Loved it! Highly recommend. This is my new favorite Melissa Albert book. This review is base on an ARC. A page turner from the first chapter.

Our Crooked Hearts was a fun, wild and fast-paced read that is so enjoyable. This book really kept me on the edge of my seat and I didn’t want to put it down at all.

Ivy is a relentless protagonist who is on a mission to discover her mother’s disturbing secrets. This novel offers multiple character perspectives that engrossed you into their dark and disturbing world. This novel reminds me of The Craft. If you’re into dark tales about witches, covens, and the relationship between mother and daughter, this is the book for you.

Although a slow burn, the plot moves quickly and really makes this read impossible to put down once started. I highly recommend this novel and think many other readers would too!

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and author for the advanced reader copy.

Melissa Albert just has a way of weaving these worlds that completely devours you, in the best way. I loved the witchy elements of this book as well as the intertwined storylines. Usually they are hard for me to follow but I didn’t find that with this book as they weaved together with that golden thread. The story was intriguing with the right amount of mystery and supernatural elements.

3,5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the e-arc for an honest opinion.

Please take in mind it’s my opinion, and everyone is allowed to have one.

This started off so good and I was instantly hooked, I liked where it was going! I didn’t expect this to be a more POV book, so that startled me at first. I did like the story but somewhere at the second part it felt like it was being rushed. This was a nice read, loved the mystery.

I loved the whole witchy vibe, it was nice to see but hoped we saw more of it but honestly this was a great book. I’d recommend this if you like a dark mystery.

This is one of those books you can’t put down, because something unfolds in the plot on every other page.

A story of magic, familial relationships, two timelines, and my favorite, a boy next door (or across the street) thrown in.

The only reason I didn’t rate it a 5, was I preferred the present timeline and took me a bit to become interested in the past/Dana timeline. But it was definitely needed to explain so many questions looming from the start.

Great read, like all of Albert’s books.

I love Melissa Albert's books (especially THE NIGHT COUNTRY) and I also love teen witch drama, stories about the 90s, anything involving very intense female friendships, and the city of Chicago itself, so I was primed to love OUR CROOKED HEARTS from start to finish! Albert's incredible visual imagination is what makes her stories so vivid and haunting to me, and that creeping presence of the uncanny was present from the first page.

The multiple timelines and perspectives were not difficult for me to sort out, but I felt like the book came off the rails a bit around the pivotal scene from the past, where things started happening very fast in one timeline and very slow in another. I love to read Albert's novels because the worlds she invents are so complex, beautifully grotesque, and disturbing—full of fairy tales gone wrong and magic waiting to consume its petitioners. I think of Albert as a writer with a strong skill for control as she unravels her many-layered unguessable occult mysteries. Despite the rushed part in the middle, I thought that skill won out here in the end and she delivered a highly satisfying, character-driven third act that wowed me and kept me turning the story over & over in my mind. I was sad when it ended and I am always ready to read another of her books!

With sincere thanks to Flatiron & Netgalley for the ARC.

𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐂𝐫𝗼𝗼𝐤𝐞𝐝 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬 | 𝑹𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘

Pub Date: June 28th, 2022

💭- Reading this felt like having a little treat! The story of generational magic and the difficulties it brought mother and daughter felt refreshing and familiar. I loved the past and present timelines, and how Albert effortlessly wove the story between them.
Magic, betrayal, friendship, family & adventure is what you’ll enjoy in this lovely story of a mother and daughter navigating the past and their power!

★★★★★

📖 𝐒𝐲𝐧𝗼𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬- The suburbs, right now . . .
Seventeen-year-old Ivy’s summer break kicks off with an accident, a punishment, and a mystery: a stranger whose appearance in the middle of the road, in the middle of the night, heralds a string of increasingly unsettling events. As the days pass, Ivy grapples with eerie offerings, corroded memories, and a secret she’s always known—that there's more to her mother than meets the eye.

The city, back then . . .
Dana has always been perceptive. And the summer she turns sixteen, with the help of her best friend and an ambitious older girl, her gifts bloom into a heady fling with the supernatural. As the trio’s aspirations darken, they find themselves speeding toward a violent breaking point.

Years after it began, Ivy and Dana's shared story will come down to a reckoning among a daughter, a mother, and the dark forces they never should’ve messed with.

Thank you to @netgalley, @flatiron_books, and @melissaalbertauthor for an advanced copy of this e-book in exchange for my honest review! ♡︎♡︎

I grew up with witch movies like The Craft and Practical Magic. Movies that can can be dark, and chilling while also showcasing women and their power and their relationships with each other. I never found a witch book that had the same feeling until now. Our Crooked Hearts is deliciously dark, creepy, and a complete page turner.

The story begins with seventeen-year-old Ivy and a car accident which is the result of both her crappy ex-boyfriend and a strange woman darting from the road. Soon, a string of eerie events leads Ivy to find out why strange things keep happening. She also is intent to find the truth about her mother and the things she can do. The past, Dana, Ivy’s mother is seventeen, her and her both best friend are going through their own struggles when they meet an eerie older girl who helps the, discover their powers while also leading them down a very dark path. The two timelines collide as consequences of the past catch up to all the women.

I loved this book. The writing was so well done. I was completely sucked into the story and the beauty if the language. The language sets the tone for this dark fantasy. The women in this book are so fascinating. E get to see them struggle with life, magic, and relationships and they make a lot of mistakes. The magic felt so tangible like if I looked up or reached out my hand I could touch it, I just have to say again Melissa Albert has a real mastery of language!

This book follows two timelines and it does it flawlessly. The one timeline has a direct impact on the next and the tension and mystery that builds up is superb. The mother daughter relationship is so compelling. Their is a bit of romance but it’s more of a side point.

I have been a fan of Melissa Albert since The Hazel Wood. This book is phenomenal for anyone look for a creepy, dark fantasy.

I think this may be one of the best witch books I have read to date. I want to thank NetGalley and Flatiron books for this eARC. My review is honest and it in no way biased by receiving this copy.

I requested this ARC based on how much I enjoyed the Hazelwood books, and while it took me a bit to get into, I'm happy that I did. "Our Crooked Hearts" is entirely different from Hazelwood, but shares the same beautifully evocative writing and sense of menace. The book jumps back and forth between Ivy and her mother Dana. Ivy is slowly realizing that there is something very wrong in her life, and that the unsettling things that keep happening are all centered on her mother. Dana's sections follow her teenage years, giving insight in to the decisions that she made in the past that have led to Ivy's current situation.

"Our Crooked Hearts" starts off a bit slowly but accelerates towards the end once it hits the halfway point. My biggest issue with the book is that we don't really get enough of Ivy in the first half to get much of a feel for her. To be fair, that issue is mostly resolved later on, but it made it slightly difficult to focus on her sometimes. The book does do a very good job with Dana, showing her as someone who is a complicated person with her own past and her own flaws, as opposed to just being shoe horned into the role of mother.

In the end I was left wanting more of Ivy and her world. This book didn't grab me quite as strongly as the Hazelwood but it's a wonderfully creepy standalone about witches and family and betrayal that sticks with you after you finish the story.

This book was pretty good, but I found it to be a bit slow and hard to get into at times. Overall it was well written and had an intriguing story that kept me reading. The book flips between the story lines of Ivy (present time)and her mother, Dana (past). I found myself losing interest the most with Dana’s storyline and would have preferred the book more if it stayed mostly in the present. Overall, the book was pretty good, but not a favorite of mine.

This book was just ok. I loved The Hazelwood by this author and thought I would feel the same about this one. I enjoyed the writing and read it within a couple days. I liked the way it was told and the information gained between past and present but something fell a little flat. It was almost anticlimactic- I wanted something bigger and better as it all came together. Not a bad book and might be worth the read if you like witches- but it isn’t a great book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Flatiron books for providing me an ARC.

Let me start by saying, I really enjoy Melissa Albert's writing. She creates such a lush, moody, and kind of dark world for the reader to wander through. She does such a great job making her characters intriguing, relatable, and charming.

I really enjoyed this book so much. The story was so interesting to follow along with. The jumps to the past and the "Elsewhere" gave this story some tension and kept me flipping pages.

My only complaint is, I was hoping to see the 3 women come together, heal their damaged relationships, and take on the world as bad ass witches. Instead I got a HEA (and maybe an open mirror to a book two?)

Our Crooked Hearts is dark and magical, intoxicating and twisted. Ivy and her mom don’t really see eye to eye, but when weird things start happening around Ivy’s house, she needs to get to the bottom of it—and her mother’s strangeness. Written in two timelines that come together, Our Crooked Hearts is full of twists and turns that keep you on your toes, and maybe even creating a casting of your own, until the last page.

I absolutely loved this book! The writing was stunning. Albert’s descriptions are intense and she uses words that I never would be able to imagine. “Tell it again. Tell it crooked.” That line, as simple as it is, was incredible. 5/5, would highly recommend.

Our Crooked Hearts is so different from The Hazel Wood that it felt like reading a book by a different author. They both have urban fantasy at their core, but aside from that, they're nothing alike.

I absolutely loved The Hazel Wood series and was very excited to read Our Crooked Hearts. It may not have been what I expected, but I did really like it. There are two different timelines: one in the late '90s and one set in today's world. It also has a witch story that's different from most other witch books I've read.

The way that Melissa Albert brought this world to life was truly compelling. And one has to wonder whether she'll write a sequel. Either way, this is a nice change of pace for Albert. I'm looking forward to seeing what else she has in store for us in the future!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC. This book contains my honest, unbiased opinion.

Just when I thought I knew where this story was going, Melissa Albert hit me with a massive twist! I was a huge fan of The Hazel Wood and Our Crooked Hearts is right up there on my list of all time favorite books too. This was SUCH a fun read. I loved this take on witches.

This dark, moody fantasy YA pick was great! I absolutely loved this book. I will be recommending this to all YA readers who like a dark academia/fantasy story.

As a Dana, I was VERY excited to read a Melissa Albert book with a Dana!! I'm going to be super biased, but who cares. Supernatural, witchy, and creepy, with some really fun narratives. The characters were so good, and I love a good complicated mother-daughter relationship.

Thank you for NetGalley and Flariton pub. for this earc!

And Melissa Albert is back with a perfect, creepy, dark, witchy story that will keep you guessing all the way till the end.

I’m gonna start with the fact that I loved that this story had multiple POVs but especially Ivy’s Now POV and Dana’s Past POV. This way we were able to follow the same story from opposite ends and meet in the middle. I felt like I was reading a puzzle and the feeling when all the pieces fell into place was just the best!!!!!

The relationship between Ivy and her Mom is complicated and broken but written in the way that gives us hope that one day they will figure it out.

I liked how adult Ivy acted when she finally got her memories back. How she learned again, everything she once knew, but looked at it with the eyes of someone who was older.

I liked that Ivy tried to help Marion, who was so consumed the vengeance, in the only way she could, even if it could look “evil” to the people outside. She will always live with it. But she will also live her life.

And of course Billy. I don’t know how Melissa does it but she always makes me everything her love interests go through and this book wasn’t any different. The fact that Billy’s character was showing up more and more the closer Ivy got to the truth was done beautifully. How when she got her memories back the first person she went to was Billy because she trusted him to understand. The way Billy let Ivy fight her battles. Everything about their love spoke to me.

This book has everything: complicated family, friendship and love, witch craft and consequences. Absolutely brilliant story everyone needs to read

Interesting…. Definitely dark, but in a twisty way. I enjoyed reading Ivy figuring out the past and her mother’s plotline was nicely threaded throughout. Billy was a much more sympathetic character than either Ivy and her mom, just saying.

Additionally the magic system doesn’t really have rules, it’s all intuition mainly, at least for this family’s branch of magic. There are spell books but hmmm, don’t know why you’d trust them at all—which is my main beef with the plotline involving Ivy’s mom and co. I mean, would YOU trust a spell book like this given its shady origins, even before they knew more? Not I. Not even at that age.

I must admit that it seems that all the witchy books I’ve been reading lately the characters seem to completely ignore any rational thought when it comes to magic….🧐😧

There’s also some very weird similes and metaphors. Maybe they’ll be edited in the future? Ex: “Marion’s face was a void, her eyes as blank as eggs.” (????) And also something about pale watercolor on an eggshell, which as an artist, pretty much can guarantee you that doesn’t actually work. 😬

I enjoyed this book. The characters were well thought out and the plot moved at a great pace. I would enjoy reading more from this author in the future.