And Then There Were Dragons

And Then There Were Dragons by Alcy Leyva, an interesting little novel. Amanda is having a bad day, she wakes up in a strange room, where she is told that she has died. She goes looking for her sister and when leaving she almost gets eaten. Things are not looking up.

And Then There Were Dragons
Alcy Leyva Black Spot Books
Pub Date July 30 2019 *****five stars*****five stars***** five Stars

Synopsis:
Amanda Grey, stopping the all-encompassing Apocalypse fated to plunge our entire existence into never-ending darkness . . . just kind of sucked. Sure, she had managed to capture every demon set loose on New York City. And yes, she ended up thwarting an evil angel’s plans to destroy humanity. But she also lost her sister, her apartment, and—oh yeah—Amanda Grey totally died and got her soul banished to hell as a result.

Oh hellllllllo lovelies! First you must check out the soundtrack set up by the author on Spotify. INGENIOUS! I found out this by accident when clicking Alcy Leyva's Twitter link on #Netgalley. Amazing enough he was hearing the same music in his head while writing that I imagined down to Green Day, Lord Huron and Psycho Killer by the Talking Heads. I plan on a reread just to read with the soundtrack.. Enter Amanda Grey; if you merged Jessica Jones with Meredith Grey from Grey's Anatomy you would have this saucy , snarky, absolutely badass fearless character.. I read, ( rather translated from Latin yeah I was a total booknerd even then) the Inferno in high school and then again analyzed in college the nine circles of hell.. Thank you Mr Leyva:!!.NOW IT MAKES SENSE.
And Then There Was Dragons is the best tour of Hell as a mortal will ever take..Amanda's sidekicks Gaffrey Palls ( should be played by Ryan Reynolds part detective but can change into a superhero when needed.) and Cain the Fallen Angel of Death( remember Caity Lotz who was White Sparrow on Arrow? I see her unfurling her wings ready to slay everything in her path!)These two are there to protect Amanda little do we know that Ms Grey needs no protection as she journeys through New Necropolis the first level of Hell suspiciously like NYC , the River Styx with what seemed like all the dead zombies from the Walking Dead ended up, to the final showdown with the Furies Amanda Grey had no idea the POWER she possessed! The characters in this series are perfectly dark but funny and their interactions and dialogue readers will be quoting on social media as they read ! I absolutely rolled with laughter that the first meal Amanda Grey "eats" in Hell is at an Olive Garden "serving food that tasted like a soulless being from another planet" and breadsticks that tasted like they were made "in a janitors bucket". I wouldn't serve Olive Garden to my pitbulls so this was a hysterical scene! The author takes his time to let us know exactly who Amanda Grey has become , and his world in the Nine Circles is intricate and so well crafted I would like to take a vacation tour. Amanda Grey's soul was inhabited by not just one Shade Wraith but several, her costuming that is described at the end ( no spoilers) could be fought over by Academy award winning designers far exceeds Hunger Games "Catching Fire" or Marvel Universe costumes...I was completely in awe with the descriptions. My suggestion readers, carve out a weekend turn off your phone , your computer start with " And Then Their Were Crows" and stay up all night finishing " And Then Their Were Dragons". But that won't be enough... hell no. Because then you will be wanting the finale ...and it hasn't been written yet. Come on Mr Leyva.. your fans are waiting. What happens next? Fans must know how Petty is and what will Amanda Grey take over now, but better yet..will Amanda Grey face off with Lucifer himself? I think she needs a Netflix spin off with Tom Ellis as her new love interest, Shades of Hell is my new fave series. and I will be sharing this review everywhere.

woke up dead in hell but dressed fabulously
Chaos girls first realization in second book, Mandy is dead and in hell and then needs to go on quests
"Memories: This last is in no way sexual, by the way. The schmuck got too close and I chucked a dinner candle at him, end of story. Sure, I didn’t know his dense cologne—an aroma which smelled a lot like steroid-induced testosterone and non-consent—mixed with his billowing and exquisitely groomed chest hair would make him go up like a douchebag-o-lantern."
I actually enjoyed the second book much more and f you read the first one this is a must.Whacky irrelevant and fun.

Hell hath no fury like Amanda Grey.

In the second instalment of Shades of Hell by Bronx-native Alcy Leyva, Amanda Grey is back and better than ever. Well, sort of. She’s dead now, having died in the apocalypse that she accidentally started, and trapped in Hell. Much to her simmering, rage-filled disappointment disgust, Grey discovers that none of the promises made to her by the angel-ish beings Ada and Bill were honoured, no one knows what happened to Donaldson, and Petty has been kidnapped by the devil (?). And, all of this Pales in Comparison to the fact that she just woke up to find none other than Gaffrey Palls—yeah, the guy who tried to kill her and roped her into this whole waking nightmare to begin with—waiting for her on the Other Side.

Oh, and she’s wearing a dress. Being dead really sucks for Amanda Grey.

Luckily, Grey isn’t the sort to let this kind of thing get her down, and waking up in Hell isn’t going to stop her from finishing what she started, either. Asserting her characteristic snark and unyielding pessimism, in And Then There Were Dragons Grey will traverse the Nine Circles of Hell to rescue her sister. Along the way, she’ll be joined by unsettling newcomers and many of the characters we love…or hate…or love to hate (whatever): Cain, the sexy, sadistic former-Angel of Death; Palls; even D, the ex-roommate literal-demon boyfriend you never knew you wanted so badly. Grey will take a horrifying trip down Memory Lane, be forced to eat at the underworld version of Olive Garden, read—er—see “tweets” in the most obnoxious way possible, and be stretched far, far outside of her comfort zone, not that she ever had a particularly large one to begin with.

It’s not all fire and brimstone, though, in And Then There Were Dragons. Leyva’s twisted fairytale—and that’s exactly what it is: the most horrible version of Alice in Wonderland you’ve ever read (sorry, Mr. Carroll) with a healthy dose of Dante for good measure—digs back to its roots, providing snapping social commentary on everything from consumerism, social media addiction, and—of course—fake news. After all, a good fairytale is one that doesn’t shy too far away from being a cautionary tale, and Alcy’s version Hell (demons and devils and all other weirdness aside) doesn’t look too much different from the world we are living in today. It’s more Idiocracy meets Zombieland than Orwell’s 1984 and Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, but it’s accurate and frightening AF just the same. Still, its no match for Amanda Grey—a ballsy, socially-anxious chick from Queens who would love nothing more than to be left the hell alone.

The penultimate entry in the series, Dragons is markedly shorter than its predecessor, which is probably a good thing for those readers who might need to take this mixture of gore-and-hilarity in small doses. But, if you thought Leyva outdid himself in bizarro horror and nightmarish versions of reality in And Then There Were Crows, then buckle up, Dollface, because it’s only going to get weirder here on out. After all, the only thing worse than Hell for Grey is what comes next: Heaven.

I thoroughly enjoyed this Novel, a fun continuation from And Then There Were Crows. As always, the narrative was strong and the main character of Grey was very relatable and funny. It was fun to see her reunite with characters from the first book and I thoroughly enjoyed the descriptions of Hell - and the very apt references to our current world.

I did feel that at times the story was a little rushed, and I found some of the plot a little confusing - or characters such as Hel not used to their fullest. I'd have liked to know more about her and the Furies.

But overall a great read - I look forward to the next one!