This book was just not for me. There are multiple points of view and I could not get invested in any of them. It’s got a mystery/magical/horror type vibe, but for me it just did not click. I loved the premise and the book cover is top notch but make sure this is your style before picking it up. Thanks to NetGalley for the early copy.

This was a creepy book with some twists and turns. I really liked the shifting viewpoints and time lines, slowly revealing what was going on. The audio was great. Highly recommend.

I requested this book on NetGalley when I saw the audiobook as an option. I only asked for it because I saw multiple good reviews on Instagram. I’m usually on the fence about YA books but with so many good reviews I figured I would give it a chance. It was honestly pretty good! I was really interested in what was going on the whole time. It kinda gave me The Craft vibes. If you are interested in a YA witchy thriller, check this one out. Release date is 6/28!

I started this one earlier this week and now I can't remember what it was even about. It was slow, but had a lot of potential It started out creepy but that creep factor didn't really hold. The mother/daughter stories were interesting to see the comparisons between the two but it nothing stuck out as wanting me to keep going back to it. The plot wasn't incredibly exciting and the characters were the redeeming factor, but it wasn't enough.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
In Our Crooked Hearts, we follow alternating timelines between Dana and her daughter, Ivy. After seeing an eerie young woman one night, weird occurances begin to plague Ivy and she starts to realize her mother may not be normal. In the past timeline, we follow Dana learning how to use her abilities with two other young women, until finally, the two women's stories converge.
This book was so incredibly gripping. Melissa Albert's writing really stood out to me. It was perfectly balanced between telling the story, portraying the characters' feelings, and having such beautifully crafted scenes. I loved the book as a whole, but the writing was my favorite thing about it by far.
The way the past and present converge is something I really enjoy it books, and I think it was done exceptionally well here. The little spooky moments were clever and kept me on my toes. In the end, everything was explained very well. I didn't have any questions left unanswered about the magic and the world.
I enjoyed following both main characters and alternating between the past and the present. I stayed interested the whole time, and finished this book much quicker than I normally finish audiobooks!
This was a book I enjoyed so much, I've already signed up to buy a special edition of it so I can read it physically. Both narrators were great, and I felt they fit perfectly for the characters they were reading for, but I would just love to read such beautifully written words physically!

I devoured this book! Completely obsessed from the first chapter (which doesn’t happen often for me)! I’ve never read anything by Melissa Albert before but have a couple of her books on my TBR shelf that I now need to read IMMEDIATELY. I requested the ARC of this book thinking it looked interesting and I was familiar with the author so why not give it a try…. OH. MY. GOSH. It was soooooo much more than I could’ve have ever imagined! If you love magic, occult, and mysteries this is a must read for you! If you’re a fan of Verity or Layla by Colleen Hoover I’d also highly highly recommend this book to you!

As we follow Ivy, a seventeen year old girl living her typical high school life, until strange things begin to happen… her mom is acting weird, she’s finding dead rabbits, oh and a crazy woman with no clothes on runs out in front of her car and that’s not even half of everything going on. We get chapter in the present but also chapter from her mom’s past when she was Ivy’s age too as we slowly start to unravel the mystery behind all the crazy things going on… I literally read this book in half a day! COULD. NOT. PUT. IT. DOWN. Please please please pick up this book and give it a try when it comes out June 28, 2022!

A million thanks to Net Galley and Flatiron Books for the ARC of this stunning book!

*4.5 stars!
A dark, witchy story reminiscent of The Craft.
This story is told in two timelines, following 17 year old Ivy, who after a strange encounter in the middle of the night, starts experiencing increasingly unsettling events. Over the next few days Ivy starts to unravel her mother's dark secrets. In the second timeline we follow Dana, Ivy's mom, back during the summer she turned 16 as she and her friends discover a dark force they never should have messed with.

I loved this! This might be my favorite from Melissa Albert so far.
The author creates an atmosphere that is creepy and disturbing. The witchy dark magic casts a spell on every page. I loved both perspectives but mainly Dana's. I loved seeing her relationships in the past and how they shaped her. Dana trying so hard to love and protect her daughter, and the mistakes she made along the way.
I love a messy, difficult mother/daughter relationship, and that was definitely at the center of this story.

The writing is so punchy and poetic, and the slow burn plot had me not wanting to put this down. I haven't been able to stop thinking about this since finishing it. I can't wait to see what Melissa Albert comes out with next!
Highly recommend.

What a great find. Melissa Albert is the author of The Hazel Wood series and this is a great addition to her work. In the audio book we meet two strong characters: 17 year old Ivy grounded right at the start of the summer and flashbacks of her mother Dana as 16 year old in the summer in the same town. We learn fairly quickly that Ivy and Dana do not get along and a lot of the problems stems from Dana experience with two other girls in her 16th year. While I preferred Ivy's pov, Dana's is the crux of the story in many ways - it is her choices made with her young friends that create the problems that haunt her as an adult.

Although this is promoted as YA and the voices are clearly teens, I think this is a great novel for anyone interested in witchcraft, mother daughter relationship and horror. #MacmillanAudio

3.5 stars rounded up

Witches, dark magic, parental secrets, a fraught mother/daughter relationship....all are central to Our Crooked Hearts. This could probably be compared to The Craft, as a witchy teen story that leans dark.

Told in two timelines, this follows 17 year old Ivy who is experiencing weird things and suspect that her mom holds some dark secrets. It also follows her mom and her group of friends in the 90's as they get into dark and dangerous magic with serious ramifications. (Note that this does include blood magic and animal sacrifice and mutilation involving bunnies)

I can't say I was equally invested in both timelines and toward the end we get a rush of secrets that could have been parsed out a bit more through the book. Occasionally the writing tries to get more poetic to SAY SOMETHING and those bits didn't always work for me and didn't necessarily flow with the rest of the book. That said, I did enjoy the story and I'm liking this trend of darker stories for teens that deal with things like how far you will go to get what you want and the far-reaching consequences that might incur. I think a lot of people will be into this one, but if you don't like horror elements or need your characters to be likable, this may not be for you. I received an advance copy of this book for review via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

I received this as an audio - and I liked the mother narrator better than Ivy. I've only read Hazel Wood which was just ok for me. I'm giving this one 3.5* because the audio definitely is what kept me hooked. It was a very creepy and interesting witch story, which I always love - and the dark aspects make it a little chilling. I'd recommend to my folks here at the lib that are into these kinds of stories like I am.

Thank you Net Galley for an audio ARC of Our Crooked Hearts by Melissa Albert. This book gave me the creeps. In some ways I'm glad I got through it, but I keep thinking about it, so what's the difference. I'm going to bed now.... sweet dreams to me!

3.5 rounded up to 4.

Our Crooked Hearts is a tale of growing up, facing consequences, and the extent of how far some will go to avoid it. Ivy, seventeen, doesn't dream; she hasn't her entire life. When strange occurances begin happening around her as well as memories that don't quite fit, Ivy sets out to find what her mother is hiding and why she wanted it to stay hidden. Dana, Ivy's mother, is young and just coming into her own. She has a solid group of friends who begin to introduce her to magic. Will the benefits of practicing magic outweigh the cost one must pay? Or will the blood-demanding debts that come with it prove to be too much?

This story had it's ups and downs. Honestly my biggest gripe is the narrator for Dana's side of the story. She was slow and monotone, even with having my listening speed up to 1.5. it really pulled me out of the moments I should have been connecting with Dana and her past, but as I enjoyed the narrator for Ivy's side I found myself white knuckling through Dana's chapters. The plot was well laid out with a slow blooming mystery as well as magic(and what's not to like there?) but the narration was enough to bring my review down half a star.

This would be a great read for young adult readers, ages 14-20 as I think many young people will connect with both Ivy and Dana. There is some violence against animals, but nothing super horrific.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an AudioARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you so much, NetGalley, MacMillan Audio and MacMillan Young Listeners, for the chance to listen to this amazing audiobook in exchange of an honest opinion.

TW: blood, animal death and sacrifices, gore

Ivy is seventeen years old and she starts her summer breaks with three things: an accident, a punishment and a mystery, when a naked girl in the middle of the road almost causes a car crash and starts a chain of weird events. While grappling with bloody offerings, strange memories and secrets she wants to uncover, Ivy is more and more sure that there's mother to her mother that she knows and she's determined to understand what.

Dana is a perceptive sixteen years old and with the help of her best friend Fee and an older girl, Marion, they start to meddle with supernatural, looking for spells and incantations, until they find themselves involved in something more dangerous they could have predicted.
Now, in the present day with Ivy, her story and Dana's, her mother, will come down to a reckoning and a battle with dark and deadly forces.

Our Crooked hearts was of one my most anticipated read of 2022 and I absolutely loved reading this book. Not only Melissa Albert, like always, has a wonderful and captivating way with words, a marvellous and intriguing writing style, but her imagination and characterization are fantastic. The story is told by multiple POVs, mainly by Ivy, in the present time, and Dana, years ago, swinging from past to present, connecting pieces of a puzzle, until the picture is complete and the reader, with Ivy, starts to understand everything. Filled with secrets, lies, witchcraft, rebellion and pain, this book is unputdownable.
Melissa Albert weave a dark fairytale, magic and spells into modern world, forcing Ivy, and the reader with her, to confront magic, past secrets and disappearings.
Our crooked hearts is a story of loss and fierce love, strong bonds, bad choices, an haunting fairytale able to grip the reader and hold him under its spell until the very end.

Narrated by Chloe Cannon, Emma Galvin, they did an outstanding job in conveying Ivy's and Dana's story, with their feelings, doubts, fears, capturing the reader's attention since the first line in a complex story about family and sacrifices, choices and secrets. In this book Melissa Albert again explores the bond between mother and daughter, writing complicated and messy women, totally relatable in their fierce love, driven by it and making bad choices, driven by the desire to understand and connect the pieces, wanting to be themselves and to protect their loved ones.
Ivy embarks into a journey that will lead her to know her mother better, unveiling secrets and lies, taking back pieces of herself on the way and understanding her own strength. Her growth was one of my favourite part of this book, how stubborn and determined Ivy is to understand and get back what's hers.

In the book there are male characters, like Rob, Hank, Nate and Billy, two love stories, one in the past and one other in the present, a toxic relationship and queer rep, but mostly Our crooked hearts is filled with strong female characters, in all their intricacies. Complicated and messy women in their ambitions, arrogance, desires, fears and doubts, embarking in dangerous and deadly journey, trying to get more from their lives, to understand things and people better, to discover more about their own selves.

The witchcraft, in the past with Dana, Fee and Marion, represents, almost, a way for these girls, forced to grow up faster, to work earlier, to take care of their own fathers, orphans too soon, abandoned by parents and society, outcasts and lonely, to be powerful, to defend themselves, to impress their voices and bodies in a world unwilling to listen to them, to be heard, to be present. Filled with pain and ambiton, desire and fears, they start a journey that will change their lives forever and that will, decades later, bring dangers to their future family.

The story swings from past to present, showing the reader Dana's and Fee's struggles, Marion's loneliness and pain, their bond and ambition and, with Ivy, her desire to know, to connect again with a distant mother, to uncover the secrets in her family.
Deliciously eerie, wonderfully haunting, this story is a bloody one, with losses and sacrifices, bad choices and mistakes, but also a story of a mother fierce love, a powerful bond between two friends, a blossoming love and a chance to make up for their mistakes.

I loved everything and everyone in this book. Melissa Albert wrote another masterpiece and I can't wait to hold my physical copy in my hands.

I was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed this story!
The story is told in two dual POVs and timelines of Dana and Ivy. It was interesting to go back and forth and it was written nicely and not confusing at all. I really enjoyed the narrators, Chloe Cannon and Emma Galvin. The gave a wonderful performance and portrayed all the characters well. The variety of tones and inflections used truly elevated the book for me.
I loved how it gave me The Craft vibes! If you enjoy thriller/mystery, witchy, creepy, and fabulous narrators, then give this book a try!
Special thanks to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for the ALC.

5 stars is not enough. 10 stars is not enough. This book is a dazzling, gritty, wild, luxurious, knee scraping mountain climb to the most beautiful view of the only sunset your eyes will ever fully see and your heart will remember. I don't have words to describe it, because she used all the good words and I'm lying on my bedroom floor, an adult woman, a puddle of emotions and thoughts and feelings.

And the narrations!!!! AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!! THE WORDS COME TO LIFE & burrow into me with these voices, I'm come undone!!! I'll be listening to this over and over, you must read this!!!!

This was a super twisty book! I loved the alternating chapters between Ivy and Dana. Both narrators did such an excellent job.

Meh.

It’s a trope. Mom is weird, teen daughter grows suspicious and uncovers mom’s real powers and sordid past.

It’s can be a fun, thrilling read but I’ve read too many similar books to get really into it.

As someone who absolutely loved The Hazelwood series, I had high expectations going in to Our Crooked Hearts; those expectations were not only me but far exceeded! I read/listened in one day and I have zero guilt towards the things that did not get done on that day.

First off, the way it’s told in dual timelines between mother and daughter is brilliant. Starting with Ivy in the suburbs, right now and alternating with Dana in the city, back then, gives such a unique perspective in to the lives of two very different yet similar women. I love being able to see both sides of the coin especially since I tend to be a bit judgey and hang on to those first impressions for dear life. I would have totally judged Dana if not for her unique part of the story.

Another thing I loved is the authors ability to blend the modern world with fantasy. When I’m reading a Melissa Albert book, she makes me believe that nightmares walk among us if you only look hard enough and beauty can hide the most sinister of souls.

I usually avoid comparisons but I did catch a hint of The Craft vibes from Dana, Fee and Marion but this only added to the story. The witchy element combined with the occultist vibe from a secret book and a secret library brought the mystery and intrigue.

There is so much to unwrap in this book; the magic, both inherent and learned, the good and the evil combined with the absolute betrayal of a friendship gone wrong and the love of a parent gives this story the depth and layers that make it unforgettable and unputdownable.

Narration: Interestingly, I would have sworn that Rebecca Soler who narrated The Hazelwood series also narrated Ivy but it wasn’t! It is the talented Chloe Cannon! Emma Galvin also narrates and they’re both spectacular, moving the story forward with emotive voices and perfect pace!

I’ll be recommending Our Crooked Hearts to pretty much everyone! My thanks to @MacMillan.Audio for the gifted ALC and to @FlatIronPress for the gifted ARC.

This one is eerie, creepy, atmospheric, dark, and twisty. The story follows a dual timeline format told from multiple points-of-view. There are moments of suspense--raising the hairs on your arm--and moments of hope. There are moments when you feel unsettled and moments that make you want to turn on all the lights and check all the locks in your home.

It explores youth, curiosity, ambition, power, love, family, friendship, and the lengths you are willing to go to in order to protect the people you love.

The narration by Chloe Cannon and Emma Galvin fits the characters, story, and mood perfectly.

I highly recommend it.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for an ALC. All opinions are my own.

I absolutely loved this audiobook! It was thrilling, captivating, and kept me hooked from the very first chapter!