The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman

***Spoiler Alert***
Okay. I'm going to try to be as nice as I possibly can. I am a huge fan of the movie Practical Magic of which this book is set to be a prequel of. Unfortunately when you write a prequel to such a big and beloved cult classic such as Practical Magic you're bound to run into fans like me who know the movie backwards and forwards and can pick out details that seem incorrect in your writing. There is one scene in the film in particular that I feel the author of this book did not pay much attention to. In the beginning of the film just after the two little girls go to stay and live with their aunts there is a scene where all four of them are sitting at a table outside having tea. During the scene Aunt Jet and Aunt Franny talk about Franny's poor Ethan and go back and forth arguing whether his death was an accident or not. There was an Ethan mentioned in the book however it was not a person who could ever have been a lover of Franny. Franny's main lover in the book (her seeming to be the protagonist of the book) was named Haylin and eventually died of cancer. This could not really be misconstrued as an accident. It is true that the author could be speaking of some other lover that happened between the book and the movie (a span of approximately 30 years) however the way that Haylin is spoken about in the book makes me wonder why he was not the lover spoken about in the film.
Also included in that one scene in the film was when young Sally asks both of her aunts if their mother had died of a broken heart because their father had died from an accident and their mother had died fairly soon after their father had. This is not the way it happened in the book at all. In the book at describes their parents of having both died in a automobile accident together.
the book also describes Sally & Gillian's mother (Regina) as having long black hair like her father with ashen gray eyes. in the movie however she has long blonde hair as pictured in one of the very first scenes of the film.
I know that I'm nitpicking here, but I guess I wish that if someone decides to write a book based on a film that they would do their research correctly and have their written work reflect the film accurately and vice versa.
On a completely different note the book was fun, light-hearted and entertaining and was all in all a great read. I don't mean to be petty in this review and I've only taking off one star for the things that I have picked apart. Readers of this review must understand that the film is very close to my heart. So I had to approach this book with caution. But I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who would want to read it. It was written very well and is very easy to read, easy to follow and easy to dive into. A great read! 🌟💖🌟