4⭐️

This sequel proves that it's always a great time with the Evans Women. I loved that this book picked up pretty soon after the first book end so you got to see the effects of the deaths from the first book. I loved the way Lenore tried to make the funeral her own even though she knew how Ducey would have reacted. Bringing in Kim to work in the funeral home as well as help make sure the dead stayed dead was a great touch, especially since her family has supposedly betrayed the Evans' in the past.
I loved that the climax of the book happened at the school during the Homecoming Dance and how much harder that will make hiding things going forward. For all the jokes that Luna and her friends made about 'pulling a Carrie,' in the end the crowd of students running screaming from the school really matched that vibe. The hint of further backstory regarding Pie Evans and Luna's father really drew me in and I need more as soon as possible!

This book ended up being a great mix of light-heartedness mixed with gore and that's my favorite kind of horror.

Oh, and giving us Sissy's POV with her adorable little collar that she hates in the very first chapter was very rude and I think I need emotional compensation...


Thanks Netgalley and Minotaur Books for providing this ARC to me!

You know how some families pass down recipes? Yeah, the Evans women pass down how to keep the dead from rising—and something’s gone way wrong.

Here are Reasons to Read the Horror book:

📚 Reasons to Read Another Fine Mess
A Southern Gothic Spin on the Undead. This isn’t your average zombie story—it’s rooted in legacy, small-town secrets, and supernatural suspense.


Strong, Sassy Female Leads. The Evans women bring heart, humor, and serious grit as they battle rising corpses and family curses.


Mystery With a Horror Twist. The book blends a whodunnit vibe with eerie unearthed truths, raising the tension with every chapter.


Horror That Balances Heart and Humor. Despite the dead walking, there’s warmth, wit, and plenty of charm in this delightfully dark tale.

This book is the sequel to Bless Your Heart which I read last year. It does take place in the 90s so it also has a very cute nostalgia thing happening. There are multiple POV chapters but you are never confused because the voices are distinct and some characters only get 1 or 2. But on top of it all, it seems to be slowly building this community of women, despite killing off some main characters in both books. I love the mystery but would really like to go more complex into the thoughts of these characters because I like them so much.

Another Fine Mess by Lindy Ryan is an irresistible, fast-paced mystery filled with humor, heart, and horror. From the moment I picked it up, I was completely engrossed and couldn't bring myself to set it down.

This is book 2 of the series and I really wish I'd read book 1 before I took this one on. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed this book even with the sometimes gruesome descriptions, and the next page would have me laughing out loud.

This book tells of a family of women who keep the dead, well, dead, while living their best lives. They seem to to engage with spirits and that woowoo stuff is sometimes sad and sometimes hilarious. I enjoyed the dialogue and heart the author put into this book. She must be from the south Texas area to 'get' these conversations perfectly written.

Four stars since I was not prepared for some of the horror aspects and that's not my favorite thing to read. I may change my tune once I go back and read the first book in the series!

Feeling a bit conflicted about this one- I enjoyed the first one but evidently did not remember enough about it and feel that that negatively impacted my reading experience. I felt thrown into the second one

BUT I love Ryan’s writing style, the characters, the quirkiness, that’s all excellent. I will still be promoting it because I see its value and Ryan’s talent.

Ｅｂｏｏｋ Ｒｅｖｉｅｗ
🌟🌟🌟🌟.2
Another Fine Mess is the sequel to Lindy Ryan's Bless Your Heart series. Texas, we have problems. The undead are not staying dead! Linda Ryan has done it again! We get to see more into Luna and Lenore's unique lives. I enjoyed this story a lot and would definitely recommend it. This cover art is also so eye-catching and beautiful.



Thank you, NetGalley, and St. Martin's Press for the ebook in exchange for my honest review.

I didn’t realize this was a sequel. I definitely need to read book one first. After 30 pages I was so lost.

Another Fine Mess with the quirky Evans family of undertakes is back. Something is tearing up pets and starts in on citizens. Its up to the quirky characters to solve who is doing this. Horror with a dash of down home craziness. Thanks #Netgalley and#Kensington for the eARC in exchange for a honest review. All opinions are mine.

This book was just as engaging and entertaining as the first one. I love the Evans women and you can feel their connections through the writing. Some parts were heartbreaking, some were gruesome, but all of the book was a good time. Highly, highly recommend Another Fine Mess and Lindy Ryan’s other works.

This southern horror follow-up to Bless Your Heart is full of charm, monsters, 1999 nostalgia, and a high body count! I fell in love with the Evans’ family women in Ryan’s series opener, and couldn’t wait to get back to this family of undertakers. Another Fine Mess, is just that; a MESS as a new type of monster begins tearing apart locals’ pets and then citizens. The Evan’s women have been hunting the undead for generations, but this new creature is beyond their knowledge and requires input and support from some new unlikely allies. Multiple POVs, witty humor, gruesome horror, and a propulsive mystery make this novel move along at a quick pace. I’ve grown quite attached to unique cast of quirky characters and I can’t wait to see how the series continues!

“The Evanses might be the weirdest family in the world, with an undead woman, a master strigoi, a moon child, and who knew what else in their strange little funeral parlor — but she hadn’t seen a group of monsters love each other this hard since The Munsters.”

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for my ALC; narrator, Stephanie Németh-Parker is phenomenal. Fantastic accent work, clear characterization, and heaps of emotion and wit make the audiobook such a fun time.

The Evans women are the key line of defense between the living and the dead in their town in southeast Texas. Problem is, now the dead are rising faster than they can get them back in the grave. And we, the readers, get to follow them on their quest to find out the truth about what is going on, and how to stop the violence before it escalates further.

Lenora Evans, and her granddaughter Luna are the main living protagonists in our tale-grandmother and granddaughter. Lenora is the steady wheel that keeps things running smoothly-despite all she has lost and grieved. She’s got grit, heart, and an unyielding determination to keep things as they’ve always been-with the Evans women keeping the town safe.

Luna knows what she is, and most especially, what she’s not. And despite loosing her mom, she must keep up normal teenage appearances-all while juggling duties at the funeral home. The only one who seems to under stand her is Crane-who accepts and cares for her just as she is. He’s her rock and steady place-even if it scares her to admit it.

I loved this take on a vampire story that Lindy crafts. You have monsters, family drama, witty and thoughtful characters, and deep buried secrets that come back to wreak havoc on the Evans clan, and the whole town. But there are also tender and heartbreaking moments that drawn empathy out of the reader. You feel the pain the characters experience because Lindy’s compelling prose strikes right at your heart. And the ending the author gives us is bloody, brutal, but sprinkled with hope; not completely whole, but not completely broken.

I confess that I didn’t read the first book in this series, but I now plan on going back and reading it. I feel like I need to meet the women for the first time again. Regardless, I still enjoyed, and recommend this novel. 4.5 stars

I wasn't the biggest fan of "Bless Your Heart," but I was incredibly intrigued about the ending of the book so I really wanted to give this series another shot. Sadly, pretty early on, I realized this definitely wasn't for me. I was so intrigued by the first chapter, but then the next chapter was in the perspective of a cat.... No thanks. Also that opened up to the book, again, having a thousand different perspectives instead of focusing on just a few and perfecting them. I will, unfortunately, be calling it quits here.

I cannot express how much I love this series! It’s such a unique spin on the “restless dead” tropes. First, the characters are INCREDIBLE. I love them so much. Maybe it’s because the Evans women remind me of my husband’s aunts in Kentucky. I always think of them when the Evans women are mentioned, and now I can’t help but wonder if his aunts are hunting vampires in their free time. The story is very well written and an absolute page turner, while still managing to be funny as hell. Ducey is an absolute delight with her snarky comebacks and no nonsense attitude. Lenore is worried about *all the things*. Luna is just trying to figure her life out with *all the things* looming over her. But the newer characters brought into this second book in the series really brought the women some answers, but gave them more questions than anything. This book was a great setup for the next one. I can’t wait to see what kind of shenanigans the Evans women get up to in book three! I’m climbing the walls waiting!

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

Luna and Lenore have an unusual relationship with the dead. When bad things are happening in their town, they have ideas other people won't. Even though they have unusual abilities, it never felt as though they didn't take it very seriously.
From the beginning, I empathized with them. This is a dark story, and even though it can be humorous, this is a real horror book. I liked it because I found it consistent and because I like the main characters. Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

From the moment I cracked open this book, I was transported into a small town teeming with secrets and spectral energy. Ryan's masterful blend of horror and mystery, all wrapped up in that irresistible Southern drawl, had me utterly spellbound. The vivid scenes unfolded in my mind like a gripping TV series, each chapter leaving me hungry for more.

At the heart of this supernatural maelstrom stands Lenore, a character who tugged at my heartstrings from the get-go. Watching her navigate the treacherous waters of grief while managing a family business spiraling out of control was both heart-wrenching and inspiring. Her attempts to connect with her granddaughter Luna added a touching layer of humanity to the otherworldly chaos.

Speaking of Luna, her dynamic with Crane had me reeling. Their amateur sleuthing adventures, tinged with that delicious "are-they-or-aren't-they" tension, added a dash of sweetness to balance out the spine-chilling horror. I found myself constantly wondering: Will they or won't they? But I was devastated for these two. Why, Ms. Ryan, why?

Ryan weaves the supernatural elements, seamlessly into the fabric of the story, creating moments that had my hair standing on end. It's this masterful integration of the paranormal that truly sets "Another Fine Mess" apart.

While this was my first foray into Ryan's work, it certainly won't be my last. The growing body count, the family secrets, the hair-raising encounters – all of it combined into a reading experience that was as addictive as it was unsettling. I'm already itching to dive back and explore the first book in the series.

Thank you, Minotaur Books and NetGalley, for my ARC.

Lindy Ryan has done it again! When I finished the first book in the series, I immediately was itching for more. This was another 5 star for me!

Another Fine Mess by Lindy Ryan is the sequel to her novel, Bless Your Heart.

"Lenore and her granddaughter, Luna, are the last of the Evans women keeping their Texas town safe from the undead. When the full moon finds another victim, Lenore, Luna and the new Sheriff must dig deep in the Evans family history to uncover what threatens the town and everyone they care about."

This book has some humorous characters, but it is definitely horror. I wouldn't really call it cozy horror (whatever that is) Ryan uses some obscure terms for different monsters and the undead in this book. There are some surprising characters that show up. I think it would have been helpful to read the first book. There are spoilers in this one. The body count is high in this one and several of the attacks are gruesome (but not graphic) There's a pretty wild time at the school dance.

Monster horror fans should enjoy this book from Ryan.

ANOTHER FINE MESS by Lindy Ryan

Pub date: April 15th, 2025
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Rating: 3 / 5


Now why can't the dead ever stayed buried?

In the sequel to Bless Your Heart, the women of the Evans family are facing the fallout from the (latest) Godawful Mess. With the town still raw from the recent murders, now new pets and people are going missing. The Evans women and newly appointed sheriff have their hands full. But things are bloodier than ever and a simple cover up story won't be enough to appease those who are hurting. The dead never stay buried... and everything must eat.

ANOTHER FINE MESS is overall an entertaining follow up to Bless Your Heart, but it does fall a bit flat compared to the charm and mystery of the first book. The best parts of the sequel are Ryan's multi-POV story structure that builds up anticipation and propels the plot, her signature gorey descriptions and creepy writing, and the love between the living (and deceased) Evans women. The side characters who have stepped up into larger roles this time around also add fun dynamics to the story. There were plenty of surprises, with new monsters haunting the pages, but the major third act plot reveal did not get enough development before the book ended. The pacing of the final act felt rushed and disappointingly left a lot of questions unanswered. Hopefully, another book is in the works and can provide a more satisfying ending for the Evans women. They deserve it!

Readers should note that the book includes possibly triggering content including graphic descriptions of gore and violence against animals/animal death.


(Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!)

This was a wonderful read. Absolutely loved it

Thank you NetGalley for letting me read this book

I was unable to finish this and thus will not be posting a full review. I wasn't engaged and this book just wasn't for me. Thank you for the opportunity.