Assistant to the Villain Book Review

Welcome to another review! If you saw our annual Year in Books post, you know that Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer was one of my notable reads of 2024. Let's yap.

Genre: Romantic Fantasy / Low Fantasy / Comedy

Category: Cozy Read

Want to know more about how we categorize books? See our Lexicon for details.

Rating: 4/5 Stars

Plot: 4/5 stars

Characters: 4/5 stars

World: 4/5 stars

Pairing: Brown sugar latte + vanilla creme drops

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“She was the personal assistant to The Villain, after all. She chuckled at the job title, imagining the ridiculous way the employment posting would appear in a news pamphlet.

Must be well organized. Must enjoy working late nights and relish writing long documents. Must be comfortable and even supportive of arson, torture, murder. And must not scream when there is an occasional dead body lying across your desk.”

PLOT

When Evie Sage has a run-in with Rennedawn's Most Wanted—a mysterious man known simply as The Villain—the last thing she expects is a job offer. Or that he'd be so hot. Yet with a family to support and no other job prospects, she accepts. They end up making a good team and, before long, she's gotten used to the screams and odd body parts littering the office.

But when it becomes apparent someone is out to get The Villain and anyone who stands in their way, Evie makes it her personal mission to find the culprit and let The Villain make them pay. After all, she doesn't want to end up unemployed! It has absolutely nothing to do with the crush she's developing on her boss...

I almost skipped this book strictly because it had so much hype on social media and I was tired of one disappointment after another. But when I saw it as marketed as Once Upon a Time meets The Office, I caved. Upon reading, I found it to be a pretty accurate description.

What makes this novel work is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously; this rom-com borders on satirical at times. It jabs at tropes while teasing the "tropiness" of its core readers: poking at us clumsy girls who enjoy reading smut and can't help but be attracted to dark, broody villains. It seriously feels like what would happen if a bookstagram / booktok girlie got dropped into a fantasy story.

The sarcastic tone and humor balances the darker elements of the story, making it fun to read...at least until I got to the shocking, enraging plot twist that I should have seen coming if I'd not been so blinded by the cuteness. The ending flipped one common trope on its head and left me excited to see what's in store for Evie and The Villain.

My two complaints are minor and boiled down to the fact that I didn't always love the writing style:

• I got tired of the phrase "what the deadlands" / "what in the deadlands"

• There were parts that could've been more poloished, but considering this is more of a fun book than a serious one, I was able to let it slide.

CHARACTERS

The characters in this story are endearing. Like any other office setting, there's an office rival, frenemy, lovable goof, confidant, jealous and bitter gossips, and more. There's even adorable animal companions!

Evie is a special character to me, and several of her lines resonated with me on a deep level. I found it refreshing that she isn't a sword-wielding badass like many fantasy FMCs I'm used to. Don't get me wrong, I love these types of characters and they have their place; Evie just fit this story much better.

Evie's a caretaking problem-solver with a traumatic backstory whose inner dialogue had me cracking up. But Evie isn’t foolish, and she has a dark side that gives the story a Hades + Persephone vibe. Though, for the most part, they're very much Luke + Lorelai from Gilmore Girls.

“You just can't kill people and be pretty. It's confusing.”

––

“You're not all bad, are you?"

He looked offended. "How dare you.”

The Big Scary Villain turns out to be a broody cinnamon roll at heart (at least for Evie) while retaining the irresistible touch-her-and-you-die attitude. What's not to love?

“Caring about other people is very irritating.”

Perhaps my favorite thing about this matchup is that Evie and The Villain have romantic chemistry that doesn't overshadow the plot or rely on spice (there is zero spice). I enjoyed the impact these two characters had on one another; Evie softens The Villain while he encourages her to become stronger. Their arcs—and revenge—were deeply satisfying.

WORLD

Rennedawn feels like the average low fantasy setting. You have the medieval vibes, a bit of magic, mythical and enchanted creatures, fairytale elements, etc. While there's not much originality to set it apart, I never doubted the world or had difficulty envisioning the settings. It's a fantasy world without any frills.

One thing I love about this book is its map! I accidentally found it when I switched from the audio to an e-borrow, and I was delighted. It's a little gem that fits so well with the book's overall vibe, and one of the factors that convinced me I needed a physical copy.

TL;DR

Assistant to the Villain is an exception to the disappointment I've felt with booktok-hyped books. It's a hilarious office romance set in a simple fantasy world, but it has enough darkness to keep it from being too sweet or cheesy. Here you'll find several popular tropes accompanied by a few twists, an FMC with her own kind of strength, cute friendships, adorable creatures, betrayal and revenge, trauma healing, familial themes, found family, and more.

I would recommend this book to fantasy readers who are in a reading slump or want something light, rom-com and office romance lovers, and fans of grumpy + sunshine pairings.

Beware: if you enjoy this book, the ending will have you running to the nearest bookstore or computer to acquire the sequel. Good thing the third installment comes out this fall!