Hoffman, Alice

In May 1940, Anne Frank is a young girl not quite eleven with all the ordinary problems of a little sister, but Amsterdam is about to be invaded by Nazis and after that everything changes.

Disappointed each time she has reached out to her family, and finding her blood relationships disintegrating, Teresa half expects a shadowy stranger to save her.

The lives of two women, one unmarried and pregnant, the other older, married and still grieving over the loss of her child intertwine and fate offers them the opportunity to change their lives forever.

Beginning on the night of the Grand Illumination, an unearthly festival of lanterns held on Martha's Vineyard, the novel chronicles a marriage and a bittersweet exploration of an extraordinary passion.

When her mother dies, Martha is so unhappy living in the dried-up town of Oak Grove, that she convinces two unusual brothers who long to return to the ocean to run away with her.

"The Owens family has been cursed in matters of love for over three-hundred years but all of that is about to change. The novel begins in a library, the best place for a story to be conjured, when beloved aunt Jet Owens hears the deathwatch beetle and knows she has only seven days to live. Jet is not the only one in danger--the curse is already at work"--Provided by publisher.

"The prequel to Alice Hoffman's Practical magic, following the lives of Franny and Jet Owens (and their brother Vincent Owens) long before Sally and Gillian wound up on their doorstep"--Provided by publisher.

"After Maria Owens was abandoned in a snowy field in rural 1600s England as a baby she comes under the care of Hannah Owens and she learns about the 'Unnamed Arts.' Hanna recognizes that Maria has a gift and teaches the girl all she knows. When Maria is abandoned by the man who has declared his love for her, she follows him to Salem, Massachusetts. Here she invokes the curse that will huant her family. And it's here that she learns the rules of magic and the lesson that she will carry with her for the rest of her life. Love is the only thing that matters"--Adapted from publisher description.

Twig, aged twelve, is practically ignored by classmates and other residents of Sidwell, Massachusetts, but gets along fine with just her mother and brother, whose presence must be kept secret, until descendants of the witch who cursed her family move in next door and want to be her friends.