I was originally drawn to this book because of its cute and colorful cover! It was definitely a wild ride and not something I usually would be drawn to. I did enjoy the story and the humor! Buckle up because there are some interesting secrets buried in this small, southern town!

Thank you to MacMillan audio and Lindy Ryan for the early copy of this book.

🎧AUDIOBOOK REVIEW🎧

Bless Your Heart - Lindy Ryan
Rating: 5/5 ⭐️

“A crackling mystery-horror novel with big-hearted characters and Southern charm with a bite, Bless Your Heart is a gasp-worthy delight from start to finish from debut author Lindy Ryan.”

I absolutely loved this story of 4 generations of women who run the only funeral home in their small town. The Evans women were charming, funny badasses and I truly hope there will be more books to come from this series. I wouldn’t describe this as horror (though there are a few gory parts) but more paranormal mystery.

Recommend if you like:
- Multiple POVs
- Strong women
- Paranormal mystery
- Dark humor
- 90’s references
- Southern charm

Thank you @stmartinspress and @macmillan.audio for my copies!

As the saying goes, don’t judge a book by its cover! I was expecting something along the lines of The Vampire Diaries, Twilight, or even the tv show iZombie. This book was definitely not what I was expecting. The cartoonish cover and sticky sweet title are where the pleasantries ended. The storyline had a lot of promise, the family of Evan’s women running the only funeral home in town, and the undead needing to be tended to - what’s not to love about that! The description and title really had me hoping for some dark humor and perhaps a little southern charm thrown in just for fun! Truth be told, I did find parts of it charming, like the southern whit and nosey neighborhood, but I didn’t connect with the characters like I had hoped and the book was more morbid than I was expecting. I have worked for a local hospice provider for many years, so dark humor comes pretty naturally to me, but I just found a lot of the moment more cringy than entertaining. I was particularly bothered by the nonchalant way that the columbine school shooting was casually dropped into the story while relating to one of the characters. I found that particularly to be distasteful and unnecessary to get the point of the character across. I did like the idea of the story and even mostly liked the female character but this just fell a little flat for me personally. I do know there are those who will love this book, and I will absolutely recommend it to those in my book group that I think will find it entertaining, it just wasn’t the book for me.

I do want to thank the author Lindy Ryan, the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy of this audiobook. I so appreciated the opportunity to listen and share my honest review.

Absolutely loved this book. Loved the characters, loved the story, loved the voices in the audiobook. It’s written so well it quite literally played like a movie in my head the whole time.

This book was incredibly fun. I loved following the multigenerational story of the Evans women as they deal with a vampire outbreak in their small town. The world that Lindy Ryan built was so interesting. I enjoyed the different types of vampires that we saw. All of the Evans women had distinct and interesting personalities. The book was a great mix of horror, mystery and comedy. Stephanie Németh-Parker's narration was great. Highly recommend the audio version of this book! This feels like it could be a series and I really hope we get more adventures from this crew.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ALC in exchange for an honest review.

Ghouls, funeral parlors, and strong, fierce women, oh my!!!! I ate this book up (no pun intended 😝). It felt new and fresh, and I had a slow burn with connecting with the characters, but about halfway through, I loved them! I sincerely hope that this will be a series, because I need more of the Evans’ women!! Thank you so incredibly much to MacMillan Audio and NetGalley for an ARC of the audiobook 💕

I adored this audiobook! The narrator perfectly captured the personalities of all of the characters in this tale. Part mystery, part Texas Belles meet Dracula, part story about learning to love and grieve those we’re bound to by blood and tragedy, I devoured this tale. Fans of Grady Hendrix will revel in the Texas rebuttal of Georgia’s Southern Bookclub’s Guide to Killing Vampires without feeling like they’ve heard this story before. This would be a great generational read to share with older YA readers who handle the occult well AND grandmas looking for a fresher read. My only complaint is that I have to wait for more tales from the universe.

Bless Your Heart really reminded me of a 90s style comedic horror movie in all the best ways. The Evans women reminded me a lot of the women in my family.. the tough southern kind who always step up and get things done. The relationship between the 4 women (great grandmother, grandmother, mom, and daughter in case it takes you a minute to figure that part out like it did me) brought not just humor to the book, but also a surprising amount of emotion and warmth that I wasn't expecting.
This is one that I would really love see turned into a movie.

The only drawback was there are A LOT of POVs to follow and it can get kind of confusing.

I enjoyed this so much! The Evan’s women all had their own personalities but they were all equally amazing! The whole time I thought I knew where it was going, but I was very very wrong. It kept me wanting more all day long, I finished in one sitting. The narrator was fantastic! The butterscotch’s reminded my of my own great grandmother. It was truly a wonderful book! I am going to get more from the author now.

Right off the top the book delivers an intriguing hook and the characters are loveable and charming. Once we get introduced to the funeral parlour ladies however the progression of the plot stalls and nothing much else happens for the rest of the 300 pages. The characters are running around a small Texas town asking questions, being generally clueless and incompetent and constantly alluding to some local drama from 15 years earlier that never gets explained.

300 pages of limp narrative that has very little to say and even less to show.

Lindy Ryan knows how to write visual descriptions really well but if I am promised horror and vampires I generally expect some action and not just dead bodies that become a topic of unrevealing conversations throughout the book.

By the way, the entire mythology around the Evans women exposes a giant plot hole.

From what I gather this title is intended to be the first instalment in a series. It certainly reads like a teaser, rather than a proper novel. In my opinion it would have been more successful being introduced as such and edited down to a half of its current volume.

Stephanie Németh-Parker is a fantastic narrator.

We follow the Evans women who own and operate the only funeral parlor in Southeast Texas. It’s their job to handle & bury all the bodies that come through their door . Well, it’s also their job to make sure that the bodies they put in the ground - stay buried. What appears to be a run of the mill business is actually a ghoul assassination business only, Luna, the youngest of the Evans family isn’t yet aware of the actual business or what it entails. Bless your heart takes you through their journey to saving the town and carrying on the generational knowledge to keep the future safe. Great writing all around - the descriptions of those gory and horrific moments were really well done. So fun to flip between sharp and witty dialogue and those really disgusting death scenes. And the messages woven in throughout with the teens of being yourself and sticking up for your friends and what you believe in was really lovely - nothing felt preachy. It is a bit slow so it was hard to keep my interest but still worth the read.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and St. Martin's Press

This book was so cheesy and I really actually enjoyed it haha. I say “bless your heart” all the time and I thought it was hilariously done

This was such a fun listen. I really enjoyed the difference in voices for each character- it was thoroughly entertaining!

Enjoyed this one. You could tell it was a set up for the other books in the series and as long as you know that going in, you won’t be disappointed with the somewhat lack of development for some of the plot.

If you aren’t into vampires or gore, this one is not for you. It was witty and the characters were enjoyable,

Well…I read it and I’m not sure how I feel about it. To be fair, you should know I’m not all that into vampires, but I gave this book a try anyway because I liked the idea of a family of Southern women kicking butt together. It starts out scary, but ends up just being your run of the mill gore-fest. At a certain point I was bored with all the blood. I did enjoy the matriarchal element, but something was missing for me. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great either. I doubt I will continue to read the series.

If you do not like vampires, this book is not for you. A family who owns a funeral home also happens to slay vampires. The youngest woman in the family, Luna does not know what her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother really do, but she may soon find out as people are dying all throughout town. Police figure it must be by a wild beast. I absolutely enjoyed this book, especially the great-grandmother, who is a spitfire. Stragoi are as normal to their family as boyfriends to a teenager. I would absolutely love more of this story and family!

I love zombie/walking dead everything!! This book had it all! Which fun characters, fresh ideas and mystery! Highly recommend the audio for this one. Love the narrator and her use of all the different voices!

Highly recommend preordering this one!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

I found this book a disappointment. From the synopsis I felt it could be similar to "A Southern Book Clubs Guide to Slaying Vampires" with maybe a little bit more fun moments. But this book felt like just a long set up for more potential books. I felt that both the characters and lore of the undead fell flat as not fully developed. It was not all bad but I did not find it particularly interesting or memorable.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for an advanced audiobook for review.

True Blood meets The Walking Dead meets Six Feet Under meets Supernatural- that's really the best way I can describe this incredibly original and unique book. I was not expecting to like it as much as I did, aside from the high level of splatterpunk gore that I am not a huge fan of. Thankfully, that mainly came towards the end of the book, and it was essential for the plot so I will give it a pass.
This book was fun, ridiculous, unique, and overall a delight!

Thank you, NetGalley!

Thank you to NetGalley, Lindy Ryan, and Macmillan Audio for the ALC.
This is a fun story about 4 generations of women who run a funeral parlor and moon light in tending to the undead.
In theory I should have loved this audiobook. Vampires, 4 generations of sassy southern women, murder, and mystery... all things I love to read about typically. I definitely enjoyed the story and the narrators were great. However, there was something keeping me from loving this one. I usually read books that are darker with more adult content so this was a nice palate cleanser, but it just sort of dragged on for me.