I'll read it again. I'd give it a 3.75 out of 5.
If you read the other books and liked them, you should read it.

Alice Hoffman concludes the multigenerational family saga of the Owens family in the riveting novel The Book of Magic. Fans will thrill to the gorgeous writing, find they are caught up in the suspenseful drama, and of course, will be eager to learn the fate of the Owens women who have suffered so much heartache.

I came to the series with the second book, The Rules of Magic, the prequel to the first novel Practical Magic, which I read afterwards. I don’t usually read about witches or even much fantasy, but I loved Rules and the characters. I wrote, “What happened was unexpected, for I was instantly in love with Hoffman’s language and The Rules of Magic characters. Although the novel is about three teenagers struggling with the powers and limitations of having magical abilities, it is really about universal themes: the power of love, and how we must love regardless of the costs, and that we must embrace who we are.”

Then, last year I read the prequel Magic Lessons, which told how the first Owens witch was unlucky in her heart’s choice, resulting in her curse that all the family lose their loves.

The Book of Magic brings together the three generations of the Owens family, those who have embraced the gift of magic and those who have rejected and ignored it. Young Kylie’s beloved is in a coma after being hit by a car. Learning of the curse, she believes she is the one who will end the curse and save his life. She goes to Essex, England to search for answers.

But, it is her grandmother Franny’s fate to do it. The family comes together to find Kylie and prevent a tragedy. They discover helpers in Essex, but the naïve Kylie is taken in by a troubled man seeking back-handed magic for revenge. She is just the witch he needs for his evil purposes.

The story is gripping, with complications and threats to provoke rapid page-turning. I won’t give away any plot lines, but be prepared for several characters making great sacrifices, while other discover new love. And such lovely lines to be read, epigrams of insight and beauty. I shared one as a Sunday Sentence on twitter:

Weren’t all souls finely calibrated mysteries?
from The Book of Magic by Alice Hoffman

The life lessons in the books are timeless. To love is to risk. Discover who you are and what you can do, and embrace it. What you do comes back three-fold. Love books and libraries and learning. Plant a garden. Do good.

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

A warm hug by old friends and new. I laughed, I cried, and felt thankful to know the Owens family and their history. Thank you Alice Hoffman!

A 300 year old curse brings harm to people any family member falls in love with. A love curse makes for a very magical plot.

This book covers the adventures in trying to break the curse and pulls in dark magic too via The Book of the Raven.

I really liked the breath of characters in this book (from old Franny to naive Kylie). All of the family members had their own levels of experience or desire to use magic.

The descriptions and character building in this book was done well, but sometimes felt like it went off on side tangents. The pace of the overall plot was just right until the last chapter dragged on a bit too much after the main loose ends were tied up.

I enjoyed the book overall since it really focused on the importance of love with some fun magic twists.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me a copy of this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I love the Owens family and really have not tired of their stories, past, present or hopefully future. The history and geography stand out with out being too obvious. Hoffman includes enough information from past books so that you don't feel like you had to read those first.

Alice Hoffman takes readers on another journey of magical realism in The Book of Magic. Fans of Practical Magic will instantly recognize Gillian and Sally. The Book of Magic picks up several years after Practical Magic ends and quickly reveals to readers that Sally was mistaken when she thinks that she has escaped the Owens Curse. The Curse lives on and is now threatening her daughter's happiness as well as her own. In a tale that spans continents as well as centuries, readers will explore the bonds of family and friendship.

4.5 stars

What a spellbinding conclusion that traverses time and distance as the Owen’s family discovers their fate, and the power and curse that is love.

The Owen’s family has always known not to fall in love. For if they do, their beloved will fall under the curse. And one of the younger Owens’ woman has fallen in love and the curse has struck and now, she has set out to finally end this family curse, once and for all. The rest fear for her and set out to help her. The leave their family home in Massachusetts and head to Paris. Gaining some leads they head back to England, back to where it all began with Maria Owens.

I was absolutely enamored with this book. I couldn’t put it down if I wanted to. The way it jumps through time (their family history) and where we reconnect from other characters was endearing. So can they save the youngest Owens’ woman and help break the curse? Perhaps with a little bit of courage tea, chocolate tipsy cake and black soap, they may just set everything to the way it should be.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for the opportunity to review this.

So, to start, thank you so much to @netgalley and @simonandschuster for access to this ARC! It was one of my most anticipated releases of 2021.

I fell so in love with Magic Lessons last year that I immediately read its 2 predecessors which were pretty good as well.. This one though? Man, I was just let down.

Like I didn’t hate it or even dislike it by any means, but it just seemed to drag on. I had such high hopes, but maybe the truth is that I was just interested in the historical aspect and origin of the Owens curse in ML. Most of the story focused around breaking the curse (as usual), but it didn’t get exciting.. like at all.. until the last few chapters. I was okay with the ending overall, but the whole thing was kind of tough for me to get through. Kind of felt like a long poem.

I’m so bummed! And I seem to be in the minority with these opinions on Goodreads, so if you enjoyed the others and love a story about the Owens’ witches, your mileage may vary. My advice is maybe don’t come into it with as high hopes as I did.

The conclusion to the beloved Practical Magic series ties in previous characters and brings the series to a satisfying conclusion. In this installment Jet Owens hears the deathwatch beetle and knows she only has seven days left to live. Multiple generations of the family will come together in an attempt to end the curse. Themes of family and sacrifice run throughout the story, and made me deeply invested in the outcome. What a wonderful end to the series. Thanks so much to the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read and review this one. I'd recommend to anyone who has enjoyed this series in the past. 5 stars!

Readers who have been under the spell of the Owens family of the Practical Magic series are in luck as Alice Hoffman is bewitching readers with the final book in the series, The Book of Magic.

In her 2020 novel Magic Lessons, she outlined the centuries-old curse on the family to its source by telling the story of Maria Owens, the matriarch of the line. The curse is on love and has continued for 300 years, but Jet Owens is about to spell out an action that will undo it as she faces her last seven days on earth.

Jet confides in her sister Franny about the deathwatch beetle now shadowing Jet. In the meantime, an accident has caused the love of one of their great-niece’s to be in a coma, an obvious playing out of the curse. Jet has left Franny a note about a book Jet found hidden in the library that will break the curse, but the book and the note have fallen into the hands of great-niece Kylie Owens by accident.

Sally, Kylie and Antonia’s mother, has long protected her daughters from the truth about their family. When she learns Kylie has fled to Europe to find out more information as she looks for a way to end the curse to save her boyfriend Gideon’s life, Sally, her sister Gillian, Aunt Franny, and Franny’s long-lost brother Vincent head first to Paris and then London to rescue Kylie from things she does not understand and help her undo the curse.
Unfortunately, reversing the 300-year-old curse will require a sacrifice: a life for a life. The path to freeing the Owens from the curse is tangled as the group enlists a professor/writer to help find Kylie in England, the home of Maria Owens three centuries ago.

Alice Hoffman has written these final two books as a response to her readers who thirsted for more. “My readers sent me back to the world of Practical Magic,” she said in an interview in the Library Journal. “I had so many letters and messages asking for more, and after writing The Rules of Magic, which takes place in the 60s and 70s, I decided to go all the way back, to the original Owens ancestor, Maria Owens. I’m always interested in how the past influences the present, who the ghosts in the nursery are, who has influenced us, even if we never knew them.” In addition to the Practical Magic series and other novels, she writes short stories. Born in New York, Hoffman lives in Boston.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting August 20, 2021.

I would like to thank Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.

When Jet Owens hears the deathwatch beetle, while sitting in the library, she knows she only has seven days left to live. Jet is not the only family member dealing with the effects of the curse. The Owens family has suffered the consequences of Maria's curse for over three-hundred years but that is about to change. Three generations of Owen's will come together to end the curse or die trying in this fourth and final novel in the Practical Magic Series.

The Book of Magic is the final novel in this beloved series and I am so sad to see it end. If you haven't read the previous novels then you definitely need to do that before starting this novel. Each of the previous novels contain information on characters, both past and present, which are relevant in this novel. I really enjoyed seeing how the author incorporated three generations into this novel who were all willing to make sacrifices to try and end the curse once and for all. Practical Magic was one of first Alice Hoffman novels I fell in love with, spurring me to read almost every book she has ever written. The Owen's family who hold a special place in my heart and I am sad to see their story finally coming to its conclusion. I was so excited to get my hands on this novel and it was everything I hoped for and more. The cover art is gorgeous and this was a beautifully written novel with wonderful characters that I have grown to love over the years. This is an exceptional read about love and a family willing to sacrifice everything to end their curse. A must read!

This book. THIS BOOK. The Book of Magic is the perfect title for this one because it is indeed pure, spellbinding magic. Alice Hoffman must have magic running through her veins, magic that she transferred into her pen and then onto the pages of this book, because every sentence was whimsical and poetic and it’s the kind of story that I want tattooed all over my body, because there are so many beautifully, intricately crafted sentences that flow together to create unforgettable quotes.

Alice Hoffman has such a gift for weaving together stories that are filled with magic on each and every page. The little details woven throughout the story makes it that much more enchanting and compelling. It’s as if she has the power of the Owens family flowing through her blood. The world of Practical Magic has captivated and enchanted me for many years, and each and every story that has centered around the Owens family has filled my heart with utter joy. I have fallen in love all over again with the characters that make up the Owens family, and also with quotes on practically every page.

I fell so deeply in love with this story and Alice Hoffman’s writing that I was transported out of my own life and into the world carved into the pages.

I entered the house with the black shutters that has the porch light forever on, welcoming me alongside the other characters that found themselves drawn to the Owens family, in search of remedies to heal my wounds. I brushed my fingers across the pages of their family grimoire. Ate chocolate cake with them, and had a cup of their mystical courage tea, eager to spill my truth and secrets. I learned to mix potions and concoctions alongside them. Grieved and cried with them, and felt the power of their family enveloping me. Worst and best of all, I found myself drawn into the web of their family curse, eager to help them unravel the knots and break it once and for all.

The writing is so enthralling that you will want to commit each and every sentence to memory. I think this may possibly be my favorite book in the Practical Magic series, and I cannot thank simon & schuster enough for giving me the opportunity to read an early copy.

I will have a more in depth review closer to the publication date. (Review will also be posted on my blog closer to the publication date as well.)

5/5 bewitching stars!

What a beautiful book! Reading this book was a delight from beginning to end. It was fun to revisit familiar characters, and the ending was satisfying. It makes me want to read the whole series again.

REVIEW
The Book of Magic by Alice Hoffman

"The Future rises from the ashes of the past. Begin at the beginning and end at the end. To have a blessed future, dispose of a cursed past."

Everyone knows of the Owens' curse. Every person they fall in love with, suffers a terrible fate.  In the Book of Magic, the past and present collide in one final attempt to break the curse. 

After Kylie (Sally's daughter) learns of the Owens curse, she does all she can to protect the man she loves, but one night, he goes out to buy her flowers and as he is crossing the street, he is struck by a car. Now, in a coma, with no real hope of survival, Kylie finds an ancient, evil book that leads her to London, where it all started, and onto the Crooked Path, risking everything in order to save his life.

I loved this book. It's so full of heart, and love. How true magic is the magic of family. In this final installment of the Practical Magic series, Alice Hoffman brings back stories from all the previous books and weaves them into a finale that is both heartbreaking, and heartwarming at the same time.

All of your favorite characters make an appearance. The book alternates between Sally, Gillian, Kylie, Antonia, Franny, Jet, Vincent, and a few new characters! I actually wish we got more Gillian, if I had to give a "complaint". 
I love her use of magical realism throughout the series. How she so casually mentions "she wore the color blue for protection" or "every midsummer's eve, they'd have to shoo a sparrow out of the house" something that sounds so weird to you and I she writes like it's normal.

And don't even get me started on the recipes! I'd really love to know how to make some courage tea and chocolate tipsy cake!

Five stars! Though I still think I prefer "Magic Lessons" only because Maria Owens is my favorite Owens! 

Thank you Netgalley, Alice Hoffman, and the publisher for gifting me an ARC of The Book Of Magic. It was truly an honor to be among the first to read this stunning conclusion.

As a huge fan of the Practical Magic series for a long time, being able to read this next installment in the series was quite the honor. I absolutely adore Alice Hoffman's writing and I knew this would not be any different.
This book returns us, once again, to the curse afflicting the Owens family.
If you have never read any books regarding the Owens family, it is not necessary in order to read this book, but it will definitely enrich and make you enjoy the story all the more.
However, it delves into some lore and interesting tales regarding actual historical figures (Amelia Bassano for one) and led me down a bunch of different research rabbit holes. (One being whether or not Bassano was either the muse for or Shakespeare himself!)
This book has everything one looks for in a magical tale - love, magic, thrills, enjoyment, but also it somehow remains cozy and warm throughout.
I would highly recommend this to anyone who loves Alice Hoffman, but also someone looking to get into this series without having to read a bunch of the back story.

This ebook was provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Oh how I love the Owens Family! They are passionate, cranky, secretive, sensitive - in other words human like the rest of us and when someone they love needs help - they are there to support and protect. I have loved each of the books in this series. I read a review that said you could read this as a stand alone book......yes - you can but then you will miss the richness of the entire family and the journey that is taken to get us to the last book in the series. Bring your tissues, prepare to laugh out loud and at times furrow your brow....but you will enjoy the time with the family!

Well done Alice Hoffman - thank you!!

This is definitely "The Book of Magic". I think that my Kindle was vibrating as I read page after page of this wonderful series that I do not want to end.

The beginning of the book is hard to get through with the deathwatch beetle following our beloved character. It is heartbreaking and wonderful, all at the same time. I loved this book and I loved this series.

It doesn't have to end, Alice. You can keep going...

Many thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for this advanced readers copy. This book is scheduled to release Oct 5, 2021.