My Five Word TL:DR Review: Gothic Southern Charm and Guts

I’m very much enjoying Lindy Ryan’s Bless Your Heart series.  It combines winning family dynamics, mystery, the unhappy dead and plenty of blood and guts fortunately tempered by humour.  It’s a very easy series to read and quite refreshingly unique in so many ways.

Another Fine Mess picks up fairly quickly after Bless Your Heart concluded so be aware that there may be spoilers below for book 1, although I try to be careful not to include any if possible.

Lenore and Luna are trying to pick up the pieces following events from the conclusion of Bless Your Heart but they’re struggling, both to cope with the loss and continue to go about their everyday lives.   Lenore eventually makes the decision to hire in help for the funeral parlour, a decision that goes against the family ethos but seems to be the only way forward.  Luna is suffering from guilt and struggling to understand her own nature.  And, at the same time the increased number of missing pets in the neighbourhood seems to be a precursor for the body count to once again begin to rise.  A rare ‘ghost wolf’ is being cited as the cause for the latest bloodletting and as a consequence a local expert is called in but Lenore knows, she simply knows that something is wrong, she just doesn’t know what, until an unexpected houseguest makes an appearance to fill in some of the blanks.

I don’t want to give too much more away.  Once again Ryan brings to us a charming horror – if such a thing is possible.  She doesn’t shy away from a high body count, even taking characters that you really feel quite cross about losing, and she’s not afraid to paint the pages in blood, but at the same time she balances the gore with a good dose of Southern charm, strong family values and some lighthearted moments.

The pacing is quick. there’s no hand holding here.  To be honest, I would say that you need to read the first in the series – well, of course, you could crash in at this point and I’m sure the author has done enough to make the story standalone – but, I think you’d miss so much about the family and frankly I think it would be more of a struggle so I would suggest reading the books in order.

I really like the family dynamic (and the unexpected guest – in fact I’m rather hoping for another appearance that I won’t elaborate on here).  The main problem that the Evan’s ladies face is lack of knowledge.  They’ve been told so very little over the years and it seems like secrets buried long ago need to be unearthed.  To be fair, I’m not a lover usually of the ‘keeping people in the dark’ trope but here it really does feel more like secrets were buried rather as a means of forgetting and moving on than a plot device.

In conclusion, over the top horror with a Carrie-esque style ending – well, in terms of a high school end of term dance.  A very easy to read and engaging series that I find myself really enjoying and hoping for more.  A good mix of characters (although try not to become too attached because as I mentioned – ruthless author), a secret history waiting to be uncovered, a different take on some well established critters and horror that doesn’t give you nightmares (although, to be clear, there is no shortage of blood and death – just, it doesn’t have that scary vibe that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up).

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks.  The above is my own opinion.

My rating 4.5 of 5 stars