The Rules of Magic: A Book Review
**SPOILERS**
This book took forever to finish. Not that it was a horrible read, it by far was the complete opposite in fact. Alice Hoffman has a great imagination and can change things up on a dime. You expect the story's path to go one way and bam, it goes in a completely different direction leaving you on the edge of your seat wanting more. I did not want this novel to end while I was going through a page-turning frenzy last night to complete my reading.
This book is the prequel to the novel Practical Magic about three siblings, Bridget (Jet), Vincent, and Franny Owens who turn out to be witches and a wizard. They discover their true selves throughout the book and learn that 1. It's better to never deny who you are and always trust your heart. and 2. love is powerful and beautiful love and love often.
** SPOILER ALERT**
This book had many twists and turns. Jet falls in love and in her parents' determination to keep her from the boy she loves end up getting into a car accident killing said boy as well as themselves. It made me think, is trying to prevent love really that bad? Sure when an Owens falls in love their partners tend to pass away due to a curse their ancestor Maria Owens had placed on the family due to a broken heart.
The next shocker was that Vincent who was quite a man whore within' the story ended up being a homosexual. Not that it's a bad thing, I find it rather refreshing. He found love with a man named William and they lived happily ever after. The final shocker was that in his time of being a bit of a slut, He slept with his 3rd cousin and ended up fathering a child he did not discover the truth until she was about nine years old or so. Luckily she came out normal, well as normal as an Owens can be anyway.
Sally and Gillian only made an appearance in this novel at the end where you find out the relations between Gillian and Sally and Vincent, Franny, and Jet. spoiler, Vincent's their grandfather which would make Franny and Jet great-aunts. That had me going crazy trying to figure out how this story even coincided with Practical Magic.
This book was definitely a good read and I highly recommend it. Thanks to these two novels, I may never look at the movie Practical Magic with the same love again since it so varies from the novels.
