Thank you to the author Alice Hoffman, the publisher, Simon & Schuster, and NetGalley, for providing me an ARC in exchange for my candid review.

I enjoyed this book a lot. While supernatural in nature, it is a great historic reference to why and how the Witch Trials took place in Salem. I understand that it is a prequel to Practical Magic, which I look forward to reading.

Disclaimer I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Magic Lessons is part of the Practical Magic saga about the Owens family. This book is set in the 1600s. The pacing of the book is a bit slow. However, the plot and characters are very interesting. This is a perfect read for the fall and fans of witchy reads.

I love Alice Hoffman. Loved learning the matriarch Maria Owens story. Enjoyed the Salem history. Can’t say much as it would be spoiler filled.

Thank you to the Publisher and Netgalley for the advanced e-reader copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

Thank you NetGalley and Simon and Shuster for letting me read a digital ARC of this book.

Alice Hoffman is one of my favorite authors, and I fell in love with the Owen family when I read Practical Magic in 1995. It has been wonderful reading the pre-sequels in this series. Alice Hoffman has done an excellent job providing the origins of the Owen's family's curse. Magic Lessons captured the feel of the 1600s and the pain of heartbreak and joy of forgiveness and redemption. I enjoyed the similarities between Maria's and Faith's stories; how one man's recklessness impacts a mother, daughter, and descendants.

Dark and twisted and emotional and well written! Hoffman just keeps getting better with each prequel, making the Owens family's stories a delight to read.

This is a great beginning to the Practical Magic series. The story line contains a great mixture of reality, magic, and history. There are alluring lessons in seeking love, coping with struggles of everyday life, and dealing with loss. The characters are strong and resilient. The beginning was a little slower than the author’s other books I’ve read, but the middle picked up speed. The ending was fantastic and more of the Alice Hoffman style I’m accustomed to and as always, leaving you wanting more. Well done.

I think I just really wanted a happier story for Maria Owens. This one dragged and was just so sad when her story was sad enough.

A great addition to the Practical Magic series. This one moves slower and seems more deliberate, but it is no less interesting!

Magic Lessons brings the Practical Magic series full circle, as it chronicles the beginning of the Owens bloodline. Maria Owens begins her life, left by her mother in a field, which thus starts a series of abandonments, both deliberate and unexpected. Taught the Nameless Arts at a young age, will Maria learn how to channel her growing power and not travel down a dark path?

Although I did not find the middle of the book to be compelling nor unexpected, I did enjoy the fact that Magic Lessons brings the series in line with the former novels. There are historical facts and tidbits scattered throughout the book, especially regarding New England and the treatment of those different from others. I liked how the author did not go straight to the expected, namely the Salem witch trials, but instead weaved the characters into the historical framework.

Overall, those looking to complete the Practical Magic series will enjoy how Magic Lessons fits into world created by Alice Hoffman. I definitely did not feel as though I wasted my time, but the book did travel down a more familiar path than I was hoping.

Disclaimer: I was given an Advanced Reader's Copy of Magic Lessons by NetGalley and the publisher, Simon & Schuster. The decision to review this book was entirely my own.

I love the work of Alice Hoffman but this novel is a treat, in particular for those readers who are a fan of Practical Magic. The book is alight with magic but had a story heavy enough to keep us grounded.

Maria is abandoned by her mother and soon found by the kindly town herbal lady, Hannah Owens. Seeing that Maria is a natural witch, Hannah tries to teach her how to teach her how to use her gifts to help people. That is until Hannah is hunted down and Maria forced to run for her life. She starts a journey towards her birth mother, the American colonies, and maybe even, love.
Alice Hoffman has finally revisited the world of the wildly popular Practical Magic with a prequel. Magic Lessons gives the readers a detailed background of the Owens family and the family curse that is subject in the following books. Those that have read the previously published books will be excited to read Magic Lessons. It is enjoyable for readers to recognize themes that will come up in later books. It is undoubtedly the beginning of a cohesive narrative that leads to The Rules of Magic, Practical Magic, and, soon to be published, The Book of Magic... I recommend this book for fans of Magical Realism and eagerly look forward to the next book.
#NetGalley

Another Great book by Alice Hoffman! I love how she makes you part of the book by getting me emotionally involved with her characters. Reason why she is one of my favorite authors!

I feel like I always want to like this authors books because so many of my friends do, but I just can't get into them. I've tried a few and find myself in the same spot so I think I'll just move on and read authors/books I know I will enjoy. Thank you for the opportunuty yo try again!

LOVE! This is the origin story of Maria Owens, the matriarch of the witches we know in Practical Magic and The Rules of Magic. Anything would be a spoiler. Know it's a very compelling story with lots of NY and Salem Mass history, filled with love, family, compassion, pain and redemption. So thoroughly enjoyable.

Where do you start when looking for an origin story that'll stay with you for a while? You look for Alice Hoffman to tell the story of Salem and curses and a tale of the Owens that span centuries back to the begin. Fans of Practical Magic rejoice.

Magic Lessons is the prequel to the practical magic series by Alice Hoffman. It is the story of Maria Owens, the matriarch of the Owens clan, and where the story begins.
For readers of Practical Magic and The Rules of Magic, Maria is a well-known and well-referenced legend in the Owens family but now her story is told in Magic Lessons.
Maria Owens was abandoned as a baby in a snowy field in rural England in the 1600s. Raised by the local "healer" Hannah Owens, Maria learns many lesson and the "Nameless Arts". Hannah is wise and loves Maria as her own. She knows that Maria is blessed with other abilities that could be used in the wrong way which Maria is reminded on many times throughout her childhood.
Hannah's most important lesson is one that all of the Owens clan come to recognize as the lesson they don't always adhere or listen to which is, "Always love someone who will love you back."
Maria's story takes her from rural England to indentured servitude in Curacao to Salem, Massachusetts which is not necessarily the place to be for a woman like Maria in the 1600s.
But it is if you are in search of the man you loved that left you with a young baby to raise all alone. Maria and baby Faith's journey is filled with peril and betrayal. But the journey is also filled with joy and love.
Hoffman's story of Maria and Faith is one of true magic and love. It is one of learning and overcoming the darkness that exists in the hearts and minds of people who are prejudiced and judgemental.
Alice Hoffman is a brilliant writer and her books are one that should be savored for the beautiful language and story-telling.
Roy T. Bennett once said, "Believe in your heart that you're meant to live a life full of passion, purpose, magic and miracles." Alice Hoffman, I believe, follows this doctrine. Magic Lessons is a thought-provoking tale that was written by the passionate, purposeful, magical, and miraculous writer Alice Hoffman.
I received an advance copy from NetGalley. #NetGalley #MagicLessons

The movie adaptation of Alice Hoffman's Practical Magic was released in 1998 and it's become one of those movies that I will watch any time I come across it playing on t.v. I have yet to pick up that book; why I don't know. But when Hoffman released the prequel, The Rules of Magic, I was quick to grab that up (my review here) and I was charmed. So, of course, it stood to reason that it was a given that I would read this book, which is a prequel to a prequel. If you've never read any of the books, you might as well start with this one and work your way from 1664 to the 1990's, rather than as they books were written.

When I wrote my review of The Rules of Magic, I noted that even though the book was about witches and curses it felt much more like a book about families than about magic. This book feels more centered around magic, largely because it is set just after the witch hunts in Europe and during the witch hunts in the Americas. Still, at its heart, this is also a book family and even more about love. And while there is straight up magic in the story, much of what is considered by others in the book would be what we now consider homeopathic medicine - using what Mother Nature has given us to heal ourselves.

As with The Rules of Magic, this book can drag on too long in places and frequently felt repetitive (yes, yes, I get it Ms. Hoffman, familiars have to pick their people). And having read these book in reverse, I was struck by how the ending of this book didn't jive with an impression I got about the way the Owens women were perceived in the community in the later books.

Still, Hoffman pulled me into the story from the beginning, with Maria's life being upturned, to Curacao, where Maria first meets James Hathorn who will turn out not to be the man he appeared to be, to Salem then New York and back to Salem. We learn to listen to our inner voices (even if it takes Maria a good long while to do that), that revenge never bring happiness, that there are some bonds that can never be broken, and that you should always love someone who will love you back.

I am a firm believer that anything Alice Hoffman writes turns to magic. She has a true gift for storytelling and weaving the most incredible stories. This one will stay in my heart for a long time.

Alice Hoffman has created another wonderful book. The story has many life lessons, a collection of amazing characters and family connections. I look forward reading the rest of the series.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

Good book but felt more rushed than other Alice Hoffman books that I had previously read. I really like the exploration of Maria Owens and getting to hear the story of the first "Owens" woman in the new world, but I felt that the character wasn't as descriptive as the sisters in Practical Magic.