The first book in the Practical Magic book series focuses on sisters Sally and Gillian Owens. After their parents die in an apparent accident, they go to live with their eccentric aunts in a small Massachusetts town. The aunts, Franny and Jet, have been blamed for everything that goes wrong in the town for years, and soon Sally and Gillian bear the brunt of that mistrust as well. They're constantly picked on at school and teased for being witches. They grow up watching their aunts cast spells and make love potions, and even after they discover their own magical abilities, they both long to get away and live their own lives. They choose to do so in very different ways, but fate draws them back together.

Narrator Christina Moore captures the unique personalities of both sisters with subtle shifts in voice and tone. Free-spirited Gillian runs away to California while Sally marries and settles down to raise two children as quietly as possible. Both their lives are thrown into turmoil when Sally's husband dies suddenly, and Gillian turns up on Sally's doorstep with the dead body of her boyfriend in her car. Though it's been years since they lived in the same state, the sisters are still close and together begin to unravel the ancient curse that has plagued the women in their family since the 1600s.

Magic Lessons is the first of two Practical Magic prequels that explore the backstory of the Owens family. Magic Lessons is a great place to start if you're new to the series. This is the story of Maria Owens, the matriarch of the Owens family and the woman who instigated the curse that has plagued them for centuries. Tony Award-winning actor Sutton Foster's narration is dripping with lush magic. She's particularly good at describing Maria's spell-casting, and her dramatic renditions of dialogue add to the inherent tension of the story.

In the early 1600s, Maria is abandoned as a baby in rural England. She's raised by Hannah Owens, who immediately sees that Maria has a special gift. She teaches her all about magic, otherwise known as the "Nameless Acts," and about love. Maria learns Hannah's cardinal rule early on: Only love people who love you back. When, as a young woman, Maria is abandoned by the man she loves, she follows him to Salem, Massachusetts, desperately hoping to win him back. Instead, she unleashes the curse that will haunt the Owens family for generations and ends up being accused of witchcraft.

Seasoned narrator Marin Ireland brings a smooth, lyrical performance to The Rules of Magic, a second prequel, which takes place hundreds of years after Magic Lessons, in 1960s New York City. It links the ancient history of the Owens family to the more recent history of the Owens aunts, focusing on their mother, Susanna, and their childhood alongside their brother, Vincent. Susanna has always known that witchy magic runs in her blood, and she knows her three children have the same unusual powers she does. Franny is the difficult one; her sister, Jet, has the uncanny ability to read people's thoughts; and their brother, Vincent, is the resident troublemaker. Attempting to keep her children safe, Susanna concocts an intricate series of rules about what they can and cannot do. Supreme among these rules is the directive never to fall in love.

It's not until Franny, Jet, and Vincent visit their aunt in a small Massachusetts town that they begin to understand the true magnitude of their family legacy—and just how dangerous it will be to escape it. Returning to New York with the new knowledge of where they come from, and the secrets their mother has kept from them their whole lives, the three siblings set out on separate paths in an attempt to trick, or at least delay, their destiny.

The breathtaking final installment of the series is the first true sequel to Practical Magic, set years after the events of the 1995 novel. At long last, three generations of the Owens family come together to heal their long-standing rifts and break the curse that has been haunting them since long before any of them can remember. Jennifer Ehle is the perfect narrator for this masterful conclusion to a beloved series. She swings easily among a variety of accents and depicts each of the Owens family members—from the oldest to the youngest—with unique voices.

When Jet Owens notices an ominous portent, she senses she only has a week left to live. In the days that follow, Jet, her niece Sally, Sally's daughter Kylie, Jet's long-missing brother Vincent, and the rest of the Owens family rush halfway around the world as they work to break the curse before it is too late. They travel from Massachusetts to Paris, London, and the tiny English town where Maria Owens first used magic. As long-held secrets are revealed and old rivalries put to rest, three generations of the Owens family finally come to understand what Maria learned hundreds of years earlier: that love is the most important thing.