Read For:
90s’ Nostalgia
Family Business
Southern Charm
Slaying the Dead
Strong Women MC’s

This made me think of “The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires” (but well written) meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It gave the small town vibes and a secret only a few knew about. Yet, there was still a great balance between horror and comedy. Definitely something that would be fun to read with a book club tbh. There was drama, mystery, and of course, horror all throughout with some good old southern charm tying it all together.

This was so fun!! I loved the characters, the strong southern elements, the tight family unit, and the general humor. The characters were so funny. This felt like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but funnier and more strong women. Definitely recommend!

This book was so much more fun than I could have ever anticipated! Not only is the cover perfect but I felt like I was reading a mixture of southern charm meets Salem's Lot! Just pure delicious fun!

I received a free ARC from NetGalley.

This book was bad.

I didn't care about any of the 4 generations of Evans women because none of them was more than a single obnoxious habit blown into a maddening level of repetition.
Ducey - crabby oldest woman who ate butterscotch candies CONSTANTLY. She must have eaten at least 50 in the course of the book which took place over maybe 3 days? Somebody should count how many she eats, but that person won't be me.
Lenore - crabby older middle aged woman who was obsessively winds clocks and fusses with garden/rosebush. So. much. winding.
Grace - anxious younger middle aged woman who constantly rubs a scar on her wrist and pulls her sleeves over it.
Luna - teenage girl who was actually the most interesting because she has 2 friends, fights with her mom, is unsure about her boyfriend's affection while simutaneously interested in the dark new kid at school. Typical mundane teen stuff but at least it's more than one trait/behavior.
And the first 95% of the book is the 3 older women seeing that a Godawful Mess is happening and doing basically fuck-all about it. They take care of what gets wheeled in the door and spend the rest of the time arguing about what to do while eating butterscotch candies, winding clocks, rubbing scars, and waiting around for the Godawful Mess to conveniently show up at their door.
The twist at the end was no surprise and the title doesn't work. Also, roses don't come in blue and don't grow from seed. Ants don't live in a hive and dogs don't sweat.

Horror with Heart

Thanks to the lovely NetGalley, I recently finished an advanced copy of Lindy Ryan's debut novel "Bless Your Heart", hitting bookshelves April 9, 2024. Set in Southeast Texas in the late 1990s, the novel focuses on four generations of Evans women who run the local funeral parlor and keep the town safe (that one Godawful Mess aside) from any would-be dead that don't know how to stay where they belong.

It's been 15 years since Ducey, Lenore, and Grace Evans had anything to worry about. Now that Luna Evans is in high school, making friends with that weird boy, and the dead are suddenly restless... could another Godawful Mess be right around the corner?

Big on both family ties and gore, "Bless Your Heart" is one to check out if you enjoy mystery, horror, multiple perspectives and a late-night who-done-it.

The Evans women put on a good show! A fun read that felt pretty light considering the subject matter. This story centered around four generations of a family that run a small town funeral parlor. They have a love/hate relationship with the police in town, which quickly becomes apparent when locals start showing up mutilated. There's also a new creepy kid in town that looks like a Eric Harris or Dylan Klebold wannabe with his trenchcoat.

I think this book can appeal to many different people just based off the generations and of people in the book. The youngest character being 15, and the oldest being in her 70s and very light romance mixed in. If I had any critiques, I would have liked more romantic relationship development. It was fun to travel back to 1999 and remember some of the cultural happenings.

Overall this is an easy book to pick up and enjoy! I haven't read anything from Lindy Ryan prior to this and would definitely pick up her future titles.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Minotaur Books for this ARC!

This story is a blast! Ryan has a talent for making horror, comedy, and the Supernatural flow seamlessly. I was thoroughly satisfied at the end of this, but also super glad I read it during the day.

Being from the south and seeing the title "Bless Your Heart" made this an instant read.

The story of four generations of woman who run a small towns only funeral parlor, it started off strong. The introduction of strigoi (sort of ghoul/vampire mashup) had me interested at first. Then the story just kind of dragged and dragged.

The characters were all flawed, but had likeable strengths. The family dynamic seemed well done, but then the non-stop southern phrases got rather old. They were not nearly as charming as I think the intent was.

Sad ending, but somewhat predictable. Over all it was pretty readable and I would check out a sequel if it were written. I think there is a lot of potential here, but it fell a little flat for me. Could have definitely been a shorter book.
This would make a good TV series with a few story line tweaks. I'd give this a solid 3.5 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley for access to review this ARC copy.

I have mixed feelings about this book; it's well-written, and the characters are funny but the story develops way too slowly to be enjoyable.

1999. It is summer in Texas and the Evans women, owners of the only funeral home in town have their hands full. The dead are rising again, evil has returned, and they must fulfill their duty to keep the dead where they belong. Luna is the youngest of the Evans. At fifteen, she knows her family is different. When one of the dead rises in front of her, she starts to unravel her family’s secrets, especially the one involving a fateful night 15 years ago when she was just a baby. As bodies start to pile up and her nightmares become worse, it is time to face her purpose and the powerful vampire that is wreaking havoc in her small town.

Told in alternating points of view, this mystery/horror story reads as a YA novel. We follow Luna Evans' unique coming of age as she must contend with the truth about her family and her own challenges as an adolescent. The story has plenty of gore and gets a little slow at times but held my interest long enough to care about the characters.
This is my first time reading a horror novel and I enjoyed it, though I am not inclined to follow these characters on a future journey. However, if you like horror, gore, a little humor, and southern vampire themes, you might enjoy this novel.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with a free digital copy of this book in return for an honest review.
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I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. This was a great read. Horror, Comedy and supernatural all rolled up to a seamless read. I could not put it down.

This really started out strong, and I had such high hopes. In the end, it just wasn’t for me. Things began to drag pretty quickly, and I found myself skimming quite a bit. By the end, I had pretty much checked out completely. Sorry I couldn’t be more positive.

My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

The premise of this was fun; it could definitely be a series with the way it ended. I don’t know that I would continue to read it though. I found it to be way too many POV’s and at times had trouble remembering who was who (especially when it came to the Evans women.) I guessed the twist about halfway through, but it was a good one!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from St. Martin'sPress I Minotaur Books through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Thank you, St. Martin's Press I Minotaur Books.

People have always gossiped about the Evans' women. There's just something 'a little strange ' about them that keeps the people in their Southeast Texas town from getting too close. But when you've got the only funeral parlor around, well let's just say that eventually everyone is going to walk through your door.

BLESS YOUR HEART by Lindy Ryan was delightful - strong full-bodied characters, written with wit and heart. At the center of the story is Luna Evans, a teen-ager trying to navigate high school, hormones, an over protective mom, and a sudden introduction into the real work of the Evans Funeral Parlor.

Business is picking up for Ducey, Eleanor, and Grace Evans and that means trouble. People aren't just dying, some are rising from the dead and if there is one thing the Evans women know how to do, it's put the 'restless dead' to rest. As more people start to go missing, Ducey, Eleanor, and Grace realize that a Strigoi―one of the original vampires―is loose in their town and a member of their own family might be to blame.


BLESS YOUR HEART is that rare vampire novel that creates its own mythology around the undead and the people who hunt them. It's a mystery but getting to know the Evans women, their relationships to one another, to their friends, and to the town was the bigger draw. These are characters that you want to revisit and see where they go next. Strong recommendation for fans of well-written, humor-filled supernatural mysteries and stories.

Thanks to #NetGalley for access to review this ARC copy.

Great read about generational curses, the dead and small towns! There are a few themes and storylines that could have been expanded on or at least wrapped up, which was a little disappointing. There were also a few repetitive phrases, which irked me, but otherwise I think this is a pretty light read that most will enjoy!

I wanted to read this because I like vampires, and the title got me. It was a fun horror comedy with charming main characters, I'd read other books by this author.

First, thank you to NetGalley and the author for this ARC!

I had high hopes for this one, with the promise of vampires and a generational group of women being our fighters. Alas, it kind of fell flat. It started nicely, but then started to drag with more of the same just kind of repeating itself.

Then the end was just...underwhelming. You drag the story along for almost 40 chapters, then end things so quickly? And the way it ended was unsatisfying for me as well. Too many questions went unanswered, too many plot points that seemed forgotten. I could maybe see this working if there was a sequel that answered those, but as a standalone, I just wasn't satisfied.

On a positive note, I will say I enjoyed reading from the POV of each of our Evans women (once I got the hang of who was in which generation) as well as our main deputy.

I was immediately intrigued by the idea of this book as someone who watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer in my high school “glory” days, and it did NOT disappoint.

Bless Your Heart is a southern horror story that is also charming. Told in alternating POVs, the focus is the Evans Funeral Parlor and the women who run it: formidable Ducey, the Evans family matriarch, her daughter Lenore, set her in routines to keep evil at bay, her daughter, Grace, haunted by the events of a “Godawful Mess” that happened 15 years ago, when HER daughter, Luna, was just a baby. The job of the Evans women is to keep the dead…well, dead.

When the town gossip, Mina Jean Murphy, rises from the dead before her wake, the elder Evans women know evil has returned to their town.

Set in 1999, during a hot Texas summer, Bless Your Heart stole my heart. I have never read a story that I’d describe as gory (but not too awful), yet heart-warming, but that’s what it is.

This title releases in April 2024. Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. I can’t wait for everyone to meet the Evans women.

This book was a ride! I finished it in two days---snappy dialogue, and an intriguing plot kept me reading to see what happened next. The Evans women have run the small town's funeral home for generations. What the rest of the town doesn't know is that they also keep the dead from rising. They've managed to keep things under wraps since the "awful thing" that happened 15 years ago, but lately, it seems like something is happening again.

Fun, easy read that gave me Buffy the Vampire Slayer vibes. Thank you Netgalley and St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books for the ARC!

Small town take on the age old vampire story! The ladies of the Evans Funeral Home are also caretakers of the town's vampire problem, after thinking they put it to rest years earlier. I thought it was a pretty cute book, gorier than I expected for the contemporary tone. My only problem was trying to keep track of the numerous characters. Between the Evans clan, the police force and the teenagers, it was a lot to keep straight.

Thanks to Lindy Ryan, St Martins Press/Minotaur Books and Netgalley for the advance copy!