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My Starry Rating: 5/5 Stars
Reason for Rating: This book belongs on the shelf of enchanting books- stories that found their way to me at the most perfect time
What I Learned: Sometimes we call books into our lives as though someone wrote them for for us…and to us
Publication Date: August 15, 2023 by Atria Books
Genres: Magical Realism, Historical Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Women’s Fiction
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/62919793
Synopsis:
From the beloved New York Times bestselling author of The Marriage of Opposites and the Practical Magic series comes an enchanting novel about love, heartbreak, self-discovery, and the enduring magic of books.
One brilliant June day when Mia Jacob can no longer see a way to survive, the power of words saves her. The Scarlet Letter was written almost two hundred years earlier, but it seems to tell the story of Mia’s mother, Ivy, and their life inside the Community—an oppressive cult in western Massachusetts where contact with the outside world is forbidden, and books are considered evil. But how could this be? How could Nathaniel Hawthorne have so perfectly captured the pain and loss that Mia carries inside her?
Through a journey of heartbreak, love, and time, Mia must abandon the rules she was raised with at the Community. As she does, she realizes that reading can transport you to other worlds or bring them to you, and that readers and writers affect one another in mysterious ways. She learns that time is more fluid than she can imagine, and that love is stronger than any chains that bind you.
As a girl Mia fell in love with a book. Now as a young woman she falls in love with a brilliant writer as she makes her way back in time. But what if Nathaniel Hawthorne never wrote The Scarlet Letter? And what if Mia Jacob never found it on the day she planned to die?
Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote: “A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities.”
This is the story of one woman’s dream. For a little while it came true.
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Review:
There are times in life when a book will appear that reads as though it was written for you, Its message will be personal, its words so captivating that it must be a dream. Some of you will be lucky to have this experience once in a lifetime or if you’re very lucky, many different times. Some books enter your life when they have a message specifically for you, to get you to shift, pivot, turn, or change things around, in order to take back control of the story of your life. Sometimes you hide in the shadows or live your life unseen from your heart’s desires. Books are those messengers whose magic words render everything so visible and so bright you simply cannot ignore your truth any longer. Like the main character Mia in this story, a book saves her life altering her fate which in turn awakens the destiny of the author who will one day write a story so captivating that it must be a dream.
There’s a bit of fantasy in this story via time travel, but I believe it’s a metaphor for the power of stories to transport its readers and the ability of books to defy time and place. How is it possible to feel as though a book written long before you were born is telling your story or a book already published predicts your future better than you ever could? These are the enchanting questions that Mia and Nathaniel ask and answer in this spellbinding story.
When a book enters your life that feels as though it was written for you and about you, consider it fate, that invisible magic that opens your heart helping you to see what you couldn’t see before. To write your own story and to love your story is the exact same thing.
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a free arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
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About the Author:
Alice Hoffman is the author of more than thirty works of fiction, including The World That We Knew; The Marriage of Opposites; The Red Garden; The Museum of Extraordinary Things; The Dovekeepers; Here on Earth, an Oprah’s Book Club selection; and the Practical Magic series, including Practical
Magic; Magic Lessons; The Rules of Magic, a selection of Reese’s Book Club; and The Book of Magic. She lives near Boston.
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