🥀 ┊ “ grow old along with me. the best is yet to be. ”

I really liked the mystery behind the garden, but I just couldn't get myself to root for literally any of the characters or their relationships. They weren't even fun to hate on, just insufferable.

The story wants us to believe that Rose and Hart are good for each other but I spent the entire time cringing at their unhealthy relationship. I honestly wouldn't believe they were friends, let alone soulmates. It was so bad that I was actively cheering on the 'antagonist' and hoping that they would be kept apart.

Also, I thought it was a little weird that one of the main mysteries was basically spoiled about 6% into the book. Maybe it was the way it was written, but I don't see any other ways we were meant to interpret it.

This book? A trippy, twisting, time-bending rabbit hole—and I willingly fell face-first into it. It lures you in like the garden itself, with beauty, mystery, and a few thorns along the way.

Romance? Check.
Grief and gut punches? Double check.
A surreal, dreamy narrative that makes you question everything? Ohhh yeah.

It’s a classic “be careful what you wish for” wrapped in petals and pain, where reality blurs and time loops like a fever dream. I’ll admit—there were moments I was like, where are we now?? But somehow, that just added to the magic.

Brilliantly creative, a little chaotic, and totally unforgettable.

4.5 stars rounded up!

I didn't have many expectations going into this book. I'm a huge fan of gothic YA novels, and this ended up having such an interesting concept.

Rose is the new girl, about to enter her senior year of high school, when she meets Hart. They're immediately connected, and Hart becomes her romantic interest, ignoring the fact that his sister, Heather hates her. And I mean she HATES her, and Rose has no idea why.
Hart and Rose's romance begins, but there's something odd about the garden at his family's mansion that is...off to say the least.

This book was a book I could NOT put down. I was crying at the end of Rose's first section of the book and into Hart's, confused, throughout, and felt like I was being mended back together in the end. The only reason I'm not giving this novel five stars is because I was able to guess a lot of twists, however that didn't make this less enjoyable.

This was a fantastic read, and I’m so lucky and grateful to Macmillan for this ARC. As a fan of Goldy Moldavsky’s The Mary Shelley Club, I was incredibly excited to receive this, and it absolutely delivered. Moldavsky truly nailed it. I’m such a fan of the way she constructs her mysteries—her storytelling is thoughtful, layered, and incredibly well-crafted.
This novel was not only beautifully written but also deeply thought-provoking. It explores themes of love, heartbreak, grief, loss, and time, all wrapped in a hauntingly gothic romance. The story follows Rose, who moves to Meadow Falls, Connecticut after her parents' divorce, settling into her dad’s old house. Just as things seem bleak, she meets Hart Hargrove, who reintroduces her to life, love, and the enchanting, mysterious Hardgrove Garden behind the family’s mansion.
But Rose soon realizes there’s more to the Hardgrove family—and their secret garden—than meets the eye. Moldavsky weaves a captivating tale about the power of love and the lengths two people will go to preserve it. It’s eerie, emotional, and unforgettable.

I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys dark romance, as Goldy masterfully blends the genre with thought-provoking themes of love, death, and grief.

4 ⭐ this book was fascinating. It was a lush tale, that was at some points dark, some points eerie and unnerving. The themes at the heart of this story are love and grief, and the lengths people go to keep something close, even if it is to the detriment of yourself and everyone around you. This book follows the love story between Rose and Hart, but throughout the entire first half of the book, you can tell that not everything is as it seems, and everything always comes back to the garden. All 0f the pain, suffering, joy, riches, beauty, grief- it can all be connected back to the garden.

About half way through the book, the perspectives change, and I really appreciated this aspect of the story. It was fascinating to have an insiders perspective of the Hargrove mansion and the garden, and it was necessary for many of the main questions in the plot to be answered. The writing itself felt a bit simplistic, and I think the story would have been even more captivating with lyrical prose. At times I feel like the author was attempting to emulate this, but having read other botanical horror/ gothic ~esque~ novels, I feel like it just didn't feel reach its full potential.

Nonetheless, this book was haunting and beautiful, and it is one of the better YA novels I have read recently. Thank you so much to NetGalley and Henry Colt and Co. for this eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Wow.

This book took me by surprise in every way and I could not put it down!

Rose's parents get divorced, and she moves from NYC to Meadow Falls, CT with her dad the summer right before her senior year. Almost as soon as she arrives, she literally runs into Hart Hargrove at the gas station and ends up covered in red slushie. Hart and his twin sister, Heather, live at Hemlock Hill, a well-known house in Meadow Falls known for its expansive gardens and legendary garden parties. When Hart invites Rose to the summer solstice party, they embark on a swift and passionate summer romance that almost feels like they were made for each other. But something is suspect about Hemlock Hill and its occupants, something Rose can't quite put her finger on. She only knows being with Hart in those strange gardens is like an addiction, one that could make or break her.

This book is the best parts of Tuck Everlasting, The Secret Garden, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with a dark twist on fate and desire. From the moment Rose and Hart and Heather collide, it's obvious something isn't quite right, but nothing is wrong enough for anyone to panic. Yet. The author did an incredible job of quickly building Rose and Hart's relationship while continually feeding us seeds of unwariness.

The first half of the book is told from Rose's perspective, interspersed with glimpses into her adult life with Hart as they go off to college together. It's their future puzzle, except some of the pieces don't quite fit. Bit by bit, the mystery builds until we eventually get our answers into what makes Hemlock Grove such a dark and magical place.

You basically get two books: a whirlwind, teen summer romance and a magical realism thriller. If you've been aching for a book that will keep you up at night, you DEFINITELY need to add this to your summer reading list.

The book began so sweetly and then progressed to a darker atmosphere. It felt very dark cottagecore and the flowery facts embedded within the novel was absolutely lovely! Rose and Hart had such wonderful chemistry and the book tore me apart during so many countless moments that I couldn’t describe. The characters and their development felt a bit stagnant throughout the novel but either way, their personalities pushed the story forward. I enjoyed reading the entire book and the ending tore me apart for reasons you’ll have to find out yourself!

Rose has just moved from New York City to a small suburban town in Connecticut after her parents' divorce, and immediately things are not going her way. After a fight with her Dad, Rose runs to the nearest corner mart to get a treat to cool down & runs into Hart. Well, actually, Hart runs into her & spills his red cherry slushie down her shirt. Not used to newcomers, Hart invites her along to a party to celebrate the back-to-school season, where she immediately and accidentally insults the school's most popular girl. Not only that, the popular girl, Heather, says something totally weird, which we find isn't an isolated incident as we get to know the character. She seems to think Rose has been here before, but she hasn't, has she?

Of Earthly Delights follows Rose's journey as she adapts to her new life & falls quickly for the Hargrove hottie, Hart. Quicker than she's used to, since she is usually so skeptical after being raised in NYC. The story was charming and enchanting, and had me wanting to read more and stay up way too late to get some answers. Through the beauty of falling in love and enjoying a perfectly landscaped garden, we also run into multiple instances where things just feel... uncanny or too familiar. The author did a great job of adding subtle hints throughout the story to make you uncomfortable without giving away the large plot twist, but makes it fun to look back and go, "OMG, I should've seen it coming!".

I really enjoyed this read and the mysterious journey it took me along as we experience love through a teenage lens and grief of losing the ones we love. I would recommend this story to anyone who enjoys an unsettling Gothic tale with a bit of romance.

Thank you to MacMillan Publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book! All opinions are my own and completely honest.

3.5/5

This is a really hard book to talk about without spoiling it, since the crux of it is about the big secret, but I'll do my best.

The setting was gorgeous, I love a gothic mansion, and the real highlight was the acres of gardens with tons of different "garden rooms" and secrets. The descriptions of it were beautiful, I always wanted to see more of it.

I thought the twists were really interesting, I had some of them figured out but not the full picture which made things even more interesting. I enjoyed how flawed the characters were, as they did some things that had you simultaneously rooting for them and watching through your fingers. It was really interesting to learn about their pasts and how grief affecting them so differently.

My main complaint was with the romance at the center of the book. Given how this book is marketed, and that the romance is such a large part of the motivations of the characters, I thought more time would be devoted to actually flesh out that romance. However, much of it is shown in a few snippets covering an entire summer in which they got to know each other and fell in love. Now I understand after finishing the book why that was done, but it still left me feeling disconnected to the romance and the characters individually as well. I think some more time devoted to getting you to actually be invested in their romance would've gone a long way.

I still think this book was worth reading due to the interesting twists and magical realism, but I was left disappointed by the romance especially with how it was marketed.

Thank you to the publisher for the early copy to review.

this was such an interesting read! i really enjoyed the gothic vibe this book had. its a bit creepy but thats what lures you in.

in short, this is an emotional rollercoaster. theres plenty of twists and turns that will leave you theorizing. you can expect a YA romance with a dark twist. oh, and some magic thrown in there :)

the story was a bit slow in the beginning and had a hard time keeping my interest, but it did pick back up so i’m glad i stuck it out. thats the only thing i didn’t quite enjoy. i would still very much recommend this read because it broke my heart. 😚

huge thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC!

3.5 stars

Of Earthly Delights is the first book I've read by Goldy Moldavsky but it won't be the last. I just knew from reading the summary of this one that I was going to enjoy it and I did.

Rose Pauly is our fmc and her parents just got divorced. Because of that she has just moved to Connecticut from New York City and she isn't happy about it. It's her senior year of high school and things couldn't be worse. On her first day she meets Hart Hargrove and there's an immediate connection.

Hart Hargrove comes from a well-known family in the area. Not only is the family well off but they have their own private garden behind the family mansion. Within the garden, there are weird things going on and things just don't seem right there but Rose shakes it off.

As Rose and Hart's relationship continues to grow and they find themselves more in love than ever, Hart makes the decision to share the secret about what is in the garden and it causes Rose to question everything. But Hart will do anything to save his relationship.

I have to admit, even though I knew what was going to happen, I still found the story engaging and page-turning. I thought how Moldavsky set this up (first from Rose's point of view and then from Hart's point of view) was a great way to do it. Having both perspectives helped tell the full story and truly understand the motives.

I thought the characters were well-developed too. It was interesting to see not only the relationship between Hart and Rose grow but also understanding Heather's perspective and why she acted the way she did was important. That said, I'm not sure that with her past actions she does herself any favors. Lowell is an interesting character too. I won't say much here as I don't want to give anything away but he starts out as such a good friend to Rose.

I can't say much more about this story as I don't want to ruin the story. That said, I would recommend you pick this one up. It is well-written, has an interesting story, and characters that will keep you engaged.

Thank you Macmillan Children's Publishing Group and Fierce Reads for inviting me to read Of Earthly Delights! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

"In every version of my future, you're in it."

Rose Pauly is forced to move from the Big Apple to a small town in Connecticut where she and her father will be making a new start after her mother leaves. Rose is not thrilled by this choice and after an argument made, she runs out of the house and enters the nearest convenience store where she meets Hart Hargrove. Their connection is instant. Hart invites Rose to one of his family's prestigious garden parties. There are secrets hidden within the garden and the center of its hedge maze. Unravelling them may cause irreparable damage to their relationship and Hart will do anything to keep Rose in his life.

I very much enjoyed the premise of Of Earthly Delights. While I'm not a fan of the instant connection between Rose and Hart, I'm more of a slow-burn romance reader, it made a lot of sense once plot-lines started to come together and they are explained in later chapters. The writing style came across as disjointed but I don't want to discount it too much because I'm not sure if it's due to the format of the e-ARC. There are scenes that play out in the future and they pop out of nowhere so that definitely left me with questions. Again, everything is explained and comes full circle but you have to get through the out-of-placement of it first and keep going.

I really liked Goldy Moldavsky's previous works like The Mary Shelley Club and Lord of the Fly Fest. Her work is strange and I adore her strange books. Her ideas are fun to read and I'm always intrigued by them. Of Earthly Delights is no different for me. The magic and wonder of the garden is developed well and I kind of wish we could have stayed lost inside for a little longer. The reveal of the twist is interesting with a slightly predictable ending. It wasn't hard to decipher but I also look at the table of contents whenever I read a new book on Netgalley so that may have given it away.

I do think Rose needed a smidge more development. When she is with Hart, we lose her. She is so wrapped in the summer love with him that we do not get more depth added to her character besides her being an artist and trying to figure out the mystery of the garden and what the Hargrove siblings may be hiding. I would have said that about Hart as well if we did not get his point of view chapters. His chapters towards the end helped with the explanations but also gave him and his family more depth.

Overall, the atmospheric vibes of this story are on point. I enjoyed the mystery, the plot twist, and the enchanted garden. I liked that Hart is a soft cinnamon roll who gardens, and Rose is the fish-out-of-water city girl. I understood that feeling being a New Yorker myself moving to Oregon.

I recommend Of Earthly Delights if you've read Predatory Natures by Amy Goldsmith (7/8/25) and House of Hearts by Skyla Arndt (9/2/25).

3.75 or 4 stars

✧₊‧˚⁀➷ 3.95/5 .ᐟ

ʚɞ ⁺˖ pros • the writing. it's so lovely and poetic and creates the perfect gothic atmosphere. i started this while i was in the middle of two other books, one paranormal gothic-ish and the other a heist fantasy, and neither gave me that lyrical fantasy writing i wanted, so when i skimmed the first few pages of this, i was immediately hooked. i also love how the book was structured—because of the flashback (i think they can be called that? sort of?) chapters, you can guess at the plot twist, but you're still shocked at the climax. the plot/pacing was very well done in general. i feel like i wouldn't have enjoyed the pacing in another book (almost all of rose's section is buildup, and hart's is mostly a will he/won't he/how will he do it back and forth), but both the writing style and the foreshadowing with heather's quips and the flashbacks made me more invested than i would have been normally.

ʚɞ ⁺˖ cons • characterization. given the plot and structure of the book, it may honestly be intentional, but rose is very manic pixie coded to me and hart barely has a personality until the last four or so chapters. and again, it very much makes sense, based on the plot, but it did kind of tamp down my enjoyment.

thank you to netgalley for the advanced copy.

I loved this book…. it’s dark, gothic, and so deliciously unsettling.

Rose Pauly isn’t thrilled to start over in a small Connecticut town, but things get interesting fast when she meets the charming, mysterious Hart…. That same day, he invites her to a party where she meets her new best friend, Lowell, and his sister Heather, who strangely warns Rose.

Soon, Rose is drawn into their world. As her connection with Hart deepens, she starts to sense something is very wrong….

This book is full of twists I didn’t see coming, with a moody, gothic atmosphere that totally hooked me.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group / Henry Holt and Co. for the ARC!

Ahhhh this book was incredible ! I want to go back and reread it all over again.

It was such an interesting story filled with twists that you won’t see coming (at least I didn’t). For most of the book I had no idea where the story was going but I also could not put it down.

The garden scenes were written so beautifully they I could picture everything (perfect read for springtime).

And that ending 🤯🤯🤯

Thank you Netgalley & Goldy Moldovsky for this arc. I can NOT wait to read the rest of her books.

I loved the gothic vibe. It is a great YA book with fantasy elements and a secret garden. It was honestly rather complex, and I enjoyed that.

Another fever-dream of a book with a secret garden, and I just adore weird little earthy books like this. It had me staring dumbfounded at the wall after finishing, and that’s quite possibly my favorite reaction to finishing a book. This twisty puzzle of a story (while predictable in some sense) left me questioning everything until the very end. This is a genre blender with a foreboding, ominous undertone that toes the line of horror. We’ve got deep love between two angsty teens, moments of gut-wrenching grief followed by masterful explorations on greed, vanity, desire, control, obsession and the consequences of wishes. Simply put: I ate this one up. Bravo 👏🏻

DNF @ 50%

After reading other reviews, I have surmised the twisty turns of the plot and the general idea of where the story leads.

The author’s style of writing and use of time jumping contributed to my choice to stop reading. I understand now why the timeline jump chapters were strategically placed.

Simply, this is not a book for me. However, I can see others loving and devouring a book like this.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy

Of Earthly Delights by Goldy Moldavsky is a third person dual-POV YA romantic gothic. When Rose moves from New York to Connecticut after her mother’s death, the last thing she expects is to find a new romance with Hart, one of a pair of popular twins who have a lot of power in Rose’s new small town. When Rose’s new friend Lowell goes through drastic changes, she starts to question Hart and his sister Heather.

I know that Gothic romance can have the room for not featuring a HEA/HFN, but I felt that the structure of the book in the second half veered away from the Romance beats and became more about Hart and Heather and what they have gone through since they were children. If these chapters had been one chapter Rose’s POV and one chapter Hart and then one chapter Rose, I might feel differently. Because of this, I would classify this as a romantic gothic as the romance arc is the driving force, but it’s necessarily a Romance book.

Between Rose and Hart, I actually enjoyed Hart more as a POV character. He’s more introspective and reflective, but the moments when we’re deep in his head paint him as truly sympathetic, especially when we get more of his childhood. His relationship with Heather is also very complex because she’s much less cautious than he is when it comes to the maze in their home but she’s still his sister and she is all he really has left of his family after the death of their mother and the continued absences of his father.

The romance between Rose and Hart is fairly intense fairly fast. Rose spends all of her time over the summer with Hart to the point that she ignores Lowell and her father. It’s something that I definitely do expect of a seventeen-year-old as a lot of teens in the middle of their first love do struggle with remembering that things outside of the relationship do exist. Rose is also aware enough to recognize that she is focusing solely on her relationship, but she’s not sure how to get out of that headspace since she truly does want to spend all of her time with Hart.

I would recommend this to fans of Gothic romance and romantic Gothics looking for a YA with a speculative element and readers of YA looking for something more tragic

Of Earthly Delights is a hauntingly beautiful story of love, grief and obsession. I devoured it in 24 hours, eating up every single word.

Mostly set amongst the luscious gardens of a mansion, there’s a consistent mysterious and slightly sinister atmosphere that all is not as it seems. As the cover promises, “every rose has its thorn.” It’s a story of young love that reads like a dark fairytale; be careful what you wish for.

Goldy Moldavsky’s storytelling is gorgeous. This is a stand-out novel.