Reviews with content warning for Blood - Bless Your Heart

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan

11 reviews

mfrisk's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Getting to know the Evans women was a lot of fun and this vampire story set in a small town was well worth it. I felt like this book kept the action going from start to finish while also feeling somewhat of a cozy horror (cozy in the sense of the relationship building but not lack of horror elements). It is gory, gross, and adds some new elements into vampire lore which I thought was a great way to revitalize what we feel we already know.

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amina_writes_books's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

the storyline was quite good (minus the random Andy request at the end, that seemed unlikely and a swipe from nowhere) and was definitely a page turner. Love that it took place in Texas yet still highlighted minorities that hardly get acknowledged with air time here like the goths and the gays. The narrative style between the different chapters/ perspectives was not well done and read just like a standard narrative cover to cover. A keeper due to many themes that are hard to find but hardly the writing itself.

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clairebonney's review against another edition

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dark mysterious

3.75

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michellec13's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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coffeeandprose's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.75

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jjsbookcase's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

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ktdakotareads's review

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

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kimwritesstuff's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

This was a fun debut from Lindy Ryan and clearly sets up future novels in this universe. I really hope there are more novels set in this universe because I definitely have questions and there were a lot of loose ends.

Bless Your Heart is a multiple POV novel that pivots between the Evan's women, Deputy Roger Taylor, and various other town's people. We never get a POV from any of the Strigoi which I thought would have been interesting and showed more information about the Strigoi. I see where Lindy has easily set up more novels, but it kind of bothered me that there weren't more answers. The Evans women have essentially been vampire hunters for generations, but they still don't know really anything about Strigoi beyond myths and legends. It just kind of bothered me that there wasn't a stronger knowledge base.

I did really enjoy the central story and the rising panic/anxiety. About half way through as the reader you start putting pieces together and it gave me so much anxiety in a good way. This was the kind of book where I was quickly turning pages and completely caught up in the drama. I thought the ending did lack a little oomph, but again I think it's because the author is setting up multiple story arc. I will be disappointed if I don't see another book in this series.

Bless Your Heart is a fun thriller that will keep you on your edge of your set. Even if I still had questions at the end, I really enjoyed this novel.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press/Minotaur Books for the ARC.

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apairofducks's review against another edition

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4.25

This book is not at all what I expected from the cover. It’s much more of a horror novel than the quirky vampire cover, and it’s not really a vampire novel at all— still, it had great characters and fun (albeit incomplete) world-building.
My biggest complaint is that the pacing of every action scene was a bit all over the place, like the author didn’t have experience writing stories coming to a head and not just being characters hanging out, but overall, they worked.

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kylereadsromcoms's review

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dark funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

As the dead begin to rise in a small Texas town, four generations of women must confront their past and prevent the undead from destroying their town. The Evans women have been tasked with keeping the dead dead and in the ground and their roles running the town's funeral parlor allows them to do that. However, 15 years prior, an incident almost destroyed the town and their family. Lindy Ryan paces this horror novel well and drops crumbs along the path without revealing too much until it's the right time. With plenty of gore and humor, Bless Your Heart is an outstanding entry for those who may not love horror, but are willing to give the genre a try. Thanks to Minotaur Books for the ARC.

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