An incredible book with wonderful characters and a beautiful setting. It will keep you guessing until the end.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Net Galley for an ARC of this book. All opinions expressed are my own. Bless Your Hear isn't the type of book I gravitate towards. I started listening to it, then stopped for a while, then picked it back up. I don't usually like horror novels. This is has a sprinkling of horror throughout the book. It's not my favorite part. I did enjoy the town and townsfolk, and the premise of the story-lady under takers that have to take care of the ghouls, or undead. It was funny in several parts.-which made up for the yuckiness of dealing with the undead. I loved generations of women that still work together to take care of the town's undead problem. Ducey was my favorite. The story gave me "Lost Boys" vibes. (Which I loved).
I could possibly purchase this for our high school library.

This may be one I come back to but for now, I'm going to put in my review and mark it as one I did not finish. I requested this title because of the cute cover, title, and overview. I thought this was going to be a bit of cozy horror, if such genre exists! The book got a little too graphic/gory for me and it just wasn't the type of book I thought I was going to be reading.

This was such an entertaining read. It was funny but not overly so. Definitely a perfect read for spooky season! It wasn’t super heavy in the vampire realm. Reminded me of that vampire show? There may have been a bit too many POV to keep track of. But I still had fun with this.

"Bless Your Heart" has a lot to love with interesting family dynamics, light horror and humor, diverse characters, and a unique premise all wrapped up in a Southern Fiction story.

There are also vampires, specifically, ones that are called Strigoi. In Romanian mythology, Strigoi are said to be troubled spirits that rise from the grave. They can be quite troublesome and in 1999, in a small town in Southeast Texas, they're giving Evans Funeral Parlor, quite the time of it.

The four generations of Evans women who own this local funeral parlor are doing their level best to get a handle on the Strigoi issue while protecting certain secrets that need to remain buried...

"Bless Your Heart" was more entertaining than scary and heads up if blood and gore aren't your thing. It's plentiful here. I did enjoy the strong female characters from the Evans family but I wanted more backstory about them and less Southern chatter that slowed things down. Was I the only one who thought the Strigoi felt more like zombies than vampires? That's just me wondering out loud.

This was an immersion read where I preferred the digital version over the audio, narrated by Stephanie Németh-Parker. Her voicing was stellar but again, the Southern chatter wore me down.

If you enjoy light Horror mixed with Southern Fiction "Bless Your Heart" may be the beginning of a great series for you!

3.5⭐

Thank you to Minotaur Books, Macmillan Audio, and Lindy Ryan for a DRC and an ALC of this book through NetGalley. It has been a pleasure to give my honest and voluntary review.

I didn't finish this book; it just wasn't for me. It might have been the wrong timing for me to read this type of book.

I enjoyed this book. I liked the plot and that storyline that this is a family thing and they keep their town safe. I will say that if you didn't read the blurb that the cover is misleading. There are fangs and to me that is vampires. I would think that this book is about vampires not zombies/ghouls. Other than the cover I really did like the characters and the different POV even from the characters who don't make it in the end. It was well done.

DNF-ed. This was really upsetting for me because it was one of my most anticipated releases of the year -- I love vampires and I love souther settings. But the plot felt so slow and uninteresting. I was expecting more action and vampire hunting -- kind of like Buffy but in the south -- but I feel like it just wasn't paced fast enough. The narration was fine I suppose, but it wasn't anything special.

Set in small-town Texas, three generations of Evans women (Ducey, daughter Lenore, granddaughter Grace) run the local (and only) funeral parlor. When a local woman shows up on their slab and rises from the dead, they react not with the horror you would expect, but with a mixture of concern and resignation. The Evans women have been the first line of defense against the strigori. If this isn't an isolated incident, it may be time to let Grace's teenage daughter Luna in on the real family business.

As the deaths pile up and more bodies appear (or disappear) it seems they have a real problem on their hands and some secrets they thought buried, may not have stayed buried.

This is interesting, almost light-hearted horror. An inquisitive deputy sheriff who has a history with the Evans but doesn't know as much as he thought about them offers an outsider's view of the events which is important to ground the story. A cantankerous old sheriff who also has a history with them sheds his own kind of insight on the story.

With each death, the crisis becomes a little more critical. Ryan interjects some history of the Evans family as well as the strigori. This history interrupts the flow of the story and doesn't always inform you as much as you would hope. Some of the character's actions seem illogical, or at least slow given the seriousness of the situation. Still, it's a fun story with a generous amount of blood and some engaging characters.

The audiobook is narrated by Stephanie Nemeth-Parker who does a good job making the character voices distinctive. She also makes the dialogue fit the time and place of the story.

I was provided a copy of this audiobook by the publisher.

What a weird little horror novel. I enjoyed "Bless Your Heart" more than I expected to, it reminded me of several other stories - Practical Magic, Sookie Stackhouse, and Six Feet Under (family funeral parlor). These all have some dark humor in them and my only complaint is that I expected a little more humor in this book then was always there. I still had a great time which is a little surprising because I am not typically a horror reader. The cover and blurb were pretty convincing! I loved the four generations of Evans women and how they were a little salty, a little sweet and 100% there for each other. The narrator did a great job showing readers their personalities.

Slight spoiler, but I also loved that the dog didn't die!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an audio ARC.

4.25 ⭐️

TW: Death, resurrection, gore, bullying, f*g slur, homophobia

For the Evans women, death was a family business. As the Evans women say, “A funeral parlor isn’t all that different beauty salon.” It’s feminine.

This book was a hoot! I loved the narration and commend the narrator for her many voices.
One of my favorite lines in the book is, “Bury me with my brassiere on and I’ll haunt you!” I thought I was going to keel over and die from laughter.

I had two major concerns. There were too many points of view which made the story difficult to follow along in the audiobook. Second, I had confusion over what vampire term we were using and if there were any differences.

Read if you love a spooky storyline, and stay for the humor and twists! I’ll definitely read another book by Lindy Ryan!

From the title I was expecting something different than what I got. It wasn’t as funny as I was hoping for and the lore of the vampires didn’t resonate with me. I love vampire books and unfortunately this one just wasn’t for me. It might be in part to the audiobook which seemed really long and drawn out at 2x speed. If this was the first book in the series then I understand a lot of building so would give a second book a chance.

Bless Your Heart
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Author: Lindy Ryan

I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley, Minotaur Books and Macmillan Audio and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

Synopsis: Rise and shine. The Evans women have some undead to kill.

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.

My Thoughts: This was a mystery spun with horror and splash of fantasy blended in. This is the first book in the Bless Your Heart series. The story takes place in 1999 in Texas. The Evans women (Ducey, Lenore, Grace, Luna - four generations) run the only funeral home in town. They have placed a lot of bodies in the ground, sometimes more than once. The Strigoi, vampire who wants control of the town, is back. It is up to the Evans women to fight back and save the town and their funeral home. This follows the trope of cozy mystery with slight humor and horror blended in.

This was a slow burn at first, but a great reading journey. The Evans women are very spunky. The characters were well developed with depth, eccentric-minded, mystery, were witty, and fierce. The author’s writing style was complex, multifaceted, a tad suspenseful (I would love to see more), funny, great world building, and engaging. The paradox between the mystery coziness and the dark (horror) was fabulous, I really enjoyed seeing this combination that I have not seen before. Some of the scenes were quite graphic. Now that does not bother me because I am an 80’s slasher horror movie buff. I loved the vibe of the small town, the ingenuity of incorporating horror elements, and then the Evans family dynamics were well executed.

I had the pleasure of having the digital and audio versions for the ARC, I leaned on the audio more. The narrator, Stephanie Nemeth-Parker was great. She had perfect voice variation that melted into character distinction. Her pitch and flow was excellent, I had no issues listening on 2x speed, was able to keep up. It was like Stephanie was born to narrate this novel, her voice fit perfectly as I imagined. This was a light, fun, mystery with a flare of horror and fantasy (vampires & people rising from the dead). Think Finlay Donovan vampire edition. This was not scary and won’t keep you up at night or give you nightmares. I would love to see more suspense in the next book in the series. I highly recommend picking up the book or audiobook today.

Hello!!

It’s mid-week and I am having another good reading week. I am trying to pick up audiobooks more as I clean, run errands, or do other things so it has led to a great uptick in my reading. Recently I decided I would try to see if I could get an audiobook copy from Netgalley so I could still read the ARC but listen to it on audiobook so I could do all the things that needed to be done. I was able to get my first audiobook E-ARC from Netgalley of Bless Your Heart, an upcoming book about the Evans women and the supernatural. (Thank you so much to the publisher for the E-Audiobook ARC in exchange for my honest opinions).

SPOILERS AHEAD

Three generations of Evans women live in a small town together in Texas, where they run the only funeral parlor in town. Ducey (the grandmother of the family) has lived in this same town and run the parlor for 80 years now, she has run it the exact same way and kept all the secrets of her family and the town under wraps by doing so. She has the help of her daughter and granddaughter (her daughter, Lenore raised her child alone due to a situation that occurred many years ago). Now, Mina Jean, a local resident and well-known town member has passed away in her home. However, Ducey knows when people die in this town they do not always stay dead. Mina Jean’s death is short-lived as she turns into a Strigoi (an OG vampire) and rises from the dead. Now the Evan’s women have a situation on their hands that could turn out very badly for them (especially for Lenore and her daughter Luna).

I loved this book so much! It gave me the vibes of Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires mixed with a fun cozy mystery element. It was such a fun ride to see everything unfold for each of the three women in the Evan’s clan. I will say the ending made me tear up a bit as I absolutely did not expect that. I would love a sequel for this book at some point in the future. In the meantime, this book hits shelves super soon on April 9th, 2024, I definitely recommend picking it up at your bookstore, library, or other places where you like to grab a good read from.

Goodreads Rating: 5 Stars

****Thank you so much to the publisher for the E-Audiobook ARC in exchange for my honest opinions.

#BlessYourHeart:
Thank you so much Minotaur for my gifted copy.

Here’s the thing. I was born in Texas. I live in Georgia. I went to school in Alabama. I have the southern triangle pretty down pat. (There’s a few other states I’ve lived in the south, but let’s stick to the Jorts Triangle okay?) So if you’re going to say you’re going to give me a southern tale, I want a true southern tale. Not a saccharine/caricature of southern tales. I felt it was too hard of Steel Magnolias but more like a Not Another Teen Movie parody of SM (but like Steel Magnolia Vampire Hunters would be boss)

I felt like we had too much butterscotch candy, and not enough character development. Now I love multiple POVs but this was a bit too much for me.

But let’s talk about the good. Holy moly. The horror or deathly descriptions of the undead?! Amazing. It gave me Scream plus Walking Dead vibes. Did I close my eyes like my ears weren’t listening to the darn book? Yes. Lindy, boo, go write supernatural horror and I’m there ASAP. I did feel like once I had the audio it wasn’t as bad on the heavy southern, but still couldn’t keep my attention.

Overall, it genre bends between a cozy and horror? A corror? Hozy? I’d like to see what Lindy Ryan writes next.

Rise and shine. The Evans women have some undead to kill.

This was a DNF for me.

I could not get into this book, even though I really, really wanted to. I heard such mixed things about this book that I wanted to give it a try, but I could not get into this. I think this is why it took me so long to write this review because I wanted to keep trying to finish it.

But I want to make this note: just because I could not get into this, does not mean that it isn't for you. There are so many books that other people have really enjoyed, that I could not stand, and vice versa. Do not let me stop you from trying this book if the premise sounds good to you!

Title: Bless Your Heart (audio)
Author: Lindy Ryan
Genre: Fiction, mystery
Rating: 4 out of 5

Rise and shine. The Evans women have some undead to kill.

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.

As hard as it is for me to call this historical fiction, it did feel like that, and historical fiction in small-town Texas, which is my own history. This felt like a cozy mystery, but it was really bloody, too. Like, really bloody. I enjoyed the audiobook and thought the narrator did a great job on style with this read.

Lindy Ryan is a professor at Rutgers University. Bless Your Heart is her newest novel.

(Galley courtesy of MacMillan Audio in exchange for an honest review.)

"Bless Your Heart" by Lindy Ryan takes readers on a thrilling journey through the small town of Southeast Texas, where the Evans women run the Evans Funeral Parlor and safeguard the town from restless undead spirits. This multigenerational tale weaves together family dynamics, small-town charm, and horror elements in a refreshingly unique narrative.

Ryan's writing captivates from the start, with engaging prose and a plot that keeps readers eagerly turning pages. Despite the familiar premise of the undead rising, "Bless Your Heart" offers a fresh perspective, delivering a blend of cozy atmosphere and dark, graphic scenes that create a compelling contrast.

The strength of the story lies in its characters, particularly the spunky Evans women who charm readers with their banter and resilience. As the first book in a new series, it sets the stage for further exploration of the town's mysteries and the Evans family's adventures.

While "Bless Your Heart" offers light horror elements, it's more entertaining than terrifying, making it an enjoyable read for fans of mysteries and those looking for a dose of fun without the sleepless nights. Overall, Ryan promises an exciting series ahead, leaving readers eager to uncover what lies in store for the Evans women and their community.

Bless Your Heart was interesting listen for sure! Definitely not a book that I would normally pick up. It was a humorous horror mystery novel. The main characters family runs a funeral parlor and she finds out her true families history. The narrator did a great job I thought. Rating of 3 stars is mostly because it really wasn’t my cup of tea. Thank you to NetGalley, McMillion Audio and the author for allowing me to listen and review this audiobook!

3.75 stars! Fun southern vampire book with "bless your heart" humor. I did find it a little difficult to keep up with the different narrators and keep it straight who was talking. But I enjoyed it!