I wanted to like this book so much, but I was wary from the get go when the description talks about falling in love with Nathaniel Hawthorne... and I had a right to be nervous.

The beginning of this book was so good! Learning about Ivy and how she came to join the cult and how all of it affected the formative years of Mia's life was so interesting and I wanted more. I loved learning about her adoptive mothers and how they were able to keep her safe from being tracked down (which seemed a bit unbelievable to me that a man who's not even blood-related to her and is in charge of a cult would have time to hunt down a girl he calls his daughter).

The book could have ended with the funeral, or had Mia go back in time but show that it was actually all just a dream. Instead... Hoffman made it so cringey that it felt like a completely different book.

You're telling me that this book changed her life so much that she fell in love with Nathaniel Hawthorne in modern times while he had been dead for 200 years?? And that when she went back in time that he would immediately fall in love with her too? AND (spoilers) THAT HE WOULD IMPREGNATE HER? SO NOW SHE'S PREGNANT WITH A BABY WHO'S FATHER WILL HAVE TECHNICALLY DIED 200 YEARS BEFORE SHE AND HER MOTHER EVER EXISTED??

It was TOO unbelievable that I was laughing out loud at it all. The first half of the book would get a 4/5 from me, but the second half tanked the rating. Still not the worst book I've read, but far from the best.

I started this on a whim when scrolling through NetGalley books on my Kindle, but I ended up reading the entire thing in less than 24 hours. This was my first Alice Hoffman novel, and while I love her writing style, I was a bit confused when I was suddenly on a time travel journey halfway through! 😂 Although this type of thing is usually not my jam, it did end up sort of working. I’d definitely be curious to read more Hoffman, though I do feel like the first 50% of this novel was WAY better than the second half. The book almost seemed to lose steam & sputter out, which was disappointing given the strong start.

"Real life is unbelievable. Souls are snatched away from us, flesh and blood turn to dust, people you love betray you, men go to war over nothing. It’s all preposterous. That’s why we have novels. To make sense of things."

I opened The Invisible Hour not quite knowing what to expect. The premise intrigued me, as did the rumors about magic that surrounded talk of the plot and book itself. And honestly, how could a book written by Alice Hoffman not have any magic in it?

As a whole, The Invisible Hour is a story about the power of books, motherhood, family, relationships and at it's core, the magic of those things as well as the magic of hope. The journey of Ivy's life prior to finding and joining the cult, and the flipside of Mia's journey outside of the cult are almost parallel - one ending with the same hope and magic that the other began with.

The fantasy element of this novel was an interesting twist, but I'm not sure that it worked for me personally. I would have preferred to have that cut out, and to just have followed Ivy as she left the cult, and found herself and who she wanted to be outside of all of that. I wanted more of her journey with Sarah and Constance, I wanted the "magic" of being transported to another time and place while you read to... not have been real magic. I think it would have been more powerful to have it be more rooted in reality (though I am normally quite a fan of magical realism.) Having that take place just felt too forced. A little too unrealistic to still have the 'realism' part of magical realism attached.

Overall, The Invisible Hour is a powerful story, and worth picking up for a read during the autumn season.

"In books, no one helped a girl who didn't help herself and every fairy tale ended with the same lessons. Trick your enemy, do what you must, believe in enchantments, save yourself."

The Invisible Hour was published August 15, 2023. Thank you to Atria Books, NetGalley and the author for the digital advanced copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I am a fan of Alice Hoffman. I can't believe what people will put up with in communes. I am surprised the mother stayed there with her daughter. I admired the daughter rebelling against all those constraints.

I was touched and swept away by Alice Hoffman’s new book, The Invisible Hour. A cross between historical fiction, romance, and magical realism, the story spans over two distinct time periods in a poignant story about love, loss, and the importance of books.

Hoffman never fails to add a bit of magic into all of her books, and The Invisible Hour is no different. If you loved her classic Practical Magic, you will love Mia’s story as well.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. The Invisible Hour is out now!

3.75 Stars
"A book doesn't live when it's written. It lives when it's read."
Can describe this as The Great Alone + Dictionary of Lost Words vibes + a dash of magical realism.

Likes:
- Alice Hoffman's writing style makes me want to read her other books!
- Speaking of, so many good quotes
- All the cult stuff was terrifyingly fascinating and had me intrigued
- Relationship between the female characters

Dislikes:
- Time jumps felt disjointed
- The pacing was off. Felt that it focused too much on some parts and not enough room for the others

This is a love letter to books. When a very young Ivy falls pregnant, she leaves home and winds up living with a cult and married to its leader. Her daughter, Mia, has never known a world outside the cult. Still, she questions everything and has an innate curiosity that leads her to sneak into the town library. The books there take her to different worlds with new ideas. One, in particular, The Scarlet Letter, saves Mia's life. Mia takes it with her when she runs from the cult's compound.

I loved the fighter that Mia was. Her strength and brilliance made me fall in love with her. The descriptions that Hoffman writes about the world surrounding Mia are beautifully all-encompassing. I felt like I had escaped with Mia and learned new things with her while appreciating the beauty that is part of both new and old. Her love for nature. Her enjoyment of the outdoors. Her passion for words. The setting is phenomenal.

And then Hoffman takes us back in time when Mia travels to the 19th century to meet Nathanial Hawthorne himself. A love affair begins and has Mia questioning her role in Hawthorne's life and how it affects his role in hers. I enjoyed getting to explore Hawthorne's world in this way. Hoffman always does such a wonderful job of merging the historical and fictional in a seamless way. This book is magical and is one that any lover of literature would enjoy. I could not put it down and recommend this one to any fan of Hoffman's. You will not be disappointed.

Receiving a brand-new Alice Hoffman book fills me with anticipation of delight. There is no one else whose language is so unique to her that you know within the first few sentences whose prose it is. Reading The Invisible Hour provided me with a weekend of enjoyment, my head buried in this novel. Hoffman never disappoints.

There is no witch, no magic here (except for Hoffman's) yet you are immediately drawn into Alice Hoffman's world. Here, the apples planted by Johnny Appleseed are known as Look-No-Further, there are gardens that contain only red flowers, the tree that blooms in winter are all part of her magic.

Ivy is a 17-year-old high school girl, pregnant by her boyfriend. Said boyfriend wants nothing more to do with her. =. Her parents, shocked and horrified, plan to send her away to a place where she can give birth and have her baby adopted. Ivy wants to keep her baby and so runs away to a commune in an apple orchard, run by an autocratic leader. Here she gives birth to Mia, whose story this really is.

I couldn't help, throughout, feeling that the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade inspired Hoffman's need to write about what happens when women can't be responsible for their own bodies. It's a theme that is repeated again and again. (Maybe too often?) The commune is a Puritan-like cult where children are not allowed to read, grow up in Kibbutz-type nurseries, wear plain clothes and possess. nothing of their own. Those who break the rules have their hair shorn or are branded with the letter of their misdeed.

The center of this novel is Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter and how it came to be written. Hawthorne, and time travel, are both to be found here. But given that this is Alice Hoffman writing, be assured that you will willingly suspend disbelief and dive in, as you might into the Last Look River (which also features in the book.) If you've read this author before, then you know that every book she writes is magical in her own way. This one is no exception.

I can't thank Atria Books enough for the chance to read and review and ARC copy of this book.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5586649150

Thank you for the opportunity to read this!
My favorite so far for 2023!!
I’ll be purchasing a copy for my shelf!

**Many thanks to NetGalley, Atria, and Alice Hoffman for a DRC of this book in exchange for an honest review!**

A high-concept journey of magical realism in the literary sphere that got MORE than a bit lost in translation...

Ivy has always been a bit of a rebel, a free spirit, and most of all, a lover of books. Her cold and judgmental parents have no room for anything they deem a transgression, however, so when Ivy ends up pregnant as a teenager, they send her away. Ivy ends up as a member of a harsh and oppressive cult, led by the unyielding Joel Davis, who has no problem shaming women and even branding them when they behave outside the norm.

When Ivy's daughter Mia comes of age, she has inherited her mother's love for the written word and her rebellious nature and dreams of freedom. When she picks up Nathanial Hawthorne's book The Scarlet Letter, it seems as though every page is written just for her. In its pages, another young woman is persecuted for her transgressions, including her penchant for books. Mia longs for life outside her Community and wishes for some way --- ANY way --- to be free.

Then suddenly...she gets her wish.

Mia is transported back in time, and comes face to face with none other than the man of her proverbial dreams: Nathanial Hawthorne himself. As she has come to learn with the help of a few librarians over time, books can take you anywhere...but is Mia able to stay in this fantasy? When the line between dream and reality begins to blur entirely, will the truth she finds be enough to make up for the terrible tragedies and pain she has encountered thus far? Could a book TRULY be enough to save her very life?

Hoffman is one of those writers I've been meaning to get to for AGES, and the premise sounded so fascinating that I couldn't resist to pick this up. I read the Scarlet Letter in high school and remember being enough of a fan that I could understand Mia's adulation for Hawthorne in this book, and I put my usual reservations about cult books aside long enough to try to dive into this story without hesitation. And it worked...for a while. The beginning of the narrative, about Ivy's backstory and early years in the cult (prior to Mia's teen years) were dark, dramatic, and engaging. I felt sorry for the situation Ivy endured, and got emotionally invested in pretty short order.

But once Mia took over...things started to descend into muddled and messy territory, and the wheels sort of came off the wagon.

I get that Mia was supposed to be enraptured by Hawthorne...but I don't understand exactly WHY he was so taken with her. The romance part of the book felt so forced, and longer than it needed to be. There were even portions told from Hawthorne's POV, but it felt more like Hoffman was determined to sprinkle in all of her research rather than create her version of Hawthorne as a fully fleshed out person. On top of this, Hoffman wrote this as sort of a 'love letter' to libraries and librarians, which in theory is a beautiful idea...but having this sort of juxtaposed against the love story between Mia and Nathan just sort of muddled the overall message.

There have been many instances where I've struggled with magical realism, but in this one I think so much of the magic felt like it just sort of happened randomly, without provocation, that it lost the 'realism.' Hoffman spends SO much of this book telling rather than showing, and this also bothered me. Gentle and thoughtful lines of prose were broken up by expository passages that just sort of moved the plot along, often without thorough explanation. The timeline sort of moves around, the focus moves around...and for several reasons, Ivy's voice (the driving force behind the opening narrative) gets lost entirely. Instead of a now and then that felt so close in time, I think it would have been fascinating to have Mia's perspective take place during modern times, and CLEARLY during modern times. There often felt like there wasn't enough separation or clarity about what year we were in at any given moment and this book sorely needed it.

While I hoped to feel moved, enchanted, and captivated by Hoffman's brand of magic, I think in this case I would have settled for something a bit more, well, "Practical." 😉

3.5 stars

This is my first Alice Hoffman book, even though I’ve had them sitting on my shelves for years. I had no idea what to expect going into this book, and did not read the blurb. To start the author’s letter is incredibly touching.
The story of Mia and Ivy is a tale that can be told a million times over in a thousand different iterations- A mother unable to make her own choices, a daughter looking for freedom from oppression, and the men in their lives that let them down in various ways. What stuck out to me most was the beautiful prose. Apparently I’m a sucker for it. But it also went beyond because I live in New England and know the exact places described, which gave it a touch of the personal and made it feel like reading about HOME.
Throughout the book there are constant mentions of the important of libraries and books in shaping our lives and our ideas. Some of the lines so poignant if I had a physical book this would be tabbed to the nines.
In addition, the constant mentions of women and their fight for the rights to their own bodies and their own lives is heavy, and transcendent. Nathaniel’s sister discussing issues that still plague women today. The mention of the hill with the rue, the “Hill of Death, others call it Salvation Point.” and the meaning this has still today was incredibly striking.
My only negative opinion is that I wish the past and present parts had been intermixed a little better. It felt disjointed switching so completely. But I did not have issues following the story, it just took me out of the narrative a bit.
As a whole this novel was a love letter to books and libraries, and as a self proclaimed book nerd, I have to repeat one of my favorite lines in the whole story. “She thought about the day that she’d believed would be her last day on earth. How lucky she’d been to have walked into a library.”

Thank you netgalley for the earc. My opinions are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced digital copy of this book.

Let me start by saying that Alice Hoffman KNOWS how to tell a story!! And what a story this is. I have no idea how to classify this book. It is a tragedy, historical fiction, time travel, fantasy, social commentary. But what it really is, is a great read!!

Twenty or so years ago, Ivy was a rebellious teenager. She didn't like rules and she didn't see why she had to follow any. Sneaking around with a college freshman leaves her pregnant, and the boy has no intention of helping her with her problem. Her father slaps her and calls her names when she tells him and offers only abortion to solve the problem. So Ivy runs away. But the spoiled girl has no idea how to survive and finds herself on a bus headed to a commune where life will be "perfect". When Mia is born, Ivy has realized what a mistake she made, but has no way out. The man who took her in, promising to love and care for her, now threatens that if she ever leaves, he will keep the baby. So she stays. But Mia is a lot like her mother and is not happy with all the rules she lives under. When Ivy tragically is killed, Mia regrets not forcing her mother to escape sooner and leaves to find her own way.

But then she reads The Scarlet Letter, which seems to echo her mother's life, and she falls in love with the author, Nathaniel Hawthorne, believing him to be the man she wants and needs to love. Mia is rescued and follows her dream of being a librarian, surrounded by the books she believes saved her life. But the man who calls himself her father will not let her go and she goes to extremes to rid herself of him once and for all.

Loved the scarlet letter tie in! Hester was one of my favs earlier this year and I craved more from that storyline. This is perfect for people who love spooky season reading - has it all!

Thank you for letting me read this book! I adore all of the stories by Alice Hoffman!
I adore these characters and I love any story that has a strong women with books and stories.
This was a heartbreaking story, but a lovely one and I rooted for allll of the characters. I love how this story pulls you in and makes you fall in love with them. This was a fantastic story, and I am so glad I was able to read it while on vacation and able to escape into this lovely plot.

I'll always read whatever Alice Hoffman publishers, cover to cover! And while I prefer some books over others, they all contain Alice's signature beautiful writing and story weaving.

If you're in search of a book that seamlessly weaves magic, mystery, and profound human connections, look no further than Alice Hoffman. At the heart of "The Invisible Hour" are characters so richly developed, they practically breathe life from the pages. As the story unfolds, we are introduced to a blend of past and present, seamlessly entwined to illuminate the hidden facets of each character's life.

Hoffman's prose, like always, is enchanting and deeply moving. She seamlessly and beautifully weaves together the dual timelines as a reminder of the profound impact we have on each other's lives. In an age where reality often feels harsh, "The Invisible Hour" offers a respite—a world where the invisible threads of fate intertwine to shape our destinies in ways we could never imagine. Alice Hoffman's writing is truly a balm for the soul and a reminder of the beauty that lies in the ordinary and the extraordinary alike. Highly recommend this story that transcends time and genre.

Absolutely enchanting! Loved the concept of this book and the incorporation of the book The Scarlet Letter. It’s almost a book within a book. Ivy is a young teenager that decided to run away from home when her parents want to send her to a special place in Utah for teenage pregnancy. She finds herself into a cult community in western Massachusetts. Mia is her daughter and breaks free from the community. She loves books which are forbidden in the community. She frequently seeks out the library and books for reading. The book is told in three parts and is just enchanting. Many thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for the digital review copy of this novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

💥 Happy Pub Week!

⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

• historical fiction/magical realism
• gorgeous writing
• interesting characters

First of all, this cover is giving all the fall vibes and I love it! The Practical Magic series holds a special place in my heart. In those books and in this one, you can feel the magic of Alice Hoffman's writing. I really enjoyed this love letter to books.

🗣️ Thank you to @netgalley and @atriabooks for the opportunity to read and review this book via gifted eARC! All opinions are honest and my own.

Just another example of Alice Hoffman's beautiful writing, especially if you are a fan of historical fiction. However, I had a very hard time connecting to the book and the characters in it.

Ivy ran away from her family when she was pregnant as a teenager. She joined a community headed by Joel. Fifteen years later, Mia escaped the oppressive cult where she spent her entire life. As a bookworm, through the years, she fell in love with The Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. But the inscription "To Mia" in the original copy raises questions. As Joel is still trying to get her back, she travels through time to meet Nathaniel before he wrote his book.
This novel is a historical fiction with magical realism. It was certainly original, but I'm afraid it was not for me. I did not vibe with the writing, there was not enough dialogue and the paragraphs were too long, but these are all me things. I've read plenty of amazing reviews about it, so it may suit you! I loved how it was all about self-discovery and empowerment.
I received an advance review copy of this book for free, and I'm leaving this review voluntarily.