Enjoyable read. Following 4 generations of Evans women who run a funeral home and secretly hunt vampires. The narrator did a great job voicing all of the characters. The book is told from multiple perspectives, not only the Evans family but a few other characters as well.

This audiobook was amazing! The narrator had convincing voices for every character, male and female. As a Texan, I can verify that she nailed southeast Texas too. The way she had the sheriff lick his lips as he spoke embodied every sheriff in this state. Amazing. The story was a fun ride the whole way through. Well paced, and Lindy Ryan KNOWS these characters. You could also tell she loved them. I was surprised at how gruesome it is, but not in a bad way. This book has the right to stand alongside male writers who do the same, but centers a matriarchy. What a fun ride!

I did not find this book gripping or even interesting, unfortunately. I also didn't enjoy the audiobook narrator's voice. I found the plot boring, definitely not what I expected based on the title and cover. Ah well!

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.

Stephanie Nemeth-Parker narrates the audiobook and she does a great job! Her voice is so expressive and she differentiates the various characters clearly for the listener. She really channels the Evans women, especially Ducey with a crackerjack southern accent. If this becomes a series (and it seems like it will), I hope she narrates them all!

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

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!