What on earth did I just read? This book is so unexpected in so many great ways. Imagine if Buffy the Vampire Slayer crossed over with The Golden Girls. I giggled so many times at the sassy women of the Evans family. We have Ducey, Lenore, Grace and Luna. Four generations of women who run the town's funeral parlour and have a few secrets up their sleeves.

Trigger warnings should include:
Death (obviously)
Undead (again, obviously)
A LOT of blood and gore
Loss of loved ones/friends
Animal injury
Occult

This was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it a lot.

I absolutely loved this book! Lindy Ryan is a new author for me. I’m so happy this book was recommended to me. I’m surprisingly very emotional at the end of this one. It is a five star read for me. I love good horror!

The Evans women run the local funeral parlor in their small Texas town. They also have another responsibility: taking care of the restless dead. Ducey, Lenore, and Grace keep the town’s secrets, and protect those who don’t even know they need protection. But when a string of missing persons cases start to pop up in town, things start to get strange. Grace’s daughter Luna is having strange dreams, and the Evans women have secrets. The author weaves a tale that keeps you guessing, has chapters from the perspectives of multiple characters, and brings a fresh take on the elements of horror throughout the story. I enjoyed every page. I also adored these women!

The monsters in this story are the Strigoi - they are vampires, but they have an interesting twist. I really want to give details here, but you should read about them with no prior knowledge. This was a very original take on a well-known creature.

This book was truly a delight for a reader like me who loves horror. I’m really hoping to get to read more about the Evans women. Thank you to NetGalley, St.Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books, and Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to read and listen to this book. I did both, and the audiobook has an absolutely incredible narrator in Stephanie Nemeth-Parker. This book releases on April 9th. I highly recommend it!

This book was way more gory than I realized it was going to be, but honestly that wasn’t such a bad thing. I loved the 4 generations of women. I loved the small town setting as well as the setting of the the early 2000s. I loved the multiple points of view. I thought the story was interesting and that really young adults or adults would appreciate this book.

this was a fun and witty vampire/zombie horror book and i really enjoyed it, for the most part. i loved the idea of a women working in a funeral parlor killing the dead and keeping the town safe but it just didn’t hit the mark for me. i thought Luna’s character was kind of annoying in a way, like your family tells you there are undead walking around and tearing ppl apart and you just skip school and prance around at night? ehhhhh. i also found it hard to believe that the seasoned women could not fight the undead, like at all. i know they’re older but like come on lol. and then fact they weren’t doing anything like going out and trying to hunt down the undead until the very last second also irked me. regardless of that, i found the banter between all the women delightful and i loved the southern aspect of it, it made me happy and def gave me the southern book clubs guide to slaying vampires vibes. overall it was a fun gory book. 3,5/5
thank you netgalley and at.martin’s press for the e book in exchange for my honest review!

Fun fast read. I’m always up for a vampire book. I liked the twist and the pov of slayers. I also enjoyed the family dynamics. In the end though it’s lacking in content and immersing me more in its world.

"Bless Your Heart" was an enjoyable read. I thought the storyline had a really interesting premise and I think it'll do well with readers who enjoy Paranormal Mysteries.

I loved that this story was set in 90's and had a cast of strong female main characters. I am a huge fan of reading books with multiple POVs so I was glad that the author chose this method to tell this story.

I think it's definitely worth checking out.

Thanks Lindy Ryan , Net Galley and St Martin's Press-Minotaur Books for providing me with an ARC of this book.

I really enjoyed this book. The Evans family have operated the only funeral home in their small Southern town for generations. Now left to Ducey, her daughters Lenore and Grace and her granddaughter Luna, things are mostly peaceful until, well, the dead simply aren’t staying dead anymore. Ducey and her daughters know what has to be done. They’ve done it before and it’s time they revealed to Luna her heritage and destiny.

By turns gruesome and charming, this book is great fun.

Highly recommended.

This was a fun debut from Lindy Ryan and clearly sets up future novels in this universe. I really hope there are more novels set in this universe because I definitely have questions and there were a lot of loose ends.

Bless Your Heart is a multiple POV novel that pivots between the Evan's women, Deputy Roger Taylor, and various other town's people. We never get a POV from any of the Strigoi which I thought would have been interesting and showed more information about the Strigoi. I see where Lindy has easily set up more novels, but it kind of bothered me that there weren't more answers. The Evans women have essentially been vampire hunters for generations, but they still don't know really anything about Strigoi beyond myths and legends. It just kind of bothered me that there wasn't a stronger knowledge base.

I did really enjoy the central story and the rising panic/anxiety. About half way through as the reader you start putting pieces together and it gave me so much anxiety in a good way. This was the kind of book where I was quickly turning pages and completely caught up in the drama. I thought the ending did lack a little oomph, but again I think it's because the author is setting up multiple story arc. I will be disappointed if I don't see another book in this series.

Bless Your Heart is a fun thriller that will keep you on your edge of your set. Even if I still had questions at the end, I really enjoyed this novel.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books for the ARC.

Bless Your Heart was a cool southern gothic read about four generations of the Evans women. The Evans women Ducey, Lenore, and Grace have been running a funeral home for decades and Luna is about to come of age and learn the truth.

They kill the undead.

This was so fun and it’s the first in a series. I’m hoping the author was hinting at the past of Ducey and Lenore being featured in the next installment.

Fun and gory at times but also heartwarming and mostly about family with some undead mixed in. This was a great ride. Packed with murders and undead creatures.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher here for my early copy. I’ll def be waiting for the next book.

If you like Grady Hendrix, this is likely to be one you enjoy.

Thank you everyone for this early copy of Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan, in exchange for an honest review.

Honestly, I think I expected more from this book. I wanted more. I found the writing to be lacking, and a bit vague, and I needed more action from this story. Maybe I went in with my expectations too high

I absolutely loved this book!

The Evans women had me laughing throughout the book. They all have their own idiosyncracies that made them quite beloved characters in this story!

I kept turning the pages and didn’t want to put this down. I needed to know what was going to happen!

I am hoping there is a continuation of the Evans women. They deserve another book.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the arc of this book. All opinions are my own.

I will give my thoughts once SMP addresses their readers with an explanation. Until then, all my reviews will be withheld.

It’s 1999 in a small Texas town where the Evans women run the only funeral parlor around. Four generations of women, from tough-talking Ducey Evans to her teenage great-granddaughter Luna, are entrusted with burying the town’s dead – and making sure they stay buried. But sometimes the dead are restless and their reanimated corpses return as Strigoi, vampire-esque creatures hungry to feed on the living. And it’s up to the Evans women to fight back to protect their family and the whole town.

I was pleasantly entertained by this quirky multiple POV story. It’s a little hard to describe, it’s like if you took paranormal Southern Gothic but made it cozy. That’s not to say there’s no gore, as there are definitely some descriptive blood-and-guts moments, but I’d describe it as light horror, perfect for readers who are newer to the genre. The relationships between the four women gave the story a lot of heart. The late 90s pop culture references are on point and were a lot of fun for this Gen X-er. This book would be perfect for fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and books by Grady Hendrix and Charlaine Harris.

Many thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Minotaur Books for providing me an advance copy of this book.

I appreciate the ways Ryan depicts the Evans women's combination of pragmatism and responsibility with intergenerational secrets and miscommunications. From matriarch Ducey to high school student Luna, their personalities shine through, whether they're dealing with the dead, the not-so-dead, or each other. An engaging new addition to the rural fantasy landscape.

I am in support of the boycott of St. Martin’s Press. I am withholding my review until such time as this is resolved.

There is an active boycott of this publishing house due to the failure of St. Martin’s Press to ensure the safety of their Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian influencers. Over 7,500 influencers to date have signed the petition demanding that St. Martin’s Press meet the incredibly reasonable demands below.
- Address and denounce the Islamophobia/racism from their employee.
- Offer tangible steps for how they're going to mitigate the harm this employee caused.
- Address how, moving forward, they will support and protect their Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab readers, influencers, and authors in addition to their BIPOC readers, influencers, and authors.
Readers for Accountability recently brought to your attention the threatening behaviors displayed by friends of your employee towards multiple members of their team. This not only includes online harassment with threats of lawsuits and reporting but has extended to tracking the whereabouts of a prominent Black creator whom you chose to unfollow.
This refusal to engage with the influencers who provide SMP with free labor is both disheartening and offensive.

This story takes place in Southeast Texas at a funeral parlor that is ran by a family of Vampires where when people die they bury them but what happens next to them you have to read the book to find out😊
But when rumors are floating around that the return of the original vampire is coming The Evan’s family began to worry and wondered what is store for them.
I enjoyed the relationship between the characters Ducey, Lenore, Grace, and Grace’s daughter Luna each brings their own strengths and vulnerabilities, making them relatable for Vampires that is.
This book combine’s Vampires and mystery into one well told and unique story that has some southern charm and of course great secrets with a some blood and gore
But what would you expect? It’s a vampire story.

Title: Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan
Publication Date- 04/09/24
Publisher- St. Martin's Press
Overall Rating- 5 out of 5 stars

Review: Review copy given to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I honestly have no complaints about this book. I enjoyed it from start to finish. Bless Your Heart has a lot of really fun elements to it. It takes place in the South in 1999 and follows 3 generations of women running a funeral home. This is a paranormal story about vampires but it’s unlike any I’ve read before. Sure, it has the things you should expect from a vampire novel but it also adds it’s own twists to a creature story. The vampires here have some features of zombies and the undead which I found really entertaining.

This is also a mystery/ thriller. We not only follow the Grandmother, Mother and Daughter but the police caption who is trying to figure out what is going on at this funeral parlor run by this family. It looks like on Goodreads, this plans to be a series and I cannot wait to see what will happen next.

Going into this story it’s not one you should expect to take super series. At times it felt like a cozy mystery but with some added horror and gore. I all around really enjoyed it and would likely read it again. There were so many different things happening and storylines going on that it kept my attention but wasn’t too much that I felt overwhelmed or confused.

I enjoyed this laid back, exciting vampire story. Loved the characters and the world. It felt gothic at times and honestly could be framed as a lighter version of True Blood. In summary, it gets my recommendation.

Thank you to MacMillan and St Martin's press for review copies of Bless Your Heart. I recommend this one on audiobook as I really thought the narration gave style to Ryan's writing that helped me enjoy the story more.
There is a lot to like in this story, it resonated with my buffy the vampire slayer loving self and my appreciation for stories with strong female characters and for family dynamics that are complex but funny and edgy, and for the part of me that likes a sneakily dark and gory story underneath the fun and humor (similar to some of grady hendrix's books).

My one note is that the writing, despite a solid plot and characters and themes I love... didn't always work for me, this is a really liked it but missing some of the pizzazz/pow that I was expecting, I think it was the somewhat scattered development of the plot as we were learning about two big plot points, the family story and then what was happening in the town (akin to a pilot for a show that has to do a lot of work to explain a lot of things.., it works but I hope it is a set up for another story that flows more effectively!)

Stephanie Németh-Parker's narration for Bless Your Heart from Lindy Ryan really makes this book work so I suggest this is a great one to read and listen along as well. I really appreciated the voice acting that captured tone and spirit of the different characters, let the darkness sneak in but also the humor too.

What a fun concept! I loved the character development and the family dynamic going on throughout this novel. I struggled some with the morgue setting, but that’s just my queasy stomach. Love it and thank you for the arc!

The premise of Southern women and vampires immediately sucked me in. It took me a while to read this book and I'm not sure why. The story is told through different POV and once I figured out/remembered who was who I actually liked the generational gap and POV from the women. However, I think the story was somewhat underwhelming. Overall I did enjoy it, but it's not a book I'm going to reach for for a re-read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book.