Alice Hoffman Books in Order: Every Novel, Series, and Story
Alice Hoffman has spent decades blending literary fiction with magical realism, historical storytelling, romance, family drama, folklore, and quietly supernatural elements. Her bibliography includes the beloved Practical Magic books, historical novels such as The Dovekeepers and The World That We Knew, contemporary stories such as Faithful, and books written specifically for young adults and children.
Because most of Hoffman’s novels are standalone, there is no single required reading order for her entire bibliography. This guide organizes her books by series and publication history, explains where connected books fit, and gives you enough context to decide what to read next rather than simply presenting a long list of titles.
Alice Hoffman Books in Order at a Glance
If you are looking for the shortest possible Alice Hoffman reading order, these are the main connected collections to know:
- Practical Magic: 4 books
- Green Angel: 2 books
- Once Upon a Time Bookshop Stories: 4 connected stories
- The Witches of Cambridge: launched in 2026
- Standalone adult novels: numerous books spanning from 1977 onward
- Young adult fiction: several standalone and connected novels
- Children’s books: several picture and middle-grade works
- Nonfiction and short fiction: additional works outside her novels
The Practical Magic series is the most important series for readers asking specifically about Alice Hoffman books in order. Hoffman herself says readers can choose either publication order or chronological order.
Practical Magic Books in Order
The Practical Magic series follows generations of the Owens family, a line of women whose lives are shaped by love, loss, family loyalty, magic, and a centuries-old curse.
Alice Hoffman recommends that readers choose between publication order and chronological order rather than insisting on one definitive sequence.
1. Practical Magic (1995)
Publication year: 1995
Reading position: Practical Magic #1 in publication order
Key themes: Witchcraft, sisters, family, love, curses, grief
Sisters Sally and Gillian Owens have grown up as outsiders because their Massachusetts family has long been associated with witchcraft. When life pulls them back together, they must confront the family history and magical legacy they spent years trying to escape. This is the novel that introduced readers to the Owens family and inspired the famous film starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman.
2. The Rules of Magic (2017)
Publication year: 2017
Reading position: Practical Magic #2 in publication order
Key themes: Family history, magic, sibling relationships, love, destiny
Set in 1960s New York, The Rules of Magic follows Franny, Jet, and Vincent Owens as they discover that the strange rules imposed on them by their family are connected to a much larger magical inheritance. As a prequel to Practical Magic, it expands the history of the Owens family while exploring the costs of love and the consequences of inherited gifts.
3. Magic Lessons (2020)
Publication year: 2020
Reading position: Practical Magic #3 in publication order
Key themes: Origins, witchcraft, forbidden love, Salem, family legacy
Magic Lessons travels back to the 1600s to tell the story of Maria Owens, the woman at the beginning of the Owens bloodline. Abandoned as a baby and taught the “Unnamed Arts,” Maria eventually travels to Salem, where heartbreak leads to the curse that will affect generations of her descendants.
4. The Book of Magic (2021)
Publication year: 2021
Reading position: Practical Magic #4
Key themes: Family, mothers and daughters, magic, sacrifice, redemption
The final Owens novel brings multiple generations of the family together as they attempt to break the curse that has shaped their lives for centuries. When Jet Owens learns she may have only days to live, the family must confront old secrets and use their magical inheritance to change their future.
Practical Magic Books in Chronological Order
If you prefer to follow the Owens family history from its earliest point, Alice Hoffman gives this chronological order:
- Magic Lessons (2020)
- The Rules of Magic (2017)
- Practical Magic (1995)
- The Book of Magic (2021)
This order follows the internal chronology of the Owens family rather than the order in which Hoffman published the novels.
For a first-time reader, I prefer publication order because Practical Magic was the original introduction to the family, and the later books reveal earlier generations and explain elements of the Owens history gradually.
Green Angel Books in Order
The Green Angel books form a connected young adult story about grief, survival, healing, and finding hope after devastating loss.
1. Green Angel (2003)
Publication year: 2003
Reading position: Green Angel #1
Key themes: Grief, survival, trauma, healing, identity
Fifteen-year-old Green loses her family in a devastating disaster and retreats into a damaged world of ashes, memories, and isolation. As she struggles to survive, mysterious encounters gradually lead her toward love and healing. Hoffman describes the book as a modern fairy tale shaped by themes of loss and courage.
2. Green Witch (2010)
Publication year: 2010
Reading position: Green Angel #2
Key themes: Healing, love, loss, witchcraft, renewal
Green Witch continues Green’s story after the events of Green Angel. Still carrying enormous grief, Green searches for a way to understand love and hope while encountering women whose mysterious powers and stories help her rediscover her own heart.
Once Upon a Time Bookshop Stories
Alice Hoffman’s Once Upon a Time Bookshop Stories are connected stories centered around the Gibson family and their bookstore. They are best read in publication order because the later stories add context to the family and its relationships.
1. The Bookstore Sisters (2022)
Publication year: 2022
Reading position: Once Upon a Time Bookshop #1
Key themes: Sisters, family, books, relationships, community
This story introduces the bookstore and the family at its center, using a beloved bookshop as the setting for relationships, memories, and the complicated connections between family members.
2. The Bookstore Wedding (2024)
Publication year: 2024
Reading position: Once Upon a Time Bookshop #2
Key themes: Love, marriage, family, community, books
The second story returns to the bookstore world for a wedding that brings family and friends together. Like Hoffman’s longer novels, it uses an intimate setting to explore relationships, change, and the emotional meaning attached to places we call home.
3. The Bookstore Keepers (2025)
Publication year: 2025
Reading position: Once Upon a Time Bookshop #3
Key themes: Family, bookselling, memory, belonging
The third installment continues the connected bookstore stories, expanding the world around the family and the people whose lives intersect with the shop.
4. The Bookstore Family (2025)
Publication year: 2025
Reading position: Once Upon a Time Bookshop #4
Key themes: Family, books, relationships, community
The fourth story continues Hoffman’s exploration of family bonds and the emotional significance of a shared literary space. Readers interested in Hoffman’s quieter, contemporary storytelling can explore these stories separately from her more overtly magical novels.
Alice Hoffman’s official website currently has a dedicated section for the Once Upon a Time Bookshop Stories, confirming that the bookstore works are treated as a distinct part of her bibliography.
The Witches of Cambridge
The Witches of Cambridge (2026)
Publication year: 2026
Reading position: The Witches of Cambridge #1
Key themes: Witchcraft, friendship, women, academia, McCarthyism, love
The Witches of Cambridge begins a new series from Hoffman and moves her fascination with female friendship, magic, history, and secret societies into 1950s Cambridge, Massachusetts. Ava, a young woman from Maine attending Radcliffe, meets Lauren, a wealthy and rebellious Cambridge student, and both are recruited into the secret Lilith Society, a group of witches with roots stretching back to colonial times. When members begin disappearing, the women discover that the dangers of the old witch trials may not be confined to history.
Published: September 8, 2026.
This is particularly relevant for readers searching for Alice Hoffman books in 2026, because it is her newest novel and the beginning of a new series.
Alice Hoffman Adult Novels in Publication Order
Unlike Practical Magic, most of Hoffman’s adult novels are standalone works. You therefore do not need to read these in order to understand one another, but publication order provides an interesting view of how her literary career developed.
1. Property Of (1977)
Publication year: 1977
Reading position: Adult novel #1
Key themes: Love, identity, obsession, youth
Hoffman’s debut novel follows a young woman drawn into a dangerous relationship and already demonstrates her interest in emotionally complicated characters and unconventional forms of love. Hoffman wrote the novel while studying at Stanford, and it became her first published book.
2. The Drowning Season (1979)
Publication year: 1979
Reading position: Adult novel #2
Key themes: Family, loss, relationships, emotional isolation
An early Hoffman family novel that examines troubled relationships and the ways people can become trapped by grief, history, and their own emotional patterns.
3. Angel Landing (1980)
Publication year: 1980
Reading position: Adult novel #3
Key themes: Love, idealism, personal responsibility, relationships
Angel Landing explores the collision between personal relationships and larger ideals, with Hoffman beginning to develop the lyrical, emotionally layered storytelling that would become characteristic of her later work.
4. White Horses (1982)
Publication year: 1982
Reading position: Adult novel #4
Key themes: Family, imagination, memory, identity
This novel blends family relationships with the imaginative inner lives of its characters, reflecting Hoffman’s recurring interest in the boundary between ordinary reality and something more mysterious.
5. Fortune’s Daughter (1985)
Publication year: 1985
Reading position: Adult novel #5
Key themes: Motherhood, chance, fate, relationships
Fortune’s Daughter brings together two women whose lives intersect in California, exploring motherhood, fortune, and the unpredictable connections that can alter a person’s future.
6. Illumination Night (1987)
Publication year: 1987
Reading position: Adult novel #6
Key themes: Family, aging, love, transformation
The story examines family relationships and the ways unexpected events can transform the emotional lives of people who believe they understand their world.
7. At Risk (1988)
Publication year: 1988
Reading position: Adult novel #7
Key themes: Family, AIDS, illness, love, resilience
At Risk focuses on a family confronting AIDS and the fear, stigma, and emotional strain surrounding the disease. The novel became one of Hoffman’s most significant early works and has been used on reading lists at universities, colleges, and secondary schools.
8. Seventh Heaven (1990)
Publication year: 1990
Reading position: Adult novel #8
Key themes: Suburban life, desire, community, secrets
Set in a suburban community, Seventh Heaven examines the hidden emotional lives of neighbors and the tension between outward respectability and private desire.
9. Turtle Moon (1992)
Publication year: 1992
Reading position: Adult novel #9
Key themes: Crime, motherhood, family, transformation
Turtle Moon combines mystery and family drama with Hoffman’s characteristic magical-realism sensibility, exploring how a shocking event can transform the lives of people connected to it.
10. Second Nature (1994)
Publication year: 1994
Reading position: Adult novel #10
Key themes: Nature, identity, love, transformation
Robin Moore’s carefully ordered suburban life changes after she rescues a mysterious man who has been raised in the wilderness. The story plays with the Beauty and the Beast tradition while asking what society considers civilized and what it means to live authentically.
11. Practical Magic (1995)
Publication year: 1995
Reading position: Adult novel #11
Key themes: Witchcraft, sisters, family, love, fate
The original Owens family novel follows Sally and Gillian as they return to the magical family history they have tried to escape. Its mixture of everyday family life, romance, grief, and witchcraft made it one of Hoffman’s defining works.
12. Here on Earth (1997)
Publication year: 1997
Reading position: Adult novel #12
Key themes: Obsession, return home, love, family, danger
March Murray returns to her Massachusetts hometown after nearly two decades away and becomes entangled with the people and emotions she left behind. Hoffman’s novel deliberately echoes Wuthering Heights while exploring the destructive side of consuming love. It was also an Oprah’s Book Club selection.
13. Local Girls (1999)
Publication year: 1999
Reading position: Adult novel #13
Key themes: Family, adolescence, friendship, Long Island
Local Girls follows the Samuelson family and the changing relationships among its members as they experience love, loss, divorce, ambition, and disappointment in a Long Island community.
14. The River King (2000)
Publication year: 2000
Reading position: Adult novel #14
Key themes: Mystery, class, secrets, adolescence, justice
A mysterious death at an elite Massachusetts boarding school exposes divisions between the privileged students and the local community. The investigation gradually reveals long-buried secrets and the complicated history of the town.
15. Blue Diary (2001)
Publication year: 2001
Reading position: Adult novel #15
Key themes: Marriage, secrets, identity, morality, family
When Ethan Ford disappears from his ordinary life, his wife discovers that the man she thought she knew had been hiding a devastating part of his past. The novel uses a small-town mystery to examine marriage, identity, forgiveness, and the consequences of concealed wrongdoing.
16. The Probable Future (2003)
Publication year: 2003
Reading position: Adult novel #16
Key themes: Family, clairvoyance, inheritance, destiny
The women of the Sparrow family inherit unusual abilities, with each generation developing a different gift at age thirteen. When young Stella can see how people will die, her ability leads to a terrible misunderstanding that brings three generations of Sparrow women back together.
17. Blackbird House (2004)
Publication year: 2004
Reading position: Adult fiction
Format: Linked short fiction
Key themes: Family, place, memory, generations, magic
Rather than following one continuous protagonist, Blackbird House connects stories taking place over generations at the same Cape Cod farmhouse. Hoffman turns the house itself into a kind of central character as families repeatedly arrive, change, suffer, love, and leave their marks behind.
18. The Ice Queen (2005)
Publication year: 2005
Reading position: Adult novel
Key themes: Lightning, grief, love, redemption, transformation
A woman who keeps emotional distance from everyone around her casually wishes to be struck by lightning, and the impossible happens. Surviving the strike draws her toward another lightning survivor and begins an unexpected journey through loss, love, and redemption.
19. Skylight Confessions (2007)
Publication year: 2007
Reading position: Adult novel
Key themes: Family, destiny, ghosts, love, inheritance
The Moody family lives in a Connecticut glass house filled with stories, secrets, ghosts, and unresolved emotions. Across generations, children and grandchildren try to understand the complicated inheritance of love and family history.
20. The Third Angel (2008)
Publication year: 2008
Reading position: Adult novel
Key themes: Love, memory, interconnected lives, loss
Three interconnected stories reveal how lives can intersect in unexpected ways and how moments of love and loss can echo across time. Hoffman uses multiple perspectives to explore the fragile connections between people.
21. The Story Sisters (2009)
Publication year: 2009
Reading position: Adult novel
Key themes: Sisters, grief, family, guilt, redemption
The Story Sisters follows sisters caught between childhood, family trauma, and the consequences of choices made too young. It combines Hoffman’s recurring interest in fairy-tale imagery with a grounded story about loss and redemption.
22. The Red Garden (2011)
Publication year: 2011
Reading position: Adult novel
Key themes: Community, folklore, generations, nature, magic
This linked novel traces the history of a fictional Massachusetts town through generations of inhabitants. The landscape becomes part of the storytelling as folklore, love, violence, family history, and the supernatural accumulate across time.
23. The Dovekeepers (2011)
Publication year: 2011
Reading position: Adult historical novel
Key themes: Masada, survival, friendship, war, faith
Set during the Roman siege of Masada, The Dovekeepers tells the story through the experiences of four women whose lives converge during one of the defining tragedies of ancient Jewish history. It is one of Hoffman’s most ambitious historical novels and has been described by Toni Morrison as a major contribution to twenty-first-century literature.
24. The Museum of Extraordinary Things (2014)
Publication year: 2014
Reading position: Adult novel
Key themes: Coney Island, love, exploitation, photography, history
Set in early twentieth-century New York, this novel follows people connected to a strange Coney Island museum and explores love, exploitation, immigration, photography, and the dramatic history of New York City.
25. The Marriage of Opposites (2015)
Publication year: 2015
Reading position: Adult historical novel
Key themes: Art, family, identity, forbidden love, history
Set on the island of St. Thomas, The Marriage of Opposites tells the story of Rachel Pomié and the unusual family circumstances that surround her life. The historical novel also explores the ancestry of painter Camille Pissarro.
26. Faithful (2016)
Publication year: 2016
Reading position: Adult novel
Key themes: Grief, guilt, friendship, healing, second chances
After a devastating accident, Shelby Richmond carries enormous guilt and struggles to reconnect with ordinary life. Her journey toward healing becomes a story about friendship, forgiveness, love, and the possibility of beginning again.
27. The Rules of Magic (2017)
Publication year: 2017
Reading position: Practical Magic #2
Key themes: Magic, siblings, family, destiny, love
This prequel introduces Franny, Jet, and Vincent Owens and explores the earlier generation of the family whose story began in Practical Magic. It is especially useful for readers who want to understand the family history behind Sally and Gillian.
28. The World That We Knew (2019)
Publication year: 2019
Reading position: Adult historical novel
Key themes: Holocaust, resistance, family, Jewish history, love
Set in France during the Holocaust, The World That We Knew follows people trying to survive a world in which ordinary life has been destroyed by persecution. Hoffman combines historical research with elements of magic and Jewish folklore to explore courage, sacrifice, and human connection. The novel won the 2020 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Fiction.
29. Magic Lessons (2020)
Publication year: 2020
Reading position: Practical Magic #3
Key themes: Witchcraft, Salem, forbidden love, origins, family
Maria Owens becomes the starting point for the Owens family story in this historical prequel. Her experiences in seventeenth-century England and Salem explain how the family’s famous curse began.
30. The Book of Magic (2021)
Publication year: 2021
Reading position: Practical Magic #4
Key themes: Family, magic, sacrifice, love, redemption
The final Owens novel brings the family’s long history toward a conclusion as generations of witches work together to break the curse that has governed their relationships for centuries.
31. The Invisible Hour (2023)
Publication year: 2023
Reading position: Adult standalone
Key themes: Books, censorship, time travel, motherhood, love
Mia Jacob grows up inside an isolated community where books are forbidden, but reading The Scarlet Letter changes her understanding of her life. Her discovery eventually leads her across time and into a relationship with Nathaniel Hawthorne, creating a literary story about books, freedom, love, and the power of reading.
32. When We Flew Away (2024)
Publication year: 2024
Reading position: Adult historical novel
Key themes: Anne Frank, Holocaust, family, persecution, courage
When We Flew Away imagines Anne Frank’s life before her family went into hiding during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Based on extensive research and published in cooperation with the Anne Frank House, the novel focuses on Anne’s family life, growing persecution, creativity, and the young woman she was becoming before the diary became world famous.
33. The Witches of Cambridge (2026)
Publication year: 2026
Reading position: The Witches of Cambridge #1
Key themes: Witches, women, academia, friendship, McCarthyism, mystery
Hoffman’s newest novel moves into 1950s Cambridge, where Radcliffe students Ava and Lauren become members of the secret Lilith Society, a group of witches with roots in colonial history. When young women begin disappearing, their magical inheritance becomes inseparable from a very real political and social threat.
Alice Hoffman Young Adult Books in Order
Hoffman’s YA fiction deserves its own section because these books explore many of her familiar themes—magic, identity, grief, love, history, and transformation—through younger protagonists.
Aquamarine (2001)
Publication year: 2001
Reading position: YA standalone
Key themes: Friendship, mermaids, first love, growing up
Two best friends discover a mermaid named Aquamarine in a swimming pool during their final summer together. As they help her search for true love, they also begin to understand that growing up sometimes means learning how to say goodbye.
Indigo (2002)
Publication year: 2002
Reading position: Water Tales #2
Key themes: Friendship, family, water, memory, magic
Martha Glimmer helps two mysterious brothers whose connection to water hints at something extraordinary about their past. The story blends magical elements with grief, friendship, and the emotional difficulties of leaving childhood behind.
Green Angel (2003)
Publication year: 2003
Reading position: Green Angel #1
Key themes: Grief, survival, trauma, healing
Green survives after losing her family in a terrible disaster and gradually learns that surviving is not the same as living. Her encounters with mysterious figures help her begin the painful process of healing.
The Foretelling (2005)
Publication year: 2005
Reading position: YA standalone
Key themes: Amazons, prophecy, war, womanhood, freedom
Rain grows up among warrior women and believes she is destined to become a powerful leader. But a prophecy forces her to reconsider the future expected of her and question whether another life is possible.
Incantation (2006)
Publication year: 2006
Reading position: YA standalone
Key themes: Spanish Inquisition, identity, persecution, friendship, courage
Set during the Spanish Inquisition, Incantation follows Estrella, a young woman whose family secretly practices Judaism while publicly living as Catholics. When their hidden identity is exposed, Estrella must confront persecution, betrayal, love, and the consequences of revealing the truth. The novel received the Massachusetts Book Award and numerous other honors.
Green Witch (2010)
Publication year: 2010
Reading position: Green Angel #2
Key themes: Healing, magic, loss, love, renewal
The sequel to Green Angel follows Green as she searches for healing after devastating loss and encounters women associated with mysterious powers. Their stories help her reconsider love, hope, and her own identity.
Alice Hoffman Middle Grade Books
Nightbird (2015)
Publication year: 2015
Reading position: Middle grade standalone
Key themes: Family curse, friendship, folklore, courage
Twig lives in a town where people believe a monster is hiding nearby, but the truth is connected to a centuries-old family curse. As a mysterious red moon approaches, Twig discovers that breaking the spell may require confronting the stories her community has accepted for generations.
Alice Hoffman Children’s Books
Fireflies: A Winter’s Tale (1999)
Publication year: 1999
Format: Children’s illustrated book
Key themes: Winter, wonder, nature, imagination
A gentle seasonal story that brings Hoffman’s sense of wonder and magical realism into a format designed for younger readers.
Horsefly (2000)
Publication year: 2000
Format: Children’s picture book
Key themes: Nature, imagination, transformation
A whimsical children’s story that uses the natural world and imaginative storytelling to explore transformation and perception.
Moondog (2004)
Publication year: 2004
Format: Children’s book
Key themes: Friendship, imagination, animals, wonder
Written with Wolfe Martin, Moondog brings Hoffman’s imaginative storytelling to younger readers through a charming story centered on an unusual animal and the people around it.
Hoffman’s official biography notes that her career includes books for both children and young adults in addition to her adult novels.
Alice Hoffman Nonfiction
Survival Lessons (2013)
Publication year: 2013
Format: Nonfiction
Key themes: Illness, resilience, survival, hope
Survival Lessons moves away from Hoffman’s fictional worlds and into personal reflection, offering observations about facing illness and difficult circumstances. It is a useful choice for readers interested in the author herself rather than her novels.
Alice Hoffman’s Short Fiction
Conjure (2014)
Publication year: 2014
Format: Short fiction
Key themes: Magic, imagination, relationships
Conjure belongs to Hoffman’s shorter fiction rather than her main novel bibliography and is best treated as supplemental reading for readers who want to explore her shorter-form storytelling.
Blackbird House (2004)
Publication year: 2004
Format: Linked short stories
Key themes: Generations, place, family, memory
Although often catalogued alongside Hoffman’s novels, Blackbird House is structurally a collection of interconnected stories centered on one Cape Cod house. The stories move across generations, making the setting itself the thread that connects them.
What Is the Best Alice Hoffman Book to Read First?
For most new readers, Practical Magic is the easiest starting point because it introduces the Owens family and contains many of the qualities associated with Hoffman: magical realism, family relationships, love, loss, folklore, and ordinary life touched by something supernatural.
If you prefer historical fiction, try The Dovekeepers, The World That We Knew, The Marriage of Opposites, or When We Flew Away.
If you prefer books about books and literary magic, The Invisible Hour is an especially strong choice.
And if you want Hoffman’s newest work, start with The Witches of Cambridge, her 2026 novel about two Radcliffe students drawn into a secret society of witches.
Should You Read the Practical Magic Books in Publication Order or Chronological Order?
For most first-time readers, I recommend publication order:
- Practical Magic
- The Rules of Magic
- Magic Lessons
- The Book of Magic
This is the order in which readers originally discovered the Owens family.
However, if you are more interested in following the family history from its earliest point, use chronological order:
- Magic Lessons
- The Rules of Magic
- Practical Magic
- The Book of Magic
The important point is that Alice Hoffman herself says either order is valid.
Are Alice Hoffman’s Books Connected?
Most of Alice Hoffman’s adult novels are standalone books, so you do not need to read them in publication order.
The major connected works include the Practical Magic series and the Green Angel books. Her Once Upon a Time Bookshop Stories also form a connected group.
Other books may share Hoffman’s recurring concerns—magic, family, memory, love, history, grief, and transformation—without sharing characters or a fictional universe.
What Is Alice Hoffman’s Writing Style Like?
Hoffman’s fiction is often associated with magical realism, but reducing her writing to “books about magic” misses much of what makes her work distinctive.
Her stories frequently begin in recognizable worlds—small towns, families, marriages, schools, historical communities, or ordinary relationships—and then introduce elements of folklore, coincidence, supernatural possibility, or impossible events.
She also returns repeatedly to women’s lives, family inheritance, grief, love, resilience, identity, and the relationship between ordinary life and the mysterious.
That combination is particularly visible across books as different as Practical Magic, The Dovekeepers, The Invisible Hour, and When We Flew Away.
About Alice Hoffman
Alice Hoffman was born in New York City in 1952 and grew up on Long Island. She studied at Adelphi University before receiving an MA in creative writing from Stanford University and later studying at Harvard Divinity School.
She wrote her first novel, Property Of, when she was twenty-one. Since then, she has published more than thirty novels along with short fiction and books for children and young adults. Her work has been translated into numerous languages and has appeared on major literary and bestseller lists.
Her best-known work is undoubtedly Practical Magic, which became a major film starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. But Hoffman’s bibliography is much broader than that single novel: she has written historical fiction, literary family dramas, magical realism, young adult fiction, children’s books, and nonfiction.
Her historical novel The Dovekeepers was adapted into a television miniseries, while Aquamarine became a feature film. Here on Earth was also selected for Oprah’s Book Club.
Hoffman’s more recent work has continued to move between history and magical storytelling. The Invisible Hour explores the power of books and time, When We Flew Away imagines Anne Frank’s life before hiding, and The Witches of Cambridge returns to the subject of witches through a new 1950s setting.
Frequently Asked Questions About Alice Hoffman Books
How many Alice Hoffman books are there?
Alice Hoffman has published more than thirty works of fiction, including more than thirty novels, short fiction, and books for children and young adults. The exact number depends on whether short stories, collections, picture books, and other formats are counted separately. Her official biography describes a career spanning more than thirty novels, three books of short fiction, and eight books for children and young adults.
What is the correct order to read Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic books?
The recommended publication order is Practical Magic (1995), The Rules of Magic (2017), Magic Lessons (2020), and The Book of Magic (2021).
If you prefer chronological story order, read Magic Lessons, The Rules of Magic, Practical Magic, and The Book of Magic. Alice Hoffman explicitly says readers can choose either order.
Is Practical Magic the first Alice Hoffman book?
No. Practical Magic was published in 1995, but Alice Hoffman’s first novel was Property Of, published in 1977.
By the time Practical Magic appeared, Hoffman had already published numerous novels, including The Drowning Season, Angel Landing, White Horses, Fortune’s Daughter, Illumination Night, At Risk, Seventh Heaven, Turtle Moon, and Second Nature.
What is Alice Hoffman’s newest book?
As of September 2026, Alice Hoffman’s newest novel is The Witches of Cambridge, published September 8, 2026.
The novel begins a new series and follows Ava and Lauren, two Radcliffe students who are recruited into the secret Lilith Society, a group of witches whose history reaches back to colonial Cambridge. The story also brings McCarthyism and the disappearance of young women into its mystery.
What is the best Alice Hoffman book to start with?
Practical Magic is the best starting point if you want Hoffman’s most recognizable combination of magic, family, romance, and folklore.
For historical fiction, The Dovekeepers is a strong choice. For a literary story centered on books, The Invisible Hour is an excellent entry point, while When We Flew Away is particularly suited to readers interested in historical fiction about Anne Frank.
Do you need to read Alice Hoffman books in order?
No. Most of Hoffman’s adult novels are standalone stories, so you can read them in whatever order interests you.
The main exception is her connected series. The Practical Magic novels should be read as a series, while Green Angel should be followed by Green Witch if you want Green’s complete story.
Are Alice Hoffman’s books fantasy or magical realism?
Hoffman’s work is most commonly associated with magical realism, although she also writes literary fiction, historical fiction, contemporary family drama, and young adult fiction.
Her supernatural elements are often woven into otherwise recognizable worlds rather than creating completely separate fantasy universes. That is why a book such as Practical Magic can be about witches while remaining deeply concerned with ordinary subjects such as family, love, grief, marriage, and belonging.
Is The Witches of Cambridge part of Practical Magic?
No. The Witches of Cambridge is a new series rather than another Owens family novel.
It shares some thematic territory with Practical Magic, particularly women’s relationships, witchcraft, secret societies, and the historical treatment of women accused of being witches, but it follows different characters in 1950s Cambridge and centers on the fictional Lilith Society at Radcliffe.
Which Alice Hoffman books are historical fiction?
Several of Hoffman’s novels have strong historical settings. Notable examples include The Dovekeepers, set during the Roman siege of Masada; The Marriage of Opposites, set in nineteenth-century St. Thomas; The World That We Knew, set during the Holocaust; When We Flew Away, which explores Anne Frank’s life before hiding; and The Witches of Cambridge, set in 1950s Massachusetts.
Is The Dovekeepers based on a true story?
The Dovekeepers is a historical novel inspired by the real siege of Masada and the historical context surrounding the Jewish survivors who resisted Roman forces.
Hoffman uses historical events as the foundation but tells the story through fictionalized characters and perspectives, allowing the novel to explore the personal experiences, relationships, sacrifices, and survival of women living through the siege.
Final Verdict
Alice Hoffman’s bibliography is much richer than Practical Magic alone. Her books move from contemporary family stories and magical realism to historical fiction, Holocaust literature, young adult novels, children’s books, and the newest generation of witch stories in The Witches of Cambridge.
If you are completely new to Hoffman, Practical Magic remains the most natural starting point. Read the four Owens novels in publication order if you want to experience the family as readers originally did, or choose chronological order if you want to trace the family history from Maria Owens forward. Hoffman herself supports either approach.
If witches are not your main interest, there are plenty of other entry points. The Dovekeepers is ideal for historical fiction readers, The Invisible Hour is particularly appealing to anyone who loves books about books, and When We Flew Away offers a deeply researched fictional portrait of Anne Frank before her family went into hiding.
And now there is another place to begin: The Witches of Cambridge, Hoffman’s September 2026 novel and the opening book of a new series. It shows that even after decades of writing about magic, family, history, and the lives of women, Hoffman still has new corners of that world to explore.
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