For Whom the Belle Tolls by Jaysea Lynn

Here is a summary with spoilers for For Whom the Belle Tolls by Jaysea Lynn

Lily has just found out that she has cancer, and that it is terminal. She wants to hide in the sorrow and anger that she feels. But she also feels scared and terrified for what is to come in the next year. On top of that, she needs to tell her family, and she decides she wants to leave a lasting impression on them over the next year.

Fast forward a year later, all of a sudden, Lily’s pain is gone. Her eyes open and a woman is there telling her that she is in the afterlife, and she now has a choice of what she gets to do. Lily chooses Universal Judgement. She enjoys her afterlife, she has her smutty library, neighbors that don’t bother her, but friends when she wants them. Though soon, she decides it is a bit mundane. She finds out that as a mortal, she can choose to reincarnate and go back to the mortal world and live another life. But as she looks at all of her past lives, none of them have been that great, she hasn’t been able to fully live in any of them. Plus she isn’t quite ready to leave the comfy afterlife yet. So Lily decides to go wandering, and that is when she finds the demons. They are in charge of taking the souls who are terrible into their appropriate level of hell. Lily notices it seems a bit mismanaged, and why not put her customer service skills, along with her snarky attitude, to use with those who deserve it, those going to hell. She sets up a help desk at the entrance of hell.

For one day, the demons there are shocked to see her, but Lily makes the demons’ lives much easier. The souls get put into their place very easily, and she doesn’t let them talk back. The demons love her so much that that evening she is invited to go out for drinks with them, which also leads to her joining an online demon gaming room. Her first session in the gaming room, she falls head over heels for the voice of a demon, and secretly hopes that she will meet him. The day before she starts her second shift, Lily meets Persephone, and is shocked to actually meet her. Persephone is shocked to meet a mortal like her, and hopes that the two can meet again. Lily then starts her new schedule; the demons absolutely love having the mortal in their realm, and they fully take care of her. One day a desk shows up, making her job official; and to top it off, Lucifer himself comes down to tell her he has heard a lot about her, and is very grateful for everything she has done. He says if there is anything she needs, all she needs to do is ask him.

Beleth, a demon Prince, is a general in Lucifer’s army. He has been preparing his troops for battle, but for the moment is happy to be in his office hoping that nothing is coming. Though he gets a visit from Lucifer himself, and he knows nothing good can come from his visit. Lucifer asks Bel to get a bat and bring it to the entrance of hell, that there is someone there who might have use for it. Bel is hesitant but goes, and when he does, is shocked to meet a mortal girl, and even more shocked to find out it is the girl he has been talking to online in all of the online games. The two immediately start hitting it off and start chatting. Bel then asks Lily to come out for a trivia night. The two do, and while they don’t believe it is a date, they are both fighting off feelings for the other.

After a great night together, Lily is eager to go find and visit Bel again; though they have been constantly texting each other. Lily goes to his office, where she finds his assistant, Leviathan, and the two of them become quick friends as well. He teaches her more about the different levels of hell, which comes in handy with her job. Bel wasn’t at his office, he was out on a mission for Lucifer, which has Lily slightly concerned.

While working her job, Lily ends up finding a little lost soul, a little child who she knows has dealt with some emotional abuse. After talking to the child, who introduces herself as Sharkie, Lily decides to take her in as one of her own. Sharkie officially moves into Lily’s home.

The whole time that Lily has been in the afterlife, she has also been thinking about religion, as she had a rough time with it in the mortal world. Her family was very religious. And when she was sexually abused, they didn’t take it very seriously. So when she left the church, her family wasn’t supportive. And many in the church community tried to get her to come back when her cancer came as well, telling her to come back so she could be saved. She believes that Sharkie went through some similar trauma, but doesn’t want to talk about it with her yet.

When Bel gets back, the two have a fun night together, and they decide to have a go at a relationship. Bel is also introduced to Sharkie. She already thinks that they are a couple. The three of them then make a little makeshift family. Bel goes off on missions when Lucifer calls, though Lucifer is very supportive of them. He comes and takes Sharkie often. When Lucifer takes Sharkie, it gives the two of them time to work on their relationship, and they quickly start falling hard for each other. Lily realizes they truly have made a little family, something she has actually always wanted, but never had.

Bel then introduces his two new girls to his family, and they all love them. Lily lets slip that Bel would be an amazing dad, but she meant it more in the form of being a dad for Sharkie. But it brings up the conversation they have been putting off. The two of them together can’t have kids. And also at any point, Lily can decide to reincarnate and go try and have kids in a mortal life. It makes Lily start thinking about becoming a permanent resident of hell, and she starts to have conflicting feelings about her immortal life.

Lily decides to take a big step with Bel; she gives him her file, which contains all of her previous lives. Bel doesn’t care about her past, he just cares about who she is now and where she wants to be. Though he does finally look, and he watches her final moments in her last mortal life. He tells her that she is a real warrior for how she handled her life.

Bel gets sent off to a big battle, and Lucifer is worried. It’s their biggest defense yet, and it has been two weeks since they have heard anything. Lily feels like something is off and decides to go out. She tells Sharkie to stay put and goes out. She gets attacked by a monster that she quickly kills, but then comes face to face with God, who apologizes for her experience with religion. Lily doesn’t know how to react, so she says she would think about it, and walks away, but is still sad because she still didn’t find Bel.

Eventually Bel and his men are found. Many were killed, and Bel was hurt badly and found passed out. Healers take care of him, but it still takes him days to wake up. During that time, Sharkie decides to call Lily Mom, which makes Lily tear up and incredibly proud. Sharkie says that she wants to be a part of their family. So when Bel does wake up, Sharkie is right there to call him dad. Bel is shaken up by the loss of his men, as well as the other side’s deaths, as many of them were just protecting their own children. He says that the battle will haunt him for a long time.

There is to be a funeral held for all those who lost their lives. For the first time ever, Bel feels worthy enough to wear his father’s crown, to be a real prince for his people. Lily could not be more proud of him.

Lily decides that she loves Bel and Sharkie, and her little life they have made. She wants to put a note in her file that she wants to give up reincarnation so she can stay with them forever. Though when Leviathan comes to talk with her, he mentions that she can try to be deified, which is rarely accepted. But if she is, she can have a heartbeat and have a chance at having kids with Bel. She runs to the office to ask for it. They say they will ask, and she will find out soon. She goes to tell Bel the news. Bel was worried she was going to go back to the mortal world without saying goodbye, but is thrilled by the news that she is going to stay. As they are celebrating, Bel can feel her heartbeat, she is officially deified. They then get to share the news with Sharkie. Lily also decides to forgive God.

In an epilogue, the three continue to live their happy life together. They aren’t trying for kids yet. They have time. But Lily is working the help desk and she sees a wandering soul. The girl is looking for purpose, her name is Penny, and she wants to be Lily’s trainee.