This is my fifth Alice Hoffman book. I’ve read both of the other books in this series, Practical Magic and The Rules of Magic, as well as The World That We Knew and The Dovekeepers. Ratings-wise, her work is all over the place for me, but I still count her among my favorite authors because her writing style is consistently beautiful and magical and never fails to sweep me off my feet. In that regard, Magic Lessons was no exception. In terms of vivid scenery, immersive descriptions, and deep musings on love, family, friendship, and heartbreak, it more than lived up to my expectations.

Another hallmark of every Hoffman novel is romance, and I’m not usually a fan of the way Hoffman writes romance, although there are exceptions; a few of the relationships in The Rules of Magic and The Dovekeepers were pretty good. And I went into Magic Lessons expecting to hate the romance, especially since, having read the other books in the series, I knew things between Maria and her love interest, John, wouldn’t work out. (I feel confident not tagging that as a spoiler because, even if you haven’t read the other books, Hoffman makes it very clear from very early on in the story.)

Just as I expected, I did hate Maria’s relationship with John, and I hated John, but I appreciated that Hoffman never tried to depict their relationship as something it wasn’t. John isn’t a good man and he isn’t made out to be, and their relationship is less of a love story than a cautionary tale. It was frustrating to witness Maria ignore an entire parade of red flags, and she kept making decisions I disagreed with, but none of that ruined the experience for me. Instead, it balanced out Maria’s Mary Sue qualities, which I more or less expect from a Hoffman protagonist. They’re usually the most beautiful woman you’ve ever seen, with the power to make men instantly fall in love with them, but at least Maria has flaws. She makes mistakes. (And I’ll admit I do kind of enjoy yelling at a protagonist who constantly makes mistakes.)

Even though love is one of this book’s central themes, Magic Lessons isn’t just about love, and it’s not just about romantic love. There are themes of family and friendship that I was far more invested in than Maria’s relationship with John. There was, of course, plenty of magic. The first book in this series, Practical Magic, focused way too much on the romance and didn’t have nearly enough magic in my opinion, but The Rules of Magic was much better in that department and so was Magic Lessons. There are also some top-quality human-animal bonds in this book. Cadin the crow was probably my favorite character.

Hoffman is such a strong historical fiction writer, and it really comes across in Magic Lessons. I was impressed by how many strands of history she managed to weave together in one book, in three very different settings: England, Curaçao, and Massachusetts. Hoffman did go off on some brief historical tangents that I found informative but that did sometimes feel a bit forced, but I can’t complain too much because I ended up learning a lot more than I would have expected from a work of fantasy.

I do have some minor complaints about the book’s plot. There was some pretty heavy-handed foreshadowing but I’m into that in fantasy so that’s not so much my problem. I did occasionally roll my eyes at how, despite Maria’s many mistakes, everything kept working out in her favor. And there wasn’t really one single, overarching plots, but several shorter storylines that were only loosely tied together, and it made the book feel much longer than it was, and not always in a good way. But this was a beautiful book, and I have to rate it highly. It swept me away and brought me to tears multiple times and I highly recommend it, especially if you’ve read and enjoyed any of Hoffman’s other books.

What can I say about this book that we don't all already know is true? Alice Hoffman is a magical writer. Her ability to write description brings a story to life, and the way she has crafted a narrative around generations of this magical family has been spellbinding. She's talented, beautiful, and enriching.

I have not read Alice Hoffman's other books including Practical Magic which this book, I believe, is a prequel to. I enjoyed Magic Lessons but I believe that I would have had a better connection to the story if I had read the other book.

Magic Lessons follows the life of Maria Owens, a woman who practices the Nameless Art. She eventually finds herself in Salem, Massachusetts, during the time of the Salem Witch Trials, desperate to find her child's father, the man she thinks she loves. Hard times befall Maria and her daughter Faith as Faith's father wants nothing to do with them, and Maria is eventually accused of witchcraft.

This book is the very definition of a slow burn. Hoffman definitely has a way with words. Her style of writing is flowery and not straight to the point. I enjoyed her style but felt that the book moved at too sluggish of a pace. It took me over a week to get through it as I didn't find myself wanting to come back to it and chose to do other things instead of read. I thought the life lessons that were taught throughout the book were a nice touch and I did enjoy how the book ended and it left me with a feeling of warmth and caring. This book also does a great job of highlighting the plight of women for centuries be it one accused of witchcraft or not. This book is not a fast paced, action packed book but more of a Sunday, site-seeing drive through the countryside.

This is an unforgettable tale that traces a centuries old curse to its original source . It tells the story of Maria Owens who is accused of witchcraft in Salem. Magic lessons is about life,love,and the story of Maria and family

A beautifully written story. Anything taking place in New England, about witches, just feels like the perfect autumn read. There were so many beautiful descriptions about the weather, environment, and atmosphere. I spent the whole novel routing for Maria and her loved ones. This is my first Hoffman but will not be my last!

Oh, my magic goodness! Alice Hoffman did it! She turned me into a 5 Star admirer.

In Alice Hoffman’s newest installment of the Practical Magic stories; Magic Lessons, she worked a spell on me and turned me into a true fan. With edible descriptions and beautiful prose, this book contained all of the ingredients for an epic story about a family of witches, growing pains, the sisterhood between women, and the lessons learned from playing with love.

Set in 1600’s England, New York, and Salem, Massachusetts, this story begins when a baby, Maria Owens, is left on the snowy doorstep of a witch’s cottage. Through her trials and tribulations of growing up with powers, and experiencing love and hate for the first time, the reader experiences what life was like as a woman with “gifts” in a worrisome society during the 17th century.

I loved the spotlight that this story gave to women. Love potions, witch trials, soulmates, women’s rights, teenage rebellion, the persecution of individuals who dared to be different—this book had it all. I had anticipated Magic Lessons to be a fun, magic-filled read, but I hadn't expected its deeper themes to feel so relevant to current issues. This is the best book in its collection and it should be a big hit this autumn!

My Rating: 5 Stars!

Thank you, NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for my gifted advance eGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The story of the woman who cursed the men who love the Owens women in Practical Magic!

Maria Owens is the matriarch of the Owens family in America. She was abandoned by her mother, raised for her first ten years by a kindly woman named Hannah Owens who practiced the “Unnamed Arts”. Maria learns more magic wherever she goes. The most important thing she was taught by Hannah was to “Always love someone that will love you back”.

I really liked this book, but you know how sometimes you can be reading a book and it is 500 pages and it seems to go by in a flash while another book you can read and read for hours and you will look and you aren’t even a quarter of the way through the book? That was this book. The world building and character development was terrific and there were long descriptions of just about everything.

I’m not saying that was bad, since I really enjoyed everything about this book, it just seemed to go slower than some books. Maria’s journey really begins when she is 10 and men come to her home and burn it down. Hannah tells her to run and she does. I enjoyed her journey and how she grows at each place she ends up. Maria learns new magic at every place she goes, new cures and spells which include the local flora and fauna.

Maria is a very likable character. She is unafraid and able to take care of herself. She has no problem going where she wants and talking to people whether it be to find passage on a ship or to find a job in a new city. I have to tell you though, I know it is history, but I get so frustrated at the stupidity of people and especially when it comes to things that happened in the past.

For example, how they would tie a witch to a chair and throw it into a body of water. If the woman floated, she was a witch, but if she sunk and drowned, she was innocent. I mean really, after they killed how many innocent people do they stop??? And the puritans, that think women are the cause of all evil because of Eve and the apple. So if a man feels something for a woman who isn’t his wife, it is the woman’s fault for putting some sort of spell on him or seducing him or whatever.

Though this is a book about love even more than it is a book about magic. It shows all different kinds of love such as obsessive love, jealous love, true love, false love, mean and cruel love. The fact that Maria has magic and can help to determine the course of love for others doesn’t mean she can help herself. Since people with magic can rarely perform it on or for themselves, when they do they pay a price and whatever they put out there is returned to them threefold.

“To any man who ever loves an Owens, let this curse befall you, let your fate lead to disaster, let you be broken in body and soul, and may it be that you never recover.”

Luckily the book doesn’t end with the curse. There are twists and turns and surprises throughout the story. I found myself in tears a few times. I liked the book for the emotional pull, for the magic and the whimsy, the animals and more. I also adore books like this where I can learn a bit of history I hadn’t known before. I never knew that in New York (which was named New Amsterdam) there once was a wall that separated the city from the wilds beyond and protected against attacks. That is how Wall Street got its name.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I have to admit that this is the very first time a novel captured my soul before it even began. The Letter to the Reader at the beginning spoke to my heart on so many levels - I was in love before I even began. With that said, the novel itself was everything I was hoping it would be. A long-time fan of Ms. Hoffman's writings, and a die hard fan of the Practical Magic stories, I was anxiously waiting for this book.

As usual, the language of this novel is absolutely stunning - Ms. Hoffman paints a detailed picture that just allows the reader to be transported back in time to the 1600's. As I was reading this book, I forgot about everything going on in my real life, and instead was just a girl traveling alongside Maria Owens throughout her life.

This is a tale of womanhood and motherhood and the ties that bind. And of course, the magic that runs through all of that. It highlights the ways in which women have been persecuted throughout time, but more specifically during the time of the witch trials. This was a time when a woman could be accused of being a witch for anything at all, even something as harmless as wearing the wrong color dress or shoes. It was a time of mistrust and fear, when anyone who was "different" was seen as a threat to be done away with. And it is the story of a woman who refused to be anything less than who and what she was, regardless of the inability of others to accept or understand. Maria Owens is a woman who, like all of us, just wants to be allowed to live her life on her own terms. It is about the relationships we all form with the people in our lives, some of whom we never thought we would, some whom we tried so hard not to only to find out they were destined to be our very closest friends.

On the aspect of motherhood, this novel highlights the endless depths of the bond between mothers and daughters, as well as the trials and tribulations that most mothers/daughters face throughout a lifetime. Mothers who struggle with their daughters growing up; daughters who go through the phase of not thinking their mothers know anything. Mothers and daughters who discover that throughout everything, there is no stronger bond than that between them.

This book was everything and then some! Thank you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster and the author, Alice Hoffman, for providing me with the eGalley of this novel in exchange for my honest opinion.

I am a big fan of Alice Hoffman's book. Her words, the poetry she creates out of the world is inspiring. this one was a little harder to read, maybe just because i like current stories better than historical ones.
this is a story of love, of families, of the oppression of women/witches, native people, jewish people and people who are different.

It’s easy for me to just power through a book, but some books deserve room to sit with. I feel like I really gave this book time as I read it. I have a lot of love for the Alice Hoffman books I have read, though with her massive literary output I would never call myself a super fan. Practical Magic and the Rules of Magic are among my favorite books. I love her words. To me, her work is poetry prose on a page. I was nervous to read this book, because I was afraid I would not love it as much as I loved Practical Magic, and I didn’t think she could surprise me with two great prequels. I’m so happy I was wrong!
To me, Magic Lessons is a story of mothers and daughters. If you have read or watched Practical Magic, you’re familiar with Maria Owens, the witch who curses all the men who fall in love with her female descendants. We see how she got to that curse, and how she came to understand her own legacy and power. There’s so much going on here but it is worth the read. I really loved this book. This is the extended universe of my dreams, ok! I would happily read a new book about the Owens women every fall.I fall more in love with this family with every book and I feel like I get a new favorite Owens witch every time. I think you will love this book more if you have read Practical Magic and Rules of Magic, but you’ll enjoy them in any order you come to these books. One of my favorites of the year and the perfect fall pick.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the ARC!

WOW! Just WOW!
Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. This book explained the entire story that we've all loved since Practical Magic. This story is the prequel and explains so much. The tale was perfect for Fall. Dark, Eerie, and Twisted! Alice Hoffman has added the perfect touches to a story that we always wanted more of. Magical soul searching adventure at it's best. YOU MUST READ THIS!

I truly enjoyed this book. Hoffman writes her characters with a defenseless love and determination. I loved reading of the beginning of the Owens women and finding out how their legacy started.
Many thanks to Simon & Schuster and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I found this third book in the series to be much darker than Practical Magic and not really my cup of tea. It was, however, beautifully written.

I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley. My review is voluntary.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon Schuster for an electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review. To start with, I could not put this book down. This suspenseful, fun, amazing and 'bewitching' book weaves a story of courage, strength, family, and of course, MAGIC. I loved reading the incantations, the spells, the recipes for special 'teas' and I especially liked how the author describes the 'familiars' and how they find their 'person'. Magic Lessons is the prequel to Practical Magic and Rules of Magic and after finishing this book, I feel like I need to just keep reading and then maybe, read them all again. There is such creativity in Alice Hoffman's storytelling and it just brings you right into that world. In this book we learn the origins of the Owens women... Hannah, Maria and .. wait... no spoilers here!!! You will need to read it and find out for yourself.. I highly recommend this book

Whether or not you have read Practical Magic and Rules of Magic, anyone enjoying magical realism should enjoy Alice Hoffman’s new prequel, Magic Lessons. She now provides a detailed portrait of Maria Owens, who started the history of the Owens family women.

Abandoned with only a crow and a blue blanket to protect her, a newborn is found and taken in by Hannah Owens, a woman who lives far from society. Sought out for her magical powers, Hannah passes along her knowledge to Maria, whose name had been embroidered on her blanket.

Tragedy strikes after Maria’s real mother unexpectedly visits, uprooting Maria from the only place she has ever known and resulting in her second set of lessons, this time from her biological mother, whose powers are hereditary rather than learned, as were Hannah’s. These second lessons are of shorter duration than the first, and while still a young child, Maria finds herself put on a boat for Curaçao with only her crow to accompany her and five years ahead as an indentured servant.

As Maria continues to learn, she receives lessons in love, some intentionally taught, some learned from observation. Yet she is warned that spells casts on others to overcome love problems will not work well on herself. Independent, courageous, and passionate Maria has many adventures and lessons still ahead.

Anyone familiar with Alice Hoffman knows that although the supernatural plays a prominent role in her work, she focuses more on the characters and on the human heart than on the magic. Even in this latest book, filled with magic lessons as it is, that holds true.

My thanks to NetGalley, Simon and Schuster, and Alice Hoffman for the advance reader copy.

And now we go back to the beginning. Hannah Owens lives a quiet life in the woods of rural England. In the 1600’s it is of the utmost importance that she keep her powers and gifts of healing an absolute secret - her life depends on it. Witchcraft is a crime and it doesn’t take much to hang a woman with no husband and an inexplicable ability in the Unnamed Arts. Hannah finds an abandoned baby in the woods. Maria is special and Hannah raises her with love and all the lessons she will need to survive in this world. Some years later Maria is sent on a ship to the Caribbean and she falls in love. Following this stranger to Salem, Massachusetts she finds herself in the heart of a world that has no tolerance for beauty, love and most certainly not for witchcraft. This magical series began with modern day Practical Magic (also a fabulous movie!), then came The Rules of Magic and now we finally learn how the Owens family began. Highly recommend this bewitching series that will set your imagination on fire!

I loved Hoffman's masterpiece 'Practical Magic', so much that I have read the book and watched the movie dozens of times over. The story of the Owens Women and their ability to create a tribe (or coven) of found family, magical knowledge and the ability to be strong in the face of hardship makes that book an absolute treasure. I truly jumped at the chance to get an advanced copy of its prequel.

The book is about the matriarch of the Owen's women, Maria Owens, and the origins of a family curse. Any man who loves an Owen's woman will have tragedy befall them. This was a main theme in Practical Magic and I was more than ready to see what circumstances caused it.

At the beginning, we find Maria as a newborn baby left in a field near the home of Hannah Owens. Hannah is an exiled woman in Essex, England who went into the woods to practice the Nameless Art and help women of all kinds with everything from health to their love lives. There's never a dull moment, Hannah seems to be constantly at work. Maria grows up learning from Hannah. How to make potions for fevers, cramps, rashes and toothaches. The ones she pays special attention to are the spells regarding matters of the heart. Some of the fun of this book is learning all of the natural remedies that exist in the world for many common ailments.

It is when she is around 9 years old that all hell breaks loose and events begin to unfold that brick by brick, wall up Maria's heart against men and love. We span her life well into her thirties. We see her overcome horrible thing after thing and the many trials of her family and friends.

I'm going to be honest, the first half of this book is bleak, sad, challenging, and difficult. There is no sugar coating the awful things that happen to Maria and the other characters of the book. That is before the Salem Witch Trials even come into the story.

I would summarize my review as this: as heartwarming as Practical Magic is, this book is equally disturbing. It's definitely a beautifully written book. the historical fiction elements are spot on and it is an atmospheric read. Many people will definitely want to check it out for those elements.

I wish I had loved it more, but love is a notion many times condemned throughout this book, so it isn't much of a surprise to find that I had to harden my heart a bit to get to the end

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book feels like drinking a warm cup of milk under a cozy blanket while sitting in front of a warm fire... 😍🤭🥛. Do people drink warm milk? Regardless, that's what this book feels like: rich & creamy, goes down smooth, and warms you from the inside 🥰.

I love everything Alice Hoffman writes. Practical Magic, the movie, was part of my childhood; The Rules of Magic became a favorite book when I read it a few years ago; this prequel (prequel-prequel?), Magic Lessons, is no different. I was enchanted the entire time.

For anyone who doesn't know, these books follow the Owens women across generations, beginning with Maria Owens and the curse she cast, declaring that all men who fall in love with an Owens girl will suffer a terrible fate. Before this most recent book (Pub date: Oct 6, 2020) Maria was a distant ancestor.

We start the series with Gillian and Sally in Practical Magic (played by Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock in the 📽), who, after their parents' accidental death, live with their eccentric aunts in Massachusetts. The Rules of Magic (aka: my 💗) goes back in time to the early lives of the aunts (Franny and Jet) + their brother Vincent. Magic and heartbreak ensues 🌌. And now with this 3rd installment, we get to follow Maria from childhood, to the time of the curse, her daughters youth, the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, and beyond. When the familiar Owens' house was built I felt like I was returning home 🌿.

I have no words for how much I love these books 🥰. Hoffman writes such beautiful characters and sets them in their historical context. I also adore the Grimoire entries!! There is so much to learn from her books ❤.

Okay, no more spoilers from my witchy recommendation stack!

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Alice Hoffman knows how to weave a tale! I would call this novel the pre-prequel to Practical Magic, as the prequel would be The Rules of Magic, the story of the aunts that featured in Practical Magic. The story of Maria Owens and the start of the Owens magic is revealed in this wonderful novel. I had great difficulty putting this book down and coming back to the real world. The Owens Curse (the bane of the first novel) comes to fruition in this story and the reader can certainly understand Maria's frustration when she cast this curse. However, although love certainly gives Maria Owens, and her daughter Faith, much aggravation, they come to find it is the only answer.
Thank you to NetGalley for this e-ARC. It did not disappoint! :)

This was a fine continuation to the story of the Owens family and how they came about from dating back to the 1600s. It gave us a background on the ladies who started the dynasty of special witches whose special powers passed down from daughter to daughter. Although a bit slow at the onset, this story eventually propels the reader into the world in which the ladies we read about in the previous two books in the series, inherited their legacy.

Maria Owens was the start of the family dynasty, and we follow her through Curacao, where she went after the death of her caregiver Hannah Owens, the Salem witch trials and her meeting and having a daughter with John Hawthorne, to the time where Maria's heart is broken for he left her and moved on to Salem where in time, he becomes the leader of a group that persecutes and puts to death those suspected of witchcraft.

When Maria arrives in Salem with her magically gifted daughter, Faith, the curse to never allow love to enter the lives of the Owens women, gets its start.

However on the voyage to Salem, Maria meets and is drawn to Samuel, son of the ship's cabin. Samuel is enamored with Maria, but his affection though returned by Maria, is turned away, as she is on a mission to find the father of her child. She must not fall in love for she knows that her loved one will be cursed.

Both Maria and Faith will find that they are challenged both physically and emotionally and that vow to never love a man will be tested to its fullest.

Told with the wonderful background of the times. Ms Hoffman once again creates a story of magic, of darkness, and one where the realization of love is the final answer.

Thank you to Alice Hoffman, Scribner Publishing, and NetGalley for a copy of this story due out on October 6, 2020.