Unfortunately, sometimes books are boring, no matter how much you try to make sense of them.

There's no point in keeping you here more than necessary, so this is my take: absolutely nothing happens for the majority of the book and then, in a matter of chapters, things start moving and end without any credibility nor answer to the readers’ questions.
The pace is just wrong, and the narration doesn't help at all: on one hand, we have the stereotypes, so many and so archaic that my eyes almost broke from rolling so hard; on the other, also based on the stereotyped narration, there’s the fact that half of it is just not-always-understandable metaphors, in an attempt of explain how people speak in Texas.

Some people seemed to have enjoyed this, and I'm glad for them, but I can't really understand why.
Especially after that very disappointing ending.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to review this title. Bless Your Heart was a quirky, fun, lighthearted horror novel and also gave cozy mystery vibes. I really enjoyed this book.

This book surprised me in more ways than one. I initailly though vampires but I can do zombies or strigoli, whatever they call them in this book. I was quite fond of the family business being the funeral home but also basically being monster hunters. I think what I liked most was the female empowerment. Mom's and daughters just taking over the family business. It was hard to get into at first, I felt like there were a lot of things going on but eventually everything seemed to fit in. I would definitely recommend this to my friends and fellow readers.
Thanks Netgalley and St. Martins Press for the chance to read this one!

Unfortunately, this one did not hold my interest. I admittedly did not get far into the story before I put it down but I could tell it wasn't meant for me as a reader.

Thank you to the author and MacMillian for this ARC.

I had a very hard time getting into this book and realized it just was not for me. It was somewhat cute but not what I expected

Such a good read that I enjoyed! I'm so glad that I got the chance to read it early and will definitely be recommending it to multiple people who enjoy these types of novels. I enjoyed the characters and especially enjoyed the writing by this author. I'm excited to see what the author comes out with next as I'll definitely be reading it! Thank you to the publisher for my early copy of this book!

Thank you to netgalley for providing an e-galley for review. Bless Your Heart is a southern fried vampire tale with heart that may or may not have a stake in it. Funny, touching and feminist.

If you thought my review wouldn't contain a plethora of vampire puns then you, are a silly lil goose,  I am obsessed, is anyone really surprised?
Campy cozy horror at its finest, a perfect blend of horror, mystery, humour and family drama, with veins ( 👀) of 90s nostalgia running throughout BLESS YOUR HEART was an entertaining read that gave me the fuzzy wuzzies.
The undying ( 👀) solidarity of the Evans women in the face of life's most difficult challenges is at the beating (or not 👀) heart of this novel.
It seems obvious that most people would draw a comparison to Grady Hendrix’s The Southern Bookclub’s Guide to Slaying Vampires and whilst yes it is brimming with southern charm and biting ( 👀) wit, in reality, the two books are quite different. Specifically, the depiction of women, rather than being victimized the women in Ryan’s novel take control, strong and powerful and despite their differences their unconventional family dynamic adds a lot of sincerity to this story.

Rising like the dead ( 👀 ) to meet the recent resurgence of vampires in the literary world, Ryan has staked  (👀 ) her claim as one of the best in this heartfelt feminist monster yarn.

Thank you Minotaur Books and NetGalley for a copy of Bless Your Heart.

"Rise and shine. The Evans women have some undead to kill."

Bless Your Heart is for anyone looking for…
• Southern charm
• Vampires (or strigoi) and lots of gore
• Interesting family dynamics (with complicated motherhood)
• Small town setting

REVIEW
Bless Your Heart is perfect for readers who enjoyed True Blood or The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires! A "beginner horror" for those wanting to dip their toes in scarier books but need baby steps before diving in fully. However, it is quite gory so I wouldn't pick up during meal times or something. It's a fun read with charming characters and a touch of murder mystery! It is a multi-pov book, which I found adds depth to the plot while the mystery plot with the strigoi unfolds.

Overall, I highly recommend for vampire fans!

I will start this by saying that I don't really think that I was the intended audience for this book. I thought the cover was cute and the synopsis sounded charming. There were some really great elements in this book and some parts that I really enjoyed. The banter between the characters was humorous at times. The story its self just didn't seem to work for me. I thought the pacing was off and it really took a long time for things to really get moving. I was also really surprised at the level of gore in the story. Over all I think that this book will go over really well with a lot of people and it just wasn't my cup of tea.

When I saw the cover and read the blurb, I knew I just had to read this book, as it sounded totally up my alley. And boy, was I not disappointed!

The background "mystery," so to speak, regarding the Evanses takes a bit longer to finally be addressed than I would've liked, as it's built up and built up, mentioned and hinted around and then shelved once more, to the point that it just seems to drag out, but the "here and now" part was paced really well, and I loved going back to 1999. Interesting concept with an edge-of-your-seat ending, and I absolutely would not be opposed to there being more stories set in this world.

4 stars

**I received an advance review copy from NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. All thoughts and comments contained within are my own.**

Oh. My. Lanta. This is one of, if not top read of 2024. This was full of southern charm and gory goodness and I couldn’t get enough of it. I cannot wait to see how the rest of this world unfolds in the coming books!

This may be one I come back to but for now, I'm going to put in my review and mark it as one I did not finish. I requested this title because of the cute cover, title, and overview. I thought this was going to be a bit of cozy horror, if such genre exists! The book got a little too graphic/gory for me and it just wasn't the type of book I thought I was going to be reading.

I enjoyed this one, did I love it? Not really. Based off of the cover I was expecting more of a vampire book and although it wasn’t super vampirey in my opinion, it has its elements and is definitely labeled correctly as horror (the descriptions were gnarly ((in a good way)). The characters weren’t completely developed for me and I wish the storyline moved a bit faster. Instead I felt everything happened after the 55% mark, the first half was a lot of plot building.
Every time I wasn’t reading Bless Your Heart, I was thinking about it and wondering what was going to happen next with the Evan’s’ women. I did enjoy the body horror and the descriptions, they really allowed you to visualize what these characters were seeing and experiencing which just added to the enjoyment. Overall, this book was a good time and I will be picking up the second book.

My thanks to Netgalley and Minotaur Books for providing me with a digital copy for review.

This was such a fun mix of mystery and horror! I loved the atmosphere, the characters, and the overall story. It felt like Practical Magic, but with monster hunters. The generational aspect of the book was interesting and I was unable to guess the ending, which I appreciated. Overall a very enjoyable read and I hope there are more books to come!

Campy as hell, which I don't mind every once in a while. I love when campy is told in a matter of fact way too. A fun jaunt centered around a family of women I liked. Free advanced copy courtest of Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

"Bless Your Heart" has a lot to love with interesting family dynamics, light horror and humor, diverse characters, and a unique premise all wrapped up in a Southern Fiction story.

There are also vampires, specifically, ones that are called Strigoi. In Romanian mythology, Strigoi are said to be troubled spirits that rise from the grave. They can be quite troublesome and in 1999, in a small town in Southeast Texas, they're giving Evans Funeral Parlor, quite the time of it.

The four generations of Evans women who own this local funeral parlor are doing their level best to get a handle on the Strigoi issue while protecting certain secrets that need to remain buried...

"Bless Your Heart" was more entertaining than scary and heads up if blood and gore aren't your thing. It's plentiful here. I did enjoy the strong female characters from the Evans family but I wanted more backstory about them and less Southern chatter that slowed things down. Was I the only one who thought the Strigoi felt more like zombies than vampires? That's just me wondering out loud.

This was an immersion read where I preferred the digital version over the audio, narrated by Stephanie Németh-Parker. Her voicing was stellar but again, the Southern chatter wore me down.

If you enjoy light Horror mixed with Southern Fiction "Bless Your Heart" may be the beginning of a great series for you!

3.5⭐

Thank you to Minotaur Books, Macmillan Audio, and Lindy Ryan for a DRC and an ALC of this book through NetGalley. It has been a pleasure to give my honest and voluntary review.

In 1999, in Southwest Texas, the Evans women have one job - to keep the undead, dead under the disguise of running a Funeral Home. It's been 15 years since they've met a Strigoi, but when the town gossip Mina Jean Murphy ends up dead on their table, then sits up, very much alive, they realize its time to take action once again.

I liked how we got four generations of the Evans women. I loved learning more about each of them as the story progressed, and the family dynamics were amazing to follow. I thought this was fun, but at times it felt a bit repetitive, which made the story drag a bit. I listened to the audiobook and think the narrator did an amazing job with these characters. There are multiple POVs that could get confusing at times, but I still enjoyed my time reading.

I am definitely intrigued to see how the story progresses into the next installment, especially after that ending.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.
This was a great book and I'll be purchasing it for the library.

𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦:
🖤 Southern Gothic vibes
🪦 shows like True Blood
🖤 small town settings
🪦 multi POV
🖤 vampire + zombie ghouls

Add this book to your TBR if you're looking for something unique and filled with dark humor. It feels wrong to say it's funny because there's actually A LOT of people killed, sometimes gruesomely, but the whole book kind of feels like satire on horror so I didn't take it too seriously.

The Evans family is made up of several generations of women. They run the only funeral parlor in their small Texas town and for years things have been uneventful: people die, and then they bury them. But one day the dead start to rise, and the Evans women aren't surprised since they've experienced this before. But when more people start being killed, the women must figure out why this is happening, all while trying to keep their own family secrets buried.

I thought this book was so much fun. I loved the different women of the family and their unique personalities. I'm not a huge paranormal reader so if you're not either, don't be afraid to try this. I liked that there was a little mystery element to it as well. The ending didn't wrap things up completely because there's a sequel coming out next year. But the cliffhanger definitely makes me want to read the next book!

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for providing me a digital reviewer copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.