Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman

 

Title:  Magic Lessons

Author: Alice Hoffman

Read by:  Sutton Foster

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Length: Approximately 13 hours and 26 minutes

Source: Review Copy from Simon & Schuster Audio.  Thank-you!

 I have enjoyed Alice Hoffman’s novels for the last twenty years.  She writes a bit of magic into each of them.  Practical Magic was the first novel I read by her.  I enjoyed the prequel to Practical Magic, Rules of Magic, that came out a few years ago.  I was delighted to discover that this year she had published a prequel to both of those books about Maria Owens, the ancestor who is discussed in both of those novels.  Magic Lessons was a great historical fiction novel and if I’m honest, it’s my favorite of the Practical Magic trilogy.  It finally answers the questions, who was Maria Owens and what is the curse that has followed the family throughout time?

 Maria Owens was a foundling in England born with a gift in the 1600’s.  Luckily, Hannah, another woman with the gift of magic found her and raised her as her own.  After tragedy strikes, a young Maria sets sail for the new world.  While on an island in the Caribbean, she falls in love with a stranger.  After finding she is with child, she travels to Salem, Massachusetts to find him and tell him about their child.  What does she find that causes the curse to be cast?

 I enjoyed this entire story of Maria and her daughter Faith.  I loved the look into the 17^th century and how women were called out as witches for being different or for basically being healers for the times.  Maria and Faith are actual witches who have a magical gift, but the women who were killed in both England and the United States were killed for being different or as scapegoats.  Maria is a strong woman who did what she wanted to do, which was frowned upon at this time.  Women were not supposed to question men or live on their own.  I also liked the overall theme that Maria often thinks about, “what you set out into the world came back to you threefold.”  Whenever you do something good or something bad, it will come back to you again threefold.  It’s a powerful motivator to make sure you are doing good in the world.  I also loved the overall love story in the novel. 

 I love Hoffman’s use of language in her novels and beautiful descriptions.  Sutton Foster was a great audiobook narrator and I enjoyed listening to this story.

 Favorite Quotes:

“When you fall in love like that, time doesn’t matter. This was the secret he told Maria, the last words he ever said. What belonged to you once, will always belong to you. Be grateful if you have walked through the world with another’s heart in your hand.”

 “Likely it was true that the flaws you saw in other women you didn't notice in yourself.”

 “No one knows where time goes, all the same it disappears.”

 “It was always best to step into the future while it was still waiting for you.”

 Overall, Magic Lessons is a magical look into the 17^th century and the start of the Owens curse.

The Last Train to Key West by Chanel Cleefton

 

Three very different women are forever changed when a hurricane hits the Florida Keys in 1935.  Helen is a native of the islands and is happy to be pregnant with her first child.  Sadly, her husband is abusive, and she longs to break free to start a new life.  At the restaurant she works at, she meets Mirta.  Mirta is a newlywed who has married a rich man from New York to save her Cuban family.  She doesn’t know much about him and is not sure what types of illegal activities he has been a part of to obtain his fortune.  She is hoping the two of them can get to know each other on their honeymoon on the Keys.  Another visitor to Helen’s restaurant is Elizabeth Preston.  She has fled to the Keys to look for her missing brother.  He returned from World War I, not the same and she is sure he is in the camps of veterans that are working on the new highway to link the islands.  When the hurricane strikes, what will happen to these ladies?

 The Last Train to Key West was the FLICKS aka Rogue Book Club pick for November and we had our first virtual meeting. Our book club has had a hard time meeting this year due to COVID.  We had a couple of outdoor meetings, but this was our first virtual meeting.  I think this is how we will be meeting for the time being.  One of our members was quarantined and another sick with COVID for this meeting.  We all enjoyed this novel, although we all agreed that we didn’t like the ending.  It was happy, which is good for these times, buseemed very unrealistic.

 I enjoyed the story of each of the characters and the history that was in the novel.  I had never heard of this hurricane.  I also didn’t know the plight of the World War I veterans that were working on the highway connecting the islands.  I thought it was fascinating and had to look up more about it when I finished the novel.

 Favorite Quotes:

“I’ve imagined my husband’s death a thousand times.”

 “Where I’m from, there’s an advantage to people earing you, to thinking you capable of anything.”

 “The world has expectations of you, of how you are to shoulder your burdens with grace, of the role you play, and as soon as you don’t live up to hose expectations, it’s easier for others to cast you aside rather than change how they view the world.”

 “It’s strange how your life can change so quickly, how one moment you can barely eke by, desperation filling your days, and suddenly, out of the unimaginably horrific, a glimmer of something beautiful can appear like a bud pushing through the hard-formed earth.”

 Overall, The Last Train to Key West was an interesting historical fiction novel with a happy ending that will dismay some and delight others.

 Book Source:  Kewaunee Public Library. Thank-you!

The Residence by Andrew Pyper

 

What if the White House contains an evil spirit that the President cannot get rid of?

 On the way to Washington DC, newly elected President Franklin Pierce is involved in a terrible train accident.  While he and his wife Jane survive, their son Bennie does not.  They move into the White House and Pierce starts his Presidency, but both are shattered.  Jane is full of fear and sorry and invites the infamous Fox sisters to the White House to perform a séance.  During this séance she realizes that she may have invited more to the White House than she would like.  How will the Pierces battle this evil and move on?

 I love presidential history, but I do not remember ever learning this true story about the tragic death of young Bennie Pierce on the way to Washington D.C. I was fascinated.  I also liked the look into the Pierce’s marriage and how this tragedy affected it.  I know that seances and the look for spirits was very popular during this time period and I thought that was interesting. I’ll admit though that this book got too scary and strange to me.  I don’t want to say more to ruin the story – but it is really creepy!

 Overall, The Residence is an incredibly creepy look into the haunting of President Pierce and his wife Jane after the death of their son.  It’s the perfect book to scare you this time of year.

 Book Source:  Review Copy from Simon & Schuster.  Thank-you!