I feel like this book started out so strong and I was loving it until about midway through and I was getting bored with everything. I loved the witchy aspects of this book and the plot, but the execution just fell short for me. I still would recommend this one, because I definitely think the plot alone was worth the read.

This was a really odd book but not in a good way. In many places I struggled to keep up with the narrative. The back and forth time-line didn't help either. The actual plot was solid and actually really interesting but it was the execution that just fell flat for me.

DNF at 50%
Couldn’t get into the story and it was a little hard to follow for me. This book was a little different from what I usually read but it just wasn’t for me. Really wanted to finish it out but just can’t.

What a fast paced, witchy ride! I completely devoured this audio in 24 hours. I love how this story unfolded and wrapped up at the end. The revenge tone, the mystery and strain between Dana and Ivy. Certain parts I kind of got lost in and it confused me a little bit but I was able to piece it all together without it making a negative impact on the read. I love a good book about witchcraft and this one did not disappoint. If I didn’t know, I definitely wouldn’t have guessed it was categorized as a YA book because certain elements did get rather dark towards adult - but I loved that!

Thank you NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, Flatiron Books, and Melissa Albert for the ARC of this audiobook to review!

Part dark witchy contemporary fantasy, part mystery. Our Crooked Hearts is a seriously creepy book packed with secrets, spells, and suspense. There was dark magic and a constant sense of foreboding that gave me chills. I loved it🖤.

After leaving a party, 17-year-old Ivy and her boyfriend nearly crash into a naked woman in the middle of the road. When they go to check on the stranger, she somehow already knows Ivy’s name. Later, dead rabbits start showing up around Ivy’s home, and her mom, Dana, begins acting erratic. When Dana disappears, Ivy must learn the truth about her mom and find her before it’s too late.

The “right now” POV follows present day Ivy as she unravels the secrets of her mom’s past. The “back then” POV follows Dana as a teenager discovering witchcraft and dark magic. Dana’s POV gave me all The Craft vibes🖤.

I have not been able to stop thinking about these characters and Albert’s gorgeous haunting prose. I read and listened to this book. I enjoyed Ivy’s upbeat youthful narration and Dana’s low spooky voice. Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and Flatiron Books for ARCs of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Our Crooked Hearts - Melissa Albert
4.5/5⭐️
Pub Day: June 28, 2022

Our Crooked Hearts by Melissa Albert was a fun thrilling time!! Witchcraft, a haunted library, family secrets, what more could you want from this thriller that is slightly horror like as it is thrilling! I was steadily guessing throughout and still couldn’t predict this ending!! This very much gives off The Craft vibes told in dual timelines and I was totally captivated& here for it!

Thank you to he publisher and NetGalley for this ALC in exchange for my honest review! I highly recommend this one! I especially loved the narration. I felt like I was within the pages of this story!

Told in alternating viewpoints of daughter Ivy and mother Dana. We open learning of Ivy exploring information about her mother when she notices her doing weird things. The finds a hidden box and starts asking questions. Through Dana's story we discovery her discover and playing with magic that sets the stage for the struggles facing Ivy in today's world. Can the two fix the problems made by the mother as a teen? Or are they doomed to be haunted by her mother's actions and choices forever.

**rounding up from a 3.5**

Our Crooked Hearts is a witchy tale, but one that strays from the more stereotypical plot lines you’ve probably seen before. It’s told through dual timelines - one from 17-year-old Ivy in the present day, and one from Ivy’s mother, Dana, when she herself was about Ivy’s age.

Dana’s story lays the foundation for Ivy’s. In present day, Dana is an aloof mother with strange interests who doesn’t seem to care that much about her two kids. Meanwhile, Ivy is desperate to get her mom to pay attention to her and also seems to know there is more to meet the eye than what she’s been told about her family. Well, slight spoiler: mom is a witch, but one who has essentially renounced her magic after a spell went very wrong many years ago.

The writing in this is super atmospheric and lovely, although at times the figurative language can feel a bit over baked. There is a romance between Ivy and her neighbor that felt entirely unnecessary, and I wish instead of that plot we could have gone a bit deeper on some of the other side characters (like Fee! Fee was awesome and I wanted more.) There were a few things, especially toward the end, that would have benefited from a bit more exploration.

The audiobook performance was well done. Both narrators brought the characters to life, and were very intentional about dramatic pauses when needed as well as where to emphasize certain descriptions.

Ultimately, I enjoyed this quite a bit and look forward to owning a physical copy for my classroom library - this is going to be a huge hit for teenage girls!

Thank you to the publisher for providing a free audio copy of this this book. This review will also be posted to my public book review account on Instagram, @bookish.901, by the end of this week.

Our Crooked Hearts was so good!

I love a good YA mystery. Add in some magic, a little romance and some family drama, and I’m sold. I really enjoyed this book and the audio version was great. I loved watching the MC grow and find her power. The book felt suspenseful throughout and that feeling propelled me through the story.

The book features two narrators covering two different time periods and the narrators voices were unique enough that I was never confused about what timeline I was in. It was really well done.

Thank you to @NetGalley for providing me with a free audioARC in exchange for my honest review.

OUR CROOKED HEARTS by Melissa Albert has some of the darkness I enjoyed in The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeko. The story was good but slow at times and I had to read the ending three times to understand what happened. I kept thinking that there were pages missing in my book because it ended so abruptly. Maybe it was done by design to leave an opportunity to write a sequel. I wanted so much more of this story, and I think it is because I keep looking for books that would give me all the feels I got when I read The Bone Witch. That was my first book by Ms. Albert, and I enjoyed her writing style. I will have to check her Hazel Wood series.

Narration was well done.

In this duel timeline and POV story, we follow Ivy and her mother Dana. Ivy's point of view if in the present, while her mothers is in the city "back then". We follow Ivy as she and her boyfriend drive off the rode as they spot a nude woman running. What follows is creepy happenings around the house involving rabbit carcasses.
In the past chapters, we follow Dana as her and her two friends discover and experiment with witchcraft and magic. These two timelines converge as the truths are uncovered about the past and present.

The plot of the story was well crafted and the story overall was so unique and creepy as hell. The atmosphere held so much unease and the alternating timelines kept me engaged. The pieces of the story come together in a satisfying way.

I thoroughly enjoyed this spooky and creepy novel. The story is told in dual timelines - Ivy is the teenager "right now" who is trying to figure out why she and her Mom just can't seem to connect any more. She feels like something is really wrong, there is a strange girl lurking around her, dead rabbits keep appearing, and her Mom can't be found anywhere. Dana is Ivy's Mom, but we follow her "back then" and learn what it is that has affected her so much from her teen years. There are witchy women, dark spells, and the pacing was excellent.

Great YA thriller/suspense with a touch of dark magic. Thanks to Net Galley and MacMillan Audio for the Advance Listener copy. I felt like the audio narrators were really good, although some of the parts for Dana were hard to understand because the narrator's voice was low and I had to turn it up to hear her.

Thank you NetGalley for the book in exchange for an honest review!

Wow. Wow. Wow. This book blew me away and was not what I was expecting at all. I’ve read Melissa Albert’s other books and was not that impressed, to be honest. She has a magic to her writing but sometimes it’s a little tedious. This book though? Hooked me from the beginning and didn’t let me go. I binged this story in one sitting and wish there was more!

Part mystery, part witchy and part coming of age, I ate every aspect of this book up. Not many author’s can weave two different timelines together well, but Albert did a great job with it. I loved how each timeline, gave little pieces of the mystery without giving everything away. I loved how the reader got to uncover Ivy’s mothers secrets, betrayals and guilt throughout the story. I also enjoyed reading how Dana struggled to come to terms with motherhood, her magic and protecting her daughter through everything.

The best thing about this book is that it didn’t feel like fiction. It felt real. The characters, the setting, the plot — it all felt real. As if the neighbor you say hi to every morning could actually be a Dana. Or that girl who seemed to have all the luck in high school could actually be an Ivy. Or maybe that flash in the mirror was more than what it seemed….

Anyway, 10/10 recommend this book and the audio was phenomenal!

This book was told in dual timeline from “back then” to present day. Present day is told through the eyes of 17 year old Ivy who has some strange memories and some even stranger lapses in memories. Back then is told through the eyes of Ivy’s mother, Dana and the summer her coven created chaos that would consume their lives.

The overall tone of this book was very haunting and spooky, an excellent setting for a YA horror.

This book was good and the story was unique and interesting but I felt it dragged a lot of the time and I just couldn’t get into it as much as I wanted to. I also felt too much of those story was hidden until the very end and could’ve used more explanation.

This may be the rare case where this just isn’t the book for me, and that’s okay.

The audio narrator was fine, I have no complaints with their delivery of the story.

3.5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley, Flatiron books and MacMillan audio for the audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A stranger appears in the middle of the street, naked and smiling, and almost causes Ivy and her boyfriend to wreck. Ivy’s mother is awake when she gets home and is worried for once, awoken by a dream. But what kind of dream would have actually caused her mother to give a damn for once? Perhaps one of foreboding. The feeling of something or someone familiar.

This story is told in 3 different points on view. First person Ivy, the daughter (present). First person Dana, the mother (the past) and a limited third person to narrate any flashbacks that aren’t being told by Dana in first person (past). The story is pretty easy to follow and while it isn’t wholly original, it is compelling. I think my favorite POV is that of Dana’s in the past. Out of all the characters, hers was the most fleshed out and the past was the most vivid and interesting.

I really wanted to love this story, but it had a few things that kept me from becoming invested despite it’s many good qualities. The atmospheric description was EXCELLENT. The plot was pretty good. The writing was absolutely stunning. But the good writing was also a double-edged sword. The narrative styles of Dana and Ivy were nearly identical. The lyrical, atmospheric, intelligent language and sentence structure used by both characters was the same, despite their age difference and lack of explanation as to why there would be such similarities. It REALLY bothered me the entire time. While the poetic language and sentence structure made sense for Dana who was older and seemed kind of complicated and introspective, it made zero sense for Ivy, who was a teenager and seemed to live a very simple teenage life.

Another thing that really bothered me was that characters seemed to be lacking proper motivations for their actions. Like why did Dana basically just ignore her kids their entire lives? The excuse she gives in the story literally makes no sense. Why did Astrid Washington just decide to leave Marian alone after all the trouble she had originally caused?

The thing that bothered me the most, was Ivy’s background and character development. She was so flat. We know absolutely nothing about her. She has a weird mom who ignores her and a friend she talks to on the phone sometimes. Okay, and? Why do we care about this person? Who is she apart from her family? Sure, part of the plot reveals more later on about her past, but why should we care? It’s hard to root for Ivy when she seems so flat. Whenever Ivy would soliloquize with so much linguistic filigree, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes and wonder why. Who is this child that speaks like this? Is she a poet? Is she an honor student? I just wanted to know why.

2.5 stars.

Thank you Macmillan Audio who gave me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This novel was way more than I bargained for. It reminded me of that old Disney movie, The Watcher in the Woods. I can’t explain that without giving away an important plot so I’m just going to suggest that you read this and understand that it’s completely different than other witchy novels out there.
Dana and Ivy and mother and daughter with secrets and lies between them. However, Ivy doent realize quite how many secrets until a strange girl shows up and Dana disappears. Told in Ivy’s voice and Dana’s young voice, before she was a mother, this novel will give you all the goosebumps!

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an mp3 of this novel.*

Thank you Flatiron Books, Melissa Albert, MacMillan Audio, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Narrated by Chloe Cannon and Emma Galvin this witchy story is told from two points of view: Ivy’s story, The Suburbs, right now and from her mother Dana, The City, back then. Both narrators are amazing in their delivery of Ivy and Dana’s stories.

Ivy and her boyfriend are in a minor accident late one night at the start of summer break when a strange girl appears in the center of the road. This accident is the catalyst for a series of events that make Ivy’s summer a dangerous one. After the accident Ivy begins to have memories that just don’t quite fit with what she actually remembers. Ivy thinks her mother is acting strange as well, but their relationship is messy and complicated, so Ivy begins to try to unravel the mystery. Ivy senses there is more to her mother than meets the eye. Why is her mother hurrying a dead rabbit? Why does she have a jar of blood hurried in the back yard? Ivy’s questions are often answered in her mother’s POV storyline and we begin to understand why the relationship between mother and daughter is complicated and how good magic can easily be taken over by darker magic.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

It was just ok for me. It wasn't great or bad just ok. Reminded a lot of the craft. With the whole north, east, south and west coven thing.

Our Crooked Hearts was creepy and interesting. It follows two different time lines Ivy who is trying to uncover her mother’s witchy secrets and Dana, Ivy’s mom when she was a teen and starts dabbling in witchcraft. This book definitely gave me The Craft vibes and I loved that. The narrators were great and really captured the mysterious and ominous tones.

✨ A past experience catches up to a mother and daughter.

💜 The story goes back and forth between the past and the present as well as a mother and daughter. there is a very disastrous experience that effects lives of both these women.

💥This book has a lot of things going for it. Magic? Check. Semi-unreliable narrator? Check. Enough creepy things to make me cringe? YEP. It was a super fast read and so entertaining. However, I got the feeling I could never settle into the story or fully connect with the characters. But it was SO atmospheric if you like those sort of off putting stories.

My face at the end: 😬

🍪 I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to @Netgalley , Macmillan Audio, and Flatiron book for allowing me to read this ahead of publication.

💯 For more details on the books we read, be sure to follow me on TikTok (@zaineylaney). I will give you a list of reasons to read!