This book had potential, and it just fell flat for me. There were FAR too many POVs it was told from, and somehow it still dragged and took too long. It took a while for it to get interesting and for anything to me happen. The gore got pretty graphic at times but never too overwhelming. The end left me unsatisfied and with more questions than answers.

Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan is a Southern gothic thriller that delivers an intriguing mix of mystery, suspense, and family drama. Set in the small town of Belle Reeve, the novel follows a protagonist navigating a tangled web of secrets, lies, and long-buried truths. Ryan’s atmospheric writing captures the eerie tension of the Southern setting, and the complex characters add depth to the story.

The Evans family run the town's funeral home. They've been keeping a secret at bay. The reason they are in the funeral home business is because they have to guide some of the dead back to their eternal death. Vampires are on the rise again and the Evans ladies must keep the secret.
Opinion
I love vampire books. I had higher expectations for this book than I received. The vampires in this book are more akin to zombies than the traditional vampire. This was the only part of the book I did not like.
The rest of the story went down like a fine whiskey, smooth and intriguing. I was anticipating what was going to happen next during most of the book. This is a fine read for a cold winter night.
Many thanks to Net Galley and to St. Martin's Press for providing me with an ARC of this book.

Bless Your Heart is a quirky and supernatural tale set in 1999 Southeast Texas, where the Evans women—proprietors of the local funeral parlor—find themselves unexpectedly battling a Strigoi resurgence. The story is anchored by the three generations of Evans women: Ducey, the matriarch with decades of experience, Lenore, the experimenter, and Grace, the kind-hearted daughter. The plot takes a dark turn when the body of town gossip Mina Jean Murphy rises from the grave, signaling the return of the Strigoi. What starts as a seemingly normal funeral business quickly reveals itself to be a covert operation to fight back against ghoulish, vampire-like creatures. The past slowly unravels as secrets spill forth with Luna, the youngest, unaware of her family’s true legacy—until she’s thrust into the action.

While the Evans women are well-crafted characters, each with their own unique quirks, the pacing of the story is a bit uneven. The Strigoi, who are treated more like zombies in their bloodthirsty rampage, could have been further explored to clarify their abilities and origin, leaving some unanswered questions. Overall it fell a little flat for me but I can appreciate the exploration of family bonds, the weight of legacy, and the dark secrets that sometimes refuse to stay buried.

Bless Your Heart was more entertaining than scary and heads up if blood and gore aren't your thing. It's plentiful here. I did enjoy the strong female characters from the Evans family but I wanted more backstory about them

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur for the eARC! This was intriguing and fun. This felt like a solid set up for a series featuring strong southern women and mythical undead. I loved the setting, and I will admit the twist got me. I was saddened by an aspect of the ending and wasn’t sure how it would serve the overall series, but I’m excited to see!

Southern vampire hunters run a small town funeral parlor, and things have been quiet on the living-dead side of work since The Incident a few years back. The Strigoli (vampires) have returned, and four generations of Evans women must work together to save the town.

I LOVE a southern inspired book, and this one brought the Texas charm. I have been to many Texas funeral parlors, and this book could've taken place at any of them. The Evans women were spunky and dramatic, and the townsfolk were believably sleepy. Bless Your Heart shined most when you were following around one character (usually after dark) while something spooky happens.

This book wasn't too spooky, too goofy, too gory, or really too much of anything. It was a bit slow at the beginning and picked up around the halfway point; I read the last half a lot faster. I did find myself struggling to follow some plot points, but I think it's beause I couldn't remember all the character names.

If you want a middle of the road southern vampire book, this is a fun, quick read. The vampires do read a bit more zombie-like, so if you like zombies, you might like it, too.

I loved it!
It was way more gory than I was expecting, but it fit in very well with my latest obsession with horror.
Family secrets and a small town feel.
I can’t wait for the second in the series!

Thank you to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to be able to read this book!

Such a stunning cover. I am in love with it.
I had a fun time reading this and at times had to put it down cause it gets quite scary.

This was fun! I didn’t have big expectations for this! It’s vampires and drama umm hello! Yes pls!

The writing was easy to follow! The southern hospitality characters ! I was swooning. This is one of those books that you can read and enjoy with out having to really dissect or think to hard on. I was engaged and enjoyed it. It’s that simple.

It’s like vampires moved into the burbs with the desperate house wives!

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publishing Company for providing me this Advanced Readers Copy of Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan!

Rise and shine. The Evans women have some undead to kill.

Thank you Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press and Macmillan Audio for sending me a review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! I decided to DNF this book at 60%. I thought I would like this book because it’s set in Southeast Texas in 1999. I’ve lived in Southeast Texas my whole life and I was in 5th grade in 1999. This book has 90’s references so I thought it would be nostalgic for me to read. I like the Texas setting, the audiobook narrator and the 90’s references but I can’t get into this book.

The way a vampy read warms my heart!

BLESS YOUR HEART was such a fun story with eccentric characters, and with A Southern Bookclub’s Guide to Slaying Vampires vibes that were just spooky enough for me. I loved the small town Texas setting, complete with funeral parlor.

I listened to the audiobook, and loved the narration! Definitely immersed myself even more with this format.

*many thanks to Minotaur Books, Macmillan audio and Netgalley for the gifted copy for review.

Loved this! This read like a horror filled Steele Magnolias and i was 100% here for it. I love all the characters, they were well written and fleshed out. It was easy to understand who was narrating when. It was a fun book to read during Halloween season.

Horror meets Southern charm, female fortitude, and big family secrets in a small Texas town in 1999.

✨Book Review: BLESS YOUR HEART by Lindy Ryan ✨

🩸 Book Synopsis: The family of Evans women run the one funeral parlor in their small Texas town, but that’s a front for their real business. The family takes care of the dead, particularly when they rise again.

😳 My Take: I don’t usually read horror, but I’ll make an exception, especially in October, when the book features strong women and vampires. BLESS YOIR HEART by Lindy Ryan is all kinds of creepy in a way that I thoroughly enjoyed. The characters are really well written and developed, and the family secrets and final twist are no joke. I’m excited to read the next book in this new series, ANOTHER FINE MESS, out in April 2025. Definitely recommend if you’re looking for something on the creepier side (and you’re ok with a good amount of gore) this spooky season.

Read BLESS YOUR HEART for
💄 Southern hospitality and horror
🥊 Bad$$ women
🧟‍♀️ Undead monsters
🤫 Family secrets

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4/5 stars)

😘 Thanks to @minotaur_books for the advance reader copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

This was the first ever gruesome book I’ve ever read… and I’m hooked!! This book is a mix of mystery/horror and was at times even comedic. It’s a perfect dive into something a little scarier than I’m used to without pulling me too far out of my comfort zone.

I was completely sucked into this story from beginning to end. I loved the characters and how much they added to the story, I found them to bring some light unexpectedly. I absolutely loved how this book was written. There was just enough suspense to draw me in but it was resolved quickly enough that I still enjoyed it and wasn’t running scared 😂

Run and pick this one up before spooky season is over - it’s the perfect book for this time of year!

I enjoyed this multigenerational vampire fighting family, and how the chapters were told from multiple points of view - not only the women, but other members of the community as well. There was a lot more body horror/gore than I was expecting from the blurb and cover; I was expecting 'chick lit' and this was more of a standard horror story but I just skimmed the parts that were a bit much for me. The ending was satisfying but also makes me look forward to the sequel!

I never knew I needed a cozy mystery with some horror mixed in. It made for reading in October perfect. It can get a bit descriptive which was a surprise, but it did not bug me at all. The Evans women were great. I love the 4 generations and their secret job of keeping the Strigoi at bay. Very unique story and I would not mind reading more of this world.

In a quaint, southern town, the Evan's women run the local funeral home and take care of the dead - in more ways than one. When a rush of disappearances and blood trails has everyone on edge, the women must figure out what's going on while handing local police investigations and dealing with family secrets that have returned from the grave.

This book is full of southern turns of phrase, a bit of horror, and a unique twist on the things that go bump in the night.

I honestly did not expect the ending - though after I finished it, I sorta thought I should have seen it coming.

I like Grace, Luna, and Crane the most.

Unfortunately, sometimes books are boring, no matter how much you try to make sense of them.

There's no point in keeping you here more than necessary, so this is my take: absolutely nothing happens for the majority of the book and then, in a matter of chapters, things start moving and end without any credibility nor answer to the readers’ questions.
The pace is just wrong, and the narration doesn't help at all: on one hand, we have the stereotypes, so many and so archaic that my eyes almost broke from rolling so hard; on the other, also based on the stereotyped narration, there’s the fact that half of it is just not-always-understandable metaphors, in an attempt of explain how people speak in Texas.

Some people seemed to have enjoyed this, and I'm glad for them, but I can't really understand why.
Especially after that very disappointing ending.