This beautifully written, complex and multi-layered story is about love, self-discovery, the magic of reading and its' power to change our lives.

Mia Jacob is a young girl raised in an oppressive cult in Blackwell, Massachusetts where children are separated from their mothers, all females are subjugated to the men, talking to outsiders is forbidden, reading is banned, and rules are strictly enforced. She runs away and hides in the town's library where she is befriended by the librarian. The leader of the cult is determined to bring her back and use her as an example to the other children. Feeling suicidal and that she'll never be free of the cult, she runs away again with a book taken from the library. When she is tired from running, she stops to rest and becomes entranced with The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne, seeing it as her mother's own story. But how did the author get everything so accurate? Mia decides she wants to live and with help from the librarian begins to learn to live outside of the cult. As she does, she rereads the book time and again.

The more she reads it, the more in love she feels with its' author, and one night finds herself magically transported to his time and place. Hoffman's talent for magical realism again shines in this part of the book. Time travelers know the inherent dangers involved in interacting with those of a previous time period. Anything said or done can create a ripple effect that could change outcomes so that the present as we know it might not happen. Oh, the angst!

Hoffman's prosaic writing and her ability to bring scenes to life and put her reader right into them makes this a wonderfully satisfying read. I absolutely loved Mia's character and her story, finishing it in a day. I highly recommend this book!

My thanks to Atria Books for allowing me to read a DRC of this novel via NetGalley. It is scheduled for release on 8/15/23. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and are freely given.

Thank you to @netgalley & @atriabooks for early access to this ebook. It publishes next week on 8/15!

This is now the second book I’ve read based on The Scarlet Letter – I book I have not read LOL. I read Hester last year and enjoyed it a lot. This one was different because instead of being a reimagining, it had a bit of a magical realism twist that found the FMC traveling back in time.

The first part started off promising. It focuses on Ivy, a young girl who gets pregnant and runs off to “The Community” (AKA a rural cult). There she has her daughter (the book’s FMC), Mia. When tragedy strikes, Mia (age 15) is intent on getting away. So, she runs.

The next part is where things started to go downhill for me. We go back in time to when Nathaniel Hawthorne is alive before he has written TSL – a book that means everything to Mia. This part felt disjointed and honestly, boring. Lots of nature depictions and mundane internal dialogue from Nathaniel. Not much happens until the end, but even that was nothing to write home about.

The book is full of repetition, some on purpose and some I think is due to a lack of thorough editing, and I just couldn’t get into it. I loved Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman (the other 3 books in the series were okay), but I think maybe she was a one-hit-wonder for me.

Wow, this book was so beautiful and enchanting. I absolutely loved the plot of this book and how the future affected the past and the past affected the future and everyone in it. The first half was thrilling and exciting and it made me despise Joel and the Community, and it made me feel so bad for Ivy and what she went through just to find someone who loved her. I felt even worse for Mia because she was seemingly left alone after her mom died, but she ended up finding a new family in Sarah and Constance, which I loved. But Joel just couldn't get over the fact that she escaped and wouldn't stop until he got her back. The trip to the past was so unexpected that I could hardly believe it. I loved that she fell in love with Nathaniel and that they were able to love each other even though it was fleeting. I absolutely loved that her story about her and her mother gave him the idea about the Scarlett Letter and that would in turn save her. It was enchanting and beautiful and I loved Mia and how she was portrayed. Perfection.

Ivy feels like she has no one, at a time when she needs someone the most. It is then that she finds "The Community." This place and these people will be her new family, along with the baby growing inside her. As her daughter Mia grows, she realizes there is more to life outside of The Community. One day, she is able to sneak into the library while Community members are at the farmers market selling goods they have grown. Inside the library, she finds the "more" she has been looking for. She begins sneaking books by to the Community, even though they are forbidden, she makes friends with the librarian. And one day she realizes that the librarian is the person that can help her the most. After finding a copy of The Scarlet Letter with an unusual inscription her life changes. But what if something happened in the 1800's that cause Nathaniel Hawthorne to not write The Scarlet Letter? Where would that leave Mia?

This review may contain spoilers!

Ok....so if the rest of the book was like Part 1, I would have easily given it 5 stars. However, Part 2 totally changed my mind. 3 stars. The time travel in Part 2 was just a bit much and just was a bit too unrealistic when compared to how well Part 1 was written. Part 3 was a mix of Part 1 and Part 2, so was better, but still just didn't seem to fit right.

It almost seemed like the author was trying to cover lots of different genres, when maybe if she had stuck with one it would have been fantastic. This was my first read by this author, so if this is typically her style then maybe I need to rethink my view of this novel. Also, and this is probably just me - but the subtle political views on women's choice could probably have been left out. It was meant to be subtle, but seemed to really stick out and was a put off for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for a digital ARC! I was really excited and honored to be able to read this ARC!

4.5 stars rounded up!
I love books about books that are written for those of us who love books. Beautiful imagery. Felt magical with very little actual magic. Alice Hoffman’s writing makes you feel something. I’ve always wanted to read her work but haven’t gotten to it yet in my large tbr pile. That’s why I’m so grateful for the ARC. I know this is my preferred writing style. This is how I like to feel while reading a book; enchanted, whimsical, with a bit of danger. I love books that tell the story without rambling on, and this book does just that. It’s short but without leaving anything out. It is a story about finding your voice, in the midst of men trying to remove all choice from a woman’s life. And it’s a story about a mother’s love for her daughter.

So many great quotes in this novel. Her are some of my favorites:

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see”

“once a girl walked into a library she could never be controlled again.”

“Herein are a thousand different doors, and a thousand different lives, turn the page and you open the door.”

If you loved The Scarlet Letter growing up, you will love this book. The way this book talks about books. It’s everything I feel but haven’t been able to articulate. Hoffman has the most gorgeous writing style. I must read more of her books!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for their ARC (new edition release) in exchange for an honest review. This was a gem.

I loved Hoffman’s newest. I truly believe that Alice Hoffman will be considered a classic. This novel would be a great read in the fall, for sure.

Mia has grown up in an isolated community where books are banned but she found a way to fall in love with them. She finds books can transport you.

I loved the first half of this book and was really into it, especially the cult setting and the mother/daughter relationship. I really wished it had continued with that. Once the time travel started I became lost. It was a really odd and unexpected transition for me so late into the story and I didn’t quite understand it.

“Some people are who you think they are. Some people hide the wolf inside of them, but you can hear them howl.”

The Invisible Hour comes out 8/15.

This felt like two separate books to me. I loved the first half, less so the second. To be fair, I often struggle with themes of time travel. Literary references abound in this novel and I love the idea that reading can save your life. If you've read The Scarlet Letter or others by Nathaniel Hawthorne, you'll especially appreciate this story.

Words were magic. That was all he knew. Words were all they had. And if that was true, then anything was possible.

If there is ever a sign that I’ve loved a book, it’s when there are highlights galore and this one meets that criteria. The author’s note at the beginning of this one sums it up - this is a love letter to books and readers and how books can save us and change the very course of our lives. And while there is a romance, it’s also in many ways a story about the life-saving magic of a mother’s love. Ivy’s and Mia’s stories are compelling and the prose is lyrical - I felt swept away many times in the language and storytelling. However, the primary magical realism aspect was missing something for me and kept this from being a 5-star read - it felt a bit abrupt and I would have liked for it to have been fleshed out a bit more (clocking in at only 270 pages, there was certainly room for that expansion). That said, the ending was satisfying and if I’d been reading a physical copy, this would have been one of those books I held to my chest and just savored for a bit after finishing. I jumped when I saw this available through Book of the Month, so I’ll be able to have a finished copy on my shelves. This is my first Alice Hoffman, but will definitely not be my last.

Pub Date: 8/15/23
Review Date: 8/6/23
eARC received from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Alice Hoffman is my most read author and an author that helped me fall in love with reading. I am so thankful to receive the opportunity to read The Invisible Hour before it's release.

The Invisible Hour is a book told in three parts. In the first, a series of circumstances lead Ivy to join a remote community in the woods where she is quickly wed by the cult leader. When her daughter is born, while children belong to everyone in the community, the two share a special and unbreakable bond. Her daughter Mia is her reason for everything.

In the second part, years later and following Ivy's death, Mia is at a crossroads. She no longer wants to be part of the community she is bound too. It is her love for a book that saves her and transforms the course of her life. Mia not only falls in love with the book, but the author as well.

I don't want to give away any big spoilers but I will say that part 3 has a time travel and magical realism element that worked for me.

In many ways The Invisible Hour is a love story. It celebrates the love between a mother and her daughter, women saving other women, readers and books, and readers and authors. The chapters are long but I loved the detailed atmospheric language that transported me to each setting.

If I had a critique for the book it was that the ending was a bit abrupt and left me with a lot of questions. Some of the questions had to do with the logistics of the resolution and what that meant, while others were just about Mia's future. I definitely could have used some kind of an epilogue.

If you're a fan of Alice Hoffman, I would definitely recommend The Invisible Hour!

Let the magic begin! That is, the magic of the written word that echos your life and speaks to your soul. No one’s writing does that better than Alice Hoffman’s. She has taken a great novel (The Scarlet Letter) and woven it with her magic touch to make it not only relevant, but amazingly modern in its view of society and a woman’s place in it. The writing is so lyrical, the descriptions so beautiful, and the characters so relatable that reading it was a pleasure. Her statement of mother love is strong and heartwarming.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria/Simon and Schuster for the ARC to read and review.

Alice Hoffman is such an amazing writer. After reading some average mysteries lately and then picking up this novel, there is just no comparison. The writing is perfect and the pages turn themselves. The story of Ivy and Mia are in many ways history repeating itself. It’s a beautiful book and I can’t recommend it enough.

What a lovely blending of past and present. Portrait of how far women have come…and how far we still have to go…in obtaining equality and the rights of control over our own bodies. Clever intertwining with The Scarlet Letter. My only issue was with the glaring inconsistencies at the very end. I’m hoping someone catches them before publication.

No one writes like Alice Hoffman. I think if I was handed a book without knowing the author, I would be able to tell it was hers. The Invisible Hour is another magical book that has our main character travel to another time period. It is also a nod to the rights or lack of, that women have, and the power of books and book banning. The bonds of a mother and daughter can be felt as you watch Mia come of age and find her own way to self-empowerment. There is so much more between the covers of this book as you will discover when you read it.

I first discovered Alice Hoffman when I read The Book of Magic last year not knowing it was part of a series. I found it to be delightful, light, and fun. It made me reminisce about my earlier reading days in high school or middle school even when I'd so often get completely lost in a book. I had loved reading about magic then and I found that I still do now. Unfortunately this book didn't quite live up to my expectations. It intertwines magical realism, time travel, feminism, and classic literature which, while an interesting combination, in my opinion is not so artfully executed.

The Invisible Hour is about a young girl Mia, who lives on a farm as part of a cult called "The Community" in Western Massachusetts. Her mother Ivy became pregnant with Mia as a teenager and fled Boston to find the Community and ended up married to the Cult leader. When Mia loses her mother she decides to leave the cult amd thinks of ending her life but is "saved" by the book The Scarlet Letter. She successfully runs away but is pursued by Joel, the cult leader.

One thing I loved about this book is that it really is a love letter to reading, books, and libraries. Ivy and Mia both get in trouble at the community for reading or quoting literature and both find a haven in the local library.

To me, the ending felt abrupt, too simple, and incomplete. I have a lot of questions about what happened to all of the characters. Both Nathaniel Hawthorne and the character of Joel seemed pretty 2-dimensional and lacked a complexity that I found myself missing. I also felt that the first half of the book seemed very different from the second and could almost exist as its own story. I enjoy magic and sci-fi but felt that more thought needed to be invested in how time traveling would play out in this story.

Overall, this was a light and enjoyable read great for one of your final books of summer. If you're a fan of The Scarlet Letter, have ever imagined yourself in a classic novel, or enjoy the premise of time travel, this one's for you.

Alice Hoffman sure does pack a lot into all 270 pages of this novel! She covers time travel, oppression, sexism, patriarchy, and the healing power of reading. Her main character, Mia Jacob encounters all these themes throughout her young life in Western Massachusetts in the present day. Her mother is a young student when she becomes pregnant and is abandoned by her family. She finds shelter in a cult run by Joel, and quickly falls in love with him. Initially things seem fine as she's Joel's favorite, but soon becomes victim to his strict ways and rules for the community. No books must be read, all clothes must be plain, women must work alongside the men in the fields, and children are raised by another group, not by their mothers.
As Mia grows up in this environment, she begins to see glimpses of the outside world as they sell their wares at the local farmers market. After sneaking into the library one day to use the restroom, she starts taking out books. Soon she is caught with her favorite book, 'The Scarlet Letter'.
After receiving various punishments, and experiencing a tragedy with her mother, she runs away. She goes to her favorite librarian and they end up taking her in, giving her a new life. Here, she flourishes, and gets a job at the prestigious New York Public Library in Manhattan. The book could end here and still be a great story about independence, survival, and the determination to succeed.

But it takes a turn and Mia develops the ability to time travel back to the time of Nathaniel Hawthorne, where she meets him and has a relationship with him and his family. Here it got a bit implausible, and seemed like quite a different book to me. But I still went along for the ride. Ms. Hoffman clearly has a gift as she describes the verdant fields and orchards of the area, very familiar to Mia in another time, and the pull that that land and farm has on her and Joel.
This book is about the power books can have to influence your life, and the freedom that knowledge will give you. Towards the end, Mia forges her own way forward hoping for a better future and outcome for herself and her family. It's beautifully written and is a story that will stay with you for quite some time.

She'd heard that books weren't allowed inside the farm, and didn't that say just about everything? In a place where books were banned there could be no personal freedom, no nope, and no dreams for the future . . . Turn someone into a reader and you turn the world around.
I love Alice Hoffman's writing. The beautiful settings she creates. The attention to detail concerning every day objects and ordinary life. The way she creates magic in a home and in the natural world. While this book may not be my favorite of hers, I still enjoyed the story and characters. My only criticism (and really, who am I to criticize Alice Hoffman?) is that the time travel felt too convenient and a bit contrived and the bits about Nathaniel Hawthorne read more like a biography than a novel. Highly recommended for her fans.
I was given an advanced copy of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love Alice Hoffman but did not like this book. I found it difficult to get into and easy to put down.

I really enjoyed The Invisible Hour. Alice Hoffman is always a wonderful writer! This story goes through all of your emotions

This is a book about magic and the power of books and writing. Mia was raised inside of a cult-like community and finds new worlds in the books that she secretly reads from the library. The Scarlet Letter shocks her, as it could be her story. Mia is intrigued by Nathanial Hawthorne and how his writing so accurately reflects her life, even though they lived in two different time periods.

Through a little bit more magic, Mia is able to explore Nathaniel Hawthorne's life even more and explore many "what if" scenarios.