Get your first book for just $5.

Join today!

We’ll make this quick.

First, enter your email. Then choose your move.

By pressing "Pick a book now" or "Pick a book later", you agree to Book of the Month’s Terms of use and Privacy policy.

Get your first book for just $5.

Join today!
undefined

You did it!

Your account is now up to date.

get the appget the app

Our app is where it’s at.

Unlock our Reading Challenge, earn prizes, and get notified of new books on our app.

Our app is where it’s at.

Unlock our Reading Challenge, earn prizes, and get notified of new books on our app.

get the ios appget the android app

Already have the app? Explore here.

get the ios appget the android app
The Book of Magic by Alice Hoffman

Fantasy

The Book of Magic

by Alice Hoffman

Excellent choice

Just enter your email to add this book to your box.

By pressing "Add to box", you agree to Book of the Month’s Terms of use and Privacy policy.

Quick take

The final installment in the "Practical Magic" series is a whirlwind journey of magic, curses, and familial love.

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, 400

    400+ pages

  • Illustrated icon, Family_Drama

    Family drama

  • Illustrated icon, Forbidden_Love

    Forbidden love

  • Illustrated icon, International

    International

Synopsis

The Owens family has been cursed in matters of love for over three-hundred years but all of that is about to change. The novel begins in a library, the best place for a story to be conjured, when beloved aunt Jet Owens hears the deathwatch beetle and knows she has only seven days to live. Jet is not the only one in danger—the curse is already at work.

A frantic attempt to save a young man’s life spurs three generations of the Owens women, and one long-lost brother, to use their unusual gifts to break the curse as they travel from Paris to London to the English countryside where their ancestor Maria Owens first practiced the Unnamed Art. The younger generation discovers secrets that have been hidden from them in matters of both magic and love by Sally, their fiercely protective mother. As Kylie Owens uncovers the truth about who she is and what her own dark powers are, her aunt Franny comes to understand that she is ready to sacrifice everything for her family, and Sally Owens realizes that she is willing to give up everything for love.

The Book of Magic is a breathtaking conclusion that celebrates mothers and daughters, sisters and brothers, and anyone who has ever been in love.

Free sample

Get an early look from the first pages of The Book of Magic.

The Book of Magic

I.

Some stories begin at the beginning and others begin at the end, but all the best stories begin in a library. It was there that Jet Owens saw her fate in a mirror behind the reference desk. Even in her eighties, Jet was still beautiful. Each day she washed with the black soap the family prepared in March during the dark phase of the moon, with every bar then wrapped in crinkly cellophane. Jet had no aches or pains and had never been ill a day in her life, but fate is fate and it can often be what you least expect it to be. On this day, when the daffodils had begun to bloom, Jet saw that she had seven days to live.

The deathwatch beetle had begun to call from within the walls of the Owens Library, a sound that often went unnoticed until it was so loud it was all a person could hear. When your time came, the black beetle would withdraw from hiding and follow you everywhere, no matter where you went. Its presence meant that the past was over and the future no longer existed. This was the moment that revealed how you had walked through the world, with kindness or with fear, with your heart open or closed. It had take this long for Jet to appreciate that every instant was a marvel. Now everything she saw was illuminated. The sun streaming through the library windows in fierce bands of orange light. A moth tapping at the glass. The sweep of the branches of one of the last elm trees in the commonwealth, which shadowed the library’s lawn. Some people unravel or run for shelter when their time has come, they curse their fate or hide under their beds, but Jet knew exactly what she wished to do in the last days she’d been granted. She didn’t have to think twice.

Create a free account!

Sign up to see book details, our quick takes, and more.

By pressing "Sign up", you agree to Book of the Month’s Terms of use and Privacy policy.

Why I love it

I believe. In what, I’m not always sure, but there’s always a pulse of it there. Sometimes it’s that a cup of tea or coffee can cure any mood. Sometimes I believe that the constellations have conspired to steal my luck. The Book of Magic is a book about belief in the most ephemeral things—love, magic, and hope.

Alice Hoffman concludes the story of the Owens family with a joyous cry of a novel. When I opened the first page, I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to these witchy women I got to know in the classic Practical Magic. But I returned to their curious house in Massachusetts because it felt like being welcomed home after a long time away. The large cast of characters welcome you and whisper their secrets in prophetic dreams and old spell books waiting for fate to open their pages. Here are three generations of the Owens family doing everything they can to break the curse that has plagued them for over two centuries. But like the wise aunt Jet says, “Everything worthwhile is dangerous.” What is more worthwhile than family and love?

Hoffman’s words are a love song to the people who go against the grain. Those of us who don’t quite fit—witches, rebels, bookworms, free spirits. So, grab a cup of Courage Tea, and a slice of Tipsy Cake, and settle in for an enchanting tale.

Member ratings (5,923)

Browse all audiobooks
Camp Zero
Maame
Hang the Moon
Divine Rivals
Weyward
Someday, Maybe
We Are the Light
White Horse
The Cloisters
Jacqueline in Paris
Hester
The Kiss Curse
As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow
Foul Lady Fortune
Palace of Treason
The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto
The Night Charter
The Woman in Cabin 10
The Nightingale
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Eat Only When You're Hungry
Sourdough
Top Ten
The Rules of Magic
The Wife Between Us
The Great Alone
Circe
The Mars Room
Calypso
Nine Perfect Strangers
Severance
The Silent Patient
Golden State
The Winter Sister
The Other Woman
Where’d You Go, Bernadette
Falter
The Players Ball
Sky Without Stars
Necessary People
Bitcoin Billionaires
Again, But Better
There's Something About Sweetie
All the Light We Cannot See
Ask Again, Yes
Free Food for Millionaires
Three Women
Things You Save in a Fire
On The Clock
Dominicana
The Turn of the Key
Saving Zoë
Permanent Record
The Goldfinch
Fate of the Fallen
Wayward Son
The Family Upstairs
Ninth House
When the Stars Lead to You
My Friend Anna
Red, White & Royal Blue
The Queen of Nothing
Where the World Ends
When We Were Vikings
Throw Like a Girl
Not So Pure and Simple
You Are Not Alone
Anna K
Yes No Maybe So
A Good Neighborhood
Big Summer
The Boyfriend Project
Big Friendship
The Shadows
Head Over Heels
Notes on a Silencing
The Night Swim
The Last Story of Mina Lee
Anxious People
One by One
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Invisible Girl
Troubles in Paradise
White Ivy
Group
In a Holidaze
This Close to Okay
The Wife Upstairs
More Myself
We Could Be Heroes
Aftershocks
The City We Became
Black Buck
Honey Girl
Infinite Country
The Four Winds
What's Mine and Yours
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev
Too Good to Be True
The Last Thing He Told Me
Ariadne
Anna K Away
The Maidens
The Other Black Girl
One Last Stop
We Are the Brennans
Razorblade Tears
The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina
Damnation Spring
Once There Were Wolves
Rock Paper Scissors
The Neighbor's Secret
Beautiful World, Where Are You
Apples Never Fall
Everything We Didn't Say
The Book of Magic
The Collective
A Little Hope
How to Marry Keanu Reeves in 90 Days
The Choice
My Body
It Ends with Us
A Flicker in the Dark
Olga Dies Dreaming
A History of Wild Places
Somebody's Daughter
But You Seemed So Happy
The Postmistress of Paris
Reckless Girls
Love & Other Disasters
The Golden Couple
A River Enchanted
Vladimir
Don't Cry for Me
Peach Blossom Spring
Death on the Nile
The Christie Affair
The Paris Apartment
Tell Me Everything
Blacktop Wasteland
Kaikeyi
Like a Sister
Bomb Shelter
Yerba Buena
The Change
Siren Queen
Bloomsbury Girls
Things We Do in the Dark
First Born
The Bodyguard
The It Girl
The Many Daughters of Afong Moy
When We Were Bright and Beautiful
Bronze Drum
The Fortunes of Jaded Women
The Attic Child
Babel
Kiss Her Once for Me
The Light Pirate
Queen of Thieves
Lunar Love
All the Dangerous Things
Hell Bent
What Lies in the Woods
The Reunion
Independence
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi
The House Is On Fire
The Last Tale of the Flower Bride
A Wilderness of Stars
A Quiet Life
Bloodmarked
Before I Let Go
The Wilderwomen
Part of Your World
The Hotel Nantucket
The Lost Apothecary
Browse all audiobooks
View all
Camp Zero
Maame
Hang the Moon
Divine Rivals
Weyward
Someday, Maybe
We Are the Light
White Horse
The Cloisters
Jacqueline in Paris
Hester
The Kiss Curse
As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow
Foul Lady Fortune
Palace of Treason
The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto
The Night Charter
The Woman in Cabin 10
The Nightingale
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Eat Only When You're Hungry
Sourdough
Top Ten
The Rules of Magic
The Wife Between Us
The Great Alone
Circe
The Mars Room
Calypso
Nine Perfect Strangers
Severance
The Silent Patient
Golden State
The Winter Sister
The Other Woman
Where’d You Go, Bernadette
Falter
The Players Ball
Sky Without Stars
Necessary People
Bitcoin Billionaires
Again, But Better
There's Something About Sweetie
All the Light We Cannot See
Ask Again, Yes
Free Food for Millionaires
Three Women
Things You Save in a Fire
On The Clock
Dominicana
The Turn of the Key
Saving Zoë
Permanent Record
The Goldfinch
Fate of the Fallen
Wayward Son
The Family Upstairs
Ninth House
When the Stars Lead to You
My Friend Anna
Red, White & Royal Blue
The Queen of Nothing
Where the World Ends
When We Were Vikings
Throw Like a Girl
Not So Pure and Simple
You Are Not Alone
Anna K
Yes No Maybe So
A Good Neighborhood
Big Summer
The Boyfriend Project
Big Friendship
The Shadows
Head Over Heels
Notes on a Silencing
The Night Swim
The Last Story of Mina Lee
Anxious People
One by One
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
Invisible Girl
Troubles in Paradise
White Ivy
Group
In a Holidaze
This Close to Okay
The Wife Upstairs
More Myself
We Could Be Heroes
Aftershocks
The City We Became
Black Buck
Honey Girl
Infinite Country
The Four Winds
What's Mine and Yours
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev
Too Good to Be True
The Last Thing He Told Me
Ariadne
Anna K Away
The Maidens
The Other Black Girl
One Last Stop
We Are the Brennans
Razorblade Tears
The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina
Damnation Spring
Once There Were Wolves
Rock Paper Scissors
The Neighbor's Secret
Beautiful World, Where Are You
Apples Never Fall
Everything We Didn't Say
The Book of Magic
The Collective
A Little Hope
How to Marry Keanu Reeves in 90 Days
The Choice
My Body
It Ends with Us
A Flicker in the Dark
Olga Dies Dreaming
A History of Wild Places
Somebody's Daughter
But You Seemed So Happy
The Postmistress of Paris
Reckless Girls
Love & Other Disasters
The Golden Couple
A River Enchanted
Vladimir
Don't Cry for Me
Peach Blossom Spring
Death on the Nile
The Christie Affair
The Paris Apartment
Tell Me Everything
Blacktop Wasteland
Kaikeyi
Like a Sister
Bomb Shelter
Yerba Buena
The Change
Siren Queen
Bloomsbury Girls
Things We Do in the Dark
First Born
The Bodyguard
The It Girl
The Many Daughters of Afong Moy
When We Were Bright and Beautiful
Bronze Drum
The Fortunes of Jaded Women
The Attic Child
Babel
Kiss Her Once for Me
The Light Pirate
Queen of Thieves
Lunar Love
All the Dangerous Things
Hell Bent
What Lies in the Woods
The Reunion
Independence
The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi
The House Is On Fire
The Last Tale of the Flower Bride
A Wilderness of Stars
A Quiet Life
Bloodmarked
Before I Let Go
The Wilderwomen
Part of Your World
The Hotel Nantucket
The Lost Apothecary