An instant New York Times bestseller and Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick from beloved author Alice Hoffman—the spellbinding prequel to Practical Magic.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 … 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. Yet, the 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 memorable aunts in Practical Magic, while Vincent, their beloved brother, will leave an unexpected legacy.
Alice Hoffman delivers “fairy-tale promise with real-life struggle” (The New York Times Book Review) in a story how the only remedy for being human is to be true to yourself. Thrilling and exquisite, real and fantastical, The Rules of Magic is “irresistible…the kind of book you race through, then pause at the last forty pages, savoring your final moments with the characters” (USA TODAY, 4/4 stars).
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Too much magic and witches for me.
A return of some of my favorite characters
Extremely well written. Well developed characters.
Fun easy read. If you saw the movie, Practical Magic then this is a must read. Enjoyed the prelude to the movie.
Alice Hoffman never disappoints. Rules of magic will take you into your interior self and have you questioning the rules your life and loves are built on…what are your rules of magic, your curses and blessings, your secrets in the family tree?
I found this book wonderfully entertaining, looking forward to reading it every evening. The characters were off-beat and quirky. I will definitely be reading the next book by this author.
I fell in love with this book. Loved, cried and hated through out the story but couldn’t put it down!!! Of course I have to read anything she writes I’m hooked
DULL, odd, scatterbrained stories all over the place; about as emotionally dead as you can get. People dying and beloved pets dying and it’s a one sentence/paragraph afterthought as if it’s just ‘whatever’, move on to the next paragraph and story. Didn’t even make sense; one minute the townspeople are applauding the main character and the next minute they’re still refusing to ‘go thru the gate’. huh? Boring, emotionally detached characters that made it impossible to feel any type of connection to them, I could have cared less what happened to any of them, anymore than they cared about what was going on with anyone around them. It felt like the author was trying to get too many storiesinto a smaller amount of pages with no real flow to making a powerful story and characters: like one of those tv series that just has one story after another that just keeps the characters but they don’t actually have a story line that ties in well to the next show. If it were a book and not an ebook I’d just throw it away.
Entertaining prequel to Practical magic.
Kinda depressing
I loved the book, and the flow of ideas and narravtive stuck with me day by day as I read. I t was memorable.
Wonderful characters. I loved the family of women and the unique story.
I love Practical Magic and this book was a delightful treat! I would love MORE stories about this family.
What a great story! The characters were developed beautifully and the storyline was unique. there was great closure at the ending for them.
I do like the bit of magic in Alice Hoffman’s books. The three main characters and their aunt were very interesting and there were lots of twists and turns in their lives. I enjoyed the whole story
Very compelling, sad in places, a definite must-read.
I loved this book. I went to buy Practical Magic but it isn’t an ebook. Alas.
This is a great book If you ever read Practical Magic this is a must-read. It really feels you in with a lot of the background on the family if you have a tender heart it will bring tears to your eyes. Not even Magic can you save a family from life’s heartaches.
Alice Hoffman can always make magic real in her books. The characters are not overdrawn and the reader is drawn to them..
Magical as are all of Alice Hoffman’s works