

But their powers are no match for the family curse, which has claimed the lives of their husbands as well as two husbands of their niece, Sally. They know how to mix star tulip and rosemary, anise and cloves to decipher dreams or coax back love. Like Maria, Jet and Franny have magic running through their veins. As she stood in the gallows, having been sentenced to death for witchcraft, Maria called a curse upon anyone in her family, then or ever, who fell in love.

This is the legacy of Maria Owens, the first woman in the family to leave England for Massachusetts in the 17th century. Jet and Rafael have kept their connection under wraps for decades because they are cursed. When Jet learns from her own reflection in a library mirror that she has only seven days left to live, she leaves for Manhattan for a last, secret tryst with her longtime lover, Rafael. “The Book of Magic” begins at an ending: the imminent demise of Jet, the beautiful witch who, with her sister Franny, are the aging matriarchs of the Owens clan. “Some stories begin at the beginning and others begin at the end.” So opens “The Book of Magic,” the final installment of Alice Hoffman’s popular Practical Magic series, a page-turning fairy tale of a saga that spans three books, one star-studded movie adaptation and multiple centuries of adventure and misadventure, love lost and found and bottomless cauldrons of sorcery in the lives of the bewitchingly witchy Owens family.
