3.5

I really liked the how much gorier it was than I thought. However, it was a bit slow. And some of the twisted were better off revealed earlier for context. I think it will be a love it or hate it kind of book. If it was to become a series, I might read the next one to see if the pace picks up now that the foundation is built.

**would have benefited (a lot) by having multiple narrators with labeled points of view.

3.5 stars
Four generations of Evans women run a funeral home in southeast Texas in 1999. Lately there have been some unexplained freakishly gory deaths. Grandma Ducey knows what is happening and her teenage great granddaughter Luna may be the key to making them stop. A white rosebush, some ash, and a trocar may help stop what appears to be a zombie invasion in this small Texas town. Luna has to accept what her family is and find a way to help stop the invasion.
The Southern Gothic genre is an interesting genre that is not easy to create. “Bless Your Heart” has some elements of the Southern Gothic genre, corruption, innocence, freakish and grotesque moments. Overall, the book was good, but it didn’t quite meet the expectations I had for it. I was hoping for either a full out Southern Gothic or a Southern Gothic light with dry humor. Grandma Ducey was a character I would have liked other characters to have been more like. The Grace relationship and Luna conception is still a bit murky for me. The story was easy to follow with multiple viewpoints. I liked the characters, Ducey was my favorite.
The narrator was good and did the multiple voices for each character. Listened at 2.0 speed.
I would recommend this book to those who enjoy ghoulish books or those who want to tiptoe into the horror light/fantasy/ghoul/zombie genre. This is not a romance so there is no ghoul/zombie spicy time.

First I would like to thank Macmillan audio and Netgalley for giving me early access to this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

The blurb is right in my confort / popcorn zone: a family of strong women fight the undead.
The narrator was great, bringing the characters and the southern vibe to life.

It was overall a nice book and a good story, but it felt too much like a first installment to me, which it is.
Not enough happened to my taste, but again I had a good time.
IMHO, more of a vibe than plot book.
But I'm still curious about next book.

Horror and southern charm? Yes, please! The Evans women are owners of the only funeral home in a small town. Everything is business as usual until Mina Jean is brought in for burial and she rises from the dead. The Evans woman are more than initially meets the eye in this mystery meets horror novel.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this book in exchange for my review.

Set in 1999, the story follows the Evan’s women as they battle strygori in their small Texas town.
I absolutely fell in love with Ducey, the plucky, butterscotch chomping great grandma. I felt like if Buffy the Vampire Slayer lived to be 80 she would be fun like Ducey.
Each chapter Is narrated by different characters in the story. I felt that helped me to fully visualize the town and dynamics.
The narration was great on the audiobook. I felt the accents weren’t too overdone and the tones made it easy to follow the conversation
For someone who didn’t love Grady Hendrix’s The Southern Book Club Guide to Slaying Vampires (I know, I know that’s blasphemy), I was pleasantly suprised and delighted by this book.

A solid 4.5/5 stars for me (rounded up for goodreads). I received an advanced review copy of this book.

I wanted to love 'Bless Your Heart' by Lindy Ryan; however, it felt like reading a blur for me. Not that the story lacked noteworthy moments—it did. However, they were few and far between. Some of the writing seemed like filler, making it a challenging read for me personally.

Nevertheless, it boasts a captivating plot involving four generations of southern women fighting vampires, which alone draws you into a compelling storyline. While the book may not necessarily have humorous moments, it is still good.

I express my gratitude to NetGalley and the author/publisher for providing me with an ARC reader to complete this review. These thoughts and opinions are voluntary and my own.

This is a fun, easy read. I selected this hoping it might be like Grady Hendrix's The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires and it brings the same vibes. The monsters are slightly different than true vampires, but its a fun touch that the hunters work at a mortuary.

The Evans women are the strongest in town, though everyone else thinks they're the STRANGEST. They run the town's only funeral parlor, and do their best to make sure the dead are comfortable going into the ground... Especially the Restless Undead ones. Three generations of Evans women have been putting the dead down for years, and the youngest, Luna, is about to learn about her family's legacy.

This was a fun, captivating read. It drew me in almost immediately. The "undead" in this are not vampires or zombies and are called Strigoi. While it's not SPECIFICALLY a vampire thing, there's a whole lot of Buffy vibes going on here. It was a LITTLE odd seeing the story from so many points of view, but it did make some sense at the same time. Readers are treated to POVs from almost every person that dies, plus the law enforcement team, and each of the Evans women. I listened to the audiobook, and the reader did a decent job of separating the different views. Her voices for each character were nicely distinct, and it cracked me up that she made it sound like she had something in her mouth every time the great grandma, Ducey, had a butterscotch candy.

This is really fun for anyone who enjoys a good creepy vampire-style story. It's not QUITE horror, but gets pretty close. The comedy factor definitely eases the scary a bit.

I received an Advanced Reader Copy via NetGalley in return for sharing my thoughts on this book. Thanks to the author and publisher for this opportunity!

The story starts out strong and then it slows down. You then get to know about the characters and some background information. I liked that there was multi-generations running the business. Unfortunately there is some repetitiveness and I wasn’t connecting with the characters. I felt like something was missing from the tone of the story. I didn’t get the “edge of your seat” feeling. It was more like “ok, so that happened”. There are some great descriptions of blood and gore. Even with that this still felt more of a cozy read.

The narrator did a fantastic job. I could always tell which character was speaking.

Picture Steel Magnolias meets Twilight and you’ve got a fun small town southern vampire mystery. The Evans family runs a funeral home and fights the dead in their spare time. I enjoyed the story and look forward to book 2. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator did a great job.

Thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGally in exchange for an honest review.

TLDR: Too much talk about butterscotch candies & not enough talk about everything else. This book may be about slaying the undead, but it was not a slay.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for offering an audiobook in exchange for an honest review. The audiobook itself was extraordinarily well done. The narrator was truly exceptional at giving different characters their own voices which made it easy to follow along with who was speaking.

However, the story itself I found to be lacking. I was SO excited for a book about 4 generations of Southern Women taking on the undead. The execution of this idea fell short for me. There was too much filler in the beginning and none of it made me feel particularly connected to any of the characters.

A lot of the explanation didn’t come until the very end. Even the explanation had me scratching my head wondering if maybe I dozed off during a crucial part of the story. After reading a lot of other reviews, I don’t think I did.

Hopefully book 2 will fill in some of the gaps and fix some problems I had with this book, but I don’t think I will be reading it.

This peculiar debut novel combines comedy, mystery, and the undead with a healthy dose of southern charm. Read on for a quick synopsis and my review!
•
•
•
It’s 1999 small town Southeast Texas where the headstrong, and somewhat shifty, Evans women run the hometown funeral parlor. Ducey, Lenore, and Grace Evans have more secrets than a sinner has sweat droplets in church, and things start going awry when their…patrons…begin to rise. Young Luna Evans, only 15, is caught in the middle of it all: trying to untangle the family’s mysteries while still in high school! The Strigoi - the original vampire - are back, and the Evans women must fight back to protect their town, and their family.
•
•
•
I enjoyed this listen for all of its back and forth banter, mysteries that keep you guessing up until the end, and strong female characters throughout. It also felt rather nostalgic for me personally, hearing the references to small town life and Texas-specific references like Blue Bell ice cream and What-a-Burger 🥰

I had a bit of a hard time piecing together the family tree initially, but that may have just been because I was listening rather than seeing the names physically on the pages. I absolutely ADORE Ducey Evans! She’s a no-nonsense, say-it-like-it-is fireball of a great grandmother who doesn’t let anything slow her down!

There’s some fairly graphic content in this novel regarding the Strogoi attacks in the town, so proceed with caution if you don’t like graphic depictions and/or you have a squeamish stomach.

I felt like there are still some loose ends? But I also know this is the first in a series, so my hope is that those will get picked up and continued in the future novels, which I will look forward to reading!!
•
•
•
Bless Your Heart is out 9 April 2024! Thank you to @netgalley and @macmillan.audio for the ARC audiobook for this exciting new title!

I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this one but boy was it fun! I wasn’t sure what to expect but it blew me away. I love the vampire aspects and that it was a line of women relatives who did the hunting it was hard to put down! Thanks to NetGalley for the chance to review.

This book was a lot of fun. The southern dialog was really fun for me as someone who grew up in the south. The story itsself was a bit confusing at first but it started to come together as the book went along and I found myself really enjoying this. The characters were fun but also very grounded. Overall a solid story!

I was really excited about this book as I am a native Texan and a fan of vampire stories, but boy did this disappoint. Bless Your Heart has double meaning to anyone who grew up in the South it can mean- "I feel for you" or "F you" equally. I thought there would be something crafty and fun about the title, but if there was, it was lost on me.

Set in 1999 - the writer tries to cram every single reference to that time period in the book - Chanel "Vamp" nail polish which at the turn of the century was the fifth selling best nail polish in the world, Hot Topic or Mall Goth kids, (which to a Gen X goth like me was an abomination), Nine Inch Nails, and so on. We are literally hit over the head with this.

I could not connect with any of the characters and the Evans women seemed like caricatures or at least cruel sterotypes of Texas women of the time. Knowing the writer's history, it feels like the contempt that many Pacific Northwesterners look down their noses disdainfully at people from this part of the country with. If I had to hear about one more of Lenore's butterscotch candies, I felt like I was going to puke.

I didn't give this book one star, because I felt that Lindy Ryan does have some chops as a writer. However, I feel she got inspired reading Grady Hendrix's far superior novel - "The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires". Grady is a much more nuanced writer and from the South, so this material was much more in his bailiwick. If you have to choose one of these to read- choose Hendrix's novel.

It seems as if some folks were shocked by the graphic material in the book. I was not. If anything, it seemed like a distraction from the banality of the characters featured in Bless Your Heart.


Thanks to Macmillian Audio, Minatour Books, and Net Galley for the audio ARC.

First thank you Macmillan Audio and Net Galley for this Arc! It was everything!

If you love a delightfully southern ensemble cast of characters and a new old take on vampires this is a must read.

It's 1999- which gives me all the nostalgia feels- small town Texas and the Evans family are weird. Not just weird but run the funeral home weird. No men in the house weird. An-event-that-nobody-talks-about 15 years ago weird.

Matriarch Ducey Evans is every wise old Southern woman with sass you didn't know you needed yo read about. Her daughter Lenore begat her daughter Grace who begat Luna- 15 years ago.

The days are hot and the dead are rising in their small town- and its time for Luna to learn the family secret- the Evans women are all that stand between their town and Strigoi aka vampires.

Fast-paced, witty, and nostalgic Bless Your Heart is a Southern vampire readers dream. Just funny enough, Just gruesome enough- I could read more about this town and these characters.

I absolutely ADORED this book!! This book reminded me so much of what made me fall in love with cozy supernatural films and books growing up and the importance of family and myths and knowing where you’re from and the meaning your name carries while living in a small town. Lindy Ryan absolutely knocked it out of the park with this one and I loved every second I was in this novel. Stephanie Németh-Parker’s narration was pure gold too, made the whole experience so immersive.

If I could give this book some vibe siblings they would have to be Cate Teirnan’s Sweep series, Practical Magic (movie), and Charlaine Harris’s Midnight Texas.

A huge thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press and Macmillan Audio. I honestly asked to read this because of the cover, and it was so amazing. The story, the characters, the horror aspects, the witty dialogue, everything was perfect, and the narrator did a fantastic job making each person memorable. This is what a vampire book should be like. I'm eagerly looking forward to reading more by this author, preferably with some in this world.

Book Title: Bless your Heart
Author: Lindy Ryan
Narrator: Stephanie Nemeth-Parker
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Genre: Mystery Thriller (Also described as a horror, comedy)
Pub Date: April 19, 2024
My Rating: 3
Pages 304


Story is based in a small Southeast Texas town in 1990. Four generations of Evans women – Ducey – the 80 year old Matriarch, , Lenore, Grace the Daughter and now Grace’s Daughter Luna run the only funeral parlor.
They also happen to take care of the ones that don't stay dead.

When town gossip Mina Jean Murphy’s body is brought in for a regular burial and she rises from the dead, it is clear that the original vampires are back.
They doing the only thing to save and protect the town they staking her through the heart.

I knew this story was about vampires but I thought it was going to be fun. There were parts I did enjoy but yikes so much blood.

Want to thank NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for granting me this early audiobook.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for April 19, 2024.

Thank you to MacMillan Audio for my advanced copy of Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan publishing April 9th, narrated by Stephanie Németh-Parker.

This genre-bending release has humor, heart, suspense, and horror! Perfect for fans of Grady Hendrix's "A Southerner's Guide to Slaying Vampires," Ryan's new release follows 4 generations of Evans' women who run a small-town funeral parlor and guard the living from those who raise from the dead!

It's 1999, and while the Evans' women are preparing Mina Jean Murphey's body for burial, she stirs and sits up in her coffin. It's clear that the Strigoi - original vampire - are back, and the Evans women must protect their town before more bodies start piling up or before the local Sheriff's office start asking way too many. Unfortunately, viciously attacked bodies keep getting called in, and the Evans' matriarch realizes that the secrets she and her daughters thought they had buried 15 years ago, might be back to haunt them and put their youngest, Luna's life in danger. Forced to tell Luna about her family's true heritage (while violently driving a stake into the heart of a recently raised dead body in their morgue), Luna must learn and train (quickly!) before the walking dead overtake the whole town.

Y'all. I'm a born and raised Southerner, and there is just something so fun about an 80 year old grandmother who sucks butterscotch candy being the matriarch of a vampire hunter family. Ducey Evans is sharp-tongued, strong-willed, and hilariously blunt. Her daughter, Leonor, is more curious about the undead, and has been secretly stashing their ashes to study them, while Grace is soft-hearted unless it comes to protecting her teen daughter, Luna. Together, the women must solve who is still out in the community feeding on locals and getting stronger every day. The story is told through a variety of POVs, from the Evans women, the sheriff, detectives on the force, and other local victims. The narrator, Németh-Parker, did a FANTASTIC job differentiating between the different characters. Her southern twang, drawl, and comedic delivery was perfect for this family! Listening to the audiobook added so much to my overall reading experience.

The plot was propulsive, and make no mistake, there is nothing 'sweet' about the horror. The Strigoi make an absolute MESS out of their victims, but the Evans women do their best to conceal the truth about the horror lurking in the shadows. While the ending leaves the current mystery resolved, it seems to foreshadow that this story will be continuing into a possible series, which is really exciting!

Readers will adore:
90's Cultural References
Strong Women
Sharp banter and LOL moments
Twist and Turns
Multiple POVs
Family secrets and hidden identities
Start of a new series!