This is the conclusion of Alice Hoffman's "Practical Magic" series which is preceded by The Rules of Magic and Practical Magic. Although this book's storyline is about trying to reverse the ancestral curse on the Owens family that dooms any of their beloved partners to early death, it's also about love winning out over everything. The two orphaned sisters, Sally and Gillian, have kept themselves from falling in love to avoid the curse and have also hidden the truth from Sally's two daughters, Kylie and Antonia. Of course Kylie falls in love and her fiancee is seriously injured in a car accident which sets her on a path to discover the truth about the curse and to find a way to reverse it. Sacrifices will be required.
The New York Times offers a fairly complete synopsis of the storyline and closes with this: "If the ending feels overly tidy, well, fairy tales don’t enchant with nuance so much as the sweep of their stories. And, like the witches who populate her stories, Hoffman certainly knows how to enchant." Kirkus commments "Ultimately, for better or worse, each Owens woman must face her fear of love. For all the talk of magic, the message here is that personal courage and the capacity to love are the deepest sources of an individual’s power." Booklist calls this "a tale of finely wrought female relationships, magic, and love." Publishers Weekly concludes their review by saying, "Hoffman runs through the Owens family history over the centuries, and though the accounts of bloodlines and varied relationships can be confusing, the story brims with bewitching encounters and suspenseful conflicts revolving around good magic versus bad magic. Hoffman brings satisfying closure to the Owens saga."
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