3.5 stars.

Magic Lessons is a good novel with rich historical writing. Hoffman presents a lot of description and historical references throughout along with pieces of magical information. This would have likely served the book very well had it not been a prequel for the Practical Magic series. The other two books are written in a more whimsical and magical style, while Magic Lessons leans more toward a darker narrative and has quite a bit of somber overtones. The clash of these two styles partially made this book less enjoyable. Had I read this book before the others in the series, it may well have been rated slightly higher.

The biggest problem for me with this book was the pacing. While I appreciated the historical detail and attention to description (and I indeed learned some historical tidbits along the way), the writing made things a bit more dense and dragged things to a very slow pace. A flattened plot made it difficult to continue in some places, so I ended up reading a good portion of this book in small snippets.

Maria was an interesting character. She has a lot darker soul than the other Owens women and this made her a bit harder to like and connect with. She is somber and in some places quite intense. Her emotional volatility made her feel slightly distant for the reader. She was a bit of an acquired taste. Again, this would have been totally fine had I not had the preconceived notions of what to expect from Owens witches based on the other novels in the series.

I found this read to be okay. I enjoyed the informational content and did like that the backstory for a character frequently mentioned in the other books was presented. However, I was a bit let down by the flavor of the book.

* Disclaimer: I received a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review. *