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.

I would first like to thank NetGalley for allowing me to read this phenomenal book! I think this novel is her best since the Practical Magic series. This story is such a beautiful testament to the love between a mother and child. I also really enjoyed the connection to The Scarlet Letter and the historical aspects. This book helped to revive me out of a reading slump. A perfection transition for a fall cozy read!

Alice Hoffman does it again with this enchanting tale. Alice Hoffman knows how to write magical realism.

The story is broken up into three parts, I loved this it was literally like getting three books in one. I love the connection to The Scarlett Letter. Alice also gives much attention to the rights of women to their bodies and the importance of not banning books.

I didn’t realize what the book was about when I picked it up, I just saw Alice Hoffman and I knew I wanted to read it. The book is broken up into three parts - first Ivy and Mia’s story. Ivy is a young unwed mother who falls into a cult run by the man who will also becomes her abusive husband (and Mia’’s “father”). As her daughter Mia grows up she is more and more constrained and begins to rebel against the harsh rules of the “community”- especially the one that forbids reading and books. Mia sneaks into the town library and befriends the librarian. She falls in love with literature and discovers the Scarlet Letter.

The second part of the novel has Mia travel to the past where Nathaniel Hawthorne is a young struggling writer and he and Mia meet and fall in love. The third part of the novel is a blending of present and past. I don’t want to give too much away.

The novel (in my opinion) is Hoffman’s reaction to what is presently happening in our society with women’s loss of bodily autonomy and the banning of books in certain communities.

I loved the first and third parts of the book, the second was a little slow for me. The descriptions of Ivy and Mia’s life in the cult immediately drew me into the novel as well as Mia’s relationship with the two librarians who saved her. The novel did an excellent job showing the reader the importance of literature in society. Women play a central role in the book and flowing through past and present, how women, often are made into second class citizens and how they need to regain their power (and how sometimes they do in unconventional ways). I love how Alice Hoffman’s books are so different from each other and will always pick them up as they are released.

This is a 4.25 rating for me.

thank you NetGalley and Atria books for the opportunity to review

The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman
Rating: 3.5 stars
Pub Date: 8/15

If Alice Hoffman writes it, I’m going to read it. I love her writing style and the magic she infuses into her stories. Her Practical Magic series is one of my all-time favorites, and I was excited to read this new book! And while there are many things to love about this one, ultimately, it wasn’t my favorite.

The book is broken up into three parts, and during part one, we meet Ivy, a sixteen-year-old girl who gets caught up in a cult after finding herself pregnant with nowhere else to go. The second and third parts tell the story of Ivy’s daughter Mia and her life in the cult and after she leaves it.

I loved the parts of this story surrounding Ivy, Mia, and the cult they’re involved with, and I was convinced this would be a five-star read during that part of the book. The love between a mother and daughter, cult behavior, and how books can ultimately change a person’s life were all themes that I was enthusiastically enjoying.

Then we got to the time travel part of the story, and it felt like I was reading a different book altogether. Gone were the beautiful prose and exciting plot, and in their place was a slower and less interesting story about Nathaniel Hawthorne’s life before he wrote The Scarlett Letter and what happens when Mia enters his orbit. This part of the story dragged for me, and the ending was too ambiguous and left a lot of questions behind.

I can appreciate what Hoffman was trying to do here, and I usually love any magical realism. This was still a good, quick read I would recommend to anyone who might enjoy a cultish time-travel story. Thank you so much to NetGalley and Atria Books for my early copy to read and review!

I usually love Alice Hoffman's novels but this one was just fine. A little too ridiculous for me and the writing was a bit too flowery.

I’m not an Alice Hoffman Stan, but I tend to love her books. I love the way she describes things: her work is like reading a painting and The Invisible Hour is no acceptation. I love the way she weaves touches of magic into a beautiful reality and seamlessly jumps through time periods while keeping continuity and sense. This one specifically has a time traveling aspect and, instead of taking pains to meticulously explain the plausibility, Hoffman simply makes time travel make perfect sense and seem like such an obvious addition to the story.
I loved Mia and her strength and, truly, all the strong women portrayed in this book. Hoffman does women so well.
I love the cult aspect- very on trend for what’s of interest these days.
This is an excellent book for fall with a gorgeous cover. I’d definitely recommend it for its feminist feels and it’s magical realism.

4.5⭐️
Alice Hoffman is, and always has been, my favorite author. Her writing was as beautiful as ever and the fantastical elements were so beautifully interwoven with reality. For the first half of the book, set in the Community, I was unable to put it down. The latter half left me a bit wanting - the central romance felt glossed over and told rather than showed. And in a book on the shorter side, I really wish some extra space would’ve been given to showing that romance happening, to heighten the stakes. So while I didn’t really feel invested in the things happening in 1837, I was so moved by the modern day story that the book overall was amazing for me.

I am a huge fan of Alice's books and was so excited to get approve for an ARC of The Invisible Hour. You can read how much she loves books in this story and as a fellow book lover I really appreciated it. I love how she used her moms story as reference for this amazing book also. This book was so good!

As usual the author Alice Hoffman does not disappoint. The story draws the reader in from the chapter until the end. The book shows how the power of books can change your life. The stories and words from an author can affect people in many different ways.

I thought the first half of the book was so good. I loved hearing Ivy and Mia's story. The second half felt like a completely different book. I have a hard time combining them in my mind. As always, I think Alice Hoffman's writing was beautiful.

A story for those who are into stories about mother-daughter relationships, time-travel romance and lovers of poetry.

Alice Hoffman did it again ✨

overview-

Mia, born in a cult where books are deemed evil, decides she can’t live this way anymore. After almost giving up on her life, feeling she’ll never escape her community, she finds salvation in the story of the Scarlett Letter.

review-

5 ⭐️

I had no idea I would love this book so so much. I’ve read from Alice Hoffman before, my previous favorite being The Rules of Magic, but I was expecting how completely encompassing this story would be. I could not look away from the pages, not one second was I bored.

Mia’s story was something any girl can relate to. Reading her story made me think about the little things in life to appreciate, like picking up any book and escaping into a story.

This book captured my heart, I was so happy to get to read an ARC of this.

This enchanting novel from Alice Hoffman was incredible. I almost feel like I was given two books in one, but tied together in such a magical way.
Mia grows up on a commune, where she has a special connection to her mother even though the community believes that their children belong to everyone. The love between a mother and daughter cannot be held back by a rule, and we learn just how much Ivy loved her baby girl.

This book actually inspired me to go read The Scarlet Letter again for the first time since high school. I full expect I will get a lot more from it after having this other perspective in my mind.

I was positively enchanted by the world Alice Hoffman created in her latest novel, "The Invisible Hour." As with my other favorite books by this author, including the "Practical Magic" series and "The World That We Knew," I immediately became immersed in the story from the very first page. I loved the strong women characters who did what they had to do to both survive and create a better life for their daughters; characters who, though this novel contained fantasy elements and time travel, faced real-life issues that are highly relevant to women today. The connections to "The Scarlet Letter" and to Nathaniel Hawthorne's life were very well-done and, because "The Scarlet Letter" is one of my all-time favorite books, made this a must-read for me. This beautiful book is an ode to the magic of books and how a reader's life can be forever altered by the words on a page. This book has cemented Alice Hoffman as one of my favorite modern authors and I eagerly await her next work.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Atria Books, and Alice Hoffman for the privilege of reading an advanced copy of this extraordinary book! Five stars!