The Bless Your Heart series by Lindy Ryan offers suspense, mystery, gory horror, yet still integrating Southern charm. Please note that Another Fine Mess is a sequel! To get the best intended experience, I highly recommend reading Bless Your Heart first. I will do my best to be spoiler free but read carefully because I highly recommend them either way!
Review
I had so much fun reading both books. We meet the four generations of Evans women – matriarch Ducey, Lenore, Grace, and teenager Luna. Multiple POV provides suspenseful storytelling, and we get to know many characters – even secondary ones that -eventually become victims. All of them were entertaining and fun to meet. Even though I would have liked to see more depth to the characters, I still became quite attached and felt emotional about their fates.
And don’t let the cartoon-like covers fool you – many scenes describe violent attacks and mutated creatures in great detail. I would even argue that the covers don’t match the vibe of the stories. But the creatures are based off of well-known myths/ lore. So readers can still connect with the story while finding something new.
Besides all the gore and fun characters, the suspense and “murder mystery” aspect of both books will keep readers on the edge of their seats. I did struggle with the pacing at first. But the patience is definitely worth it with the misdirection and twists throughout. The characters got closer to learning the truth and how to right wrongs – AKA making sure the undead stay buried. This eventually propels readers through a fast-paced climax that they won’t be able to put down until the end.
Lindy Ryan joins the Cantina Book Club Podcast to talk about what draws her to horror and plans for the series. Keep an ear out for the interview and pick up a copy of Bless Your Heart and Another Fine Mess.
Book
BLESS YOUR HEART
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.
