Happy Fri-Yay!! It's a cold one today and it's #BlackFriday, and do you know what I purchased on such a huge retail heaven date? A bookcase. :-D I also picked up a kettle and a cosy roll neck jumper. I have my priorities don't I? Haha.
Anyway, today, I want to share with you what I've just finished reading, and it's a book I've been excited about it since the publishers at Simon & Schuster UK sent me a copy of it to review. It's a brand NEW book by Alice Hoffman ... Yes as in the Alice Hoffman who wrote Practical Magic that was made into one of my favourite movies of all time with Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman playing the leading roles of the Owens sisters. I absolutely adored that film but I always wondered what the entire family history was. And those aunts; Frances & Jet. Then there's the whole Midnight Margaritas - you can thank me later ;)
So what is it actually about?
Everyone needs a little magic in their lives... The Rules of Magic is the long-awaited prequel to Practical Magic, to date Alice Hoffman’s biggest selling novel and a major Hollywood film.
In this sparkling prequel we meet 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.
If you're a seasonal viewer/reader of Practical Magic then you'll know that the family have a curse, but no one really knew how this curse came about. In The Rules of Magic, we're taken on a journey right up until the moment the those two darling girls turn up on their Aunt's front porch, and throughout that journey glimpses of the origin of the curse is dropped like crumbs to lead Hansel and Gretel out of the forest.
What I wasn't expecting was the extent to how much my heart swelled and then broke through reading this book. It also left me with a hunger for more. That hunger is partly because we know the middle of the story, and now we know the start of the story - but what I want to know is what happens to Sally Owen's daughters after she find her man with "one green eye and one blue eye" in Practical Magic. Alice Hoffman has resurrected a much loved story of love, honour, curses and magic that we fell in love with through the reading of and our screens with the absolutely outstanding acting from Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock.
In The Rules of Magic we get to discover the darkness and heartbreak that surrounds the Owens family with especially poignant scenes from Jet's early childhood that had my heart breaking for the future that could have been for her. It warmed my heart just how true to herself and her feelings she was, and how much she honoured those feelings throughout her entire life.
Frances was always the "cold one" but, what Alice has down through the writing of The Rules of Magic is she's allowed us a glimpse into Frances mind and heart so we can see the reasons why she is in fact the way that she is, and to be perfectly honest I am shocked that she's not colder with everything she had to face as a child.
Vincent, Frances and Jet are truly remarkable characters, and ones whom I now adore even more than before which I didn't think was at all possible. I have a deeply profound respect for these three siblings, and that's because of the remarkable talent of Alice Hoffman who certainly knows how to write a bestseller. Each of them have gifts of 'sight' and the way in which these interplay with each other is beautiful. Each character is strong, independent and courageous with or without the special tea from their aunt whom we also get to meet.
Whilst the story is sprinkled with elements of magic, it is heavily blended with hidden love stories that in my opinion outweigh Romeo & Juliet. The love portrayed in The Rules of Magic is real, raw, pure, and undiluted. It's a love that's historically beautiful and recognisable.
The ending of this book came with a tidal wave of exciting secrets spilling out that made me gasp with glee and shock with the revelations of just how this beautiful story of love and pain filters down into the characters that we fell in love with in Practical Magic. It is absolutely no surprise that Reese Witherspoon picked this book up and made it her October Must Read in her book club, and I can only hope that she will pick up the rights of this book and work her feminine magic on producing a movie from this that will capture the talent and audience just as Practical Magic did.
I am undoubtedly awarding this book 5/5 and can only hope with eager anticipation that Alice and her publishers will consider a sequel to Practical Magic now, because I as I'm sure her readers will feel the same, would very much like to know what happens to the next generation of the Owens sisters.
You can purchase your copy of The Rules of Magic here
*Thank you Simon and Schuster UK for sending me a review copy of this amazing book, I have thoroughly enjoyed it*
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