The Rules of Magic

By Alice Hoffman

Everyone needs a little magic in their lives... The Rules of Magic is the long-awaited prequel to Practical Magic, and a New York Times bestseller and Reese Witherspoon's Book Club pick!

In this sparkling prequel we meet the Aunts from Practical Magic, sisters Frances and Jet and Vincent, their brother. From the beginning their mother Susanna knew they were unique: Franny with her skin as pale as milk and blood red hair, who could commune with birds; Jet as shy as she is beautiful, who knows what others are thinking, and Vincent so charismatic that he was built for trouble. Susanna needed to set some rules of magic: no walking in the moonlight, no red shoes, no wearing black, no cats, no crows, no candles and certainly, absolutely, no books about magic…
 
But the Owens siblings are desperate to uncover who they really are. Each heads down a life-altering course, filled with secrets and truths, devastation and joy, and magic and love. Despite the warning handed down through the family for centuries – Know that for our family, love is a curse – they will all strive to break the rules and find true love.

***A perfect read for crisp autumn nights!***

Praise for The Rules of Magic:

‘The combination of magic with the universal themes of romantic love and the bond between siblings allows the reader to have one foot in a magical world and another in the realities of family life. Much like the bewitching heroines in this book.’ – The Lady

‘Utterly spellbinding’ - Heat

‘Shows the author at their best… She neatly intertwines their lives with a backdrop that brims with periodic detail. Gnomic maxims add to a wise, seductive, fabular tone… Thrilling and transportive’ – Sunday Times
 
‘Enchanting… Spellbinding and entertaining’ – Sunday Express

‘Hoffman explores Aunt Frances and Aunt Bridget’s (known here as Jet) awakening to the craft in the 1960s. Franny and Jet, along with their brother Vincent, stay with their Aunt Isabelle. Each of their gifts grow, but can they use them to break the family curse? The Rules of Magic is a gentle tale, perfect as the nights draw in' – Press Association
 
‘As efficient a slice of escapism as you would expect from Hoffman… Hoffman’s skill is to ground her light-as-a-feather tale in a very specific time and place: Manhattan in the Sixties. Wisely, she doesn’t rely on the momentous times to do too much work, but the heady atmospherics are expertly interwoven’ – Daily Mail
 
‘A bewitching, hard to put down tale of the consequences of magic, love and family’ - Bookbag

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Release date: Oct 10, 2017
• ISBN: 9781471157691

Alice Hoffman

Alice Hoffman is the author of more than thirty works of fiction, including The Book of Magic, Magic Lessons, The World That We Knew, Practical Magic, The Rules of Magic (a Reese Witherspoon Book Club Pick), the Oprah’s Book Club Selection Here on Earth, The Red Garden, The Dovekeepers, The Museum of Extraordinary Things, The Marriage of Opposites, and Faithful. She lives near Boston.

Reviews for The Rules of Magic

[jonimfisher · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The enchanting story of a family legacy and how each person fights against it. This is a prequel to Practical Magic, which was made into a movie. The Owens family curse is revealed from its beginning. Hoffman weaves magic realism into a seamless creation. Haunting. Eloquent.

[nancyadair-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I will admit, I have not read Alice Hoffman's Practical Magic, and I am not a fan of books or television series about witches. Except for Bewitched, which I loved, but I was eleven years old then. Consequently, I did not know what to expect when the publisher offered me The Rules of Magic based on my having read the author's previous historical novel The Marriage of Opposites, imagining the marriage of the artist Camille Pissarro's parents. Based on the last mentioned book alone, I have collected quite a few Hoffman books now languishing on my TBR shelves!What happened was unexpected, for I was instantly in love with Hoffman's language and The Rules of Magic characters. Although the novel is about three teenagers struggling with the powers and limitations of having magical abilities, it is really about universal themes: the power of love, and how we must love regardless of the costs, and that we must embrace who we are. Franny, Jet, and Vincent are complex characters burdened with the knowledge that they are cursed to bring destruction to the men they love. As they grew up, their parents tried to protect them from self-knowledge, but they recognized they were not like other children. "It's for your own good," her mother told Franny. "Wha makes you think that's what I want?" Franny counters."What is meant to be is bound to happen," and in 1960 the children's lives change when they visit their Aunt Isabella, a contact that "inflame[s] characteristics" which were "currently dormant." And over the summer each child learns their genealogy, their abilities, and about the curse and joy of love.The book was a joy to read, lovely and moving. I felt a deep connection to the characters.The Rules of Magic is a prequel to Practical Magic, telling the backstory of Frances and Jet who accept their brother's granddaughter into their home. I found I did not need to know the previous book to understand and enjoy this one; it stands on its own, and without any tedious linkage to the other book.I received a free ebook from the publisher in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

[lilibrarian · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Love is a curse in the Owens family. Vincent, Franny and Jet were taught by their mother to always follow a very particular set of rules. After visiting their aunt for the summer, they know there is a curse on their family - that loving sentences the ones they love to death.

[lynnb_64 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Seems like my book clubs keep choosing books on magical realism, of which I am generally not a fan. In spite of that, I succumbedto the tyranny of the book club to read not one, but two Alice Hoffman novels this year (so far). And I like them both. The Rules of Magic is a story about three siblings: Franny, Bidget (Jet) and Vincent who are witches. But they are also real people, with hopes and fears and relationships. I think I'd describe this novel more as realistic magic rather than magical realism. Great character development and a good story, too.

[sheiladeeth_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Although this is a prequel, I read this novel after reading Practical Magic, and I think it works great that way. It’s the sort of novel where knowing something of the ending won’t hurt the beginning at all, as times and fortunes intertwine.Three children of the sixties—a perfect time for magic—have grown up under curious rules, and know they must never fall in love. But love—especially in the sixties—has a way of working around the rules, and around reality.The Rules of Magic is a wonderful, absorbing tale of relationships, dreams and hopes, a tale of its times, and a tale for all times. It’s a haunting story with hauntingly real characters, that curious touch of otherworldliness, and evocative, sensual delights of time, place, plant and memory—the sort of book you really can’t put down. And it’s a search for love… which perhaps is the strongest of magics.Disclosure: I got it for Christmas and I love it.

[quondame · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a thorn bush of a book, it's spiky prose often impeding smooth passage through the pages. But I must have become attached to Jet, Franny and even the too charming Vincent to have kept going, at the point of tears almost all the way through. Of all the versions of of the trope of witches not being able to love, this is quite the most touching and real feeling.

[carlathelibrarian · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Rules of Magic is the prequel to Alice Hoffman's Practical Magic series. The story takes place in the 1960s with all that is going on at that time. Susanna Owens is raising her three difficult children, Frances (Franny), Bridget (Jet) and Vincent, in Manhattan. She has rules that she hopes will keep them from practising Magic, such as: No walking in the moonlight; no red shoes; no wearing black; no cats; no crows; no candles; no books about magic. The hardest rule to enforce is to never fall in love. There is a curse on the family that if they fall in love, something will happen to the person they love.

One summer, Aunt Isabelle requests that the children come to the family home in Massachusetts and she begins to show them who they really are. During this summer, Vincent runs amok and has sex with many girls, but there is no love involved. Both Franny and Jet, fall in love and worry for years following what the curse may do. I love the quote in the book from Henry David Thoreau, "There is no remedy for love but to love more."

I really enjoyed meeting the Owens siblings. Each of them had issues to deal with, being ostracized at school and in the neighbourhood, trying to live under their mother's rules, and falling in love but being afraid of what might happen. Franny is so strong and takes her sibs under her wings when they are orphaned. Vincent is so troubled. He does not know where he fits in the world. Jet who loses the love of her life, has to make decisions that will affect the rest of her life. Think 'coming of age' story with magical realism. Now, I want to read the rest of this series.

[bookworm12_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It's been 15 years since I read Practical Magic, but I was curious to learn more about the Owens family. This book focuses on Franny and Jet, the aunts who care for the main characters in Practical Magic. We start with their teenage years in NYC where they are raised with their brother Vincent. The book was captivating with great character growth woven into a dramatic plot. Tragedy marks the lives of the talented Owens family, but it's their connections to others that are the most fascinating. “When you truly love someone and they love you in return, you ruin your lives together. That is not a curse, it’s what life is." “Life is a mystery, and it should be so, for the sorrow that accompanies being human and the choices one will have to make are a burden."

[justagirlwithabook · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I absolutely loved this book. I had read Practical Magic a handful of months before, and I enjoyed it well enough. This book, the prequel to Practical Magic, was even better, although my love for it might have also been impacted by my reading in at the very start of summer, when everything described in that book is what I have been feeling and can easily imagine. I loved all the descriptions of the places, characters, and events (and especially the little lines of "witch-related" descriptions - things to brew, who for, etc.). This book was really a magical book especially to read in the beginning of the summer season.

[karenherndon · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Wonderful, fun little quick read story filled with magic and love.Another great read by Alice Hoffman- she hasn’t disappointed me yet!

[bereanna · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Bordering on fantasy, this almost realistic magic about a family ofwitches with a love curse is not my cuppa tea. The siblings don’t want to fall in love lest their true love die an untimely death.

[tamidale · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed Practical Magic years ago, so I was excited to read the prequel, The Rules of Magic. It’s wonderful as a stand alone, but having seen the movie Practical Magic, I had a vision of the family home in Massachusetts and how the relatives might look and dress.In The Rules of Magic, readers are introduced to Franny, Jet and Vincent Owens. The three siblings are close in age and all share special gifts, such as reading people’s thoughts and being unable to sink in water. They descend from a long line of Owens witches and are avoided by most people in the community.This is more or less a coming of age story of the siblings, but it also follows them into their adult lives as they discover who they are and the importance of being true to themselves.This is a wonderful October/Halloween read with witches and curses that are presented in a light-hearted way. After I finished reading, I had an overwhelming urge to watch Practical Magic--again!I would like to thank NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for allowing me to read an advance copy and give my honest review.

[rainpebble_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman; (4 1/2*)This novel of several generations of magically 'gifted' women pulled me right in and enraptured me. While I loved Franny & Jet, the main characters, I found the secondary characters were at least as interesting and in some cases even more so. Cases in point, the old caretaker of their aunt's house, the Reverend who was so at odds with Jet in the beginning and whose heart changed over the span of the novel, the aunt.....oh yes, the aunt, the very fascinating brother, Vincent, and even the animals.I simply love Alice Hoffman. She is my favorite contemporary author. I love how she grows her characters and I find her masterful at both the novel and the short story. I hope she continues to write for a very long time.

[stevealtier · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The story was not what I expected. I was hoping for more magic and which craft, I guess. Overall an excellent story and I enjoyed Alice Hoffman's writing style. I look forward to reading Practical Magic, the first book in the series.

[thebentley · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I thought this one was better than "Practical Magic," which is really saying something. Hoffman is a lovely stylist, and, aside from being a very good addition to the Owens' story, this is a beautiful book in its own right.

[jreynolds1959 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An absolutely bewitching novel! I have not read Practical Magic, and will now probably do so. The book in enchanting and you absolutely fall in love with Franny, Jet and Vincent and all of the other characters in their lives.This book in so charming and draws you right in.

[pamv-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Let me start by saying that I did NOT read Practical Magic or see the movie. I will definitely be changing that, soon.

I loved this book! It made me laugh right out loud and then it made me cry like a baby. I loved the subtle and then not so subtle hints of magic throughout the book.

I recommend this to anyone and everyone that likes a book to be entertaining, depth of characters and just well written.

My thanks to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for this advanced readers copy.

[hippielunatic · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Themes of the fear and dangers of love, mixed with the rewards that come from diving in anyway, were a brilliant backdrop for the story of a lineage of powerful and magical women.Some lines were beautifully written, and made me pause to absorb them completely. However, there were other times where I felt bored with the writing and simply wanted the next act.Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the writing style was the lack of any sense of time I had about the character's lives on a day-to-day or seasonal basis. I found myself trying to calendar out the story a couple of times, wondering how much time had passed.As a testament to how your brain processes time when dealing with love and loss, I was able to appreciate this aspect of storytelling rather than getting frustrated by it.

[alphawoman_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I'm on a trip and grabbed this book having just started it. Ugh. Not my genre. Forcing myself to read it due to lack of other material. I'm sure people who love this type of story enjoyed it thoroughly.

[fhudnell-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

It is not necessary to read "Practical Magic" before reading this book. However, I did read it and that should have been a warning to me that "The Rules of Magic" wasn't going to be a good match for me. I don't like witches (and there was magic on almost every page) and I don't care for romance novels. I wasn't having a good time so I abandoned this book, but magic and whimsy lovers should enjoy it. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

[n.w.moors-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The prequel to Practical Magic is a wonderful story written with all the whimsy and loving choice of words that Alice Hoffman puts into all her books. Frannie, Jet, and Vincent Owens are siblings living in New York City in the 1960s. When Frannie turns age seventeen, they all go to the house in Massachusetts owned by their great-aunt Isabelle to receive their heritage as descended from a long line of witches. Here they learn of the family curse: any man who loves an Owens is doomed. The story concentrates on their younger lives but does follow through to their older years where Sally and Gillian from Practical Magic are introduced. It touches on people, songs, books, and events that were also a part of my own life. The Viet Nam War takes place with significant impact on the Owens family. As the Frannie and Jet age, the story also touches on women's independence (though the Owens girls have always been independent). I loved this quote:"Many of them began to wonder why they themselves often feigned opinions rather than speak their minds, no matter how clever they were, for fear they'd be thought of as difficult."And all through the story are touches of magic. There are spells and herbs, love potions and charms.The main thrust of the story is family and how people are tied together. The Owens siblings are always there for each other even when they disagree, and they're willing to care for the rest of their family.Practical Magic is such a great book that one wonders if a prequel could do it justice, but The Rules of Magic is just as excellent.

[bookczuk · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Practical Magic is one of my favorite books. How could I not like the prequel, which filled in some of those blanks? It's now almost 2 weeks out after finishing the book, and unfortunately I can't remember some of the finer points I wanted to indicate in my notes, but suffice it to say that though it didn't captivate me the way the first book did, I still liked it.

[beecharmer_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book just wasn't like her previous ones. Didn't flow and was ridiculous. Didn't even finish.

[dede1007 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I had a hard time getting interested in the book but once I did it was a good read. I am not always into "witch" or fantasy stories but this book was more that. It was a good read and I did not read Practical Magic first.

[c.archer · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is another wonderful read by Alice Hoffman. The story of the three Owens siblings is both realistic and fantastic, but it will leave you believing in possibilities. It has similar qualities to the Harry Potter series with children learning to live in a world where magic is both strange and normal. Much of the magic is both practical and helpful. The bigger part of the story though is the lives of the characters. Due to an old curse, no one in the Owens family is able to fall in love without causing harm to the one they love. This brings about all kinds of conflict and situational problems for the three young people. Much of the story is delightful and a joy to read, but this curse obviously brings many relational issues and sad developments to the book.This book is a prequel to "Practical Magic", but it does not seem necessary to have read or seen that movie to enjoy "The Rules of Magic". It is a magical and captivating story that will appeal to most readers.My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this title.

[syndelle777 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Okay. I'm going to try to be as nice as I possibly can. I am a huge fan of the movie Practical Magic of which this book is set to be a prequel of. Unfortunately when you write a prequel to such a big and beloved cult classic such as Practical Magic you're bound to run into fans like me who know the movie backwards and forwards and can pick out details that seem incorrect in your writing. There is one scene in the film in particular that I feel the author of this book did not pay much attention to. In the beginning of the film just after the two little girls go to stay and live with their aunts there is a scene where all four of them are sitting at a table outside having tea. During the scene Aunt Jet and Aunt Franny talk about Franny's poor Ethan and go back and forth arguing whether his death was an accident or not. There was an Ethan mentioned in the book however it was not a person who could ever have been a lover of Franny. Franny's main lover in the book (her seeming to be the protagonist of the book) was named Haylin and eventually died of cancer. This could not really be misconstrued as an accident. It is true that the author could be speaking of some other lover that happened between the book and the movie (a span of approximately 30 years) however the way that Haylin is spoken about in the book makes me wonder why he was not the lover spoken about in the film. Also included in that one scene in the film was when young Sally asks both of her aunts if their mother had died of a broken heart because their father had died from an accident and their mother had died fairly soon after their father had. This is not the way it happened in the book at all. In the book at describes their parents of having both died in a automobile accident together. the book also describes Sally & Gillian's mother (Regina) as having long black hair like her father with ashen gray eyes. in the movie however she has long blonde hair as pictured in one of the very first scenes of the film.I know that I'm nitpicking here, but I guess I wish that if someone decides to write a book based on a film that they would do their research correctly and have their written work reflect the film accurately and vice versa.On a completely different note the book was fun, light-hearted and entertaining and was all in all a great read. I don't mean to be petty in this review and I've only taking off one star for the things that I have picked apart. Readers of this review must understand that the film is very close to my heart. So I had to approach this book with caution. But I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who would want to read it. It was written very well and is very easy to read, easy to follow and easy to dive into. A great read! ???

[wagner5sarah35 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A fun read about a magical family and the curse they all must live with. I really enjoyed the first half of the book - as a group of siblings discovered their magical abilities and started to experiment with them. But after their parents suddenly died, this book got harder for me to get though (although not necessarily in a bad way). I made it through, and I did like the book's conclusion, wrapping up most of the storylines neatly while also opening the door to more.

[carole888fort · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Thank you to Simon & Schuster and Net Galley for providing me with an e-copy of The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman in exchange for an honest review. This book is the prequel to Practical Magic. Since the 1600s, the Owens family has been feared and mistrusted. In Massachusetts, one of the ancestors had been charged with loving the wrong man. In the 1950s, Susanna Owens, a descendant, moves to New York to raise her three children away from the Owens' reputation and away from the curse forbidding them from falling in love. It becomes obvious that Franny, Jet and Vincent cannot deny their heritage. From the beginning, the children exhibit signs of eccentricity and witchcraft. And as they grow older, they try everything to prevent falling in love. But it is not meant to be. The novel deals with each sibling avoiding love until their heart leads them to do the opposite and also deals with the consequences of the curse. The Rules of Magic is surreal and yet so real in many ways. It is a fairy tale for adults and I thoroughly enjoyed every word. Well written and captivating.

[john_warner-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Alice Hoffman's Practical Magic was the story how the two young Owens sisters, Gillian and Sally came to live with their elderly aunts, Franny and Jet. The Rules of Magic, published almost fifteen years after the first novel, is a sequel telling the story of the two aunts and their younger brother, Vincent, all witches growing up in the latter years of the 1950s. All were descendant from their original descendant, Maria Owens, who was the source of a family curse, which was that any witch who fell in love would doom whomever that was to an early death.When I pick up a novel that is either a sequel or prequel to an original, I do so with trepidation fearing that the second work will pale in comparison. I was please that this book was a worthy companion to Practical Magic, which was my entrance into this author and the magical realism genre. I rated each five stars. If you have not read Practical Magic, you will have no problem reading this novel first. In fact, if you have not read Practical Magic, you might find it more enjoyable to read The Rules of Magic first.

[melaniehope · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love reading anything by Alice Hoffman, so I was so excited to get an advance e-copy of this book. Once again, Alice Hoffman will not disappoint. I have not read Practical Magic yet. You do NOT have to read that book first to enjoy this prequel. Of course, now that I have finished this one, I cannot wait to read Practical Magic.This story takes place in 1960's NYC and also in Massachusetts. Franny, Jet and Vincent are all Owens children/teenagers which means they have the bloodline of witches in them. On Franny's seventeen birthday she is invited to her Aunt Isabelle's home in MA. Their mother has tried to keep them from learning about their heritage, but fate is not to be deterred. As the three Owens children learn about the curse that will destroy anyone they love, we journey through a beautifully atmospheric tale of love, loss and family. I highly recommend this book to everyone. I received an e-copy from Netgalley.com