Well, blow me down if another one of my favourite films actually turns out to have been based on a book. I went through this not so long ago with Fight Club and now I am reliving the emotions with Practical Magic. This is the not the book of the film though, it's the prequel, which I am choosing to read before the first in series and tells the story of the Aunts who you will be familiar with if you've read/seen Practical Magic.
Although I haven't read the book so I can't comment on how true to it the film was, this prequel does stay true to what I remember from the film version. We are introduced to Franny, Jet and Vincent Owens. Currently living in New York, they are summoned to Massachusetts to visit with Aunt Isabelle. This visit opens up a whole new world for them as their mother Susanna had previously tried to shelter and protect them from their Owens heritage. A futile task as it turns out as the magic is strong within the family. But they also learn of the curse and when they return to New York after their holiday, it is with this in mind as they return to their lives. Extrinsically linked to love, the curse threatens each of the Owens children in different ways as they battle to try and stay one step ahead and lead a normal life. This books follows their journeys over several years through loves and losses, pleasure and pain, connections and disconnections, leading up eventually to where Practical Magic itself begins.
Oh this was just as delightful a book to me as the film was. I am not the biggest fan of this genre and the only reason I tried this book was because of what it was but I have to say that if this is a typical example of the genre, boy am I missing out. I loved every single word of this book. Every mini story contained within the main one. Every emotion shared with the wonderful characters contained within its pages. Every tear shed, every laugh laughed, every loss mourned It had me totally and completely under its spell. Bewitched even!
The writing was so descriptive that I was easily able to watch the action being played out in my minds eye as I was reading. This surprised me as I am not usually a very visual reader. Now this could have more to do with the fact that I equate these characters with the media of film more than the written word but I'd like to think the author's style of writing had more to do with it.
The characters were all just wonderful. I connected to each and every one of them so easily and, as the end of the book approached, I had even considered them to be friends. Ones that I would definitely miss after I turned the last page. To say that I enjoyed every second whilst in their company would be a definite understatement. Each of the three main characters were so similar and yet so different. They complemented each other very well and each brought something different to the table, especially Vincent. I did have a big soft spot for him.
Obviously with a book such as this, set in the time that it was, there is bound to be some parallels with real history and we get that here too; the Vietnam war being one such example, as is the attitude to certain ways of life. But as this book wound to its close and I sat back and thought about what I had just read it occurred to me how much of a transition this book had taken me on during its journey. How so many of the characters had matured and developed within its pages. It's definitely a book that will stay with me for a fair while. It has also prompted me to add Practical Magic to my tbr. I think I really need to read this book too.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

I love Alice Hoffman books but have yet to read Practical Magic, it must have slipped under the radar! However, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, Alice has the magical touch when writing, she draws the reader into the story and plays with their emotions.
The story tells of the love curse placed upon a witch generations ago has affected her descendants; it tells of family feuds and bitterness; it tells of forbidden love and how it might be possible to beat the curse.
Siblings Frances, Bridget and Vincent are brought up to stay away from anything magical but the pull of magic is too strong and one sibling in particular is drawn deeper towards the dark magic. The siblings try to outwit the love curse in order to find contentment and happiness but instead they find that "the only remedy for love is to love more".

This is a prequel to Hoffman’s bestselling book, Practical Magic (published in 1995). I haven’t actually read that, but do have a vague recollection of seeing the Nicole Kidman / Sandra Bullock film back in the day, so this book felt vaguely familiar.

I have to say straight off that, for me, there were just too many narrative flaws to make this a truly enjoyable read. The story focuses on the lives of sisters Francis (known as Franny) and Bridget (known as Jet) and their brother Vincent Owens, from when they are children to adults. They come from a long line of Boston-based Owenses, who are all witches and wizards. When we meet the siblings, their mother, Susanna, has decided not to tell them about their ancestry, AND YET, when a mysterious Aunt Isabelle writes to 17-year old Franny saying she has reached the age to come and learn all about her heritage, Susanna lets her go – with her younger siblings – to discover all. Why did Susanna try so hard to hide their heritage from them for all these years then?

Also, the main plot focuses on a ‘love curse’ that plagues all women in the Owens family – any person they fall in love with will be met with an untimely end… to say this love curse is inconsistent would be an understatement. It is a curse that apparently you can trick by just thinking, ‘I’m not in love’, when in fact you clearly are. Yet boys with crushes pay a very harsh price for their unrequited love that doesn’t lead to a relationship. The curse is apparently very flexible and it was this ‘make-up-the-rules-as-you-go-along’ feel that I found frustrating and gave this part of the story no authority.

I don’t want to be completely negative, as this wasn’t a terrible read by any means, for example I enjoyed the elements of magic, rituals and spells woven throughout, and the concept of witches and wizards living in our world is always going to spark my interest. There were a few unexpected little twists in there but, interestingly, throughout this book, I felt very similar to when I read The Museum of Extraordinary Things, also by Hoffman. About that I said, “I found myself puzzled. In theory, it was exactly the sort of story I like to read and all the elements seemed to be there. I just didn’t finish and think, “I need to tell someone about this” and I can’t quite work out why.” Yep, same thing here. So, I’ve come to the conclusion that although a pleasant enough read, Hoffman is perhaps not the author for me.

The Rules of Magic is the story of those wonderful Aunts from Practical Magic, y'know, those Aunts we all wish we had, those that advocate eating chocolate cake for breakfast and encourage you to stay up as late as you like. The rules are different because when you are a witch the rules are the Rules of Magic.

We are transported back to when Franny and Bridget (Jet) (the Aunts) are young and follow them through their and their brother Vincent's lives. We are with them through tragedy and trauma, we are with them as they discover love (even though the Owen's curse means they mustn't) and somewhere along the way we learn something of the Rules of Magic.

A tremendous read, in order to remain in this world a bit longer my other books have been set aside, that's how much I don't want to let this family go. We can term the Rules of Magic the missing link, it answers all those questions (some you didn't even know you had) post Practical Magic. Alice Hoffman has once more delivered a wonderfully uplifting novel full of magic, wonder and oozing charm.

A big fat thank-you to Netgalley for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Why do I love this book so much? Because I just love all things Alice Hoffman. She's never lets me down. This is my new favorite Alice Hoffman book. Just loved it.

The film version of Practical Magic is very special to me. Like Sally and Gillian, I grew up with one sister - one of us dark haired, one of us light. One of us sensible, the other a dreamer. Both of us in love with love and magic. Sadly, unlike the girls, we never discovered powers (not for the want of trying, that late 90s witchcraft phase was no joke, I think we even tried to bind someone once).

It was only a few years later that I realised the film was based on a book, and so it served as my introduction to Alice Hoffman. I liked the book, but for me it lacked the sparkle that the film had. It lacked, if you want to be cheesy, the magic.

This is the long awaited prequel to Practical Magic - and the magic is back. With a bang.

This is just dreamy. It's a gorgeous book. It's everything I wanted from Practical Magic and then some.

The Owens women are cursed. Any man who falls in love with an Owens woman is doomed. They have their own strategies for dealing with this - some choose to keep lovers at arms length, others choose to enjoy it while it lasts. This book is about Frances, Jet, and their brother Vincent. Fans of the first book will know that Frances and Jet are Sally and Gillian's Aunts, but here they're teenagers, wild and full of promise. This book follows them through their loves and losses, along with their beautiful brother Vincent and how the curse affects him.

I read it in one sitting - I couldn't let it go. It was like a warm, magical hug. I absolutely adored it.

This is the story of three siblings, borne of Susannah Owens - Franny, Jet and Vincent, who finally discover who they are when they visit their Aunt Isabelle on Magnolia Street, Massachusetts.


Vincent takes a glimpse into the black mirror at his Aunts house one young summer and can see his future. It makes him a difficult child, with a charm so strong it makes him irresistible. He loathes himself and his family, he explores dark magic through The Magus, and even though he knows the rules of magic and therefore the consequences, he doesn't care. His fate is sealed. Even the adoration of their cousin April cannot lift his spirits. The girls discover what love can do to them very early in life and vow to not love again. But Jet [Bridget] can't help herself and is drawn to Levi Willard who the Owens family are already inextricably linked to by their entwined histories. Franny, the responsible one, the studious girl who is meant to go off to Harvard is loved by her best friend Haylin. He knows everything about her except that she can never sink in water, she can only float. This one fact stays with them as they grow older denying them trust and affection, until it's almost too late.

Rich and full with spells and sorcery, with a growing awareness of what they are, the three siblings show the reader all their powers of mayhem and magic in a coming of age tale. Lavished with the secret of the Owens curse and sprinkled with the history of witches, a feast of words conjuring colourful imagery bring to life beauty and spectre in this prequel. Sometimes dark and visceral, but also exploring the meaning of love, this story will grab your imagination and draw you in.


If you've ever wondered what happened before two very young girls named Sally and Gillian moved to Magnolia Street, or who Aunt Frances and Aunt Bridget were before they left the porch light on after dusk, read The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman published by Simon and Schuster on 2nd November 2017 @simonschusterUK #RulesofMagic

Themes: true love, homosexuality, humanity, prejudice, being true to yourself, the sixties, war, self-esteem, trust, friendship, family ties that bind us, expectations, a touch of regret

This is the first book that I have read by this popular author and unfortunately I didn't like it as much as I thought I would. It's well written with a cohesive story line but just didn't hit the spot with me.

A prequel to the book, Practical Magic. Having not yet read that book, I went in without knowing the characters or where the story might go.

The Owens children, Franny, Jet and Vincent, are 'unusual' and are given specific rules to help them avoid situations where they might do magical things. No walking in moonlight, red shoes, cats, crows, books on magic and definitely never fall in love.

I found the style quick, clipped and very fast moving through the early part of the book as a lot of background information was explained. The one thing I really didn't like is that there are no chapters! I know Pratchett gets away with this but for me, it makes it difficult to set daily reading goals. It took longer to read this one as a result. The book is divided up into six parts, but I didn't feel that those separations made much of a difference to the overall flow.

I think the lack of chapters was a factor in me starting to lose interest early on, though mainly I just didn't connect with any of the characters. I found their cousin April to be particularly irritating. Everything just seems to ramble on endlessly moving from one scene to another without any plot demarcations to stand out and make a point. The issue of falling in love went through a predictable development in true fairytale form, but the emphasis on restrictions along the way felt overdone.

The writing itself was good and I expect fans of Practical Magic will enjoy this a lot more than I did. It just didn't grip me and I expect that already having a connection to the characters from the other story would make the difference.

With thanks to Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read this book, though I regret requesting it via NetGalley and perhaps taking a copy away from someone who would have loved it, as I see from other reviews that many people did. A few years ago I read one of Alice Hoffman’s novels ‘The Third Angel’ and remember enjoying it, so had high hopes for this. It turned out not to my taste, though I enjoyed the second half rather more than the first. The first half seemed to me a long process of scene setting, leaping from one short episode to another, and I began to wonder where it was all leading. The real action didn’t kick in until midway, but I still hadn’t engaged with the characters and was not much interested in the outcome for them. Perhaps because I knew it was a prequel to ‘Practical Magic’ (I haven’t seen the movie or read the book), I found myself thinking throughout that it read like a film synopsis, ready to be padded out on screen. A shame, but not one for me.

The Rules of Magic is a prequel to Practical Magic, I’ve never read Practical Magic although I’ve watched the film and loved it. When I started reading The Rules of Magic I wanted to skip through until I found some action. The novel is written in the past tense and often it reads like a report rather than a narrative- you are told about something happening rather than witnessing it unfolding on the page. (Please note that there are just my opinions and everyone is different, so please read this novel yourself to see what you think.)

However, Alice Hoffman is a good storyteller and tells the story of three siblings who are learning about themselves and the magic that’s in their blood. It’s a sad and melancholy story. It’s not a fast paced tale but more of a slow burn. We are taken through the lives of Jet, Franny and Vincent and introduced to the magic of herbs and spells. The characters are very real and I enjoyed reading about them and learning more about their world, the story really is about them it’s not about magic or witchcraft.

It doesn’t seem to have any conflict/problem that stands out, although there is a curse that needs to be broken which is given some thought. But having seen Practical Magic I know the curse won’t be broken so knowing the outcome I can’t get too involved in the conflict, in this way it feels like a prequel rather than a story you could read on it’s merit - things that are resolved in Practical Magic can’t be resolved in this novel. The history of the Owens’ and their ancestry is different to the film which isn’t a bad thing, I think I’d have to read Practical Magic to better understand how these books fit together, especially with regard to the curse and the family history before I can really form an opinion.

I have mixed opinions of the style of this book sometimes the past tense report-like narrative frustrated me. But then the description of the places made me feel like I was actually there. There is no dominating conflict or problem, but maybe it’s not meant to, it’s a good story of three very real characters, whose lives I was drawn into. There are tense scenes and mystery told at it’s own time and pace, in keeping with the feel of the novel. In making me care about the characters and making me feel sad Alice Hoffman has done her job as a novelist.

I will definitely read Practical Magic. The Rules of Magic is a sad but enchanting story and it has stayed with me after I’ve finished reading.

This is a prequel to Practical Magic but it is not imperative that you have read Practical Magic.
This book immediately pulled me in. I couldn't put it down!.
f you love magical realism...if you love Alice Hoffman's writing...even if you have only watched the movie...you MUST give this a try. It's such a beautiful story of love, devotion and the strength of family ties.
You also learn more about Maria Owens and the origin of the curse. That book centered on Sally and Gillian. Here, we have the story of Jet and Frances when they were the younger generation, full of longing and fears. There is the dreaded curse that threatens doom to any man who loves an Owens woman, but these are woman who deserve to be loved and would want to be loved, if only it weren’t for that darned curse

This prequel to the novel Practical Magic is about three siblings, Franny, Jet (Bridget), and Vincent, who, when the novel begins, are three teenagers ostracized by their peers and the neighbors because they are witches. Worse to them, they battle under the constraints of a curse started hundreds of years earlier.

What I found fun about this book are all the life adages shared, often by their Aunt Isabelle. Also, viewing history through the lens of a witch. For example, the drop in sales of a certain herb once the birth control pill is legalized. The Stonewall Riots, the Viet Nam war, etc.

I did not love the writing style, though. I felt like parts of it were being reported to me instead of feeling like I was seeing things from the various character’s point of view. Also, it took me a while to feel like the story was really starting.

But who doesn’t want to believe in a little magic sometimes? This is available for sale on October 10.
Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book.

A beautiful, romantic prequel to the wonderful Practical Magic. The Rules of Magic tells the story of the aunts from Practical Magic from their childhood to the arrival of two young nieces. Magical and heartbreaking in equal measures, fans of the book and the movie of Practical Magic will not be disappointed.