BLESS YOUR HEART
A Bless Your Heart Novel #1

2024 Bram Stoker Awards® FINALIST

A Best Horror Novel of 2024 By Esquire, Betches, and ​Paste Magazine!

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.

praise for Bless Your Heart

"Incorporating just the right amount of Southern sass, this gruesomely descriptive yet heartrendingly poignant tale will leave horror fans hungry for the next installment." –Booklist STARRED REVIEW

"Ryan melds mystery, horror, and family drama in her sharp solo debut... This has bite." –Publishers Weekly

"Ryan's compelling horror/mystery hybrid is bursting with serious scares, humor, and Southern charm." –Library Journal

"A bloody, blistering, bracing and bold foray..." –BookTrib

"This novel has plenty of local color and turns of phrase. However, what elevates BLESS YOUR HEART is Ryan’s willingness to revel in full-on gore and follow through on some genuine, last-minute emotional stakes. Announced as the first in a series of novels, I can’t wait to see—and try to work out—what’s going to happen next.” –Esquire

"Ryan writes about family dynamics like someone who grew up surrounded by strong Southern women and took notes... If you come for the horror, you’ll stay for the family drama. If you come for the family drama, you’ll stay for the horror. That’s the trick, and Ryan pulls it off.” –Ginger Nuts of Horror

"Simply a delight, Bless Your Heart is that perfect blend of horror, gore and a good time. The women vs the undead plot and the Southern setting make for an unmissable dynamic duo. It may be a debut, but you'll be eagerly awaiting whatever Lindy Ryan comes up with next." –Barnes & Noble Bookseller Review​

"One hell of a horror novel. Monsters, family, and down-home horror—Lindy has masterfully crafted this story from beginning to end." –George C. Romero, son of the late George A. Romero, creator of Night of the Living Dead 

"Such a brilliant blend of banter and dread. Authored with the confidence of a storyteller who knows every inch, cadence, and beat of their tale. Instantly cinematic. And if you’re anything like me, you’re going to wish you were part of the Evans family, working at the Evans Funeral Home, just so you can spend more time with these people. Lindy Ryan is on fire with this book." –New York Times bestselling author, Josh Malerman
 
"If you don’t think a horror novel can somehow feel like Steel Magnolias meets Buffy with a dab of Straub’s Ghost Story, well… Bless Your Heart. Lindy Ryan’s debut novel is a blood-soaked blast, packed with delightful characters and shockingly gruesome mayhem. And its ending seems to imply further adventures involving the Evans women, something I would welcome like a glass of sweet tea on a hot summer day." –Nat Cassidy, author of Nestlings
 
"The Evans women have arrived and these Southern belle slayers are carving out a spot in our undead hears. Lindy Ryan has harnessed the charm and horror of a Romero-helmed Steel Magnolias, equal parts Carson McCullers and Bram Stoker. Bless her heart." –Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Ghost Eaters
 
"Gory, spine-chilling, and deeply Southern, Bless Your Heart is a women-led fight against the rising dead. An absolute must-read for anyone who likes their horror with bite." –Darcy Coates, USA Today best-selling author of Gallows Hill
 
"Lindy Ryan is among the most electrifying voices in the horror genre today. Her writing is devastating, beautiful, and horrifying in all the best ways. With her new novel, she’s created a group of characters you won’t ever forget, set in a world that sure to get under your skin. Bless Your Heart is everything you could want in a horror novel and more. Highly recommended." –Gwendolyn Kiste, author of Reluctant Immortals
 
"Sparkling with magic and Southern charm, Bless Your Heart is a witty and compulsively readable story about family, duty, and the power to protect the ones we love the most. I was delightfully charmed by the women of the Evans family!" –Maureen Kilmer, author of Suburban Hell
 
"A gloriously gruesome, compulsively readable debut that is as grizzly as it is clever and heartfelt, offering an inventive, poignant, and thoroughly entertaining exploration of legacy. Absolutely brilliant." –Rachel Harrison, author of Cackle
 
"Lindy Ryan’s debut, Bless Your Heart, is a delight! Small-town, multi-generational horror about a family of monster-hunting women who make sure the dead can rest, it’s a creepy romp that begs for sequels. Check it out!" –New York Times bestselling author, Christopher Golden
 
"A flesh-ripping, heartfelt good time. Lindy Ryan has crafted a matriarchal line in keeping with Practical Magic but with the added gory fun of Dead Until Dark. I was utterly charmed and can only hope I haven’t seen the end of the Evans women." –Kristi DeMeester, author of Such a Pretty Smile
© 2026. Lindy Ryan. All rights reserved.