Alice Hoffman Books in Order (Updated 2026-02-08)

Alice Hoffman is an American novelist known for lyrical contemporary fiction, historical novels, and magical realism. Her bibliography includes many true standalones, plus one famous connected sequence: the Practical Magic books (the Owens family).

If you’re reading for continuity (and spoilers), Practical Magic is the only place where order really changes your experience. Everything else can be chosen by theme.

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Quick navigation

• Want the witches first? Go to Practical Magic (recommended order)
• Want to read “everything” in a straight line? Use Novels in publication order
• Reading with younger readers? See Young adult, middle grade, and children’s books

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Practical Magic series

These four books share one family line and a long timeline. You can read them two different ways depending on what you want.

Recommended order for most readers (keeps the original mystery and later reveals intact)

1. Practical Magic (1995): Two sisters from a cursed witch family try to build ordinary lives while love and fate refuse to behave.
2. The Rules of Magic (2017): A prequel following siblings as they learn the family history they were never meant to uncover.
3. Magic Lessons (2020): The origin story that reaches back centuries to the beginning of the curse.
4. The Book of Magic (2021): A sequel that pulls multiple generations together as the family confronts the cost of the curse.

Chronological order (best if you want the timeline to move forward in-world)

1. Magic Lessons
2. The Rules of Magic
3. Practical Magic
4. The Book of Magic

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Novels in publication order

This is the cleanest “career order” list. Unless a book is part of Practical Magic (marked above), treat each as a standalone.

1. Property Of (1977): A sharp coming-of-age debut centered on desire, control, and consequences.
2. The Drowning Season (1979): A family’s private storms gather around a mother with secrets and a daughter coming undone.
3. Angel Landing (1980): A troubled marriage and a strained mother–daughter bond reach a breaking point.
4. White Horses (1982): A woman returns home and confronts what her family tried to bury.
5. Fortune’s Daughter (1985): A restless search for identity and belonging across complicated family ties.
6. Illumination Night (1987): A small town’s oddities and quiet miracles collide in one fateful season.
7. At Risk (1988): A family faces a crisis that reshapes love, fear, and everyday life.
8. Seventh Heaven (1990): Suburban routines splinter under longing, temptation, and regret.
9. Turtle Moon (1992): A Florida community is shaken by violence and strange, dreamlike forces.
10. Second Nature (1994): A woman’s reinvention meets wilderness, desire, and danger.
11. Practical Magic (1995): (See series section.)
12. Here on Earth (1997): A return to first love exposes old damage and new obsession.
13. Local Girls (1999): A generational portrait of women, friendship, and family inheritance.
14. The River King (2000): A town’s myths and tragedies surface after a young man’s death.
15. Blue Diary (2001): A marriage is tested when the past refuses to stay past.
16. The Probable Future (2003): Three generations of women navigate gifts, choices, and fate.
17. Blackbird House (2004): Interlinked lives unfold around a house that seems to remember everyone.
18. The Ice Queen (2005): A woman with a dangerous touch learns what intimacy costs.
19. Skylight Confessions (2007): A family’s public life cracks under private sorrow.
20. The Third Angel (2008): A woman’s life is reshaped by a chain of losses and unexpected grace.
21. The Story Sisters (2009): Three sisters carry childhood trauma into very different adult lives.
22. The Red Garden (2011): A town’s history is told through love stories, legends, and grief.
23. The Dovekeepers (2011): Women at Masada fight to survive a siege with faith, love, and resolve.
24. The Museum of Extraordinary Things (2014): A Coney Island world of spectacle hides cruelty, devotion, and secrets.
25. The Marriage of Opposites (2015): A historical novel of art, passion, and a life that refuses convention.
26. Faithful (2016): A woman survives catastrophe and discovers loyalty in the most unexpected form.
27. The Rules of Magic (2017): (See series section.)
28. The World That We Knew (2019): A wartime story shaped by love, loss, and a mother’s desperate act of creation.
29. Magic Lessons (2020): (See series section.)
30. The Book of Magic (2021): (See series section.)
31. The Invisible Hour (2023): A woman’s education and awakening challenge the limits set around her life.
32. When We Flew Away (2024): A novel imagining Anne Frank’s life before the diary, shaped by family and looming danger.
33. The Witches of Cambridge (2026): A new era of witchcraft, friendship, and fear in 1950s Cambridge.

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Young adult, middle grade, and children’s books

These are separate from the adult novels and from Practical Magic continuity.

Young adult and teen novels (publication order)

1. Aquamarine (2001): A summer friendship collides with a mysterious girl from the sea.
2. Indigo (2002): A return to the coastal world where love and magic don’t play fair.
3. Green Angel (2003): A grief-struck girl rebuilds a life after loss.
4. The Foretelling (2005): Young women in an isolated society face prophecy, rebellion, and choice.
5. Incantation (2006): A girl in medieval Spain confronts persecution and hidden identity.
6. Green Witch (2010): A continuation of Green Angel’s journey into power and healing.

Middle grade

• Nightbird (2015): A girl in a cursed town searches for a way to change what everyone accepts as “normal.”

Children’s books

• Fireflies: A Winter’s Tale (1999): A gentle winter story rooted in wonder.
• Horsefly (2000): A picture-book style tale with a quiet, fable-like mood.
• Moondog (2004): A child-and-dog story shaped by imagination and heart.

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The safest starting points

• For the classic Hoffman experience: Practical Magic
• For historical fiction: The Dovekeepers or The Marriage of Opposites
• For modern standalone intensity: Here on Earth or Blue Diary
• For younger readers: Nightbird

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FAQs

Do I need to read Alice Hoffman in order?
Only for the Practical Magic books, where later installments can spoil earlier reveals.

Is Practical Magic a long series?
It’s four core novels, and they can be read either in the order written or in timeline order.

What’s the newest confirmed adult novel right now?
The Witches of Cambridge (2026) is the most recently announced new novel.

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Calm conclusion

If you want one clear plan: begin with Practical Magic, then continue the Owens family books in the recommended order. After that, you can choose any standalone by theme, Hoffman’s non-series novels are designed to be entered from many different doors.