I loved this book from start to finish. Getting to know the 4 generations of Evans women was a delight, and don't get me started on how fun the idea of a Matrilineal generational Funeral Home is, because I love it so much.

The narrator for this audiobook went above and beyond. Every Evans woman had a distinct voice and a distinct way of talking, as did most of the side characters as well. There are few audiobooks where I can confidently pick out which <i>side character</i> is talking before they say their name. Somehow this audiobook narrator, Stephanie Németh-Parker, did it! It was amazing. And I loved all the voices, each voice really complemented their respective character's distinct personality.

This is one of those books where everything keeps coming together, the puzzle pieces were all in front of me but I couldn't see how they fit until they did, and it was wonderful. There were plot twists/devices I suspected, and ones I hadn't seen coming at all, and I always love when a book can manage to surprise me without making everything seem impossible. Bless Your Heart did that.

I cannot recommend this book enough. I laughed, I cried, I tried desperately not to jump at the voices of the restless dead in my earbuds. A great time was had by all*.

*me

This was a fun and early time. Set in the late 90s and felt like a scary movie of that time period. I enjoyed all the ladies at that funeral home, they were hilarious. I’m glad to see there is more coming in this whacky town, I’ll absolutely be read it. Also the narration on this was excellent and lended to an even more enjoyable time in the story.

Thank you to @NetGalley and @MacMillanaudio for my free copy of this audiobook to review!

A fabulous, EXHILARATING and gory supernatural read! I eagerly listened at 1.75 and LOVED every single second! The narrator really channeled the Evans superbly and I was engrossed!

The Evans women, funeral directors by day and Vampire slayers at night! Killing vampires is their family duty and secret. The Evans keep the town safe from the cold-blooded undead from waking. It's been eons since an undead has awoke in their little town. Who is causing the dead to wake and who is savagely murdering the town's people?

Last time, it was Grace Evans' husband .... surprise! In comes Luna, daughter of Grace and her vampire father. The Evans family has kept their Undead Slaying and Luna's origin secret until now. More dead keep rising, missing people, a new dark teenaged stranger arrives in town and the Evans family fiendishly fight to gain control!

Will the townspeople be saved or will the undead take over? What will become of Luna .... is she like her father? Who is this dark and mysterious stranger? How much more gore can one family take until they meet their own demise? Find out for yourself and go read/listen to this FANTASTIC, ENGAGING and TWISTY dramatic horror!

I’m usually not a big horror fan, but I loved this southern horror novel! Full of dark humor, twists and turns, I have recommended it to all of my friends. I found myself wanting to be a part of the Evans family, full of strong women with big secrets. Fantastic fun! Thank you, NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the chance to listen to and review, “Bless Your Heart.”

Title: Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan
Publication Date- 04/09/24
Publisher- Macmillan
Overall Rating- 5 out of 5 stars

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

The audio was fantastic. Great production!!

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.

Stephanie Németh-Parker's narration for Bless Your Heart from Lindy Ryan really makes this book work! 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). 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.
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!)

The Evans women run the only funeral home in town and that's not the only reason people that people tend to keep their distance. Every one of them has a daughter and there are no men in their lives. Despite all this, Luna, the youngest Evans', wants to have a normal life. That is not in the cards as people start to go missing in town. When a few people die under mysterious circumstances the town cops start taking more of an interest in all things strange, especially the Evans family.

This was such an enjoyable book and I loved the bond that the family shares, as well as their dark secrets. The character development was great and you had a hint of where the story was leading, but not exactly how it would get there. I would love a sequel!

As a southerner myself, of course the title Bless Your Heart immediately appealed to me! The narrator, Stephanie Nemeth-Parker, does an outstanding job narrating this southern cozy mystery. The southern accents and different voice given to each character only adds to the enjoyment of this audiobook. I would definitely classify this as a dark comedy with some gore thrown in. The characters were well written and very likeable. This story had some twists and turns- providing a fun ride! I would definitely recommend the audio format of this vs the print- the narrator/audio version make this work a complete package!

Thank you to NetGalley & MacMillan Audio for an advanced copy- I thoroughly enjoyed it~

This book was SO fun! No one is safe from the Strigoi, and I loved that. From someone who is a lover of videogames with undead, I think Lindy had an interesting take on this that I've never seen before! Although it might sound like it at first, this is not the typical zombie you might think of. The story sucks you in almost immediately and keeps you guessing. There were POVs from so many different characters, which really helped the reader stay engaged in the story. I felt like a lot was going on, but Lindy did an excellent job of piecing it together and making it flow in a creative way. I was very pleased with the ending and the way she handled that. Bless Your Heart was unpredictable, and I kept thinking I was on the right path, but each time, I was wrong. This is a must read of the year!

Listening to this as an audiobook made the experience even better! The narration by Stephanie Nemeth-Parker sucked me into the story. Her southern accents were on point, but she gave every character a unique voice. Juggling this many POV's can be difficult while listening to an audiobook, but Stephanie made sure to differentiate between each character so I was never confused! She narrated the story in a terrific way and made it clear when switching to a new scene or chapter. Stephanie really emphasized the feelings of the characters, so I knew exactly when someone was upset, annoyed, sad, etc. Definitely recommend listening!

Gore and horror. A great Southern gothic horror tale. There was a good story line to go with the murder, guts and dismembered corpses coming “back to life”. I listened to the audiobook and the narration was pretty good with different voices for all the main characters. The way it ended makes me think there will be another book and I hope that’s accurate because I would love to come back to these characters and their story.

I received an ALC (Advanced Listener Copy) of this audiobook from NetGalley & Macmillan Audio.
4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐️
It's not my usual genre, but the synopsis got me. I do love a good paranormal story, to be sure.

I don't know what I was expecting but that wasn't it. I was so surprised by it, but I could not stop listening. There is just something not right about those Evans women. Ha ha, famous last words.
The characters are so likeable and fierce that it's no wonder I couldn't put it down. Man, they sure are good in a crisis!
But secrets do have a way of coming back to haunt you when you least expect it. I felt like all the Evans, in their own right, have secrets, but it was the biggest one that Miss. Luna is facing this when she finds out exactly what goes on at the funeral parlour.

This book sure has a few twists and turns that I didn't see coming. I will say the author does a fantastic job setting up this series for success. I want and need more from these characters now that Miss. Luna knows all. I want to see what will happen next.

The narrator did a fabulous job. Honestly, she was new to me, but she gave all of these characters flare and pizzazz, which was very entertaining.

I am not even sure how to classify this book it's kind of a southern small town cozy mystery with vampires. This book was fun yet dark and quirky. Like I said hard to classify but I don't want that to deter you from reading this one!

I liked the Evans women and hope for more books to really flesh them out and give even more of a backstory.

Stephanie Németh-Parker's narration was excellent I enjoyed her accents and characters!

This one is fun and I am glad I took a chance on a new to me author. I highly recommend this one!

4 stars
I received this audiobook from the publisher Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for a fair and honest review.

Decent read, small town relationships where they’re forced to come together to overcome the threat to their town. I liked the characters but wish there was a bit more depth all around.

**Review ⭐⭐⭐.5/5**
I’m a sucker for a vampire book (ha!), and this was a fun departure from the romantasy books I’ve been reading of late. A combination of mystery, horror, and southern small-town charm, *Bless Your Heart* follows the Evans family—a multi-generational family of women who own the only funeral parlor in town. When the body of town gossip Mina Jean Murphy appears in the funeral parlor and rises from the dead, the women know that the Strigoi (vampires) are back in town and on the hunt. As more bodies turn up, the family works together to find out which mastermind Strigoi is threatening their town–and in the process, are forced to confront some of their own family secrets that they would have rather left in the past.

>> What I loved: When I say this reminds me of *True Blood*, I mean that in the best ways. Horror mixed with small-town vibes, and a cast of amusing characters. This was a relatively fast-paced story with a variety of twists and turns, and the audiobook narration by Stephanie Németh-Parker helps to bring these characters to life.

>> What I didn’t love: I was looking for *more*—more backstory, more character development, and more interaction between the characters. At times the interactions between characters felt more like filler, and I wished that those opportunities had been taken a bit more to build in depth instead.

I would recommend this book to fans of dark comedy and paranormal mystery or horror. It looks like this intends to be a series, and I would gladly take a return trip back to 1999s Texas to find out what happens to the Evans women next.

**Acknowledgments & Disclaimers**
✨ Thank you to NetGalley, Lindy Ryan, and Macmillan Audio, for providing an ARC and the opportunity to share an honest review of this book.
✨ All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.
✨ My reviews and ratings strive to evaluate books within their own age-demographic and genre.

I don't know what it is, but I've been reading lots of books set in the 90s lately. Add in that Bless Your Heart is set in Texas and it's right up my alley.

It's 1999 and the Evans women have run the town funeral home for generations. They're not just in charge of funeral arrangements, but also make sure that what's dead stays dead. But the dead aren't the only thing the Evan's women are ensuring stay buried, and with the dead rising the secrets the women keep are rising with them.

I so enjoyed this book. It's a quirky, fun, paranormal, mystery and I was here for it. I primarily listened to the audiobook, and it definitely made traffic more enjoyable. The Evans women (Ducey, Lenore, Grace, and Luna) have such spunk and if you follow me, you'll know I'm a sucker for a no-nonsense older lady.

While this book has a 'horror' label, it's just for the supernatural aspect. It certainly falls more into the 'horror adjacent' realm with more a focus on the mystery. The ending has the potential for setting us up for a series, and I completely read another book in this series.


Bless Your Heart comes out April 9, 2024! Huge thank you to Minotaur Books and MacMillan Audio for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.  If you liked this review please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my instagram @speakingof.books or on Tiktok @speakingof.books

This was fantastic! I figured out who the head vampire was within the first couple of chapters, but it was still great to watch it all play out. It really was entertaining, and I loved the way the Evans women covered their tracks! It was really creative! The tone of it reminded me a lot of the Deadwood series by Ann Charles. Not the same subject matter, but it had that same vibe. It’s actually a lot like the illegitimate love child of the Deadwood series and an adult Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I got the idea that it was set up for a sequel. I really hope there is! I would definitely read it!

Huge thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for sending me this ARC for review! All of my reviews are given honestly!

Luna's family runs the funeral home in the small Texas town where they live. Luna sometimes helps her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother at Evans Funeral Parlor. But Luna's family members are not telling her the whole truth about what goes on at the funeral parlor.

It's been quiet in town since Luna was an infant. Once she is a teenager though, things in town get, well, interesting. It starts when Mina Jean Murphy sits up in her coffin. Then another body is brought into the funeral parlor. Another body that wants to move. The women in Luna's family quickly dispatch the undead man with a trocar, a sharp instrument used as a drainage outlet for bodily fluids. The Strigoi, vampires ,multiply and the Evans women are trying to protect the town. When the sheriff joins the dead, Deputy Roger Taylor gets let in on the secret and joins the women trying to safeguard the town.

As the ranks of the undead continue to swell in town, Luna is horrified and mystified as to the nightmares she's been having. Crane, a newcomer to her high school, believes in magic and tries to help.

Read the book to find out how the Evans family, Crane, and the Deputy work to rid the town of the plague of the undead. Written by Lindy Ryan and narrated by Stephanie Németh-Parker, the book will appeal to fans of horror as well as teen readers looking for something with a different twist.

🧛🏻‍♀️Book Review🧛🏻‍♀️
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Summary: It’s 1999 in Southeast Texas and the Evans women, owners of the only funeral parlor in town, are keeping steady with…normal business. The dead die, you bury them. End of story. That’s how Ducey Evans has done it for the last eighty years, and her progeny—Lenore the experimenter and Grace, Lenore’s soft-hearted daughter, have run Evans Funeral Parlor for the last fifteen years without drama. Ever since That Godawful Mess that left two bodies in the ground and Grace raising her infant daughter Luna, alone.

But when town gossip Mina Jean Murphy’s body is brought in for a regular burial and she rises from the dead instead, it’s clear that the Strigoi—the original vampire—are back. And the Evans women are the ones who need to fight back to protect their town.

As more folks in town turn up dead and Deputy Roger Taylor begins asking way too many questions, Ducey, Lenore, Grace, and now Luna, must take up their blades and figure out who is behind the Strigoi’s return. As the saying goes, what rises up, must go back down. But as unspoken secrets and revelations spill from the past into the present, the Evans family must face that sometimes, the dead aren’t the only things you want to keep buried.
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Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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My Thoughts: thank you so much @macmillan.audio and @netgalley for the advanced copy, this book releases 4/9 and the audio is just out of this world! I loved just about everything about this one, it was quirky and weird. It’s like a hybrid Grady Hendrix meets practice magic. It’s gory and quirky and just all around a good time fighting vampires. If you’re a Buffy fan I truly can’t recommend this one enough. It’s going to be a book series and I just can’t wait to book number 2! 😍
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QOTD- what is your favorite supernatural character? Personally I’m a fan of vampires and dragons!
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I love southern women. I love their classiness, their style, and how they talk. Listening to this book on audio, was a must for me! I needed that southern accent to bring the characters to life. The narrator got the voices right in this one!
I loved the Evans women. Three generations of women, running a funeral parlor and battling the undead. They all have their individual quirks, but as a whole they all love fiercely. I think this really was the heart of the story.
So what about the undead stuff? I will say, I think this cover is a wee bit misleading. The ladies are not battling vampires, they are battling striogi. I had no clue what that was, had to google it immediately. They are troubled spirits that rise from the dead and gain vitality from blood. Sort of a vampire, but no fangs. This makes the story more gory, which isn’t prevalent in vampire stories. There is some definite gut ripping and squelchy organ munching. Lmao. I’ll definitely be looking for more books with striogi in them.
Bless Your Heart is a super quick read. I’d call it baby horror, a stepping stone into horror. I believe it is also classed as “pink horror”, which is aimed more towards female readers.

3.5 stars

This title really puts readers in the right mindset for the vibes of this novel. It's giving quirky Southern femme with a solid dose of gore and light mystery, too.

The premise is a lot of fun. The women of the Evans family run a funeral home, but this is no _Six Feet Under_; these bodies aren't exactly dead, and the life lessons aren't particularly profound. A recent resurgence in original vampires leads to a lot of gruesome liquified piles, mysterious sounds, and more. These women have a legacy to uphold, and that is - first and foremost - to monitor and end these unsavory turns.

I really enjoyed the family dynamics in this one, but overall, I wanted more character development and backstory. These women are humorous, and the concept is great, but at times, I needed more understanding of and engagement with the characters to feel better connected and more invested.

I am looking forward to what I hope will be more installments in the series primarily because I do want to know these characters better.