A woman arrives in a field and changes everything; she has secrets she won't tell, she has a history that is heart of the story"

This book starts with a touching author's note where Alice Hoffman shares her personal connection to the story and her appreciation to her readers.

In the Invisible Hour, Mia escapes into Nathaniel Hawthorne's fictional world, both as a reader and as a traveler through time. On the day Mia decides to end her life she is saved by The Scarlet Letter which seems to tell the story of her very existence. She runs away from her oppressor, starts a new life and then years later she time travels to 1837 and meets the author.

The Invisible Hour reads like two different books. Sadly, there is a disconnect between Mia's time in a commune in Western Mass and time traveling to 1837 to meet and fall in love with Nathaniel Hawthorne.

The time travel concept made me a tiny bit confused as to whether NH wrote The Scarlet Letter because he met Mia. But on the other hand, she reads the book in the future:) What if NH never wrote The Scarlet Letter? And what if Mia never found it on the day she planned to die? When they met, NH has a writer's block. So Mia drops hints about his future and gives her the idea about THE book.

I've read the first part frantically, then POV changed and the book shifted abruptly. It slowed down due to the background history of dark and broody Hawthorne and his life.This made me lose interest, probably because I have read Hester not long ago.

This book is not just an impossible love story, it is a redemptive tale of daughters and mothers. It is about the power of books and the difficulties women have faced throughout history in controlling their own fates. Nathaniel Hawthorne's own sister Elizabeth's words about being a woman in that day and age and her longing to be more touched me the most.

Alice Hoffman is not subtle when she is delivering those messages and I so appreciated it.

This book was beautifully written and it has the signature Alice Hoffman magic. It is not quite a 5⭐️ read due to its disjointed storytelling style.

I feel like this was too broadly written which made it too scattered to fully invest in any one character or storyline. I felt so thrown by following the mom first and then the daughter and whole cult situation and then the mom dies and the daughters books get burned and at 35% she hadn't even time travelled yet. I enjoyed the writing but just wish it would've been edited more tightly.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for an advanced copy of The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman. Ms. Hoffman once again enthralls us with her unmistakable ability to write enchanting novels. This book is part contemporary novel as well as fantasy. I enjoyed immensely her references to Nathaniel Hawthorne throughout and the power of books to transform us. I enjoyed the final chapters as the main character travels through time to live part of her live with Hawthorne as they share true love. Truly a wonderful read!

Enchanting!! The first half of this novel is stunning and captivating. About half way through is where you should be prepared to suspend belief a bit - I can see some readers struggling to keep at it after the time traveling begins. This is not my favorite Hoffman book, but I will absolutely continue to pick up her books in the future!

I’m a huge Hoffman fan, and this book further proves that she truly write characters the way very few authors can - her books often take you on a journey diving right into a character and follow them through the span of several years or their entire lifetime, and this one continues that trend.
However, sadly I have to say I think this is probably my least favorite Hoffman book i’ve read so far. It started off really strong, I loved following Mia’s life being raised in a strict cult, but then we get to Part 2 and the story becomes something completely different, and I was taken off guard by the direction it took and I just wasn’t that invested in the Hathorne storyline, and the weird unexplained magical element just seemed unnecessary. Her writing is still absolutely unmatched though, even if the plot itself didn’t quite work for me

This is a sweet novel that requires quite a bit of suspension of disbelief. That's not a bad thing! The magic and heartfelt story that I come to expect from Alice Hoffman was there, so it meets those expectations. It did get a bit...predictable at times, though.

This is just what I needed! I LOVED this book so much. I am a HUGE fan of magical realism and the way this author weaved it into this move was pure perfection. She created the most addicting fairytale and brought the past to life. I always go into books completely blind and reading about Hawthorne was such a treat. I didn't want this story to end. I cannot wait to read her backlist. Thank you netgalley for this advanced copy!

Another beautifully written novel by Alice Hoffman.A book told in a dual time line a story told in a dual time line.This story involves books librarians and Nathaniel Hawthorne.A book I will be recommending.#netgalley #atriabooks

I would love to live inside Alice Hoffman’s head for just five minutes. Ms. Hoffman can take different stories and make them relatable and enjoyable, while somewhat out of the ordinary. In her latest book, The Invisible Hour, we are introduced to Mia Jacob, who is raised in a cult run by a man named Joel. Mia knows there is more to life than the Community. She seeks refuge in the town library. There she finds a book, The Scarlet Letter, which not only changes and saves her life, but becomes her way to happiness in the future. We also learn about the life of Nathaniel Hawthorne. How the lives of these two people connect is just another amazing story by Ms. Hoffman. Love her writing. Love her books. Definitely a must read.

Happy Wednesday!

I am feeling SO much better! Ever since the Seven Year Slip I have been gravitating towards magical realism books especially time travel and The Invisible Hour was the perfect book to pick up next!

“The bond between writer and reader is a cherished and mysterious one. A book doesn’t live when it's written. It lives when it’s read”

What a beautiful authors note and tribute to the impact that books have on all of us. I adore Hoffman's writing and the way she weaves magic with true human struggle and strength. The Invisible Hour beautifully captures the determination and courage it takes to forge your own way and let go of what you’ve been told you are. Mia’s journey to gain her freedom while also learning a bit about Nathaniel Hawthore had me gripped until the very last page. If you’re into cults, women’s empowerment, and some time travel, definitely grab this one!

Thank you @netgalley and @atriabooks for the early copy

4 stars!

Grab your copy out 8/15!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is an absolute masterpiece by the amazing @ahoffmanwriter! I especially recommend it for literary fiction and historical fiction lovers.

This book tells the story of a young girl who rescues herself from a life of oppression and punishment experienced in a toxic patriarchal community. After the sudden loss of her mother Mia was ready to end it all until her secret reading brought her to the book that changed her path, a book that helped her find the strength she needed to escape. She finds a family in two lovely women who take her in and teach her what it’s like to be loved. Mia feels as if she owes everything she has become to the author who wrote the book that changed her life. If only she were alive in 1850.

This is such an important story of survival and the vital beauty and strength that books and art, of all kinds, can give us. It expresses the importance of women’s rights, how far they’ve come and how far there is still yet to go. Alice also sprinkles a little bit of magic and forbidden love but I won’t spoil that. You’ll have to read it yourself to find out! 🫶🏻 I loved every bit of this book and I highly recommend it! It’s a goodie!!

Opening the cover of a Alice Hoffman book is a lot like getting a carefully wrapped present from someone who is a bit unpredictable and also a bit quirky. The tantalizing surprise that awaits me every time i read one is best savored over a few days when I don't really have much of anything that I need to do.

Once again the sumptuous descriptive words Hoffman uses really adds so much to every book. The well-developed characters who are so fully fleshed out I feel as if I know them and a plot that completely captures my attention are all a part of the package.

While I have to admit, there have been a few of her books that I have not liked, very much this one was a winner!

I love Alice Hoffman. She hasn’t disappointed me since I began reading her work. In The Invisible Hour though, I was totally rocked, as the book took such an unexpected shift. I can’t spoil the book for readers, but I hope you will trust me when I say that although I wasn’t exactly sure where the story was heading, it certainly didn’t go the way I was expecting. It was so wonderful in its unexpectedness. Thank you so much to the publisher and Net Galley for allowing me to read an arc in return for an honest review. 5 plus stars.

2.5 stars. I'm not entirely sure what this book wants to be. The first section was outstanding. It's the story of a young woman, pregnant and outcast from her rich Boston family, who gets drawn into a cult. Her daughter, Mia, grows up in the Community, secretly reading books from the public library and stealing special moments with her mother. When tragedy strikes, Mia's discovery of "The Scarlet Letter" saves her life and gives her the courage to run away. This section reads like a fairy tale and I really enjoyed the writing and the story. Then, the book gives way to a totally bizarre time travel romance - with Nathaniel Hawthorne, no less! - and I just couldn't find my way back into the story. It was cringey and awkward and not what I wanted/was hoping for with Mia's character at all. Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for a digital review copy.

Alice Hoffman is a very talented writer. I love her lyrical prose and the enchanting feelings surrounding her words. The dual timeline situation surrounding Nathaniel Hawthorne was clever, but overall, this book just didn’t hold my attention after this part of the plot got introduced.

I had forgotten I liked Alice Hoffman’s writing. “The Invisible Hour” was THE perfect re-introduction to her storytelling. This is a novel about the power of books, a belief I hold near and dear to my heart because I have seen it manifested over and over again in my students. When Ivy is little more than 17 years old, she becomes pregnant and disowned by her parents. Being in such a precarious situation, she is easily convinced to join a cult where she is partnered with none other than the cult leader himself, Joel Jacobs. But when her baby Mia is born, she recognizes the prison in which she has placed her daughter and looks for ways to instil a sense of freedom in her daughter. This freedom includes finding sanctuary in the town’s library, where Mia falls in love with the writing of Nathanial Hawthorn; in fact, the first book she picks up is The Scarlet Letter, and in it is an inscription from Hawthorn himself that seems weirdly and intimately linked to Mia herself born over a hundred years after Hawthorn’s death?
When Mia is threatened with torture and imprisonment within the cult, she finds strength in Hawthorn’s words and escapes the only world she’s ever known.
This story has a little bit of everything: time travel, romance, and drama, but mostly it is a novel about how we can find strength and belonging in books, and I love this.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for access to this title. All opinions expressed are my own.
TW: Loss of a loved one, accidental pregnancy, cults, abuse
I love a good Alice Hoffman tale and this made for perfect holiday writing. A Scarlet Letter inspired mother-daughter tale that takes readers from the 20th century to Nathaniel Hawthorne's Salem. I admit to feeling just a little skeptical of N.H. as anyone's love interest after reading Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese. But I loved Mia as a character so I kept at it.

The author took some risks, granted it won't be everyone's cup of tea but I did enjoy the way things worked out for Mia. Except for the ending... those last few pages left me hanging. Overall, I enjoyed my reading experience.



Expected Publication 15/08/23
Goodreads Review 16/07/23

Thanks to Atria Books for the ARC!

Alice Hoffman is a very talented writer. I love her lyrical prose and the enchanting feelings surrounding her words. The dual timeline situation surrounding Nathaniel Hawthorne was clever, but overall, this book just didn’t hold my attention.

Thank you to the publisher for an advance copy of this book & Netgalley for an e-arc of this book, all opinions are my own.

This book is basically a love letter to books, to reading, and to every person that found themselves represented in a book. And toward the end I really had the thought: what came first, Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter or Mia's time travel adventure?

Despite being a shorter novel (my arc is less than 300 pages), it took a long time for the action to happen. I was initially pulled in because of the time travel element, which did not kick in until after the 50% mark in my ebook. The author does a good job setting up the character and her backstory, and it is good foreshadowing for later in the book too, I just thought that the time travel element would appear sooner.

Then let us discuss the chapters - they are so long. I finished chapter 2 in my ebook and checked back with my ARC....I was already 120 pages into the story. As a person that likes to finish reading sessions at the end of chapters, I was struggling. But, each chapter truly felt like a small part of the story, and I understand why the author did the chapter breaks the way she did.

This story was interesting, and I liked the romance between Mia and Hawthorne. I like the premise of this book, and how it tackled some common time travel "rules" and worked around them as well. There is a small cult element in the first half of the book too, so there is a lot going on in such a small package.

The Invisible Hour is about the love of reading, but also love in general and family as well. The story showcases different types of families, and how each one teaches a character something about themselves, and I think this led Mia to have some good character development. She learns a lot over the course of the story, she is not afraid to question things, and overall she feels like a unique, well written character I enjoyed reading about.

Overall, I could have done with shorter chapters but I did enjoy the story at hand. The premise is interesting, but I wanted the time travel to happen a little sooner. Everything in this book comes full circle though, and I could easily see myself rereading this and noticing new things each time. The story is definitely worth the read, and easy to understand even if you are not a huge fantasy reader.
Content warnings: loss of a loved one, toxic relationship, accidental pregnancy, misogyny/sexism, abuse

I’ve never been disappointed in Alice Hoffman’s stories; she keeps you involved and entranced until the very end. Her most recent work, Invisible Hour, is no exception.

She tells a story of a young girl who believes she’s in love and thinks she and her sweetheart will get married when she finds out she’s pregnant. However, her “sweetheart” turns out to be a cad and tells her he has other plans. The girl goes back home to tell her family and they are ashamed of her and she overhears them making plans to ship her to her aunt’s house and put the baby up for adoption. So she climbs out her bedroom window and goes to a commune to live. She has her baby, a girl, and they live in The Community together, but apart. The people there aren’t allowed to have books to read and are punished when they break the rules (and there are many rules). On the weekends during the summer they sell their produce in town and one day while they are working the stall together the girl (now fifteen) becomes curious about a building she sees in town. The mother tells her that’s a library and tells her to go in and look around but to be careful and not get caught. While there she discovers Nathaniel Hawthorn’s book The Scarlet Letter and comes to realize that the book tells a similar story to her mother’s. I’ll stop there. The story is beautifully told. I believe the author uses her story to point out that women haven’t in the past always had a say in what to do about an unplanned pregnancy. Whatever your viewpoint is she wants you to set that aside and look at the situation the girl is forced to deal with but it’s done in such a gentle way that the reader can see that a pregnant, scared teenager can wreck a lot of lives trying to do what’s best for herself and her child. There are many parallels to be drawn between this and The Scarlet Letter. I hope that High school English teachers will embrace the opportunity to teach The Scarlet Letter in a fresh way.

I’d like to thank both Alice Hoffman, the publishers and Netgalley for the opportunity to read an ARC of this title.