Rating: 5✨⭐️
It’s taking me a while to review this as I adore it so much. I’m not familiar with Jaysea Lynn’s TikTok comedy/drama skits that launched these characters prior to the Covid lockdown but I’ll have to seek it out because these beautifully realized characters, especially Lily in her journey through the afterlife and Hell, are ones that make a memorable impression on the reader.
For Whom The Belle Tolls by Jaysea Lynn is incredibly moving in its depiction of one woman’s journey through trauma to healing, recovery and the discovery of love, self worth and a found family. All in the afterlife.
I can’t even begin to describe how powerful and inspiring this book is. It’s also funny, dark, sexy, and truly beautiful.
Lily dies of cancer. Then her story begins. But what her life was like when she was alive, that a slow reveal throughout the narrative. In bits of memory flashing into her mind as she navigates her new journey through her afterlife and adventures in Hell. Which is another outstanding element here.
Everything, the mythological world and religions are represented differently than typically imagined. It’s one I think is incredibly rich and unique in its variety and depth of knowledge.
The characters of Lily and Bel, as well as Sharky, how they develop and grow, as individuals and as a family is stunning. It’s written so emotionally and powerfully that these are characters that will just inhabit my heart . As will so many others here.
Yes, I’ve ordered the special hard back edition already. It’s that book for me.
Highly recommended. There’s some trigger warnings. Read them. This does deal with some traumatic situations and events, though they are mentioned throughout as memories.
Interior design by Meryll Preposi
Maps: Jamie Noble Frier at The Noble Artist
Buy link
For Whom the Belle Tolls (Hell’s Belles, 1)$16.48Amazon.com
Blurb
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAYBESTSELLER!
From Hell’s Belles BookTok sensation Jaysea Lynn comes a hotter-than-hell romantasy about love, magic, and found family in the Afterlife, perfect for fans of Sarah A. Parker and Callie Hart.
They told her to go to Hell.
She went, but on her own terms.
Lily isn’t exactly thrilled with her arrival in the Afterlife, but what awaits her there is more fantastical than she ever could have imagined: Deities wait in line at the coffee shop. Fae flit between realms. Souls find ways to make death a beginning.
As she explores the many corners of the Afterlife, Lily finds herself surprisingly drawn to a place most people would avoid at all costs: Hell. Armed with years of customer service experience and pent-up sarcasm, Lily carves a job out for herself amongst Hell’s demons, sending souls to their rightful circles with more than a hint of sass.
Lily’s expectations are subverted every day in Hell—especially by Bel, a demon general with a distractingly sexy voice. The two meet by chance and form an immediate, deeply healing friendship, but the undeniable heat between them threatens to combust.
Meanwhile, something stirs beyond the boundaries of their world, threatening to destroy everything they’ve known and everything that could be…unless they fight like Hell to stop it.
This debut novel from BookTok sensation Jaysea Lynn invites you to lose yourself in a world where love ignites in the unlikeliest of places, magic defies the rules, and the Afterlife proves more thrilling than anyone could imagine.
- Publisher: S&S/Saga Press
- Publication date: January 28, 2025
- Language: English
- Print length: 640 pages
- Book 1 of 1: Hell’s Belles
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 