5 out of 5 stars
E-book. Kindle Unlimited. 214 pages. Published March 26th 2020
Blurb:
Smart men quit while they’re ahead—they lay low and hope disaster blows on by them. Not me. Especially when disaster seems to follow me and my soulmate Havoc, a demon I bound to me three hundred years ago with my magic.
The dark mage Geoff is back from the dead and creating chaos by devouring the hearts of people with magical abilities, giving him overwhelming power as his followers grow. And since I’m one of the strongest mages alive and am leading the resistance against him, he’s coming for me next. Oh, and it might have something to do with the fact that I was also the one who originally killed him. But you can’t blame me; the guy needed to die.
Havoc and I, along with our unlikely band of… (I don’t want to say heroes, I can’t give them that much credit) annoyances will stop at nothing to end the destruction. It doesn’t hurt that there’s a sexy demon by my side every step of the way. For the first time in three hundred years, I’m finally with the person meant for me, and I will do anything to keep from losing him.
Familiar Beginnings is a 63k word sequel to Happy Endings. It contains a powerful mage who just wants to be left in peace, a mysterious curly-haired troublemaker, gargoyles that are literally dumber than stone, a river trip that doesn’t feel at all like a vacation, and a “cat” with some unusual features and deadly claws.
Likes:
- Hooked me fast.
- Instantly funny.
- Still loved the snark and banter.
- Menace.
- Flashbacks that are well done and add to the story.
- How Miles is haunted by his past.
- The story speeds along at a fast pace.
Dislikes:
- I never really worried about Miles being in danger.
- Relatively little planning before each fight.
Another winner from Alice Winters! Of course, I’m not surprised. Having loved Miles and Havoc in the first book, I knew I’d like this one too. What I didn’t expect was how much better Miles and Havoc’s relationship got in this book.
In book one, Happy Endings, Miles and Havoc finally got romantically involved after knowing each other for centuries. The romance was new then, and came with all the typical ‘new romance’ feels. In this book, they’re an established couple, and have realized just how much they mean to each other. It was fantastic character development and made their relationship truly heartwarming.
Of course, there’s still snark and banter. The book starts off with them having been captured, and how they deal with the situation is both funny and a great reminder of why I liked them in the first place.
I was instantly hooked, since this book is all about defeating the Big Bad from book one, Geoff. All of Miles’s friends get together again, with a few notable new faces. Menace the cat is my favorite, but I did like Etienne and Leo.
One of the things I was a little disappointed about was the relatively short amount of time Miles and his friends spent preparing to fight against Geoff. I think this comes from the many high fantasy books I’ve read over the years, where a good chunk of the story is about people having adventures in order to find rare and hidden weapons. I’m glad that didn’t happen here. It would have ruined the pace of the book, which moves along at a nice, fast clip. I didn’t make an actual note of how many days pass in the story, but I don’t think it’s more than three or four.
I was a little worried that this book would get dark, since Miles and Havoc both have traumatic pasts. And some of that shared past was shown through well-executed flashbacks. But things never delved into truly dark territory, for which I’m glad. It was acknowledged, especially when Miles was struggling with the weight of guilt from knowing that his power was used to kill people. It added a lot to the story, rounding out Miles and Havoc as well as showing how much of a monster Geoff was.
I was never in doubt that there would be a happy ending. That was both a good thing and a bad one. Good because the characters deserved a happy ending. Bad because I was never really worried about Miles. Even when he got hurt, I knew things would turn out fine. It did lessen the tension a bit. That being said, none of the characters came out completely unscathed, and I did worry about some of the side characters a time or two.
I would be very happy with more books set in this universe. Of course, I’d take more stories about Havoc and Miles, but the book ended in a way that felt like their story was complete. I’d happily read stories about Etienne and Leo, Sam and Iya, or anyone else. As long as there’s snark, I’m all in.
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