Happy Endings

Demon Magic, Book 1

By: Alice Winters

Narrated by: Greg Boudreaux

Length: 7 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

Smart men never dabble with demons. I never claimed to be smart, but at least, I’m powerful enough to control them. When I bound Havoc to me nearly 300 years ago, I never realized how difficult he’d make my life, although “accidentally” lighting him on fire every now and then does bring a smile to my face.

Havoc is handsome, mysterious, and somehow, my closest companion, even if we don’t always get along. He’s more interested in bedding attractive women than protecting my life, which defeats the main reason a mage like me would have a demon. I even had to fight off swordsmen alone once because he was too busy betting on who’d survive. 

When 15 people are found dead with messages from a long-extinct cult, Havoc and I are forced to face our past and sort through our differences. We start to realize that there’s something more to this relationship, something that has kept us by each other’s sides for so long. Maybe, it took 300 years to finally understand my feelings for Havoc and realize that I can’t imagine being with anyone but him.

Havoc and I will do everything we can to stop the evil that is threatening the lives of the people I care about. Or destroy everything - we haven’t quite figured that out yet. 

Happy Endings is a 73K word novel that has an immensely powerful mage, a shapeshifting demon with a strong libido, a dark mage that just won’t stay dead, a spray bottle put to unusual uses, armor that is most definitely not made of dragon skin, blackmail involving an unfortunate slow-mo video, a detective being pursued by a determined minotaur, unprofessional use of illusions, and an epic walk into battle.

Revised and edited.

©2017 Alice Winters (P)2020 Alice Winters

great story, just one thing

I didn't know the main character got pregnant... I feel like that's important to know at the beginning to know what you're getting into. I don't have a problem with the thought of a man getting pregnant, I mean this is about vampires and stuff, what part is more unrealistic? I just don't like kids, and pregnancy in general, let alone a plot point.

Still a really good story, and I'll check out the others as well.

incredible as always.

It's review time 🎧
Warning ⚠️: mm romance, fantasy, comedy, banter, sass.

Narrator score🎧 ; Wow! How i love Greg Boudreaux I really do! And as always he didn't disappoint, he just did an incredible job with Havoc and Miles. I loved the voice he gave Iya it was hilarious!

Level of steam🔥: well, only in alice winters land, the steamy moments were hot and funny! The banter and the games between the two 🤣🤣😍😍 i loved it soooo much!

Level of anxiety and sadness0😱😢: well, it is a comedy it really is.... but, we do have some flashbacks to the past of Miles that are sad indeed. And of course we have the drama of the story.

The book itself📖: I wait for Alice Winters books with bated breath, and no book if hers disappointed me.
This book was sooooo good. I loved everything about it. The details, the world that was crafted so carefully and with care.
Even if its a comedy, the story is smart, we have a very unclear goal that we want to get to.
Havoc is the most sassy demon in the world of demons!!!!
Iya is a perfect character. And apparently the keeper of the woods loved coffee and he is the most adorable creature in the whole world!!!!!!!!!

Miles and Havoc - who cares!

Ridiculous arguments between miles and havoc dominate the plot. Who really cares about what else is happening because it is drowned out by their trivial relationship spats.

Beyond ecstatic!

I loved the book when it came out - everything about it was unique, hilarious, magical and totally brilliant! I became an Alice Winters fan immediately. The book doesn't really end on a cliffhanger per se, there is an unresolved issue but I was quite happy with the way it ended. I was happy to hear that there would be a sequel (loved it, by the way!).
Then I heard rumors of audiobook and then that Greg Boudreaux would be narrating, I held my breath because 2020... When it came out, I didn't hesitate to use a credit to get it!
Great story, world building accompanied by excellent narration 😍
So I wrote all of this to say one of the best credits EVER spent, period!❤❤❤

Funny AF

As with all the other authors books this was funny AF but with a strong exciting plot.

Hysterical!

This book had me laughing out loud! The combination of the authors writing and the narrator’s portrayal of the characters is perfect. The humor and the ridiculousness carries across so well in this narration. I look forward to more books by this author.

Yes yes yes yes yes

Incredible, amazing, loved every second. I burst out laughing several times which is highly unusual for me. If you are reading this review Go a head and download it now.

Ridiculous, Adorkable and lots of fun!

This was my first book by Alice Winters, but was a home run for me! The sample had me hooked, and unlike many other books, the sample is 100% indicative of the content and narrative quality.

Greg Boudreaux is a ton of fun as a narrator. The characters all come to life, the range of voices broad and very well done. Women don't universally have high-pitched or breathy voices, Miles is often an octave above everyone else speaking, and one of the best characters in the book sounds like Kronk from The Emperor's New Groove.

The worldbuilding is a gentle learning curve, light on details but close enough to today that it's very familiar. A little more comes as the story progresses but for a first book it kind of says "Hey, this is all you need to know, just go with it". It's very easy to go with.

Miles is hundreds of years old and super powered etc etc, but this was honestly more of a side note than the focus of the story; either the challenges they encountered negated his abilities or took advantage of the fact that he's still human, needs sleep, gets distracted, etc. He also spends so much of his time either antagonizing Havoc or thinking up ways to antagonize Havoc, he doesn't exactly come off as a serious threat.

The romance is absolutely wonderful, ridiculous and sweet. And sexy! It's basically friendly shoving that turns into a slap fight that turns into kissing. That's their romantic jouney 🤣.

The humour in the book doesn't punch down, isn't sexist or racist or gross in general. No homophobia, no transphobia, it's basically a nice spot to just breathe and enjoy a place where things like magical murders and ancient cults are your biggest problems. Lots of teasing, some of it affectionate, mostly just to get a rise out of people, but it's quickly turned off if the situation gets serious. At least on Miles' part.

I really liked things that are shown and not told in this book, like Havoc distracting Miles from really painful realizations by... well, being himself as if nothing is wrong. He keeps Miles from ever really staying stuck in guilt or self-castigation for long.

I've already bought the next books in the series and will be definitely looking forward to more by this pairing, as they seem to be a match made in heaven. Hell. Wherever demons come from.

Very highly recommended for UF/PNR fans, the writing is much like Ilona Andrews, Shelly Laurenston, Nalini Singh, and definitely Katie MacAlister. I think it would be considered PNR from the relationship-to-action quotient, but the action is top-notch swords and cellphones.

And the archaic Google Maps 🤣

a MIXED bag

The plot was decent, but the love story aspect was not very good. The writing surrounding the majority of the story was good, but the interactions that were a part of the love story were stilted and didn't flow very well.

Loved it!

I really like this book! Great narration! Funny with a good story line and cute romance! Immediately sea h for other books by this author.

can't decide if it's really awful or nice

The narration is good.
The plot has great potential, but some really off-putting moments like, a terrible attack happened as a plot device to bring main characters closer, but straight after, the main character just sits there drinking tea chilling, never giving a thought to whoever tried to kill him. These moments ruined the flow for me.
The characters feel very hollow and undeveloped, with very shallow emotional connection - would have been great if the emotions were developed a bit more.
Intimate scenes felt empty and boring.

The only thing that kept me going to the end was the banter, sarcasm and humour, I LOLd many times.

Not the usual standard

This isn’t half as good as many of Alice Winters’ other books. I really struggled to keep my attention on it, and had to repeat the last two hours several times to get through it as I’d fallen asleep, or got distracted and didn’t listen properly. That never happens with a good book. Good narrator, though!

Fantastic!

This was the first book I read by Alice Winters and I'm so glad it's finally available on audio. As you'd expect from Alice, it's hilarious and has a fantastic story line, the characters are amazing and I never wanted it to end.
Greg Boudreaux did a fantastic job bringing these characters to live, definitely looking forward to the second part
Worth the wait!

Enjoyable, quirky and fun

Miles is the strongest mage alive, his familiar is a demon named Havoc together they have to solve a mystery of deaths that is tied to their pasts. If they don't they could be next.

I liked listening to this book, the narrator did a fine job of portraying the characters. Miles and Havoc are op'ed characters( overpowered) and i found that to be okay in the context of the book because its meant to be action-comedy. Sometimes i felt that the humour was not needed and that could make readers get tired of the book. The secondary characters were interesting and added more fun to the book. Just a tiny bit of forgetting who is who sometimes.
Overall though i recommend the audio book its a good listen. Just make sure you have your headphones on because it does get hot and heavy in some scenes.

love love love

these are such great books that make you laugh out loud from the first chapter, very highly recommend

Brilliant story and narration

Greg's narration was excellent as always and I really enjoyed this story. Will definitely be reading book 2

Great characters and great narration

Loved the story, and the characters. Miles and Havoc are great together and the snarky humour really carries the story. Loved Greg Boudreaux’s narration.

Great start to the series

Hilariously funny and filthy dirty. I just loved Havoc and Miles' banter. Good storyline.

Loved it!

I really loved this book. I usually don't read books about magical creatures but the description sounded interesting. I'm so glad that I did. The story was humourous and interesting and the narrator was great with each character's voice. Each voice was distinctive, very different from each other. Would definitely recommend this book.

Absolutely Amazing

Happy Endings literally had me crying with laughter. It's such a fabulous book. I already had the ebook and decided to get the audio. I'm so glad I did and I loved Greg's narration - he really brought out Miles' sarcasm. Awesome.