Assistant to the Villain (Assistant and the Villain, 1)

0 spice. Figured I'd start with that. I hope there's more spice in book 2! This was a slowwwww burn that never actually burned. 1 kiss (that was swoon worthy) and 1 almost kiss is all you get. This book had me laughing a lot! It's light hearted and fun to read/listen to. The audiobook is done well too! I listened to it through my local library and the narrator did a great job! Evie is sweet and kind to everyone. With a sick father and a little sister too young to support herself, Evie becomes the provider for the family. She loses her job because of a scumbag boss, and crosses paths with 'the villain'. He offers her a job that she can't pass up! The Villain has a long history with the king and has been fighting against him for 10 years. With Evie's help as his assistant, he's able to do so much more against the king. Together, Evie and the Villain make a great pair! And over time, the reader will notice that the bad guy in this story isn't really the Villain. The romance between Evie and the Villain is sweet and long lasting -IF THEY EVER END UP TOGETHER! I'm dying for book 2! I need to know what happens next. Ends on a cliff hanger but leaves you wanting more!

Wow wow wow!! What an adventure this was. The setting and writing was just beautifully done, i was hooked from the very beginning and did not want to put her down. I absolutely adored the banter between Evie and the Villain. And all those twists and turns as we see their evolving friendship (love) and those character arcs were so amazingly done. Especially as new side characters were introduced along the way. Broke my heart once Evie realised how badly she was betrayed and used, but i loved her strength of character, her determination to ensure that although she made mistakes they were always with the best intentions, ensuring for the sake of her family their happiness and comfort was achieved.

And O M G, Kingsley, you have my heart you little squish of a frog! Keep those one word signs coming lol

Can’t wait to read the second book.

This was a truly magnificent read. I adored the banter. It somehow remained sweet without being silly or corny. The characters were extremely well written. Evie is bright to Trystans dark, but somehow it all works. Even minor characters like Blade are well done. This is a feel good novel for the ages. I’m so glad the sequel comes out in 2 days. (I’ve already preordered it). I don’t think I could wait much longer.

⚔️🖤 Assistant to the Villain 🖤⚔️

💜Grumpy Sunshine ♥️Dual POV 🖤Workplace romance 💜Fantasy/Magic ♥️slow burn, no spice 🖤Touch her and die

Super fun opposites attract, magical fantasy rom com, very YA, lots of pining and mystery. I was hoping for a little more spice, but fingers crossed for the next book. If you love a tall dark handsome dangerous anti-hero you will love The Villain. I really enjoyed the witty banter between the two characters at work especially with Evie’s bubbly personality, and The Villain being morally gray broody and hating everyone but her. They are definitely one of my new favorite duos. Kingsley the frog 🐸 👑 is my favorite side character, he stole the show. Ends on a cliffhanger and I am definitely excited for the second book in this series.

“It was both appallingly horrific and devastatingly wonderful that this small wisp of a woman had undone years of building pillars of protection around himself. That he would take apart any wall that keeps him from her.” 🖤

To support her ill father and her young sister, Evie accepts an offer of employment with the kingdom's most infamous person, the Villain. She puts up with his bad humors, the murders and decapitations, and even helps plan his evil machinations. It's her job after all, and she does it with a never ending kind-attitude. He doesn't need to know that she likes him maybe a tad too much. But a traitor at the Villain's office is causing him havoc. So Evie does what any overworked and dedicated assistant would do, she tries to find the culprit.

This book was adorably cute with some laugh out loud moments. It doesn't take itself seriously nor does it make much sense if you dive into the worldbuilding and side character motivations, but it'll put a smile on your face from beginning to end and leave you wanting more. It's a clean escape from reality with a cutesy romance story that promises more development in book 2. Evie was a bright, delightful character with a view on the world that turned gruesome mentions of death into comedy. The writing was witty and fast paced with clever dialogue, some action, a little mystery, and heartwarming moments a plenty. Overall, it was delightful.

What is there to not like? Fantasy meets a 'who done it', in the most spectacular way. Great characters, plenty of humor and romantic tension, mythical beasts...and a dragon named Fluffy. A great, low stakes fantasy to break into, and I highly recommend!

I did feel that it was a little long considering the straight forward plot, but it entertained enough that it didn't feel like a task to finish.

Also, Towards the end of the book, there were some unusual paragraphs and dialogue that didn't match and made me question what I was reading. Other than that, it was written well!

I stumbled across Hannah Nicole Maeherer's "Assistant to the Villain" videos on YouTube and cracked up at every single one of them. Therefore, I had to try the book even though it's not my usual fare. Add the fact that the tagline is, "Once Upon a Time Meets The Office" and I was doubly sold. Those two shows, "Once" in particular, are favorites of mine. (I haven't given up hope of a much-improved "Once" revival).

Well, Assistant to the Villain, the book, has a lot of points in its favor. It's a great example of the Grumpy/Sunshine romance trope done right, in that neither half is overdone or cheesy (except when they're supposed to be for comedic effect, and yes, it lands). Evie and The Villain both won my empathy, which I was not expecting especially from The Villain. Plus, I loved that although these two have romantic chemistry, I bought that they could be friends first, and enjoyed seeing them interact as both friends and employer/employee.

Hannah used some of the comedy I loved from her videos throughout the book, and I enjoyed chuckling over it again, plus discovering some new bits. But here, I enjoyed her serious moments balanced with the comedy much more. That is, I loved how one moment, Evie's angsting over how Massacre Manor's entryway is full of severed heads--again. But next minute, she's legitimately wrestling with the moral dilemma of, how is she going to handle the fact, she knows who that letter of employment to King Benedict really belongs to, and can't say anything, although Villain could legitimately force her? It's been awhile since I've seen an author pull off this type of balance and still keep the story's overall tone light, so brava, Hannah.

I've seen some other reviewers knock Hannah on worldbuilding, and I will admit, hers is not as deep or rich as I have seen from other fantasy, sci-fi, or speculative authors. The key is, for Assistant to the Villain, I don't think it's supposed to be. I think Hannah actually nailed the feel of "Once Upon a Time meets The Office," in that we're in a Medieval-type fantasy-scape, but it's a type of fantasy-scape that needs an annoying HR manager, office politics, the relatively new invention of doughnuts, and so on. For the most part, I found the combination endearing. It did jar me a little, such as when Evie and Villain would try to discuss the realities of the state of the kingdom, but I think with a bit more polish, it could work 100% of the time.

Finally, I have to give Hannah credit for several small moments throughout the book that, no other way to say it, are just plain sweet and unexpected. These mostly come from The Villain, as he realizes just how much Evie means to his workplace and to him. Often, I found myself saying stuff like, "Ohhhh," or "Awwww." But never did I feel manipulated or as if Hannah was "throwing it in" to force me to remember The Villain was human. It was more like, "Of course he's human, you're just confirming." This goes for Evie, Blade, Lyssa, and even characters like Becky and Warsen, too. Some of them are more two-dimensional than others, but I never lost sight of the fact that they were real people, mostly because of the little moments when they'd do or say something I could relate to.

Okay, so, with all these great things said, what's the problem? Why did I often find myself struggling to come back to this book, looking forward to finishing? Well, it's tough to put my finger on, but I'm going to try.

First, a slight disclaimer. I'm in my late 30s, so I might be slightly older than the target audience. Yet for me, that's part of the issue. I honestly thought Assistant to the Villain would be more adult-friendly, or a YA/adult crossover. That's how it was billed, at least. But at various points, Hannah's writing style and cadence pulled me between audiences so that I wondered who the real targets were. I love a YA story if it's done well and can "cross over," but that wasn't really what this book was.

In addition, I felt like Hannah set up some serious threads only to let them go, or come back to them too late. As I said, I loved her balance between the serious and the funny, and I loved when the serious threads got attention. But some of those threads were dropped in over halfway through, and then I got pulled away to watch stuff like, the capturing of a guvre or the hanging of a caricature (both interesting, but still). As a result, I felt like I needed to know information like, what The Villain's history with King Benedict was, or how exactly Evie and The Villain were going to deal with her magical wound. (As in, it was set up to be a major point of trauma and moral dilemma for her, but kind of fizzled out). Instead, I got several pages of both protagonists sort of ducking and dodging what were set up to be major issues.

Finally, although I loved the modern/fantasy combination, I noted that it didn't work for me all the time. One of the biggest ways it didn't was, I'm still not sure how "serious" or "high stakes" this world was supposed to be. To wit, I got so bogged down in the repetitive angsting, I didn't actually finish the last third. Thus, I don't actually know--or care to know--what are the consequences if people find out Evie works for The Villain, and why, other than her natural recklessness, doesn't she care, either? Is this just a world where villains randomly pop up every generation or so and the supposed "benevolent" royals like Benedict let them do their "things" until they decide, okay, they're a problem? If that's the deal, I'm fine with it. But if so, I think Hannah's missing some groundwork. Again, she doesn't deserve all the knocks she's gotten on worldbuilding, but the foundation's not all there yet.

Add in some personal peeves--some particularly coarse language that seemed out of place for a sweet romance, Evie's constant reminders of, "Don't do ___, Evie," plus her musings over how hot her boss is despite knowing him for all of 24 hours--and you see that I felt Assistant to the Villain was lackluster. However, lackluster doesn't mean "imperfect" by any stretch of the imagination.

I think what happened here was, Hannah had a hit short video/media series she stretched into a whole book, maybe too soon. She's got some great stuff here that just needs some more spit and polish and more attention to its audience. If this is more your regular read, by all means, snap it up. If not, or if you'd prefer something a bit "deeper" alongside, may I recommend Morgan L. Busse?