Bless Your Heart is a sharply observed southern thriller that crackles with wit, tension, and a layered mystery that keeps you guessing until the very end. Hallie Ricardo’s narration brings energy and depth to Detective Shay Claypool, herself juggling the demands of motherhood, class divides, and prejudice, and her voice makes the contrasts between Buckhead privilege and working-class struggle feel vivid and real. Dunlap’s debut novel doesn’t shy away from dark undercurrents—wealth, status, and hidden secrets—but balances them with biting social satire and well-drawn characters who, even at their worst, are fascinating. The pacing is terrific; the shifts between timelines and points of view build suspense without getting confusing, and the final reveals land satisfyingly. Altogether, Bless Your Heart is both entertaining and thought-provoking, a must-listen for fans of social intrigue, murder mysteries, and character-driven drama.

What happens when a working-class detective goes up against entitled wealthy mothers? Kaboom!

A body is found in the dugout on the Little League field. It turns out to be Anderson Tupper, a member of one of Atlanta’s richest and most prestigious families. Enter Detective Shay Claypool, not from anything prestigious. Nevertheless, she is tasked to find his killer.

Shay’s expertise lies in handling drug dealers and prostitutes. She finds herself up against an even more sinister group… the Buckhead Betties. They are five entitled women living in Georgia’s most affluent zip code. Shay suspects one of these girls may be the killer. They all seem, well do, have issues… old-money gal, the mysterious new girl in town or the drug-dealing trophy wife?

Buckle down reader for a plethora of secrets and lies almost as rampant as thousand dollar handbags. Shay is on a slippery slope and if she isn’t careful, the Bettie’s just might take her down with them.

This thriller delivers a dose of southern charm and a bunch of folks behaving badly.

The narrator speaks with the perfect amount of snarkiness. .

Leigh Dunlap’s debut novel, Bless Your Heart, is an irresistible blend of Southern charm, biting humor, and a cleverly constructed murder mystery. Set in the affluent Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta, this novel explores themes of secrets and social status, all while unraveling a crime.
The story begins with the shocking murder of Anderson Tupper, a charismatic Little League coach whose brutal death sends shockwaves through the community. Enter Detective Shay Claypool, a sharp, working-class single mother determined to uncover the truth. As her investigation unfolds, she delves deep into the lives of the "Buckhead Betties"—a group of glamorous and powerful baseball moms who appear to have everything together... until their secrets begin to leak.

Dunlap has a talent for crafting characters who are both larger-than-life and deeply relatable. You’ll find yourself laughing at their excesses, gasping at their betrayals, and perhaps even recognizing someone you know.
What makes Bless Your Heart such an enjoyable and satisfying read is its fusion of campy, Desperate Housewives-style antics and sharp social commentary. The narrative shifts between perspectives and timelines, building suspense while revealing layers of privilege, race, class, and motherhood. The end result is a story that is as entertaining as it is thought-provoking. It’s the kind of novel that makes you want to pour a glass of sweet tea (or maybe wine in a tumbler) and settle in for a thrilling journey.

If you enjoyed Big Little Lies, May Cobb, or Jeneva Rose, this book is perfect for you. Leigh Dunlap delivers a murder mystery that sparkles with wit while bravely addressing deeper themes.

Thank you Netgalley and Spotify Audiobooks for the ALC.

Story: 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Narration: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Overall: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Bless Your Heart is a juicy thriller about five very different mothers brought together because of murder. This is such a fun “rich people behaving badly” mystery with characters you love to hate and characters that you love. I loved it on the audio format.

ALC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

One of the richest men in one of the richest towns around is found dead on the baseball field. Shay is a detective used to working in much more economically disadvantaged communities but she and her partner are tasked with solving this homocide. As the reader learns more about each of the characters and families, interesting potential motives arise. What is really going on here, aside from the brutal social scene?

This audiobook was about bad behavior on the part of many of the characters. These rich folks interactions were full of competition, bullying, and outright bad behavior. But as we got to know characters on a deeper level,, they seemed much more human. Still very flawed but human.

This audiobook was a bit too snarky to be a cozy mystery, but there were definitely elements of coziness. I don’t want to spoil to ending, so I won’t, but I was shocked. In terms of it being an audiobook, the narrator was fantastic. All of the characters had a uniqueness to them in addition to their southern drawls. The characters and the way they were presented by the narrator were very nuanced. I listed to this on a car trip and it was great for that purpose. It was engaging, fast paced but not too fast so I couldn’t follow it, and it was clever. I would definitely read more from this author!

I love a book with rich people behaving badly and this sure nailed it! Will you like any character? Probably not but you will have a great time reading about their antics. Everyone in this is hiding something and willing to do whatever it takes to keep their secrets buried. However, there is character growth that feels both appropriate and realistic. This needs a tv adaptation stat - it has everything you’d want!

Leigh Dunlap’s Bless Your Heart is a delicious debut about Southern charm at its absolute worst. Meet the Buckhead Betty crew, the enviable moms of suburban Atlanta with closets full of designer bags and despicable secrets. Investigator and single mom Shay is tasked with finding out who killed Anderson Tupper, the charming baseball coach. The suspects all have fabulous facades but underneath they’re all hiding infidelities, drug and alcohol abuse, and that’s just the tip of this frosty iceberg…

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of this devour-in-one-sitting thriller, a five-star listen with outstanding narration and a twist that will have you picking your jaw up from the floor!

This book is compared to May Cobb and Jeneva Rose, and I can see some hints of both in this. I had trouble originally with keeping up with all the characters because there are a lot. You have all of the mothers (6 in total), their husbands and exes, their children, and the detective and her family. It eventually gets easier to keep track of them, but it can be a little overwhelming at first. The positive of having so many characters is that it makes it hard to guess who the killer is. And I definitely did not guess in this case.

The book starts a little slow, as you get to know the characters and their backstories. But eventually picks up once it gets closer to the murder and the days after. I’m glad I stuck through this one because I did really like the ending for this.

𝑾𝒉𝒐 𝑰'𝒅 𝑹𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐:
Fans of mystery novels with slow burns.

𝑨 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒆 𝒐𝒏 𝒏𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏:
While the narrator was great, it was a little hard to follow along as the book constantly switched between characters POV. It does announce the characters name before their section, but was hard to catch that’s what it was with audio alone. I think this would be a better one to read with your eyes or do a tandem/immersive read. (Both audio & physical at the same time.)

3.5/5 rounded down

Dripping with ostentatious displays of wealth, the Atlanta suburb of Buckhead has its own rules and ecosystem of neighbors and prying eyes. This is a story of the haves and have nots. And a wealthy class that believes everything is owed to them.

Though the murder at the heart of the story takes place very early on, much of the world building occurs in flashbacks in the nascent time labeled as "before the murder." If you are looking for a fast paced thriller, this is not the book to pick up. Instead we are treated to a sprawling southern drama with a side of murder. The misbehavior and outrageous chides of Buckhead's residents create epic clashes and send tongues wagging.

I enjoyed narrator Hallie Ricardo's soothing voicing of the story. I did feel that the plot was a bit overstuffed with characters, and it took a while to get everyone straight.

2.75/5 rounded up.

This follows a group of wealthy families living in the wealthy neighborhood/area of Atlanta.

This specifically follows the murders of one of these socialites. There is so much drama surrounding these people and relating to this murder. And solving this murder is no easy feat given how much money can get you out of trouble or be it can be used to hide the trouble you're involved in.

I was really excited about this book because there is so much you can do with wealthy characters (the drama) and especially if they're southern (the drama, the bless-your-heart of it all), but I found that these characters were pretty much all the same. They all had the same problems and were all depicted in the same flat way. Not every rich person is selfish and tone-deaf and addicted to one substance or another. Yes, some totally are, but not every single one. That just felt weird and like a cop-out to me.

All of these characters are unlikable (and I do think that was on purpose), but that left me with pretty much no one to root for. So that made me not really care. I wanted this to be more like One of Us Is Dead by Jeneva Rose, very similar premise, but those characters had intrigue and something going for them that made me want to keep reading and learning about them.

I think people from the south, or specifically Georgia, will appreciate aspects of this book. But it just fell a bit flat for me, personally.

Thanks to NetGalley for the audiobook ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review! My Goodreads review is up and my TikTok (Zoe_Lipman) review will be up at the end of the month with my monthly reading wrap-up.

The ending you will not see coming! This was a fun, fast paced suspense thriller set in the exclusive Atlanta neighborhood of the ultra rich, Buckhead. Filled with all the southern charm and scandal you can handle. When Anderson Tupper is found murdered in the little league dugout, suspicion erupts in the usually quiet neighborhood. Secrets are reveal, old rivalries resurface. This was a very enjoyable fast paced thriller.

Thank you to Spotify Audiobooks for the complimentary ALC

I have had SO much FOMO over this book. I mean the cover.. the title… It definitely delivered. Let me tell you.. this was like Desperate Housewives Southern edition.😂 These Buckhead Betty’s were WILD. 😳😂

This book had everything you could want. Absolutely entertaining… twisted and FUN. What a sketchy bunch of rich people behaving badly. Y’all better watch your husbands. 😂😬 Just saying.. 🤷‍♀️

This scandalous murderous thriller took a turn that I never saw coming!! 😳👏👏

Highly recommend!! 5 scandalous ⭐️ stars. The narrator was fantastic!

This was a pretty good thriller based in Atlanta. The ending comes as both a surprise and not at all as a surprise based on how the novel progressed. I loved the multiple viewpoints from the wives in the story.

I really enjoyed this book! The narration was smooth and easy to follow—something I really appreciate, especially in audiobooks. Unlike others that can get confusing with multiple points of view, this one kept everything clear without ever feeling flat.

I definitely didn’t see the twist coming, which made it all the more enjoyable. It totally surprised me in the best way.

Bless Your Heart gave me major One of Us is Dead vibes by Jeneva Rose, which I also loved. If you're into juicy rich-people drama with secrets, betrayals, this is your next read.

Fast and fun debut mystery thriller.

Don’t mess with the Buckhead Betties. These affluent Atlanta women aren’t afraid of anything or anyone. Except outsiders who have no idea how hard it is to maintain their images in this social cesspool. They know everything about each other’s marriages, children, and lives; any secrets they have will soon be outed. When Anderson Tupper, a single, handsome, and wealthy Little League coach, is found murdered right after their big charity bash, tongues wag and everyone in their tight circle is a suspect.

This was so entertaining as these women get down and dirty while the accusations fly. There’s a lot going on behind the closed doors of those mansions. The investigation, led by Detective Shay Claypool and her partner, Sergeant Dub Rattigan, is stonewalled and the pair is met with snubs and plenty of reasons why many of those residents would want Tupper dead. Lots of rich people cliches and designer name drops pepper the narrative, but it’s all satirical while showing that even people with tons of money have problems. Slowly but surely the truth is revealed and the climax was quite surprising with the conclusion taking a great twist.

The narrative is told in a before and after fashion with each of the main female characters taking a turn at point of view. Keeping them straight got easier after awhile with trying to remember who was married to whom and the names of the kids. I liked the writing style and the themes involving social status, race, and family. I’ll definitely look for future books by this author.

I was able to listen to the audio book while also following along in the e-book ARC, both provided by the publishers. I loved the narrator, Hallie Ricardo, who did a fantastic job voicing the female characters giving them individuality with various accents, tone, and timbre. Her performance definitely enhanced my enjoyment of the book and I highly recommend it.

I believe this was a debut and for a debut I thought this was well done, but I do think it needed more editing and some work.
The language was problematic for me. I loved all of the unlikeable characters and will definitely give Dunlap another try.

Title: Bless Your Heart
Author: Leigh Dunlap (Debut Author)
Format: 🎧
Narrator: Hattie Ricardo
Publisher: Spotify Audio/Crooked Lane Books
Genre: Mystery Thriller
Pub Date: August 12, 2025
My Rating: 3 Stars
Pages: 336

I passed this story up several times as I read a book entitles “Bless Your Heart’’ however the author of the one I read was is Lindy Ryan. I finally decided to double check and when I saw it by a debut author I thought I would give it try.

Story is told from the POV of Detective Shay Claypool as well as Kira, Birdie, Amelia, Sutton, and Venita all, wealthy moms of members the Little League team.

Anderson Tupper is a former football star - first at the University of Georgia and then the then Atlanta’s pro team the “Falcons’. Now lives in Buckhead an upscale area of Atlanta, and is a Little League volunteer coach – yes Little League is baseball team.
However, one morning a grounds keeper from him murdered in the dugout of the Little League field.

Detective Shay Claypool is a single mother with the Atlanta Police Department. She and most of police officers are from Atlanta however not Buckhead but from the other side of town. - the officers do look classy though with their ‘fedora’ hats.
They are called in to investigate Anderson’s murder.
Story is more than a murder -it also deals with social issues -race, class, privilege and of course wealth.

Unfortunately this debut wasn’t a wow read for me. I like to support new authors but disappointed that nasty
language was necessary – true most of the characters were nasty and unlikeable.
I did like the Acknowledgements and will give Ms. Dunlap another try.

Thank You to NetGalley and Spotify Audio for this audiobook.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for August 12, 2025.

A delightful, messy mystery follows senior detective Shay, a veteran of her city's grittier neighborhoods. When she's assigned to a new case, she's thrust into the world of Buckhead, the city's wealthy, elite community. The victim is Anderson Tupper, one of the richest men in the entire state of Georgia, found dead in the dugout of a little league field he coached, just after a heated argument he had with a parent after pulling her child from the game. And that is just the tip of the iceberg with the drama and potential suspects here. Shay quickly discovers that the crimes and secrets among the rich run far deeper and are more sophisticated than anything she's ever experienced with drug dealers and gangs.

The story is packed with all the hallmarks of a great mystery: cheating scandals, murder, infidelity, money problems, sibling rivalries, rich privilege, and inheritance issues. The characters are a lot to keep track of, but Detective Shay does her best to unravel all the complex layers of this wealthy community to find out who killed Anderson and why. This was such a messy, good time to read. The audiobook narrator did a great job of bringing the story to life and making it an engaging experience.

Thanks to NetGalley and Spotify Audiobooks for the ALC in exchange for an honest review. Release date is 8/12/25.

Bless Your Heart by Leigh Dunlap is an absolutely delightful debut! From the very first page, I was hooked—and I stayed that way all the way to the final reveal. With a charming Southern backdrop and a cast of vivid, unforgettable characters, this cozy mystery kept me guessing (and second-guessing) right up to the very end. The pacing was spot on, and the twists were smart and satisfying. What a fantastic start to what I hope becomes a long-running series!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this gem!

A female detective from the wrong side of Atlanta, has to find the killer of one of the cities richest men. She’ll have to sort through patronizing attitudes and snotty. Housewives to find the killer.