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path_through_pages 's review for:
Bless Your Heart
by Lindy Ryan
emotional
fast-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
2.75
I'm genuinely torn with this book, and unfortunately, the parts that bothered me bothered me a LOT!
First, I absolutely loved the premise. I loved the idea of generations of women owning and managing a funeral home, needless of dated expectations and ideals of the role of women in small town Texas.
I loved the inclusion and acknowledgment of the various different struggles that different groups of people face in close-minded environments.
I loved that these women guarded the town from the rising dead.
What I hated:
- how is it that you have a family of women that for countless generations have been safeguarding secrets and hunting monsters but have NEVER LEARNED HOW TO COMMUNICATE????
- women keeping things from each other, not trusting each other, holding years of resentment and bitterness against each other, this is so cliche.
- when you have an all women cast, write them how actual groups of women would behave.
- if these women were a TEAM and a true family and handled their shit without needless bickering and miscommunication, this book would have been a 5 star read, hands down. Instead we got stuck with stereotypes.
- even if you wanted to make generational trauma a part of the character development, there is a way to do it where it doesn't feel needlessly tedious and one dimensional.
- I also really struggled with a lot of the descriptions. The multiple POV was fine, but there was situational recapping almost every time you got to a new POV that it felt super repetitive. The descriptions used for the characters' physical reactions to things was also so repetitive that it got annoying for me.
- lastly, you can't have a FMC acting completely apathetic towards their love interest and then in the last few chapters talk about how she so deeply loves and trusts him just for the sake of a predictable twist.
I just .. ugh, I wanted to love this book but simply couldn't.
P.s. No MC pregnancy tropes
I'm genuinely torn with this book, and unfortunately, the parts that bothered me bothered me a LOT!
First, I absolutely loved the premise. I loved the idea of generations of women owning and managing a funeral home, needless of dated expectations and ideals of the role of women in small town Texas.
I loved the inclusion and acknowledgment of the various different struggles that different groups of people face in close-minded environments.
I loved that these women guarded the town from the rising dead.
What I hated:
- how is it that you have a family of women that for countless generations have been safeguarding secrets and hunting monsters but have NEVER LEARNED HOW TO COMMUNICATE????
- women keeping things from each other, not trusting each other, holding years of resentment and bitterness against each other, this is so cliche.
- when you have an all women cast, write them how actual groups of women would behave.
- if these women were a TEAM and a true family and handled their shit without needless bickering and miscommunication, this book would have been a 5 star read, hands down. Instead we got stuck with stereotypes.
- even if you wanted to make generational trauma a part of the character development, there is a way to do it where it doesn't feel needlessly tedious and one dimensional.
- I also really struggled with a lot of the descriptions. The multiple POV was fine, but there was situational recapping almost every time you got to a new POV that it felt super repetitive. The descriptions used for the characters' physical reactions to things was also so repetitive that it got annoying for me.
- lastly, you can't have a FMC acting completely apathetic towards their love interest and then in the last few chapters talk about how she so deeply loves and trusts him just for the sake of a predictable twist.
I just .. ugh, I wanted to love this book but simply couldn't.
P.s. No MC pregnancy tropes