A haunting, chilling dark fantasy. I enjoyed this read and it was easily bingeable. Was it a perfect book - no. But the flaws were easily overlookable

I loved the premise of this book and whilst I felt it did fall short, I still enjoyed the book in the end. Our Crooked Hearts was quite slow-paced, to begin with, and didn't capture my attention until almost halfway through. The constant change between past and present, Dana and Ivy, took a while to get used to and in the beginning, I found myself skimming Ivy's PoV to read Dana's. Despite my negative thoughts on part 1, part 2 of the book kept me captivated with its faster pace and stronger storyline which made up for the lacklustre start.

Melissa Albert was born to write spells. Her whimsical lyrical writing shines in this witchy thriller. Our Crooked Hearts is an immersive atmospheric page-turner with a good balance of unsettling and sinister twists and turns(view spoiler). Melissa's writing keeps growing with each new story and I look forward to reading more.

Recommended for fans of The Hazel Wood, These Deathless Bones, The Vine Witch, The Ravens, House of Salt and Sorrows, The Midnight Lie, Holly Black, Cassandra Clare, Victoria Schwab

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin for the ARC

Our Crooked Hearts was like a shiver down my spine. It was haunting, chilling and mysterious in all the best ways.

This is a book that just unnerves you with its fragmented, haunting style and chilling atmosphere. It is exquisitely unsettling, reminding you of that just beyond your vision. Magic collides with trauma and secrets here to concoct what I think is Albert’s strongest story yet. I was totally captivated by this twisty, bloody and enrapturing book. Albert’s writing perfectly encapsulates this atmosphere, with a lyrical feel to it in its gorgeous evocative nature. However, it also had such a sharp edge to it. I loved the slow burn of the mystery and how past and present collided in contrasting narrative threads. There is always something more than what it seems here. That glimmer of danger that manifests on every page is startling and yet undeniably alluring. You cannot help but what to know exactly what lurks in the dark.

Ivy herself is a shadowy protagonist to follow along. She’s fierce, determined and smart, but there’s an undercurrent of rage within her and a tangled relationship with her family. Albert offers you little hints that create this shocking larger picture later in the book and are sure to reward the reader with a knowing smile upon a reread. Her journey is definitely one that will surprise you, but it is fascinating to follow along. Alternatively, we get an insight into her mum Dana’s perspective in the past. These two storylines come to intersect in many unexpected ways that illuminate a discussion of temptation, damnation and death. Magic always has a price and the one presented here just might be too high.

Our Crooked Hearts offers up its bloody, beating heart of witchcraft, family and long buried secrets in a shadowy spell cast upon the reader.

This is a good one. Melissa Albert has written a wonderfully crafted, original, dark fantasy. Ivy is about to find her family’s past is very much more complicated and dangerous than she can possibly image. Everything you want in a good fantasy read is here, with twists and turns as the past meets the present. Thank you to Flatiron books and NetGalley for letting me read an ARC. The views expressed are all my own, freely given.

Thank you Penguin Random House Children’s U.K. and NetGalley for the arc of Our Crooked Hearts by Melissa Albert in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

This is probably my favourite of all Melissa Albert’s books to date. An intriguing, supernatural tale woven beautifully across dual timelines that starts with Ivy, an average seventeen year old with what appears to be a usual teenage, fractious and tumultuous relationship with her parents, but supernatural events start happening, triggering Ivy into digging deeper into her family history and mystery.

Written across Ivy’s and her mother’s timelines around the age of 17 onwards, the book delivers a story of magic, supernatural, intrigue, and loss. It traverses the outcomes of decisions and choices that shape their lives until the two timelines converge into the almost circular conclusion.

There is a lot more I could say about Albert’s writing style, prose and formatting, but that is for you to judge. What I will say is that this was a book I could take my time over, putting it down and picking it back up, giving me a chance to mull over the content and views.

Definitely an intriguing story and that if you are a fan of witch craft, one to pick up.

I absolutely loved this book, it had dual narratives and alternated between the present with Ivy and the past with her mom Dana.

During Dana's chapters we learn how she became involved in magic as well as who was part of her circle/coven.

Some parts of this story gave me The Craft vibes so if you are a fan of the film I would recommend this book!

I would love to read more and hope that this becomes a series.

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me an arc copy.

Our Crooked Hearts is a spooky and sinister mystery with witches thrown in. Unfortunately, I just wasn't a fan of the writing style and found it difficult to get through! I didn't find the mystery all that interesting and the characters were hard to feel anything about! Just not a book for me.

I received a copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Another lyrical and beautifully written book from Albert. About witches and darkness and the secrets we stow in our hearts. An examination of mother-daughter relationships, trying our best and making mistakes. A little darker than I expected after The Hazel Wood, but nothing less than exquisite prose from Albert once again.

This was deep, dark and creepy and I loved it. Not my usual genre ,we usually read as a family, but so good to read myself. The story revolves around a mother (who has made her own mistakes) hiding secrets from her daughter. The secrecy creates a tension between them and the story is told from both perspectives across different timelines. Will be looking forward to more from this author.

Whilst I loved the actual storyline of this book and found it interesting and engaging the writing style was just not it for me.

Many people enjoy overly descriptive writing but wow, I am not one of them and I found myself skimming over a lot of it. However if you do enjoy that style and love witchcraft and spooky tales I really suggest picking this book up.

A twisted witchy tale with a slow burn that pays off big by the end. Less lush than Albert's first venture into urban fantasy, The Hazel Wood, Our Crooked Hearts is at its best when steeped in forbidden magic. Following Ivy and her fraught relationship with her mother Dana, Our Crooked Hearts tells a story of magic, and lineage and what we give to our children and what we keep secret from them about our own pasts. It's not a perfect story, with Dana's chapters feeling rushed and Ivy's empty - although the swift ending has just enough magic and power to rescue it.
I will be stocking but also hoping for a more explosive sequel to come.

This was an easy and well paced read. Ideal for a light read between heavier books or trilogies. The premise is interesting, and the story told though a split timeline.

The characters are likeable, and although not overly developed, there is enough to get behind them. There are a few twists and turns along the way and the ending was nicely done.

I'd probably say this is younger adult as it did lack enough development and world building to hit the top end age.

Overall, a good read, simple and easy to follow. Not the most exciting plot or style, but definitely good for the slightly younger market.

Ivy is a typical teenager trying to navigate her way through teenage years and relationships with her mum and the rest of her family. Supernatural things start happening around her and she knows her mum is hiding something but she doesn't know what. It's all to do with her mum's and aunties past. Will Ivy find out what's going on in time to save everyone? and just what is in the golden metal box in her mum's safe? How much does her dad and brother know? And will her mum ever be honest with her?

Not my usual sort of book but found I couldn't put it down. Many thanks NetGalley for letting me read this. A must read for fans of Charmed and The Craft.

Ivy is your average seventeen year old - in a relationship, with a tumultuous relationship with her parents; until supernatural events start occurring all around her and she is forced to dive deeper into the mystery that is her family.

This book had definite potential, the opening was phenomenally written and it was certainly engaging at points. The idea of a girl being raised surrounded by the supernatural yet kept deliberately blind was such an interesting premise, and I am disappointed to say it failed in its delivery.

This story was written across two / three time periods, alternating point of views with very little clarification given as to who was speaking when. It made for a clunky read, the short chapters additionally meant this was a book that was easy to put down with no real desire to pick it back up.

A little disappointed, the premise was fascinating.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my unbiased review.

This book was perfection! It was fast-paced and hauntingly riveting! The characters were well developed and plot seamless. Anyone who picks this up with be enthralled and will be up into the early hours, unable to put this down!

Book content warnings: dead rabbits (frequent), killing rabbits for ritual magic (infrequent).

"Once upon a time there was a mother and the daughter who loved her. But the truth swept the scales from the girl's eyes. The mother could not bear to see the truth of herself in her daughter's face, so she stole it away."

A wonderful, complicated tale of adolescence, friendships, and the often turbulent relationship between mother and daughter. A tale where the line between right and wrong is blurred, where unforgivable wrongs can in many ways be almost understood.

A dark YA read that will be enjoyable for young adults and older adults alike, especially those millennials who fondly remember movies and TV shows such as The Craft or Charmed.

Ivy is 17. Summer break is just starting, and the weeks ahead should have been filled with friends and summer fun. Instead it begins with a naked woman in the road in the middle of the night, a breakup with her boyfriend, and continues with a string of events that only get stranger and more foreboding as the days pass. And all of it points to one conclusion: Ivy's mother isn't everything she says she is.

And maybe Ivy knows more than she realises.

The story weaves between Ivy in the present day and her mother, Dana, 20 years in the past. When a rebellious older teen befriends sixteen-year-old Dana and her best friend, the trio discover a whole world of magical possibilities is within their reach, and that for some of them, ambition knows no bounds.

"Think of it: sixteen and brimming with power, after being told all your life you were powerless..."

Thank you, NetGalley, for letting me read this.

Well, you just know right from the start that you are in skilled hands. The story crosses the lives of two women - mother and daughter - and shows you how the actions of Dana at 17 come back to haunt her own life, and that of Ivy, her daughter - at much the same age.

There's teenage stuff here - managing relationships, mother and daughter stuff - and then there's the darker, magic stuff. It's so well woven, so well told. I just devoured it. These are complex characters; we get to know them and understand them as the story unfolds. There's no black and white, just agonising choices, people doing their best, and then trying to live with their decisions.

It's so good.

Our Crooked Hearts has the deliciously creepy and dark atmosphere I associate with Melissa Albert’s writing voice. This novel brought to life a world of magic, tantalising and full of wonder, as well as cruel and rife with devastating costs. It is both steeped in the eager joy of shared secrets by the innocent and warped by powerful greed.

Melissa has treated readers to her own skilled magic within the pages of this story, divulged in more than one voice and across more than one time line. While this may sound ambitious to some, it actually teased the story along at a steady pace, increasing the tension with every page.

I struggle to put the entire premise of this book into a short blurb, while still doing it justice, so I share the publisher’s:

“Ivy's summer kicks off with a series of disturbing events. As unnatural offerings appear on her doorstep, she's haunted by fragmented memories from her childhood, suggesting there's more to her mother, Dana, than meets the eye.

Dana's tale starts the year she turns sixteen, when she embarks on a major fling with the supernatural. Too late she realizes that the powers she's playing with are also playing with her.

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

Thank you to the publisher, Penguin Random House Children’s UK, and Netgalley for granting me a free copy of this novel in exchange for my impartial review. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This book has a UK release date of 22 June 2022 and I urge like minded readers to pre-order without delay.

I did not expect to really enjoy this, as I am not one for typical 'teen witchy thing', but this book pulled me in from the start. I will admit to not liking the main character much, though that changes towards the end of the book. I loved the story, and all the twists and turns we are led down, with things that are not as obvious from the start, I did enjoy Melissa Alberts writing style, it was easy and full of fun prose. I look forward to there being a sequel to this.