I'm struggling to see the point of this series. I spent the whole book waiting for something to happen, and every time it started to get even a little bit interesting, the moment passed.

Hoffman’s writing was much more captivating in Magic Lessons. In The Rules of Magic, the writing felt less like a narrative story and more like someone's study notes about a historical event. The entire book summarises characters and events, cutting it down to the core with no emotional or personal involvement. It almost felt like Hoffman forgot to go back and fill in the details to allow the story to live and breathe rather than just exist.

I'm not sure if you’re supposed to feel sorry for the Owens family, but I mostly find them annoying. It could be the lack of education - they all seem to drop out or stop attending school - or the alcohol or drug use from a young age - looking at you here, Vincent - but there’s no common sense in any of them. They’re only capable of ‘madly in love despite the curse’ or ‘I’ll never love anyone because of the curse’, which makes all of their choices frustrating and eventually pointless since they all give in and then end up regretting the time they wasted not giving in. I have yet to see evidence of a curse, by the way. Is the Owens family aware that people die and go to war and drown and break up, all as a routine part of human events? That a generational family curse isn’t required for love to end in heartbreak? And that if you make dumb irresponsible choices that put others in harm's way, you can’t blame it on a curse?

Whenever I started to like a character, they went out of their way to prove they were unlikeable, and then I was back to just trying to force myself through the book. Im regretting starting this series because I feel I can’t give up without giving Practical Magic a chance. I foresee a DNF in my future if it follows too closely in The Rules of Magic’s footsteps…