Full review will be posted soonish and I'll add links to blog as well.

I would like to thank the publisher and netgalley for providing me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book opened with a fabulous scene and I was completely intrigued. This initially mystery then slows right down and the plot unfolds. Ivy seems to have a hard life - her mother seems cold and distant, possibly as a result of mental health issues and this does not seem to correlate with the opening scene. There is a complicated back story with the boy next door which takes a long time to be revealed. Ivy's story is juxtaposed with the escapades of her mother, Dana, when she was a teenager and she dabbled in witch craft and dark arts.

As Dana's actions are revealed, so too is the reason for her odd behaviour towards her daughter. This is a family who bury secrets deeply, rather than share and it is those very secrets which come back to threaten Ivy.

I did enjoy the book and think it was cleverly plotted but it was quite slow and drawn out at times. There is almost so much being unsaid due to the dark family secret that it felt difficult for the narrative to move on.

If you like witchcraft then this is a fabulous read. There are lots of dark, brooding sinister moments and I think it would make a great movie!

I would like to thank NetGalley, Penguin Random House Children’s UK, and Melissa Albert for providing me with an ARC of ‘Our Crooked Hearts’ in exchange for an honest review.

When this book popped up on my NetGalley, I was so excited to get my hands on it! I absolutely adored Melissa Albert’s The Hazel Wood series and couldn’t wait to see what new dark and wonderful world she had created in this new book!

Full of secrets, lies, and witchcraft, this excitingly dark book had me hooked from the beginning. The characters and plot were well-written and were really engaging. I particularly enjoyed the world building, split between two character’s timelines, one in the past and one in the present, exploring how the central protagonist (Ivy) came to be in the position she is in due to the actions of her mother (Dana) and her mother’s friends in the past. Having this past timeline, alongside the present, provided in-depth characterisation that helped to inform how you perceived the characters in the present timeline based on their actions in the past. This was a fantastic plot device and really built up the mystery and intrigue of the book.

This was a wonderfully dark and twisted read that brought in elements of gothic fantasy to create the perfect book for the start of spooky season.

The premise of this book was intriguing and I was fairly hooked from the beginning. The setting is dark, creepy, built around a mystery that kept me turning the pages much longer than I expected - would definitely recommend!

Our Crooked Hearts has a dark exciting atmosphere, with hints of secrets from page one that builds slowly but not so slowly you forget they exist or stop caring. With interesting characters and story line the pulls you in. Only disappointment was the main character reminded me a lot of Ray in Star Wars with the chosen one trope which spoiled the end.

I had such high hopes for this book! I'm desperately trying to read more fantasy novels as I have found some belters! I still love Harry Potter and I am chasing that 'fantasy world building' feeling, particularly if they involve witches. I thought I'd found it with this one. The start was captivating and I was hooked. I then soon realised this is a 'busy' book and it's not an audio you can listen to and do other things. So then I switched to the ebook and fared better.
The POVs and timelines kept me reading and engaged and then I switched back to the audio. I was very fortunate to have both copies to review to allow me to do this, and I appreciate not all readers will be able to.
I loved the 'fantasy in reality' storyline, but I am still chasing that Harry Potter wonder and amazement feeling.

I really enjoyed this book! I would say it is slow in places but the pace picks up. The characters and plot were really engaging and I read it in one sitting! I need more from this world and the characters! I loved it that much.

Dark and disturbing, yet hopeful and heartfelt, this supernatural YA thriller thrums with magic. It's in the poetry of the prose, the bittersweet realness of the relationships, and the thrillingly-rendered dangers of the occult. This is a story of secrets and lies, of love and pain, of smoke and mirrors. I couldn't stop reading. Even if you're not into witchcraft, you will be into this book. Stunning.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I found this an easy, if not particularly engaging read. The main twist I didn't see coming, but everything else was quite predictable. But I did enjoy reading it and it's always nice to have a good standalone book rather than a massive series!

A wonderfully dark and twisted book weaving tendrils of dark magic that complicate the mother-daughter relationship at the centre of the story.

Told in two timelines, the story follows Ivy in the present day and her mother Dana as a teenager when she lived in the city. We learn how Dana became involved in magic, and why she has done everything possible to avoid her daughter becoming aware of it. There are plenty of scary moments, of the earthly variety and the supernatural; from dead rabbits left as warnings, eerie sightings in the woods, to the behaviour of teenage boyfriends. However, what really sets this apart from similar books in the genre is the characterisation and nuanced depictions of the dynamics in the relationships in the book. Delving into Dana's past as a teenager, it allowed me to understand her behaviour in the present day, and sympathise with how difficult it can be to parent.

This is a fabulous read; it's a gripping story beautifully written and I would like to thank the publishers and NetGalley for the advance copy in return for an honest review.

THE YA witchy book of this year. This was excellent.

Our story switches between two perspectives, teenage witch Dana as she discovers her powers in 1990s Chicago, and her daughter, 17-year-old Ivy, who has just found out a secret about her mysterious mother.

The spooky vibes are there from the get-go as Ivy encounters a mysterious stranger in the middle of the road which leads to a series of unsettling events, and snatches of forgotten memory. Back in the 90s, we follow Dana and her best friend Fi as they learn to harness their supernatural powers and form a friendship with a strong-willed and hedonistic young witch named Marion. As Marion leans more and more into dark magic, a late night spell wakes the spirit of an ancient witch, and the reverberations are felt in the present day, deep in Dana and Ivy’s shared story.

I really liked this. It was a quick and atmospheric read. Perfect for spooky season. Aside from the immaculate witchyness, I enjoyed the portrayal of Dana and Ivy’s mother-daughter relationship, and also Ivy’s relationship with her mother’s oldest friend, Fi. My favourite timeline was probably Dana’s life in the 90s. In fact, I would have been equally as happy if the whole book was set then. If you like witches, if you like Sabrina, The Craft, or Charmed, then you will LOVE this.

This was a brilliant read. Set in two time periods, Ivy in the now and her mother in her teens, the stories collide beautifully with all the intrigue, mystery and witchiness you could want.

Thank you to netgalley.co.uk for giving me a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is my first book by Melissa Albert but I definitely think this is the best one so far. As someone who loves books dealing with witches and witchcraft, I absolutely loved this book. It was such a page turner. The book is told in two timelines however I found this easy enough to keep track of while reading the book. I don't think I have read a book like this in so long. Such an enjoyable read and I look forward to seeing what is next from Albert.

Our Crooked Hearts is creepy. I’ll be honest and say I had to put it down at one point at 2am because it was creeping me out so much, so if you don’t like that kind of thing, this book probably isn’t for you.

Set across two timelines - Ivy’s present day, and her mother’s past when she was a similar age. Both of them discovering things they would perhaps rather not know, both of them struggling with the awkward middle ground where you feel so much more adult than you are, both of them at the mercy of another’s secrets.

I really liked Ivy as a character, and I think some of the later scenes - where we get to see Ivy compare the idea of something happening with the reality of it - were really superbly explored. There were several intertwined mysteries throughout the book, and while I had an inkling of what was going to happen, I didn’t see the main reveal coming.

While other characters weren’t necessarily likeable, you could sympathise with their desires, their desperation, and their situations. They were very flawed, but realistic. I don’t think there was a single character who didn’t have some (varying degrees of) awful thing in their backstory, which was directly or indirectly responsible for many of their actions.

Our Crooked Hearts certainly explores the crooked decisions people make, and the crooked reasons behind them. It was very human, and not at all what I expected. If you like creepy books about desperate and haunted characters, this is the fantasy for you.

This booked gripped me from the beginning, but the more it went on the more the book just lost momentum for me. It fizzled out rather than ended on the same high that the book started with.
I liked it this book and it felt very original - I liked the narrative structure of the current and the past mixing together but overall I just lost interest the more it went on.

Would have preferred 100 pages shorter, then maybe the momentum wouldn't have dropped for me.

In our family, we keep our magic close, but our secrets closer . . .

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 realises 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 and Netgalley for kindly gifting me a copy of this book in return for an honest review!

[Content warnings: presumed death, dark magic, strained mother/daughter relationship, memory loss, childhood trauma, lucid dreaming]

Our Crooked Hearts is a dual pov - each chapter switches from Ivy's perspective in the present day, and then to her mother's history, fleshing out both women's stories. For the purpose of this book, it was much needed and worked really well. We needed to know Dana's childhood because it directly affects Ivy's childhood, and I found that getting a more intimate perspective on both characters really brought home the main theme of the book, which was the difficulty maintaining a relationship between mother and daughter through the years.

I was unsure about this book at first, but quickly found myself engrossed. There are a lot of witch-themed books on the market right now and I was slightly concerned this was going to follow the herd. But thankfully I was wrong!

The main antagonist throughout the book for Ivy was her mother. No particular outside threat, no school bully or enemy she needed to fight like the final boss in a video game. The most dangerous person to her is living under the same roof, And this makes for a really fresh, interesting, claustrophobic dynamic. It deviates from other witch-themed books I've read lately, mixing the gothic with modern family drama.

I cared about Ivy, and I cared about Dana. Both were neither completely in the right or in the wrong, each had reasons for their actions. I was rooting for them to build a new relationship based on truth and Ivy's transition to young adulthood.

I didn't know what to expect from this book, but overall I really enjoyed it! It's a great witchy gem, and I hope it doesn't go hidden under the radar.

WOW! THIS BOOK - WOWWWWW!
I am at loss of words to write a review for this - this is gonna be a new all-time favorite for me.
I loved the vibes, I loved all the creepy elements - this is just my type of book.
Highly highly recommend.

Thank you to Penguin Random House and NetGalley for giving me access to an eARC to review!

This is my first encounter with Melissa Albert, and I was hoping for a YA horror vibe ala House of Hollow. It's definitely more paranormal/witchy mystery than horror, which is fine, but I feel when Part 2 starts the book changes tone quite a bit and I wasn't really gripped by the direction it went. I'd say this is more a story about mothers and daughters, and the different ways they hurt and misunderstand each other, with magic being the central point of this misunderstanding.

Albert's writing reminded me a lot of the Caraval series - very flowery, lots of strange metaphors - and I found it hard to be absorbed by the atmosphere of the book because of it. I also didn't really care for the romance at all and found that it moved pretty quickly considering the circumstances - why can't we just have a wholesome childhood friend situation?? Why must it always be romance??

Anyway, this is likely making very little sense, but I found the mother's storyline more interesting and wished that Ivy's leaned a bit more into the spooky horror/mystery vibe. This book was by no means bad, just very fine. With its focus on female friendships and witchy magic, it reminded me a lot of A Wicked Magic and All Our Hidden Gifts which were also solid!

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me. At almost halfway through I had no sense where this was headed or emotional investment with either story or characters. Not for me, I’m afraid, but may work better for others!

Wow.

A delicious story full of lyrical descriptions and questionable characters. ‘Our Crooked Hearts’ uses the stereotypical basics of witchcraft- particularly dark magic- and remakes it into something that is gothic, unique and captivating.

We are thrown into Ivy’s world just as strange and, quiet frankly, unpleasant things are occurring. Her narrative is segmented with her mother’s, Dana, past which provide important details that help to unravel the mysteries surrounding both witches. This is a fast-paced plot with plenty of shocking details and realistic character reactions. It questions people’s actions and how intentions, which are initially are good, become twisted through fear and desires to protect.

Warning, there are references to dead rabbits or the killing of them but certainly a recommend for anyone who enjoys gothic fantasy. I feel this is a book which will stay with me for a while.