The Book of Magic by Alice Hoffman is the conclusion to the Practical Magic world.
The Owens family has been cursed in love for over three-hundred years. Doomed to lose whoever dares love an Owens girl, the women have been forced to love in secret or not at all. But all of that is about to change.
The journey to break the curse starts with the sound of a death watch beetle and one Owens will not live to see the curse broken. With love on the line, will family and the hope for a future full of love be enough to keep dark magic at bay, or will the curse win out as the Owens girls disregard the rules of magic once and for all?
This was a fitting conclusion to Practical Magic and the prequel Rules of Magic--Note: I never actually read the prequel-prequel Lessons in Magic. Three generations of Owens' come together to fight for one another in this conclusion to the series. Each character in the novel is back, Franny, Jet, Sally and all the rest; even grown up versions of Sally's girls. They all have a part to play in breaking Maria Owens' curse. And it was nice to see them all.
I don't know that I was overly wowed by the book but it was a nice read with a fairly happy ending. A few plot lines, I would have liked a little more from but it all worked in the end. I have to say, Hoffman is obviously is love with the power of books and being a librarian, I appreciate that. She makes many, many comments on libraries and reading and the power books have over our lives and what they can do for people. This isn't so much as a critic but a something I noticed while reading and just felt like commenting on.
Many will like this book. It'll be just what they were looking for to wrap up a beloved world. But I can see some people feeling like the book was missing something too. This one gets 3.5-4 stars from me.
That's all for now!
-M-
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