Our Crooked Hearts

Inside this book you will find:<br />a haunted library<br />Chicago in the 90s<br />the suburbs right now<br />very bad decisions<br />middle of the night vibes<br />liars<br />grimoires<br />liminal spaces<br />a 7-Eleven hot dog<br />+ MORE!<br /><br />Read the first chapter <a href="https://www.pastemagazine.com/books/melissa-albert/exclusive-excerpt-our-crooked-hearts-melissa-albert/" rel="nofollow noopener">here</a>.

Woooow! This is so much better than Hazelwood series! This is the best thing Melissa Albert has written! Actually this is the most mind blowing story about the witches I’ve lately read! Creepy, disturbing, intriguing, exciting, slow burn mystery, and impeccably built, layered character development, well- thrown twists, lots of spells, darkness, heartbreaking teen love story: this book includes all of those amazing qualities, storylines you may fully enjoy! <br /><br /> Let’s get quick recap of storyline: after their uneventful but mostly resentful party time, seventeen years old Ivy struggles with the thoughts to break up with her extra drunk, snob, narcissistic boyfriend Nate during their car ride but when a pale faced, weird naked girl at the same age with Ivy runs around the road , dashing into the woods, things get more escalated . Because seeing that weird girl is the first omen which will change their already dysfunctional and unusual family life! <br /><br /> Ivy is grounded for her troubled night with her ex ( she’s managed to dump his ass) , bleaching her hair, prying around the house to detect more secrets after finding the massacred rabbit at their garden! <br /><br />She has her own doubts about her mother’s secret ways to protect her and her brother: anyone who tries to mess with them suffers from consequences. She also caught her mother doing weird things at their garden in the middle of the night, hiding things in their basement. <br /><br /> Now her mother and her favorite aunt are missing! The girl she has seen in the woods lurking around her house and the boy next door she has complex feelings insists she broke his heart five years ago. Could she forget something important like this?<br /><br /> We go back and forth to find out more out Dana: the mother witch and Ivy’s stories : both time lines are fascinating to catch up! We see Dana and Felicita’s meeting with Marion, bounding to create their own coven and at the present time we see how Ivy gathers the pieces of the puzzle to solve the big mystery about the secrets her mother has kept from her! <br /><br /> I loved it! I adored it! I truly had great time while I was reading it!<br /><br /> Giving my high recommendation! If you like witches, great mysteries, horror meets thriller, a great example of creative writing skills, this is the best choice you may get!<br /><br />Special thanks to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for sharing probably one of the best fantasy reads of 2022 in exchange my fully honest opinions.

there comes a time in every reader's life when you have to make a tough decision...<br /><br />whether to add a book to your to-read list even though you hate the cover.<br /><br />this was my act of bravery.<br /><br />and like all difficult things i ever have to do, ever in my life, should, it is my great privilege and thrill to tell you: it paid off.<br /><br />for the first time in possibly 4 years, i can't stop reading YA fantasy. and i'm...having a good time?<br /><br />can someone check if there are pigs in the air? snowflakes coming from the fiery depths of hell? etc.?<br /><br />melissa albert is an amazing writer - this is lovely, and scary, and stunning, and fun. i love these characters, and even though the romance has like 4 total paragraphs of page time, i loved that too. <br /><br />this might have been five stars if the perspective wasn't shared - i didn't care as much about the flashbacks to the mom, i just loved the current-day daughter.<br /><br />but if i five starred a YA fantasy in the year of our lord 2022, the world might explode. so maybe it's for the universal best.<br /><br />bottom line: more melissa albert please!!!! i want more books in this series.<br /><br />who'd have thought i'd ever say that.<br /><br />(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)

On the eve of Ivy's summer break, while her boyfriend is driving her home from a party, a mysterious figure darts into the road in front of them causing her boyfriend to swerve in order to avoid it.<br><br>There's a minor accident as a result and Ivy's face gets a little banged up. More concerning to Ivy however is the figure that caused them to go off the road in the first place. What was that?<br><br><img src="https://images.gr-assets.com/hostedimages/1617200078ra/31110888.gif" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><br>They stop and pursue the figure into the woods. It's a young woman and she seems out of place. The whole event is very strange, leaving Ivy feeling haunted.<br><br>Nevertheless, they return to the car and her boyfriend drives her home, where she proceeds to break up with him. Not the best start to summer break.<br><br>Making matters worse, she actually gets in trouble with her parents because of the accident.<br><br><img src="https://images.gr-assets.com/hostedimages/1656722558ra/33120466.gif" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><br>As the hits keep on coming, she's now grounded. This is going to be a great summer. <br><br><i>((Insert dramatic teen eye roll here.))</i><br><br>Soon Ivy is going to be wishing her lack of freedom were her largest problem as she starts being plagued by a series of increasingly unsettling events. The figure in the woods isn't done with her. She doesn't know how she knows this, she just does. It's all connected.<br><br><img src="https://images.gr-assets.com/hostedimages/1656722558ra/33120467.gif" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><br>That's our present perspective. We also get a past perspective following Ivy's Mom, Dana.<br><br>When Dana was a teen, she and a couple of friends had a real <i>The Craft</i>-moment happening. I'm not going to say one of them was Nancy, but one of them had some Nancy-leanings. <br><br>If you know, you know.<br><br><img src="https://images.gr-assets.com/hostedimages/1537234480ra/26317051.gif" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><br>As the Reader it is very easy to become immersed in both of these timelines. Equally interesting is how they are connected and watching the two of them eventually bleed into one another.<br><br>I thought Albert did a great job telling this story. There were a couple of aspects that lost me a bit, some scenes towards the end had a fever dream-type quality to them and that's not necessarily my favorite to see in a narrative.<br><br><img src="https://images.gr-assets.com/hostedimages/1507388463ra/24112081.gif" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><br>With this being said, overall I found this story to be intriguing as heck.<br><br>The moody, dark atmosphere was definitely a plus for me. I loved how full of magic it was. Witchy vibes for the win! <br><br><img src="https://images.gr-assets.com/hostedimages/1499269733ra/23211547.gif" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><br>Also, I really enjoyed the relationship between Ivy and her Mom. It's complicated for a number of different reasons and watching Dana come to accept her daughter's strength and power was beautiful to me.<br><br>Even though I didn't agree with quite a few of Dana's choices as a mother, I could definitely sympathize with her. I feel like Albert built her character out enough that it was easy to understand her motivations.<br><br><img src="https://images.gr-assets.com/hostedimages/1567894354ra/28115737.gif" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><br>This was a highly anticipated release for me and it did not disappoint. I definitely recommend it to all who enjoy a dark, magical story with a bit of a mystery.<br><br>Thank you so much to the publisher, Macmillan Audio, for providing me with a copy to read and review. The audiobook is fantastically done!

NOW AVAILABLE!!!<br><br>this book is a corker.<br><br>considering that in the past couple of years, adult-market books about women with powers and YA about witchcraftin' girls have been surging through the bookworld like b.d. wong's locusts,<br><br><img src="https://images.gr-assets.com/hostedimages/1655312326ra/33060012.gif" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><br>i fully expected this to be one of those typical YA-allegories about girls fed up with being vulnerable in the world and taking empowerment into their own witchy hands; girlbonding and messing with magic as an outlet for the rage and dissatisfaction that permeates adolescent girlhood. and there <i>is</i> some of that:<br><br><blockquote>Marion handed Fee a CD and we lay on the uneven floor of her bedroom to listen, heads close and the music loud enough that we could feel it vibrating through the boards.<br><br>That was how it began. Food and music. The rest of it came later: the magic, the things that fueled it. We were angry before Marion came, even if we didn't know it. At our dads, at our dead moms, at ourselves for being fifteen years old with lives the size of a pinprick, and no idea how to change them. But it was Marion who gave our anger form.<br><br>It started with the music. That's not where it ended</blockquote><br><br>that is not <i>at all</i> where it ended—while many books would be happy to ride that thematic old pony all the way through, here it's only half of the story, and at the crooked heart at the center of this one is the story of a mother and a daughter and the secrets that separate them. <br><br>the novel is split between two alternating POV timelines—one taking place in "the city/back then," where best friends dana and fee meet older-girl marion and DO INDEED start messing with magic, with unintended tragic consequences. the second is set in "the suburbs/right now" where dana's teenage daughter ivy finds herself in a "sins of the mother" scenario, experiencing the spooky fallout from dana's impulsive decision in the wayback. <br><br>so, yeah, a mother-daughter story that goes way beyond the ushe dynamic of teenage girls struggling to become their own person away from the shadow of the maternal wing. adult-dana is an odd woman and an aloof mother, with her scars and her secrets, her deep-rooted guilt, and she has caused real damage to ivy. and even though ivy's discoveries about her mother's past allow her to finally understand her, understanding doesn't always lead to forgiveness. dana's made some bad judgment calls, and committed some capital-b betrayals, and i appreciated how her choices complicated her relationships with ivy, fee, her husband—it's hard to bounce back from a lot of it, and it's refreshing that it doesn't all end up hunky-dory in the right-now-suburbs.<br> <br>along with the emotional complexity, the writing style is also terrific—the flow, the descriptions; the "kaz brekker cheekbones," a character "darting toward the fence on Barbie toes," a building that "looked like the sentient dollhouse of a very bad seed," and there are also some keen observations, like this astute description of sharon—an adult woman who assisted the witch-trio in the beforetimes:<br><br><blockquote>She was one of those people who wielded her own history like a knife. Spend enough time with career alcoholics and you can spot this type from an avenue block away; threading their conversation with terrible, intimate revelations, designed to make you believe they're telling you their secrets. Making you think you had to pay them back in kind. Sharon was magically gifted, but I'd bet her true talent was an eye for damage.</blockquote><br><br>i have met some sharons in my day.<br><br>and as for the girls, especially ivy—they’re more than characters, they feel like <i>people</i>. they are stubborn and headstrong and brave but they are also as flawed and fragile as all of us, despite their magical abilities. <br><br>i did not expect to love it as much as i did. to repeat myself, this book is a corker. imma close this puppy out with a passage i particularly liked and also a fun fact: one time, this author interviewed me for a job i did not get. i bear her no ill will—the position evaporated, so <i>no one</i> got it, but i am tech avail for bookwork, should she—or anyone else—wish to hire me.<br><br>anyway, play me out, boss:<br><br><blockquote>I never knew my mother. She died when I was two, and my dad wasn't the kind to keep a candle burning. When I asked questions, he'd send me to the kitchen drawer where he kept a stack of old photos and a rubber-banded lock of her red hair. <br><br>So. A mother can be a photograph. <br><br>My best friend lost her mother even earlier. Fee came into the world and the woman who'd carried her stepped out. Death transfigured her into a dark-eyed martyr, their apartment the reliquary where Fee's father tended to her traces. <br><br>A mother can be a saint, then. A ghost. A blessed outline that shows where she's gone missing. <br><br>Sometimes she's a stranger on a park bench, feeding her child from her fingers, the air between them so tender you could knead it like bread dough. Or a woman on the train, Coke in the sippy cup and yanking the kid's arm until it cries. I've always liked to watch bad mothers.<br><br>A mother can be a paring knife, a chisel. She can shape and destroy. I never really thought I would become one.<br><br>There are things a daughter should know about the woman who's raising her. If that woman had the courage. If she could say the words. <br><br>Let's say you lie in bed at night and rehearse the things you'd tell her, if you could. This daughter of yours, infinitely unreachable and just across the hall. This deep into the disaster, what could you still say?<br><br>Where would you begin?</blockquote><br><br><br><img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1528725630i/25720315.png" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><a href="http://bloggycomelately.com/" rel="nofollow noopener">come to my blog!</a>

You can suck it bunny killing sons a b…….s<br><br><img src="https://images.gr-assets.com/hostedimages/1634518848ra/32058660.gif" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"><br><br>Mel ????

3.5 stars, rounded down<br />I experienced this book partially as an audiobook narrated by Emma Galvin and Chloe Cannon, and partially in print. I rate the audiobook as 4 stars because the narrators are superb and truly drew me into this surprising, creepy story. <br /><br />This is a YA story told in two timelines--one in the present with Ivy, who sees a mysterious girl in the woods while coming home from a party, and one in the past featuring Ivy's mother Dana as a teen and young adult. Dana has a twisted past that comes out as the timeline progresses, and Ivy trying to unravel what happened to her as a child and now. <br /><br />This is a tale full of witchcraft and an eerie unveiling of events. I know I'm dating myself, but this book reminded me quite a bit of <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/476941.The_Watcher_in_the_Woods" title="The Watcher in the Woods by Florence Engel Randall" rel="noopener">The Watcher in the Woods</a>, both the book and the movie. I was intrigued and entertained from start to finish, but I didn't find anything particularly groundbreaking here. <br /><br />Something that really grated on me while reading the print version was the overuse of the word "gonna". When listening to the book, it didn't stand out quite as much as it did on the page, because sometimes it was used two or three times within just a couple of pages. It's a small thing, but towards the end it was quite noticeable. <br /><br />Overall, it's a great story though and if you like creepy witchcraft tales, this will definitely be one for you. <br /><br />I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, all opinions are my own.

This book was unique and creepy! Compared to the movie The Craft, there are definitely elements that can be found in this book. I found I enjoyed Dana’s chapters more than Ivy’s. The rabbits freaked me out but I really enjoyed this book, it was so different from everything I’ve been reading lately.<br /><br />It begins with Ivy and her boyfriend who almost drive off the road when they spot a nude woman running in the street. Ivy follows her and is surprised this stranger knows her name. It only gets crazier from here.<br /><br />The book is told in dual timelines between Ivy and Dana Ivy’s mother. When Ivy’s mother was young, her and her two friends experimented with magic and witchcraft. As their aspirations grew things headed in a dangerous direction.<br /><br />Ivy must figure out what occurred in the past and decide if what she figured out changes the way she sees her mother. Will it also impact her current interests?<br /><br />Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

i’d like to thank netgalley, flatiron books, and melissa albert for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review! this book follows ivy and her mother dana as ivy begins to learn more about her mother’s past. albert truly wrote the perfect witchy book full of twists and turns that kept me intrigued the entire time. it's haunting, sinister, and gruesome - i absolutely loved it.<br /><br />i was a bit surprised at how much i liked this book because i thought it would fit more into the YA category, but instead it was much more NA, featuring teenagers messing around with dark magic without realizing the consequences. i loved going back and forth between ivy and dana’s chapters and learning everything as ivy learned it. i will say that i do agree with some of the reviews saying that they prefer ivy’s chapters, though, because i found those more interesting. <br /><br />this novel was also very fast-paced and every chapter was filled with action and suspense. i loved the writing style so much and found that it really worked well with the gothic setting and dark undertones. i also like books with family secrets and this one fit the bill perfectly. i feel like the ending of this one will definitely be controversial when it’s released and i’m not even sure how I feel about ivy and dana’s relationship after everything that happened.<br /><br />after reading this i’m definitely going to pick up the hazel wood asap! i recommend this book to fan of witchy novels looking for something that’s a mix between a mystery and a thriller. it will be the perfect read for next spooky season as well!

Fantastic read! I loved Marion’s story as well as Dana’s. Ivy’s story was good too. Ivy’s mom was a bit of pros and cons. She left Ivy home alone to eat cookies for dinner but lectured her on being in a car with a drunk driver. I liked the author’s use of similes: Billy’s Adam’s apple was like a peach pit, bikers darting through traffic like fishes, and a hotdog spinning in its little tanning bed. There were more and I enjoyed every one of them. I enjoyed the magic in this book as well as Fee and Dana’s friendship. I always liked it when the title of the book appeared in the story. Despite Sharon being a small character in this story, I wondered what happened to her in the 20 years that passed. She sounded bitter still when she talked to Ivy.<br /><br /><br />This book started with Ivy, 17, told in the first person point of view, and her soon to be ex-boyfriend Nate, in the present day. They were at an end-of-year party and were getting ready to leave. He drove fast because he was a bit drunk. He stopped quick because there was a naked stranger in the middle of the road. It was 3am. They got out of the car and spied her swimming in the creek but decided to leave her there and drove directly home. Ivy’s parents lectured her on getting in the car with a drunk driver. The next day, Nate posted a picture of himself on social media with a busted lip to match the one he gave Ivy when he drove drunk. Ivy’s mom’s Dana mentioned about having a migraine and a dream the same night Ivy saw the stranger. Weird things started happening with Ivy’s mom. Ivy believed her mom has secrets so she started digging around the house and into her memory. The story switched to the city in the past, following Ivy’s mom, Dana, told in the first person point of view. She could always knew something before it happened. When she was 5 and her dad dropped his keys during the walk home she knew just where to locate it without seeing it dropped. Dana’s best friend was Fee. Later they befriended Marion. Marion introduced Dana and Fee things that they felt missing from their life. In part 2, readers will have the opportunity to enjoy Marion’s view. This book was divided into 3 parts.<br /><br /><br />Our Crooked Hearts was well written and developed. I loved this fast paced read. I do have to give an applause to the author for making a trip to K-Mart fun. This book has good diversity with LGBT characters and the use of foreign language. I don’t know how Billy can survive with little sleep like that. I was hoping he has some magical powers too. Each chapter ends with a mini cliffhanger so many times I couldn’t put down. I liked the idea of clawing out of the mirror. Some parts of the story were intense and I loved it. Some good and bad parents in this book so it resembles real life well. The romance was light so any young readers could read it. Definitely an interesting read and I recommend everyone to read this book!<br /><br />xoxo, Jasmine at <a target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" href="http://www.Howusefulitis.com">www.Howusefulitis.com</a> for more details <br /><br />Many thanks to Flatiron Books for the opportunity to read and review. Please be assured that my opinions are honest.