The novel Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan combines elements of light horror with the oddities and quirky nature of a lighthearted cozy mystery. Sure, there are bloodthirsty vampires out there, but the novel also features some humor and an intriguing family at its core.

In a small southeast Texas town the Evans women run the only funeral parlor. Business is normal until the presumed-dead town gossip rises from her casket. The Evans women do what they have for generations stake her through the heart. They know that they must protect the town from the powerful ancient Strigoi. . However the bodies pile up, they know what to do. What will they do?

The author has written the novel so that multiple points of view are given. The cast of characters in this novel are well developed. The family secrets that haunt them must also be buried. It’s a horror mystery novel that has a “Southern bite” to it. The worldbuilding is excellent.

Bless Your Heart
By Lindy Ryan
Minotaur
April 2024

Review by Cynthia Chow

In 1999 Texas three generations of women run the family business that Grace Evans’ likens to a beauty salon, where clients are pampered and get a new look. Of course the Evans Funeral Parlor normally deals with customers who are a little more passive, and while still needing a new outfit and hairstyle their customers are quite dead. Or at least they should be, as their latest deceased client Mina Jean Murphy has just sat up and attempted to rip the throats out of every living being in sight. They had thought they were past this period of monster-hunting, even though 80-something Ducey Evans, her daughter Grace, and granddaughter Lenore have spent their lives aware of and fighting the undead who have plagued their town. Strigoi are the original undead ghouls, horrific creatures that can turn the living after being invited in. While Ducey, Lenore, and Grace have grown up with their family mission, they have yet to share this burden with Grace’s 15-year-old daughter Luna. It’s something she becomes aware of in the most shocking of ways after Mina rises and turns into a mindless bloodsucker. It’s only the start of a string of missing persons and homicidal Strigois though, and the women find themselves having to assist the unprepared law enforcement before more of their neighbors become predators and prey.

While readers might be expecting a paranormal mystery in a similar vein (hah, sorry) of Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse series, this debut novel is a bit gorier while also focusing on the relationship drama between the four generations of women. While the premise of three Women of a Certain Age monster hunters could lean into being overly humorous or absurd, the Evans family are written so real and their characters so well-developed that the threats seem genuine with dire repercussions. Luna is experiencing the normal emotional turmoil of teenaged romance, but one of her suitors may be something more than just a broody, angsty teen. Her reliable boyfriend Andy has not been responding to her texts, while new kid Crane Campbell had to leave his school in Colorado after being suspected of being one of the Trenchcoat Mafia associated with the horrific events of Columbine. The tragic fates of the men in their lives looms over all the women, and as it’s slowly revealed readers will be drawn in further and incredibly invested in the Evans family future. The mythology is solid as the rules are laid out clearly and the stakes (sorry, again) feel very real as the women band together to protect one another while still dealing with the complicated relationships between mothers and daughters. This is an entertaining and very compelling entry that stands out in the extremely popular genre of paranormal mysteries.

Vampire, mystery, and a dash of horror? Yes, please? This book was so much fun. I was a little worried it would be too similar to other vampire stories set in the south, you probably know the ones I am talking about, but this was such a fun and fresh take, I just had an absolute blast with it.

I really enjoyed the beginning of this book. It was fun and quirky but as I kept reading I felt like the plot started to drag a little. I enjoyed the characters a lot but at times it was a little hard to keep going because of the slowness of the plot and story line. Overall I would give it 3 stars but would love to give this author another go in the future! She writes fabulous characters that are quirky in the best way!!

This uniquely situated book manages to somehow make horror, blood, and gore fun. Largely centering around mother-daughter relationships and the greater connection between female family members. The Evan’s’ must figure out how the dead are suddenly rising and terrorizing the community.

I just finished Bless your Heart by Lindy Ryan and here are my thoughts.

The Evan’s women have a job to do. They own the funeral parlor and they bury the dead and for 15 years the dead have stayed dead but something has changed. The dead are again, coming back to life and the only people who even know and can do anything about it, are the town’s outliers, modern day southern Strigoi hunters.

As more and more of the town starts turning up dead and then undead, the Town Deputy has more questions than answers and as the Evan’s women gear up to fight, they know that it might be time to tell the secret that has plagued their hearts for the last 15 years.

I have a habit of not reading synopsis for books and I saw this one on instagram and was like, heck yeah looks good….. I requested it on netgalley and boom!! Was excited to start. I had no idea it was a paranormal mystery, I thought it was a romance so when I started reading I realized I had made the best mistake of my life! Even the cover didn’t give me a hint… The lady literally has fangs haha! I was drawn right in. It was a lighter horror kind of book and the Evan’s women family dynamic had me chuckling! Ducey was so funny. Each Evan’s got their own POV and it was a little much I understood why the author went this way.

It was a dark humor with some horror splashed in while the mystery of who the original vampire is in town. It was highly entertaining. I enjoyed the plot a lot, I am really glad it is book 1 of a series. The character development was well done and each person added value to the story. Big fan of southern books too. The tone was epic with a decent pace which is always a bonus when you are reading a mystery book.

I’m hoping now that we have been introduced to the main characters, that we will get less POVs in the next book because I really would like a more tidy storyline in the next one. If you are looking for a paranormal mystery that will make you giggle, pick this one up.

4 stars Thank you @netgalley and @minotaurbooks for my gifted copy

(3.5 stars rounded down to a 3)

Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan is a paranormal horror fantasy.

I really liked the premise of this book, but the execution wasn't fully there for me. It took me a while to finish this because I just didn't feel like picking it up. But I was also kind of slumpy so take that with a grain of salt.

That being said, the humor worked for me and I liked watching four generations of a family work together to solve supernatural problems. Ducey, the eldest Evans, reminded me somewhat of my own grandmother (whom we lost a little over a year ago).

The plot did feel a little draggy for me, and that may have partially been because there were tons of point of view characters. I love a multi-POV but it felt like there were maybe too many here, at least for my brain to comprehend at the time.

I enjoyed the back half of the book way better than the first half. When the next book in the series comes out, I'll see if I'm in a better headspace or if this author may not be for me.

Oh, and this book is set in the 90s so if you want to feel nostalgic, this is great for that.

CW: violence, gore, body horror

DNF I could not seem to get into the plot at all. I may try again later, but I didn't make it very far. I do blame being more into fantasy and romances right now than I do the book itself for my lack of desire to read this.

I had no idea cozy horror was a thing. This was a really cute story and I hope there are more to come.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and author for the copy of this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

It seems weird to describe a book with as much blood and gore as this one has as delightful, but it truly was! The subject matter might have been dark, but it was so light and funny.

The characters were wonderful, and the setting of 1999 Texas was so pleasantly nostalgic. I loved every minute of it and was entertained from start to finish. The four Evans women running the funeral parlor together definitely gave me some Steel Magnolias vibes. Ducey especially was amazing!

I absolutely enjoyed this cozy horror filled with southern charm. Lindy Ryan does a fantastic job bringing this small town and these characters to life. I can't wait to see what she writes next.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

DNF @ 33%.

I received a widget of this one & it did seem interesting but once I started reading, I just didn’t enjoy it. It was strange and I didn’t really like any of the characters.

This was one of those books that caught me off guard but in a good way. I wasn't sure what I expected from looking at the cover but this book pulled off a cross between a cozy mystery and a paranormal horror story. The graphic violence scenes mixed perfectly with family drama and with small time vibes. Even though this book works well as a stand alone novel I was happy to learn that it is the first book in a series.

The nitty-gritty: Southern charm and graphic violence collide in this funny and heartwarming story.

Bless Your Heart was a fun horror story with unforgettable characters, lots of humor, an intriguing mystery and plenty of blood. While I had a few issues, I enjoyed this overall, especially the characters, who steal the show and make this a memorable series opener.

The story takes place in 1999 in a small Southeast Texas town and revolves around four generations of Evans women, who own and run the town’s only funeral parlor. Ducey, Lenore, Grace and Luna come from a long line of Evans women, and they’ve always had a very important job to do. When the dead decide to rise—and they inevitably do—it’s the Evans women who stop them and keep the town safe. Fifteen year old Luna is the youngest, and she hasn’t yet been told about the “real” family business. But when a body turns up that has the markings of a strigoi attack—an undead monster who tears apart their victims—Ducey and the others know it’s time to let Luna in on the truth.

As more bodies begin to pile up, the elder Evans women begin to wonder if the past is coming back to haunt them. Fifteen years ago, something terrible happened (what they refer to as the “Godawful Mess”), and since then they’ve done everything they can to stave off the danger. But the “restless dead” won’t stay quiet, and now they must figure out the cause before more innocent townspeople die.

It was the cover of Bless Your Heart that first caught my attention, but after reading it, I can firmly state that this cover is a little misleading. Yes, this is a story brimming with humorous Southern charm, and there are plenty of lighter moments. But folks, this is a violent, bloody tale about strigoi—a cross between vampires and zombies—and the author delights in graphic descriptions of viscera and blood and body parts. And truthfully, these creatures are more zombie than vampire, which is why the woman with vampire teeth on the cover is so confusing to me. The human characters aren’t too excited about seeing the horrifying remains left behind after a strigoi attack, and so there is a lot of vomiting going on as well, lol.

Now that’s out of the way, let’s talk about the characters, who are a delight. We have the matriarch of the family, 84-year-old Ducey, who loves butterscotch candy and a good, spicy romance novel. Ducey was one of my favorites—I loved her witty remarks and wise words. Then there’s her daughter Lenore, who lost the love of her life and is having a hard time dealing with it. Grace is Lenore’s daughter, and Luna is her daughter. There’s a bit of mystery surrounding Luna and her father (who isn’t in the picture), and the reader doesn’t learn the truth until later in the story.

There are quite a few side characters as well. I really liked Roger Taylor, one of the town’s deputies, who knows there’s something “off” with the Evans family but he doesn’t yet know what that is. Luna makes a new friend named Crane, a goth boy who seems a bit shady (he’s described as having greasy hair, a long trench coat and he smokes). Then there’s the Sheriff, Buck Johnson, who is one of the more unlikeable characters, although I had a soft spot for him because he has a Red Coon dog named Belle that he loves more than anything (I mean, how can you hate someone who loves his dog so much?) For dog lovers, don’t worry too much about Belle, she survives the story (although some scary things happen to her!).

As for negatives, I thought the world building was a little confusing at times. There seem to be a lot of rules surrounding the strigoi, how you kill them, how they rise from the dead, etc, and I thought the author made those rules overly complicated. And for a mostly light hearted story, there’s an underlying seriousness that took some of the fun away. The ending was quite shocking in a way I was not expecting, and while it was an exciting ending, there are some sad, heartbreaking moments.

Still I’m glad I read Bless Your Heart, and even though I’m not sure where the author will go in the sequel, I’m definitely going to check it out.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.

Ignore the cover and title because the content doesn't match.

This wasn't bad, it just didn't meet my expectations. Mostly because it wasn't that funny. It wasn't even like humor was attempted, but just didn't land. It was more often the case that I couldn't find any humor at all. Huge chunks of this book felt more like reading intergenerational family drama. Absent father. Mother/daughter dynamics. Coming of age. Yet, interspersed with gruesome deaths and vampire hunting? It was a really incongruent experience.

I also expected richly drawn, larger than life characters to be the cornerstone of the story, but in reality the characters were bland and indistinguishable. The story is about four generations of women, but I spent most of the book thinking there were only three generations. I knew the oldest woman, and the youngest, but I thought the two middle generations were the same person until the last few chapters (not the best indicator of good character development). Plus, one would assume from the cover that the book would center middle aged women. It doesn't. The most developed and interesting characters in this book are a group of teenagers. Fine, but again, not what I was expecting or probably would have chosen for myself.

Did appreciate some of the 90's references, in particular the reference to the band Type O Negative.

Picture it: 1990s, small town in Texas, mysterious deaths…vampires!

Bless Her Heart is told through alternating perspectives from the Evans family women. They each represent a different generation for the family and a different perspective on their family responsibility to fight vampires. I loved getting to know each of them, their quirks, their motivations, their fears. In addition, readers also get to spend time with a handful of townsfolk who find themselves caught up in this most recent vampire outbreak.

Ryan did a great job of taking advantage of the small town vibes for this story, as well as channeling the culture of the 90’s. Nothing was over-the-top or felt forced, but instead served to set a backdrop that aided in making the story feel realistic and plausible. I could easily see how the Evans women were able to keep their vampire-fighting side hustle a secret!

I had no idea that this was going to be the start of a series until I left my star rating on Goodreads after finishing reading, but it makes so much sense with the way the book ended. I look forward to seeing what book two brings in the future.

I really wanted to like this book and was looking forward to reading it, however, if left me feeling "meh". It was well-written and had an interesting storyline. I liked the idea of four generations of women running their small town's only funeral parlor and that Strigoi were about and their references to the Godawful Mess fifteen years ago, but that's it. I feel this book could have been so much better with some humor. From the cover and the blurb, that's what I expected. And why were the Strigoi really zombies? Why after the Godawful Mess, did they treat Luna like a bomb about to go off and not explain things to her, a lot sooner than they did? They were creating most of their own issues and the idea that the great-grandmother, Ducie, with decades of experience, that was mentioned multiple times, still didn't take a stand. What? It's like the author was using self-delusion or character stupidity to further the book and the story. And why did they have an inkling of romance for absolutely no reason? It just needed more and I believe it was well-written enough that the author could have provided more. It just missed the mark on many levels and could have been a great book.

Thank you to St Martin's Press, Minotaur Books and NetGalley for providing an eARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

I didn’t realize this was more cozy mystery with some paranormal characters thrown in than romance so I kept trying to figure out who the love interest and FMC were lol. The story was good but I felt like too many plot points were left open and never had any resolution. Like… Luna just snuck out every night and drank her boyfriend’s blood and we just gloss over that and end the book?!? Like WHAT?! The only resolution of any character were the ones that died… except one of those too.

Thank you @minotaur_books for my digital copy. My thoughts are my own.

BLESS YOUR HEART, the debut novel for this author, is Southern gothic fiction at its best! This was such a fun read and it was totally out of my normal genre!

1999, Texas
Four generations of Evans women run the local funeral home, where they not only bury the dead, they make sure they don’t rise again! Things have been quiet for the last 15 years, but when Mina Jean Murphy rises from the dead, the Evans women know it’s happening again - the Strigoi, the original strain of vampires, are back! Be sure to swipe ⬅️ for the publisher’s synopsis.

This story with its quirky characters, snappy dialogue, and grotesque descriptions somehow still managed to tug at my heartstrings! The characters, though a little off beat, are quite likable. The unique storyline definitely captured my interest from the first page!

Read this if you:
*enjoy Southern fiction
*enjoy vampire stories
*loved Grady Hendrix’s A SOUTHERN BOOK CLUB’S GUIDE TO SLAYING VAMPIRES