This horror story is a mix of family drama and mystery. I loved the different character's perspectives each chapter. Lindy Ryan can really spin a tale and I learned a new term for zombie-vampires, Stigoi! Secrets, small town rumors, and some gorey, action-packed parts kept me turning pages. Thanks NetGalley!

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
The premise of the book drew me in but once I started reading it, I just couldn’t get into it at all.
I wish the author, publisher and all those promoting the book much success and connections with the right readers.

I wasn't quite sure what I was walking into with this book, but whatever it was, I loved it! Bless Your Heart is the perfect mix of 1990s throwback, mystery, strong female characters, supernatural forces, and horror elements. It had a little bit of everything thrown in!

The Evans women are characters you can't help but love. They are strong women with personalities all their own. Throw in the fact that they run a funeral parlor and fight zombie vampires, and you have an unputdownable storyline. There was a lot of humor in the pages, mainly with Ducey Evans, but overall it felt like a serious story, similar to a Grady Hendrix novel. The ending left things wide open for more novels with the Evans women and I really hope we get the chance to revisit these characters. I mean, if you don't want to pop a butterscotch candy by the last page, then you're doing something wrong!

For those who have similar animal abuse triggers like me, there is a part in the novel where a sweet dog gets attacked and goes missing. That being said, the dog does survive and heals up thanks to the Evans women. Just be aware when reading!

Overall, I gave this book 5/5 stars!

3.25 ⭐️

Bless Your Heart is a tale surrounding a small Texas town and the Evans women who own and operate the only funeral parlor. This multi-generational group of women take care of business and their business is the dead. When the dead start to come back to life, the Evans women are the only ones in town that know enough to be able to stop them before more people end up in the grave.

This was an interesting take on a supernatural vampire style monster in this small southern town. The mystery was fun and their cover artist deserves a medal. That cover is what sparked my interest in this book. I see this labeled as horror, but I definitely didn't get those vibes from this while reading it. It felt more like "scooby doo"-esque horror. All comedy, very little stakes.

Crane was my favorite character. What a complete weirdo - I loved him.

I listened to the audiobook for most of this and was impressed by the narrator's ability to distinguish between the characters even when sometimes the story itself felt extremely jumbled, jumping back and forth between characters at will.

My interest waned at about the 60% mark and I was near DNF-ing, however, sticking through it was fun. The ending was predictable, but it wad an entertaining read. It won't be something I revisit in the future.

If I never think about a butterscotch candy again, I'll be happy.

🧛 New take on vampires/zombies
🧛 Family Secrets
🧛 Witty characters and humor
🧛 Unique large cast, unexpected twists
🧛 Spooky suspense
🧛 Buffy vibes
🧛 Small Town drama

CW: columbine mention, violence/blood, homophobia, gore

Thank you to NetGalley, Minotaur Books & Macmillan Audio for the ARC & ALC of Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan.

Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan is a quirky, fun, light horror novel that will keep you entertained with family banter and a plot that is both interesting without being too heavy.

The Evan’s women own the only funeral home in town. A mixture of generational humor, love, and knowledge converge when a dead body…turns out to be not so dead.

Enter the Strigoi and a whole load of fun conversations, self/discoveries, and a plot that will keep you on your toes. This one isn’t scary, but it is quirky and fun!

I love the whole concept of the story. There were so many things it had going for it. The setting was 1999 in Texas, which was great. The characters are interesting. The family job is cool and intriguing. There are great hints at some big, dark secret.
 
I so wanted to love this. But it read slowly. I had a hard time keeping my attention on it. I wanted to know everything that happened but had trouble keeping going.

This was a spooky good surprise of a book!
Four women taking care of putting the undead back into the dead category.
It’s an edge of your seat, I couldn’t put this book down type of book! It’s a bit gruesome in parts but it adds to the creepiness of the story.
Definitely recommend and would be perfect for your October reading list
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the early copy

3.75 stars

This was such a fun horror-y twist on a family saga-type story! This book takes place in a small town in Texas in 1999, where we follow four generations of Evans women, who run a funeral parlor together. Ducey, 80 years old, is the matriarch, then her daughter Lenore, Grace, Lenore's daughter, and 15-year-old Luna, Grace's daughter. There are all the usual small-town dynamics between families who have been there forever, but with a twist. Vampires, or strigoi as they call them in this story, are real, and only the Evans women know about them and how to stop them. It's been years since there was an outbreak, and they've managed to keep the creepy truth from Luna so far. But when one of their "customers" sits bolt upright during preparations for her funeral, it's apparent that lull is over, and sh*t is about to hit the fan.
The body horror and gore descriptions in this really delivered, I was pleasantly surprised! I enjoyed the multiple POVs and how the propelled the story and allowed the reader to catch glimpses of scary things happening away from the main characters, though I think I'd have felt a stronger connection to the main cast if the book had been just a bit longer and allowed for a little more wrap-up at the end. This is the first in a series, so I know the story will continue there, but such big things happened at the end that I wanted more of the come-down from those events and more character reactions than I got. 

I liked having the police POV for more of a mystery-feel alongside the horror victim scenes and the main characters, and the author did a great job and hiding just enough info from the reader so that I didn't feel like I was reading the same thing or bored waiting for the characters to figure things out. I am definitely interested in continuing this series. If you loved "The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires" and want to try something a little less character-driven but with more action and less humor, check this out!

3.5/5 rounded up

Thank you Minotaur Books for the advanced reading copy!

SYNOPSIS -- It's 1999 in Southeast Texas, and the Evans women are up to their eyeballs in dead bodies. While this isn't entirely unusual seeing as they own the local funeral parlor, it is definitely an unexpected twist that some of these dead bodies are, well, undead. Local busybody Mina Jean Murphy rises first, setting into motion a string of chaos that seems familiar to some of the Evans, especially matriarch Ducey, her daughter Lenore, and HER daughter, Grace. Grace's daughter, Luna, is about to find out about a major family secret revolving around the Strigoi, the original vampires. Armed with trocars and deceit, the Evans woman have to protect their town and themselves.

This book was sooo different than anything I normally read, and I'm surprised that I liked it so much! It was definitely creepy and icky at times, but I was hooked from the start. All of the characters had a ton of layers and nuance between them, which added to the story a ton. There were, however, too many POVs in my opinion; I think this made things confusing and diluted more than it needed to be. The middle got a little bit lost on me, but we made our way back for a powerful and shocking end. The Evans women were fantastic and fun main characters, and I enjoyed their dynamic with each other and the other characters immensely. I'm super intrigued by this series and hope to read more of it soon! That cliffhanger.... I can't wait!

When someone dies, they're supposed to stay dead. Right? Right.

Well, that just doesn't happen when your town has a particularly nasty case of vampires. The Evans family women — Ducey, Lenore, Grace, and Luna — run the only funeral home in town, and are in charge of making sure that the dead stay that way. So when vampires start popping up again, it's up to the women to figure out exactly what's going on, and how to stop it.

This was a pretty fun, light-hearted horror/mystery that I definitely enjoyed taking a bite out of. ;) The Evans family was a lot of fun to pal-around through the pages with, and my only real complaint is that for me personally, it felt like there were far too many POVs, and the story was weighed down a little because of it.

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Bless Your Heart is set to be published on April 9, 2024. Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books, NetGalley and the author for the digital advanced copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

A huge thank you as always to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the eARC!

Every once in a while, a book comes around that’s written in a way that feels like it was crafted just for you. I can say this is very true of Lindy Ryan’s, Bless Your Heart, a story that is bursting with heartfelt relationships and equally grotesque misfortunes. Set in Texas in the 90s, we follow four generations of Evans women, Ducey, Lenore, Grace, and Luna, who run the town’s only funeral parlor. Business seems to be running as usual until the dead refuse to stay that way, revealing the added job responsibilities of the Evans women. Not only are the dead rising but family secrets are unearthed as the fight to right the balance of living and dead ensues.

Bless Your Heart is easily summarized in one word: charming. Ryan writes this story in such a grounded, realistic manner that depicts life in the South in the late 90s in a nostalgic, idyllic way. Most of all, the dynamics between the Evans women are captivating and endearing; despite their secrets and differences, there’s a whole lot of love to be found in their unconventional family unit. I couldn’t help but feel this was the best-constructed mashup of Gilmore Girls meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer for all the charm and lighthearted humor dispersed throughout the novel. However, just when you think things are light and fluffy, Ryan executes some gnarly scenes of body horror and gore.

Speaking of gore, I was thoroughly impressed with just how detailed these scenes of terror proved to be. From missing appendages, bloodshed, and black goo, there’s not much Ryan doesn’t cover in the realm of body horror here. This unique balance of violence with light-hearted endearment makes this a truly unique story that thrives through its character work. The ability to become invested in the Evans women’s story felt as easy as breathing, additionally ramping up the sense of danger when the undead attack. This is a group of characters who mean business and exemplify traits of selflessness, bravery, and action without taking away from their femininity. Truly, God bless the Evans women.

A tale of sacrifices, danger, and above all, love, Bless Your Heart is easily one of the most delightful reads I’ve come across in recent memory. Maybe it’s because I’m a fellow Southerner myself, but Lindy Ryan’s writing easily stole my heart through her lovable cast of characters and unyielding confrontation of horror. If there’s any complaint to be had, it is that I have not spent nearly enough time with the Evans women.

3.25 stars rounded down
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This book was not at all what I expected it to be. I not sure why I was expecting more humor from it, but it was a pretty straight horror-thriller novel. I just don’t know how I feel about it.

I enjoyed the idea of the book, for sure. This book nailed the gory, horror element, I flinched at some of the descriptions. But it was almost too much for something people are calling “cozy horror.” The idea of a generational slayer family and the vampire/zombie hybrid was definitely a fun twist. But I found it overall to be repetitive and for all the action, a bit boring. I saw the ultimate ending coming pretty early on so I wasn’t really shocked by it. I nearly DNFed for that reason, but I stuck around to see if I was right. The writing was okay, but not really engaging.

I found I was neutral on the Evans women. The multiple POV was good for seeing all sides of the story and seeing the variable personalities, but it got to be too much with the other POVs thrown in. The story lacked suspense with some of these chapters, too. There could have been a way to build suspense with the added chapters, but as is, they didn’t seem necessary for the story to me.

The potential for this one was so good, but it just lacked in follow through.

Bless Your Heart was a fun read. I really enjoyed learning about the Evans family dynamic. That ending was insane! I am in shock still and hope there’s a sequel. This storyline has a lot of potential.

Thank you Minotaur Books for allowing me the opportunity to sink my teeth into this ARC!

I could not put this book down. Three generations of Evans women do their duty to keep the dead from rising. And it usually works. Except for That Godawful Mess of fifteen years ago. Another Godawful Mess is coming and it is time the fourth generation Evans learns her heritage and duty. I loved this story, its characters, and their small Texas town. More, please!

First things first, thank you so much for the chance to read this arc! I’m a sucker for a cute cover.

“There’ll be time for math after the zombie apocalypse.”

I’ve always had a thing for vampires, thanks Twilight, but throw in some Southern charm? SOLD. If you’re new to the horror genre and want to dip your toes without giving yourself nightmares, look no further. This is the one for you. This was such a fun read and I can’t wait to purchase my physical copy!

Oh, wow! Okay, so I went into this expecting it to be a little silly/campy, not really expecting much actual horror - and I'm blown away! I loved the way this ramped up so quickly, and especially loved the levels of blood and gore we got to experience. I also didn't realize this would be the first in a little series, and I think this makes an EXCELLENT book one. It does everything a first book should: introduces you to the main characters, the "big bad", and then sets you up for more fun coming in the second book: BLESS YOUR HEART nailed this and I'm eager to see what comes next!!

Based on the summary, cover design, and title, I expected this to be much more of a funny romp than it was. I mean, a vampire looking very Jackie O? How campy is that? But this is a solid horror. And apparently the first in a series. It is the 1990s in Texas and the Evans family run the only mortuary in a small town that seems to have a zombie infestation. Dealing with it seems pretty simple, but first they have to let the youngest member of the family, Luna, in on all the family secrets. And Luna is keeping secrets of her own. This is a solid horror (she says again) and had I known that going in, I would have given it a full 4 stars. I liked it. I liked the characters. The writing was terrific. But I kept looking for the camp and was disappointed not to find it. The next in the series I'll read knowing better!

Wow… this was a tough read. It was very well-written, and I loved how the author developed the characters and the entire small town it was set in. However, the detail of the gore that went on was too much for me. I enjoyed the paranormal horror plot, but the amount of detail of how violent and bloody everything was just put me over the edge at times. If you have an uneasy stomach, definitely consider if you can handle this book.

Thank you Minotaur Books for the complimentary DRC.

Do you ever read books and not have a lot to say about them? That’s the case with this book for me. I liked it but didn't love it.

I didn’t connect to any of the characters and the lack of communication between the 4 women really got under my skin. I didn’t ‘believe’ in the relationships between any of them until right at the end.

The start was slow and I considered DNF-ing. I’m glad I didn’t though because I was drawn in by the ending and want to read the next book. It reminded me of ACOTAR in that I didn’t love the first book but it ended in a way that I believe book 2 is set up to be great!

I think I went into this expecting something completely different than it was. I wanted something funnier, more southern belle banter, more fun. The characters were great, but not sure I would describe this book as fun. This was a darker more horror than comedy. There were twists and turns and it definitely had some unexpected plots. It was well done, but at times dragged on. It was often very repetitive. I wish it had more banter and fun to balance out the mystery aspect.

Thank you NetGalley for my advanced reader copy.