“Not all family was blood, and—as far as Luna was concerned—not all blood was family.”

Fun! Funny! Fanatic women! Bless Your Heart is a light, yet somewhat gory, take on horror. It’s gore…with humor? Like I said, so fun.

This story is a little bit True Blood and a little bit The Walking Dead. And maybe a dash of a darker Steel Magnolias, with a funeral home instead of a hair salon as the career of choice.

The audiobook really elevated the story for me, helping me to get lost in this crazy world.

“Darkness was like a disease once it got its teeth in you. A hungry thing that didn’t let go. Sometimes you had to feed it, keep it satiated, to stop it from spreading.”

Thank you to Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press, Minotaur Books, and the author for the ARC and ALC in exchange for an honest review.

This was one of the most campy fun things I’ve read in awhile. It felt like if the Practial Magic Owens Sisters were small town southern vampire hunters. There were a few times I had to pause and say YUCK but honestly between the family dynamic and trying to figure the whodunit it just made the story move along. This was a truly unique take on small town murder mystery and I loved it.

I did listen to Bless Your Heart on audio this past week driving to and from work and it was highly entertaining and completely outside my normal genre. It is horror story of a small southern town in the late 1990s where zombies are terrorizing the town. But it is also funny, laugh out loud funny. And not actually scary because I hate scary things. It was filled with larger than life and quirky characters, southern charm and witty banter. And the narrator had a southern accent to really immerse you in the setting.

A family of women in Texas have been fighting the undead for years. It seems like the original strigoi aka vampire is back and feeding on people. They must find the culprit before it’s too late.

I thought this was a unique concept, but I think there were too many shifts in narrators. I think this would’ve been better with one and then maybe side views of other events. There was just too much switching to really enjoy it.

Thank you to Netgalley & MacMillan for the ARC of Bless Your Heart.

This is an example of a pure campy horror masterpiece! And it's available TOMORROW! Get ready for it!

Bless Your Hearts starts off with a bang and never lets up. You have four generations of women who own and operate the town funeral home, and they take it upon themselves to make sure the town stays safe. There's a mystery - where are the strigoi coming from, who's raising them up? There's a huge family secret that no one seems to want to reveal to the youngest Evans woman. And there's a creepy new guy in town that seems a little suspish.

This book truly has it all. Ducey, the oldest Evans, is hilarious. She is witty and no-nonsense, and you can't help but fall in love with her. The youngest Evans, Luna, is vulnerable but sharp as she tries to navigate and figure out what's going on with her family and her town. The secondary characters are all interesting, and you'll care just as much about them. @lindyryanwrites has crafted the perfect mix of characters with perfect story-telling that's funny, smart, and sometimes pretty gross! The ending is so unexpected in the best and worst of ways. I loved every second I spent with Bless Your Heart!

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Horror (but the fun kind)
pub. date: 04.09.24

Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan is the first book in a new series about the Evans women they live in southeastern Texas in a little town where strange things happen the women consist of Ducey Gracie Nana and Luna they’re basically the undertakers of the town and have a funeral Home where they also live. For the past 16 years Lunas life has been normal with the exception of living in a funeral home but when deceased local farmer Ed Boon comes back to life with murder on his mind lunar will learn a history she didn’t know she had. Her great grandmother Ducey tells her the Evans women or the guardians for keeping their little town safe from the Stragoi . Luna does her best to grasp what her great grandmother is telling her it sounds like these creatures are just like vampires but they can only exist in this little town and her family or at least the females are the only ones that know not only about them but how to kill them. The problem doesn’t stop with Ed Boon as a matter of a fact it will get much worse long before it gets better and she will learn things about her old friends and new not to mention a lot of the town people but it will be the love of a dog that marks the end of the nightmare. Just know at the end of this book I felt so bad for lunar the ending was so bittersweet but I am definitely going to be down to read more from this world. I love the characters especially the deputy her family and Crane. I feel bad for Gracie being a single mother and having the problems she did with lunar but that just made the ending even more bittersweet I love this book and in my opinion it is a total five star read the book is set in 1999 something I should’ve mentioned in the beginning but OMG it is so good I loved it loved it loved it! This is definitely my kind of book! I want to thank Lindy Ryan, Saint martins press and net Galley for this great free arc please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

Bless Your Heart is a historical horror novel set in 1999 Texas. Initially I was really into the story and read the first 70% in two big chunks. The last 30% was more of a slog as we headed into the climax of the story and then I didn't like the ending at all.

The characters were centered around the 4 Evans women, but I felt like having all their viewpoints, plus townspeople made the book jump around too much. I didn't feel that Lenore and Grace had distinctive characters and Ducey felt like mad old woman cliche. The horror parts were done well with just the right amount of blood and gore, but the mythology itself felt lacking. There was no deep dive into the actual background and I was left wanting more. The ending felt abrupt and not well explained and I think I would have it liked that part better, but if the story explained the ghouls better.

Overall I didn't really care for the book and if this is the first part of a series, I don't plan to continue with the rest.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the arc for review purposes.

Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan was such a pleasant surprise. The title and cover led me to believe it would be another Southern quaint story with accidental vampire hunters (huntresses?) but do not judge this book by the cover! The story was deep, gruesome, and engaging. The Evans family runs the small-town funeral home and protects the citizens from danger coming back from the dead. It's also a great story of relationships through the generations of the Evans family. The writing is excellent, fast-paced and I truly couldn't put it down.

Initially, I was totally into this story. The writing was engaging, and I loved the quirky characters.

But by the one-third mark, pacing began to drag and content was repetitive. The story felt a lot longer than 300 pages.

Expectations were also a problem for me. The description led me to believe this would be a comical vampire story. It’s much more of a zombie vibe, and zombies aren’t really my thing.

I kept reading because I did care about the characters, and they were a lot of fun to hang out with. But I admit to skimming chunks where the same information was repeated over and over.

I requested this book however I had no idea how horror-ish it would get. I really struggled to finish. Fairly, I think it was all me. I just don’t like vampire/ghost books and I shouldn’t have requested.

Thanks to NETGALLY for my audiobook!

Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan is the first book in a new series by the same title, Bless You Heart. This series is a mix of humorous horror with a murder mystery underneath and does tell the story by changing the point of view between multiple characters in the book.

The Evans Funeral Parlor is a family business and for years the Evans woman have been running it without incident. Things have been running so smoothly for the Evan’s family that teenager, Luna, doesn’t even know the real business that the family take care of behind the door of the funeral parlor.

The day has come however for all of the four generations of Evans women to jump right back into business when the body of Mina Jean Murphy is brought to the parlor and she seems to be waking right back up. This is where Luna learns her heritage and just how to really kill an ancient Strigoi, an original vampire.

Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan is sort of like taking the quirkiness and eccentricities of a humorous cozy mystery and combining it with some light horror. Yes, there are murderous vampires on the loose but there’s also some laughs and certainly an interesting family at the center of the story. I did rate this first book at three and a half stars thinking there was a lot thrown into the mix for the first book and I felt I could’ve gotten to know the characters a bit better but I have a feeling that the series will only continue to grow on me as it continues on.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

I was excited to dive into Bless Your Heart. Dark humor and sarcastic southern charm? Count me in. However, it ended up a bit light on both, and in the end was just an okay read for me.

Thank you Lindy Ryan, Minotaur Books, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for providing this ARC for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own.

Bless Your Heart gave a different vibe than your average horror novel. It was fun and filled with love and loss. I really enjoyed reading everyone's POV and seeing the action play out from the towns eyes. I thought the monster was pretty obvious but so obvious that maybe I was wrong... I wasn't. Bless Your Heart did get a little slow in the middle but had a great ending. If I had the Evans family behind my back, you couldn't tell me anything. Im excited to read book two!

Oh Ms. Ryan you had me at ghoul hunting grandma!

The story focuses on the Evans women, a multigenerational family who runs a small town funeral parlor. Just like any Southern small town everyone is in everyone's business. The Evans just have an intriguing secret they have kept from most of the town. In addition to the usual funeral home business they also play an integral role of helping to "settle" the dead. Apparently not everyone comes to the parlor is dead dead. As the book starts it quickly becomes apparent they are once again tasked with cleaning up the town as bodies begin to rise from dead and people begin disappearing. As this book changes POVs from all the Evans we learn that these events have happened before, the much whispered about "Godawful Mess." We learn that the Strigoi, a type of vampire, is back and the Evans are the only people in town who can fight it. As more bodies begin to pile up, the town and the Evans struggle between wanting to keep their secrets buried and wanting to survive.

First off, you cannot help but fall in love with this motley crew of women. The writing was engaging and the author clearly understands life in a Southern small town. As a transplant up North it really made me miss the South. The plot kept me turning pages as I wanted to discover more. I do wish more background information was given but understand that it definitely would have affected the pacing. I enjoyed the change in POVs as it kept things moving. While I did quess some of the reveals there were some I did not. I personally feel this is more a dark mystery than a horror. More horror adjacent. While I don't think I would read this book again, I would read more of this author's work and definitely recommend.

Thank you so much to the publisher, St Martins Press and Netgalley for the chance to read this arc in exchange for my honest review.

One part a Night of the Living Dead, one part Practical Magic, and a heaping spoonful of love, Bless Your Heart is a dark and delicious tale of family and death. A horror story with heart that will have you groaning and cheering. I think you’ll love the multigenerational matriarchy, the over the top gore and the YA drama.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy. These opinions are my own.

I did not finish this book. I was not interested in the characters and it was tonally inconsistent. Also, there was almost no forward momentum with the plot. I gave it almost 80 pages before I called it. I normally call it much earlier, but I really wanted there to be payoff for such a clever conceit and cover.

Many, many thanks to NetGalley and St.Martin's Press for the E-ARC!
Who doesn't love a fun quest with the undead?! Bless Your Heart had an interesting/unique premise, with an equally quirky cast of characters. I would consider this book a fun, mildly-suspenseful romp. Felt like a blend between True Blood (without the romance) and Stranger Things. I would absolutely love if this got turned into something I could see visually.

Things I loved:
The family dynamics of the Evans women
The Evans sense of duty/"badassery"
There were a few twists that I didn't see coming, but some that I did.
DUCEY EVANS. I could read a whole book from Ducey Evans' POV.
The ending was action packed! Won't spoil it, but you might have to re-read it a couple times.

Things I didn't love:
I felt like there were some points of the book that slogged a little. Some parts got so descriptive that I wanted to scoot ahead- especially once I had gotten a sense of the gore that was being left behind I didn't necessarily want it rehashed every time.
I would have loved more humor.

Overall, this book is a fun undead-vampire-slaying- romp through 1999 quintessential Texas with 4 killer (pun intended) heroines! 3.75 stars (rounded up to 4!)

“Our job is to keep the dead in the ground. That’s what we’ve always done.”

In a small town in Texas, 1999, the Evans family has a strange family legacy…protecting people from the rising dead. This book is led by a cast of strong women that run the Evans Family Funeral Parlor. They know the signs of the “restless” and they keep lots of extra cleaning supplies on hand. 😆

The story had some really funny moments and dialogue and I am always here for flashbacks to the past with pop culture references.
While I enjoyed it, I felt that the story was missing some punch. It was a little repetitive and took a while to get to the good stuff. I felt that it was a little bit of a slow read but the horror and gore was well done!

Read if you like:
· gore and lore
· little old ladies kicking butt
· Chuck Norris references
· family bonds

Bless Your Heart was a fun and murdery story of the undead and the family that has taken them out for generations. In a small town, the Evans women watch for the signs of the undead waking. It's mostly easy since the dead usually end up in their family-owned and operated funeral parlor. They are there when they wake and can mostly put them down fast and get the bodies cremated before anyone else dies or anyone in the town is any the wiser.

I loved all of the Evans women, they were full of love and loyalty for one another and it showed even when they were all protecting the youngest Evan from something that directly affected her, and could be behind the dead that have been roaming and killing throughout town.
There are some great twists and turns that I didn't see coming, and no one is safe. We get multiple POVs from the Evan women and other side characters and not all of those survive until the end.

This was not at all what I expected!
I am not sure how, but I was under the impression this was a comedy/romance but also had a hint of a supernatural element, so I was thrown off when the unexpected gore and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" vibes came into effect. This is not my usual genre, so I needed to adjust my 'rating' of the book.

Bless Your Heart takes place in Texas in 1999- and focuses on the multi-generational Evans' women- from 80+-year-old Dulce through to 15-year-old Luna- and the secrets they keep to protect their small town. When a mysterious source starts brutally attacking townspeople and deaths are on the rise, the Evans women must work together to keep their strengths a secret while protecting themselves and those around them.

This was not a horror in the sense that the plot was ominous or scary, but it was very gory.
It was a quick read, and the pace was good. I struggled to connect with any of the characters and kept confusing the Evans women.