The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman
My rating: 5/5 Stars
Primary Genre: Fantasy/Magical Realism
Blurb: Find your magic. For the Owens family, love is a curse that began in 1620, when Maria Owens was charged with witchery for loving the wrong man. Hundreds of years later, in New York City at the cusp of the sixties, when the whole world is about to change, Susanna Owens knows that her three children are dangerously unique. Difficult Franny, with skin as pale as milk and blood red hair, shy and beautiful Jet, who can read other people’s thoughts, and charismatic Vincent, who began looking for trouble on the day he could walk. From the start Susanna sets down rules for her children: No walking in the moonlight, no red shoes, no wearing black, no cats, no crows, no candles, no books about magic. And most importantly, never, ever, fall in love. But when her children visit their Aunt Isabelle, in the small Massachusetts town where the Owens family has been blamed for everything that has ever gone wrong, they uncover family secrets and begin to understand the truth of who they are. Back in New York City each begins a risky journey as they try to escape the family curse. The Owens children cannot escape love even if they try, just as they cannot escape the pains of the human heart. The two beautiful sisters will grow up to be the revered, and sometimes feared, aunts in Practical Magic, while Vincent, their beloved brother, will leave an unexpected legacy.
My Thoughts:
I dug right into this book, which explores the life story of "The Aunts" in the Practical Magic movie. It feels like an exceptional prequel, exactly what you'd like. Familiar but not too familiar. I loved the element of the brother, a male Owens, which is the first I've heard of it so far. His storyline is incredible and heartbreaking. Honestly, all of the Owens stories in this book are shrouded in tragedy but it feels less heavy than Magic Lessons. There's so many great love stories and not all romantic but also love stories of friendship and family. Not to say that this is a better book by any means, it just spoke to me more so than Magic Lessons. Perhaps it's the fact that it's simply in a more current era it's mostly spanning the 50's throught the 70's. Either way, the theme remains the same, love and it's power. There's no less witchy things, no lack of familiars, spells or even a dabble of dark magic here. A great read, I highly recommend. As much as I'd like to finally dive right in to Practical Magic like, right now, I still need to finish "Back In A Spell" and I'm going to make myself do that before I dive any further into this series. Fall is in FULL effect in this house, my husband is pretty sure that I'm an aspiring witch at this point 😂 Stacks of witchy books everywhere. I'm a fast reader though and I'm hoping I don't run out. Drop your favorite witchy fall reads in the comments so I can add it to my TBR 👇
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