And Then There Were Crows – Alcy Leyva

Gotta quick get another review up before the end of the day!

Thanks to TLC Book Tours and Black Spot Books for the free copy in exchange for my honest review and tour spot

AND THEN THERE WERE CROWS – Alcy Leyva (Released July 3rd, 2018)

Book one in the Shades of Hell series. Book two, AND THEN THERE WERE DRAGONS, is also out now!

Book Description:

New York City has always been a big fat sack of stress for Amanda Grey. From turning herself into knots to evade rubbing ass cheeks with strangers on the train, to round-housing public bathroom door handles to stave off plague contaminations, Grey has always found the simple technique of avoidance best in dealing with NYC. Luckily, the one-bedroom apartment in Queens she shares with her parents has always served as a refuge from a world that’s too loud and too bright for Amanda Grey.

Of course, that’s all about to change.

When she inadvertently rents a room to a demon, Grey goes from a woman concentrated on her own personal demons to the woman responsible for recapturing the six Shades from Hell she’s unleashed upon the city. She manages to survive by accepting the help of Barnem, an antisocial seraphim who just happens to reside in an upstairs apartment and the demon she now shares her apartment with—and who oddly eager to help her vanquish the Shades, though she can’t be sure if he’s motivated by roommate loyalty or a secret plot to enslave humankind. Probably the latter.

Together the unlikely trio will have to face off with the (actual) devils of New York politics, break the curse of infomercial jingles, and figure out exactly how Grey has become the leader of a cult, all as Grey begins to realize that maybe the end of the world is exactly what her life needed. Now she just needs to figure out how to survive it.

My Thoughts: 4/5 stars

I will say right off the bat that this won’t be for everyone. AND THEN THERE WERE CROWS is a fast paced read that has plenty of attitude and bite. I’m finally starting out where I should be with a series, at the beginning, this almost never happens because I rarely look to see if a book is in a series before starting. Seeing that book two is already out, I’ll definitely be picking it up to see where the author takes this!

We get a snarky main character, her demon (like, literal demon) roommate, and an antisocial seraphim make up our unlikely trio that are out to stop the apocalypse. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this as much as I did. I’m not one to typically pick up urban fantasy type books and I’ve never been the biggest fan of apocalypse novels, but this one worked really well for me! Plenty of attitude, comedy, but lots of gore and violence to go along with it.

We go on a great adventure with these three and it was a really easy and quick read. One that you can definitely finish in one sitting if you have the time. Again, I know this will not work for everyone because of the over the top violence/gore and at times it can feel like a more YA novel with our perspective of the main character. Some parts felt a little erratic and all over the place, but they were very far and few between for me. If the synopsis intrigues you, then I do recommend giving it a try!