In The Invisible Hour, we meet 15-year-old Mia Jacobs as she escapes the cult that she has been part of since her birth. Her mother Ivy was a young woman, unexpectedly pregnant and running away from home, falling in with the cult in Western MA. This book revolved around Mia's early life initially, building up to her escape, and then into her later teenage years and young adulthood.
The book abruptly changes streams shortly after the halfway point and becomes a different book altogether. It felt weird and disjointed, albeit with Hoffman's usual lyrical prose and touch of magical realism, and I was left feeling a bit confused about the story in the later part of the book. It reads like a biography of Nathaniel Hawthorne, but then introduces the magical/fantasy element that honestly just felt out of place.
I finished this book on Friday, and I've been contemplating how to rate and review it since then, simply because I feel at a loss somehow to understand exactly what Hoffman's end goal was with this book. I would have loved more about the cult, an Ivy's years there as a young mother, forced to follow the rules of the Community. In the end, I know what Hoffman was trying to convey how important books can me to readers, but the fantasy element felt out of place, and overly drawn out, which is why I'm ending with a 3 star rating for this book. It was good purely for the writing alone, but I don't know that I will actively recommend it to others.
Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley for the electronic ARC of this novel for review.

The Invisible Hour was fantastic. Alice Hoffman, once again, created a world filled with love, adventure, literature, and just a touch of magic. It's a beautiful story of a book about a book. A loving retelling (using that word very loosely) of The Scarlet Letter, or more so the impact of that novel on the main character Mia.

The story centers around Mia, a young women, who grew up in a strict cult where freedom is restricted, contact with the outside world is limited, family is separated, and reading is forbidden. Mia is a young women who rebels against the rules of the community and seeks out stolen moments with her Mother and books from the local library. Eventually, she stumbles upon a copy of 'The Scarlet Letter" with an interesting inscription that ultimately, inspires her to save herself.
Overall, its story about the impact of a great book and how words and stories can be a saving grace when times are tough. As Alice Hoffman has said "Books may well be our only true magic.". It is a must read for people who love literature and are inspired by the power of words.

Note: In accordance with FTC guidelines, please note in reviews that your ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

When I first came across this book, I initially wrote it off as another cult story (I really dislike cult stories) and was about to move on when I saw the review of another GR member that I follow. It was Thomas’s review that appealed to me. I love a good time travel story and, in this case, my love for a good time travel story is much greater than my dislike for cult stories.

The book summary is vague and doesn’t do the story justice. I know the author doesn’t have any control over book summaries, but the publishers do, and they should really spend some time improving the book summary that they provide because GR pulled this book summary straight from the publisher.

Anyway, there are truly two primary storylines. The first half of the story is about how Ivy, and subsequently Mia, came to be at the Community. This part of the story basically lays out life in the Community, and like all cults, is headed by a calculating, conniving, ego-maniacal, insane, sociopathic, man with a God complex who believes he has the right to lord over everyone else and only he has the right to decide who lives and who dies. As much as I dislike cults, I actually enjoyed this storyline more than the other one. In the first scene of the book, we know that the girl escapes and it’s shortly thereafter, it’s pretty obvious that Mia was the escaping girl. I love stories of people escaping cults.

The second half of the story takes place in 1837 and Mia has time travelled back and meets Nathaniel Hawthorne. While I do enjoy a good time travel story every now and then as a break from the murder and mayhem that I typically read, this storyline was kind of boring. A lot of background history about Hawthorne and his life along with way too much day-to-day minutia. Mia returns to present day and a few months later comes back and then leaves again. Parts of the ending were satisfying enough but other parts were just sort of underwhelming.

For me, most of the story was a 2-2.5star read, but I’m going to round up to a 3star rating because there was one particular part of the ending that I absolutely loved. Karma is a &!^%#. I want to thank NetGalley and Atria Books for sending me this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

#NetGalley #AtriaBooks #TheInvisibleHour

I had not read Alice Hoffman prior to this.... Interesting characters and plot/theme. I was a little thrown with the actual change of time period but after continuing to read things leveled out. (Almost like 2 books on one!) I do think there were areas that could have been expanded on and I'm still undecided on the ending. Overall tho a well written book that I'd recommend to others....

Not my favorite Hoffman.. but still a good story, and it’s really cool how she incorporated the story of Nathaniel Hawthorne and his book “The Scarlet Letter” into the novel. Now I want to read about him.
Anyway in this story we have. teenage pregnancy, cult life, how the power of the written word can save us.. and some magical realism/time travel.
Enjoy!

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria Books for the ARC!

Whenever I crack open an Alice Hoffman book, I know I am in for an enchanting and enticing read. With a little bit of magic thrown in. Hoffman has a way of wrapping you in a warm blanket and setting you free to use your imagination and let down your walls. To allow the book to flow naturally. You cannot think too deeply about if this could really occur, or the magic will be ruined. Hoffman begins the book by giving the reader an inside look at her upbringing and how the Scarlett Letter made her understand her mother in ways she never knew was possible. A woman who does not set to society's standards, who may be a little different, unique. This is their story.

Sixteen-year-old Ivy Jacobs is from an elite family tucked in a gorgeous mansion in Beacon Hill. She has everything to make her happy, but her parents are strict, from another era. They do not see eye to eye with Ivy on a normal day, let alone on the day she comes home to tell them she is pregnant. Her parents want her to put the baby up for adoption, to have this entire mess put to bed. Ivy is not giving up her flesh and blood and leaves. She has no idea where she will go, but she needs to get out and save herself and her child. She hears about a community in Blackwell, Massachusetts and finds her way there. She hears everyone is treated fairly and they are given freedom. It is too late when she finds out what it truly is about. Absolute power for one man. They are not allowed to read or talk to others outside the community, and there are rules they must abide by. The children are everyone's and Ivy's baby, Mia, becomes part of the community. Setting her up for a lifetime of rules and pain. Mia is strong and determined to leave the community. She discovers reading that she must sneak and hide. When she pulls down an older book and opens the pages of the Scarlett Letter, it feels as though it is speaking to her. She falls deeply in love with the dead author, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Is this real or just a dream...

This story encapsulates the love of a mother to her child. Another love is bigger than one man and one woman. That can navigate time and space. I fell in love with the words, and with the story. It spoke to me in such a way that I will not soon forget. The characters are lovingly written, deeply layered, and troubled. Pulling you into their lives and their stories. Thank you to Alice Hoffman and Atria Books for this captivating read.

Such a magical book with all the feels! I love how this author never fails to take me on a magical journey and this is the perfect rainy day read. I will always one click her books. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher!!

Wow. Such a well crafted story.
I love the way Alice Hoffman writes. Very atmospheric-especially scenes on the farm, the cult made me so anxious.
Ivy gets pregnant and the father wants nothing to do with her and her parents want to send her away so she runs away and finds a cult. She had her baby and now has to navigate the cult rules. The story weaves from Ivy to her daughter Mia and floats with time. So less spells and potions than practical magic and more time travels magic with the same lovely writing.

Thanks to NetGalley and Atria Books for an eARC.

A longtime fan and reader of Alice Hoffman, I am weeping, stunned, and amazed at the majestic beauty of her narrative prose, storytelling, characterizations and powerful romantic themes in “The Invisible Hour,” a quasi-retelling of Hester Prynne’s adulterous tale in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Victorian Classic novel, “The Scarlet Letter.” This may be one of my favorite books ever, not only by Hoffman, but of all time, and I dearly love every one of her “Practical Magic” trilogy books. She is the mistress of magical realism, and gets better and better at each book she writes. All hail Miss Hoffman! Yippee!

TheBookMaven graciously thanks NetGalley, Author Alice Hoffman, and Publisher Simon and Schuster / Altria Books for this Advanced Reader’s Copy (ARC) for review.

Part one was perfect, magical Alice Hoffman,. Part 2 goes off the rails into a boring ,unbelievable way. Part 3 was not as bad as 2 but never really pulled back the magic of Part 1. I am giving this a directly down the middle of the road 3 star rating.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley.

Mia is a teenager trapped in a cult that her mother, Ivy, fell into when she got pregnant. The cult forbids books, but Mia discovered the library, and has found solace in the pages of novels, including The Scarlett Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne. Mia travels back in time to meet Nathanial before he’s written this novel that would make him famous.

There is a lot of beautiful writing in this book, which is about the importance of works of art and their influence on our lives, even years after the death of the creator.

NetGalley provided an advance copy of this novel, which RELEASES AUGUST 15, 2023.

Thank you to Net Galley and the Publisher for this Advanced Readers Copy of The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman

4.5 stars!

I’ve been a huge fan of Alice Hoffman for years, so I was ecstatic when I received this ARC!

This was such a beautiful book. The story of Mia and her mother was an uncomfortable one. It was fascinating to see the inner workings surrounding the cult. The time traveling was done super well, too. I was just as fascinated with that aspect of this story. My favorite part though was the undying love between a mother and her child. No matter the circumstances, Mia’s mother loved her and tried her best with what she had. The character growth of Mia was great, as well!

I loved it!

The Invisible Hour might be a good fit for those that love Alice Hoffman’s novels for the unwavering intensity of the characters, the propulsive plots, and the quirky, yet dependable appearance of the supernatural or unknown.

This time Hoffman changes up the game though with an ambitious structure and intent involving a cult-like restrictive messianic group, time travel, a famous author, and a classic waiting to be written. Unwed teenager Ivy has been abandoned by her family and her boyfriend and runs away with a friend who has heard of a Community that offers acceptance and safety. Its charismatic leader/dictator, Joel Davis, has created a refuge of simple living through the land, with the children raised communally, the rule book extensive, and transgressions, such as reading novels, resulting in strict punishment, including being branded with a letter, standing for the disobedience. Sound familiar? Subtlety is not at play here, so years later when Ivy’s teenage daughter, Mia, sneaks into a library, she discovers a first edition of The Scarlet Letter, inscribed to a Mia, which both mirrors her life and becomes a possible way out of the Community, but at a prohibitive cost. Everything is shared in the Community, yet Joel does not relinquish his possessions easily, and his will manifests an almost unearthly force in the hunt for them. And the hunt can go on for years.

The power and poetry of Hoffman’s writing during some of Mia’s and Ivy’s interior monologues can be starkly beautiful and arresting, and also repetitive. Her characters, such as the angelic helpful librarians, often voice bromides about the Community and the increase of cultural policing, which are self-evident and sometimes seem patronizing. The time travel sections require a huge suspension of disbelief, both in the structure and the ease in which a 21st century female character can elicit only a limited amount of curiosity in an 19th century New England town. Ultimately, much like Mia, the scope of the book is both narrowed and overextended by it’s being bound and forced into the ill-fitting narrative shape of a masterful story written long ago. Recommended only for diehard Alice Hoffman fans. My thanks to NetGalley and Atria books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

5/5

Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own. 

Alice Hoffman has done it once again. This novel is a fantastic work of magic realism. She creates characters that you fall in love with and never want to let go of. This is yet another one of her works that I will reread time and time again.

This book is a nice mix of magic, romance, time travel, and cults, but sadly, it missed the mark for me. The story, overall, felt very disjointed. The romance angle felt forced. Chapters are long, which made the pace seem quite slow, and I struggled to stay engaged. There didn't seem to be a solid, structured plot. Fans of "The Scarlett Letter" will enjoy nods to that book. Parts of Hoffman's book were a bit too far-fetched to believe, even for fiction. I do appreciate the fact that this story pays homage to the importance of reading, the love of books, and libraries.

A beautiful, magical story about love, motherhood and the power of a woman . She truly is the best at magical-realism. The magical elements just flow with the story so perfectly. I'm never disappointed by her books.

Hoffman shows the power of books and the written word. Books transport readers, comfort, provide food for thought, educate, evoke emotions and so much more.
Ivy left her home after receiving poor reactions from both her family and her unborn baby's father. She runs away looking for a better life, what she finds is a "community" with a charismatic leader who turns out to be a wolf in disguise. The community she has joined is a cult in western Massachusetts where books are not allowed, and babies are taken from their mother's and raised in the Nursery. Ivy is crafty and finds time to bond with her daughter Mia. Mia, a young girl born into in a cult, breaks free, wanting to enjoy both the world and books - which are banned in her setting. However, trouble follows her, even into the past, as her love for her favorite author is realized. Told in three parts, Hoffman gives us the present, the past and the possible - as only a good author can do. The Invisible Hour is unique, a love letter to the power of words, books and women.

Thank you to Atria Books and NetGalley, as well as Alice Hoffman.

I loved this book! The historical perspective attached to it was breathtaking and the setting made it more realistic. Beautifully written!

Alice Hoffman is one of my go to authors. The Invisible Hour was a story about Ivy, who finds herself pregnant and no place to turn. She finds herself in a cult community which turns out not to be what she expected. The community is not allowed outside books to read which Ivy misses very much. She has her daughter, Mia who is encouraged by Ivy to read in private. Mia has fallen in love with one book in particular, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. After Ivy dies suddenly, Mia has no one to turn to. Her books that she has hidden in the barn are discovered. Mia runs away from the community and finds her way to the librarian who takes her in. Mia ends up in a magical time where she meets Nathanial. I always love the magical aspect that Alice Hoffman adds to her books.
Thank you NetGalley, Atria Books, and Alice Hoffman for the ARC for my review. Loved it!