I am not even sure how to classify this book it's kind of a southern small town cozy mystery with vampires. This book was fun yet dark and quirky. Like I said hard to classify but I don't want that to deter you from reading this one!

I liked the Evans women and hope for more books to really flesh them out and give even more of a backstory.

Stephanie Németh-Parker's narration was excellent I enjoyed her accents and characters!

This one is fun and I am glad I took a chance on a new to me author. I highly recommend this one!

4 stars
I received this audiobook from the publisher Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for a fair and honest review.

Decent read, small town relationships where they’re forced to come together to overcome the threat to their town. I liked the characters but wish there was a bit more depth all around.

**Review ⭐⭐⭐.5/5**
I’m a sucker for a vampire book (ha!), and this was a fun departure from the romantasy books I’ve been reading of late. A combination of mystery, horror, and southern small-town charm, *Bless Your Heart* follows the Evans family—a multi-generational family of women who own the only funeral parlor in town. When the body of town gossip Mina Jean Murphy appears in the funeral parlor and rises from the dead, the women know that the Strigoi (vampires) are back in town and on the hunt. As more bodies turn up, the family works together to find out which mastermind Strigoi is threatening their town–and in the process, are forced to confront some of their own family secrets that they would have rather left in the past.

>> What I loved: When I say this reminds me of *True Blood*, I mean that in the best ways. Horror mixed with small-town vibes, and a cast of amusing characters. This was a relatively fast-paced story with a variety of twists and turns, and the audiobook narration by Stephanie Németh-Parker helps to bring these characters to life.

>> What I didn’t love: I was looking for *more*—more backstory, more character development, and more interaction between the characters. At times the interactions between characters felt more like filler, and I wished that those opportunities had been taken a bit more to build in depth instead.

I would recommend this book to fans of dark comedy and paranormal mystery or horror. It looks like this intends to be a series, and I would gladly take a return trip back to 1999s Texas to find out what happens to the Evans women next.

**Acknowledgments & Disclaimers**
✨ Thank you to NetGalley, Lindy Ryan, and Macmillan Audio, for providing an ARC and the opportunity to share an honest review of this book.
✨ All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.
✨ My reviews and ratings strive to evaluate books within their own age-demographic and genre.

I don't know what it is, but I've been reading lots of books set in the 90s lately. Add in that Bless Your Heart is set in Texas and it's right up my alley.

It's 1999 and the Evans women have run the town funeral home for generations. They're not just in charge of funeral arrangements, but also make sure that what's dead stays dead. But the dead aren't the only thing the Evan's women are ensuring stay buried, and with the dead rising the secrets the women keep are rising with them.

I so enjoyed this book. It's a quirky, fun, paranormal, mystery and I was here for it. I primarily listened to the audiobook, and it definitely made traffic more enjoyable. The Evans women (Ducey, Lenore, Grace, and Luna) have such spunk and if you follow me, you'll know I'm a sucker for a no-nonsense older lady.

While this book has a 'horror' label, it's just for the supernatural aspect. It certainly falls more into the 'horror adjacent' realm with more a focus on the mystery. The ending has the potential for setting us up for a series, and I completely read another book in this series.


Bless Your Heart comes out April 9, 2024! Huge thank you to Minotaur Books and MacMillan Audio for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.  If you liked this review please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my instagram @speakingof.books or on Tiktok @speakingof.books

This was fantastic! I figured out who the head vampire was within the first couple of chapters, but it was still great to watch it all play out. It really was entertaining, and I loved the way the Evans women covered their tracks! It was really creative! The tone of it reminded me a lot of the Deadwood series by Ann Charles. Not the same subject matter, but it had that same vibe. It’s actually a lot like the illegitimate love child of the Deadwood series and an adult Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I got the idea that it was set up for a sequel. I really hope there is! I would definitely read it!

Huge thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for sending me this ARC for review! All of my reviews are given honestly!

Luna's family runs the funeral home in the small Texas town where they live. Luna sometimes helps her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother at Evans Funeral Parlor. But Luna's family members are not telling her the whole truth about what goes on at the funeral parlor.

It's been quiet in town since Luna was an infant. Once she is a teenager though, things in town get, well, interesting. It starts when Mina Jean Murphy sits up in her coffin. Then another body is brought into the funeral parlor. Another body that wants to move. The women in Luna's family quickly dispatch the undead man with a trocar, a sharp instrument used as a drainage outlet for bodily fluids. The Strigoi, vampires ,multiply and the Evans women are trying to protect the town. When the sheriff joins the dead, Deputy Roger Taylor gets let in on the secret and joins the women trying to safeguard the town.

As the ranks of the undead continue to swell in town, Luna is horrified and mystified as to the nightmares she's been having. Crane, a newcomer to her high school, believes in magic and tries to help.

Read the book to find out how the Evans family, Crane, and the Deputy work to rid the town of the plague of the undead. Written by Lindy Ryan and narrated by Stephanie Németh-Parker, the book will appeal to fans of horror as well as teen readers looking for something with a different twist.

🧛🏻‍♀️Book Review🧛🏻‍♀️
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Summary: It’s 1999 in Southeast Texas and the Evans women, owners of the only funeral parlor in town, are keeping steady with…normal business. The dead die, you bury them. End of story. That’s how Ducey Evans has done it for the last eighty years, and her progeny—Lenore the experimenter and Grace, Lenore’s soft-hearted daughter, have run Evans Funeral Parlor for the last fifteen years without drama. Ever since That Godawful Mess that left two bodies in the ground and Grace raising her infant daughter Luna, alone.

But when town gossip Mina Jean Murphy’s body is brought in for a regular burial and she rises from the dead instead, it’s clear that the Strigoi—the original vampire—are back. And the Evans women are the ones who need to fight back to protect their town.

As more folks in town turn up dead and Deputy Roger Taylor begins asking way too many questions, Ducey, Lenore, Grace, and now Luna, must take up their blades and figure out who is behind the Strigoi’s return. As the saying goes, what rises up, must go back down. But as unspoken secrets and revelations spill from the past into the present, the Evans family must face that sometimes, the dead aren’t the only things you want to keep buried.
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Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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My Thoughts: thank you so much @macmillan.audio and @netgalley for the advanced copy, this book releases 4/9 and the audio is just out of this world! I loved just about everything about this one, it was quirky and weird. It’s like a hybrid Grady Hendrix meets practice magic. It’s gory and quirky and just all around a good time fighting vampires. If you’re a Buffy fan I truly can’t recommend this one enough. It’s going to be a book series and I just can’t wait to book number 2! 😍
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QOTD- what is your favorite supernatural character? Personally I’m a fan of vampires and dragons!
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I love southern women. I love their classiness, their style, and how they talk. Listening to this book on audio, was a must for me! I needed that southern accent to bring the characters to life. The narrator got the voices right in this one!
I loved the Evans women. Three generations of women, running a funeral parlor and battling the undead. They all have their individual quirks, but as a whole they all love fiercely. I think this really was the heart of the story.
So what about the undead stuff? I will say, I think this cover is a wee bit misleading. The ladies are not battling vampires, they are battling striogi. I had no clue what that was, had to google it immediately. They are troubled spirits that rise from the dead and gain vitality from blood. Sort of a vampire, but no fangs. This makes the story more gory, which isn’t prevalent in vampire stories. There is some definite gut ripping and squelchy organ munching. Lmao. I’ll definitely be looking for more books with striogi in them.
Bless Your Heart is a super quick read. I’d call it baby horror, a stepping stone into horror. I believe it is also classed as “pink horror”, which is aimed more towards female readers.

3.5 stars

This title really puts readers in the right mindset for the vibes of this novel. It's giving quirky Southern femme with a solid dose of gore and light mystery, too.

The premise is a lot of fun. The women of the Evans family run a funeral home, but this is no _Six Feet Under_; these bodies aren't exactly dead, and the life lessons aren't particularly profound. A recent resurgence in original vampires leads to a lot of gruesome liquified piles, mysterious sounds, and more. These women have a legacy to uphold, and that is - first and foremost - to monitor and end these unsavory turns.

I really enjoyed the family dynamics in this one, but overall, I wanted more character development and backstory. These women are humorous, and the concept is great, but at times, I needed more understanding of and engagement with the characters to feel better connected and more invested.

I am looking forward to what I hope will be more installments in the series primarily because I do want to know these characters better.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this! The writing was exceptional, making for an engaging experience. While I typically prefer single points of view, the shifts here were smooth. The author’s skill in character development and world-building was evident, leaving me eager for more of their work. Big thanks to NetGalley for providing access to this title. These thoughts are solely my own.

I was truly so intrigued by this one. It sounded really good. But I did not find myself enjoying it, I just think it was not for me, it is really a me problem. I can see why a lot of people are enjoying it. I just feel like it is not my usual genre and I could not get into it. I had to DNF at 22%. The audio narrator was good and she kept me invested but not enough for me to continue.

Family secrets. The undead. Small town. And a healthy dose of southern charm.

This was a really fun take on a vampire story. I loved the family of women running the town funeral home. The twists were good. And each Evans woman had her own personality. I enjoyed it.

This was a little more gory than I usually like to read. A cross between vampires and zombies a neat new monster to read about. I enjoyed the premise and the characters however I felt like the pacing was sometimes off and felt about 100 pages longer than it really needed to be. The audiobook narrator did a fantastic job.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

This is a light mystery horror that is perfect for the girlies generally don’t read horror. I had a great time and laughed out loud multiple times. I read via audio and loved the narrator. Highly recommend!

Thanks to Minotaur for the e-arc and MacMillan Audio for the ALC!

I found this book to be SO CLEVER! I was almost annoyed that I hadn't heard this premise before; it's just such a smart, fun twist on Zombies, Vampires, Demons, and the like. I loved the Evans women, especially Ducey, and was completely into the story from the start. Four generations of Evans women run a funeral parlor to stay on top of the undead rising, frequently having to kill their neighbors a second time as they begin to reanimate and seek out new prey. The whole story is just brilliantly told. I highly recommend it.

As a Kentuckian I was hesitant about this one. I’m not a southerner and I'm not exactly interested in southern things. However, this book had heart and surprised me in a very good way!

This audiobook had me hooked from the start of the story. It also lowkey scared me a little. That is what I get for starting this audiobook in the middle of the night.
This is a very unique story in my eyes, something I have never heard of before.
The ending is amazing.
It’s 1999 in Southeast Texas, and the Evans women, owners of the only funeral parlor in town, are keeping steady with…normal business. The dead die, you bury them. End of story.
But when town gossip Mina Jean Murphy’s body is brought in for a regular burial and she rises from the dead instead, it’s clear that the Strigoi—the original vampire—are back And the Evans women are the ones who need to fight back to protect their town. Past into the present, the Evans family must face that sometimes, the dead aren’t the only things you want to keep buried.
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- thank you, netgalley, and MacmillanAudio for allowing me the ALC for my honest review | opinion.

This was such a fun and enjoyable listen. This story was a kooky mess unfolding and I enjoyed every second. It’s not often you find a suspenseful page turner that also makes you laugh like a crazy person and I am so glad I saw this in Shelf Awareness and requested ARCs! The narrator was especially animated and had the perfect southern twang for this book.

The Evans women are a force to be reckoned with and I truly enjoyed their varied personalities and the way they all fit together. Ducey is a spitfire great grandma and matriarch of her Strigoi fighting family. She’s definitely my favorite of the Evans women and looked forward to each of her POV chapters.

I know some people might write this off immediately when they hear vampires are involved, but I really believe that any kind of reader could enjoy this. This was not only fun, but also a wonderful and heartwarming family story between women of multiple generations and the lengths they go to protect each other.

The only reason this isn’t 5 stars is because there were a couple predictable factors, but the ending still surprised me and this was definitely a great and original tale!

“I was fortunate to receive this ARC. While the book didn’t align exactly with my initial expectations from the blurb, it turned out to be a thrilling and fast-paced read, rich with monsters and folklore. The dynamic relationships and witty banter among the family of Evans women were a highlight for me. I’m grateful for the opportunity to delve into this story and would highly recommend it to fans of light horror.

Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan
Pub date: April 9, 2024
Narrated by Stephanie Németh-Parker
Length: 10H 30M

I loved this throwback to the late 90’s! In Bless Your Heart, the Evan’s women own the only funeral parlor in town but these ladies have a secret outside of burying bodies. They’ve been keeping their eyes on an evil that once fell over their town and took their loved ones. The Strigoi are not your Twilight version of vampire. They’re vicious and bloodthirsty and they’re back!

This is definitely a gruesome book and yet, it’s charming, too! I loved the Evan’s women, all four generations, with all their faults! They are strong, independent women who’ve kept things secretly safe despite the whisperings from towns people about their chosen profession.

Quickly paced and packed with all the vampire gore a horror lover could ever want, I also found myself rooting for the romantic themes in the book! I’ve heard this is going to be a series and I certainly hope so!

Read by Stephanie Nemeth-Parker brilliantly! She hit every character out of the park! Numerous southern women, each with distinctive sounds! Bravo, Stephanie!

My thanks to @MacMillan.Audio for this gifted ALC!