Shy and beautiful Jet can read people’s thoughts. Franny, the eldest, with blood red hair, dreams of flight. In New York City on the cusp of the sixties, Susanna Owens knows that her three children are dangerously unique. The Rules of Magic takes us inside the lives of Frances and Jet Owens before their nieces, Sally and Gillian, came along. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book.įrom the New York Times bestselling author of Faithful, The Marriage of Opposites, and The Dovekeepers comes the highly anticipated prequel of Practical Magic. The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. This reading group guide for The Rules of Magic includes an introduction, discussion questions, ideas for enhancing your book club, and a Q&A with author Alice Hoffman. 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). 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.Īlice 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. Yet, the children cannot escape love even if they try, just as they cannot escape the pains of the human heart.

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. And most importantly, never, ever, fall in love. 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.įrom 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. Hundreds of years later, in New York City at the cusp of the sixties, when the whole world is about to change, Susanna Owens knows that her three children are dangerously unique.

An instant New York Times bestseller and Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick from beloved author Alice Hoffman-the spellbinding prequel to Practical Magic.įor the Owens family, love is a curse that began in 1620, when Maria Owens was charged with witchery for loving the wrong man.

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