My Rating: ★★★★★ 5 Stars
I loved this book.
Despite not having seen or read Practical Magic, which is the sequel to Rules of Magic, I was very interested in Rules of Magic when I first saw it on NetGalley. I am an Alice Hoffman fan even though I have not read all of her works.
The premise of Rules of Magic reeled me in and it delivered. I’ve never read a book which made me cry so much. I fell in love with the characters and their love interests and I felt their joys and pains as if they were my own.
To date, Alice Hoffman is the only author who can pull such a level of emotion out of me. She is an amazing story-teller through and through but its her writing style that throws me into an emotional rollercoaster of a ride.
In a nutshell, Rules of Magic was a well-written, entertaining read which in my opinion deserves 5 stars.
Digital copy received from publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.
My Rating :★★☆☆☆2 Stars
Digital copy received from author in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.When I began reading this book I became confused as to the time period in which the events were taking place. At the end of the book, I was even more confused - expensive cars, pirates, ships, carriages pulled by horses etc. This was pretty much the typical feel throughout the book - confusion. Gaia wakes up in a cell, unaware of how she got there and devoid of her memories. She shares a cell with a young girl who she befriends - Emily, and learns that they are victims of human trafficking. On the positive side, this book had the potential to be 5-star worthy...except, it didn't quite deliver. Here's why: First of all, if your premise mentions key topics/themes, a reader tends to expect in-depth exploration of the theme as well as character development (to a certain extent tied to that theme); however, the author simply brushed the surface of topics/themes throughout the entirety of the book. I did not feel like any part of the book, even the important bits and the revelations, were explored fully in order to have a solid plot with fleshed out characters. For example, the plot makes mention of the friend who Gaia made during her captivity. First off, I do not know how long Gaia was in captivity with this Emily girl. Or how long were they friends before she was rescued by Raoul. I did not know or feel the extent of their friendship. Secondly, she vowed to rescue Emily; however, there was hardly any mention of Emily after Gaia was rescued which should have been an important theme in the book. The romance was unnecessary and misplaced throughout the book and was easily forgotten. Maybe there were too many heavy themes to fully explore within less than 300 pages but brushing the surface of something as serious as human trafficking and powerful drug lords while romanticizing the plot is an indication (to me) that the author chose the wrong plot to write.
