Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

89 reviews

callidoralblack's review

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Violence, and Cursing

Minor: Medical content, Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, Torture, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Murder, Confinement, and Sexual assault

honeycupreads's review

adventurous funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Death, and Sexual assault

Minor: Child death, Torture, and Abandonment

foldingthepage_kayleigh's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was so fun to read! It was like reading a magical version of the office, if it were a fairy tale. I enjoyed the secondary characters, the banter and the world-building—I already can’t wait for the sequel!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Kidnapping, Confinement, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual harassment, Death, Violence, Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Grief, and Abandonment

dinahquinn's review

funny lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

I actually didn’t guess the twist until close to it happening which a nice change up. There’s definitely hints before, but not the “hints” that are really a brightly lit billboard.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Blood, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault, Violence, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Sexism, Kidnapping, Death, Child death, and Torture

helen7mc's review

adventurous emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child death, Abandonment, Torture, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Violence

permanme's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Sexism, Sexual harassment, and Violence

Minor: Abandonment and Torture

abicaro17's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This is a hard book to rate. I really enjoy the concept and a lot of the plot points. An grumpy evil villain with a sunshine down on her luck assistant? Amazing! I think the issue is execution. The book is incredibly slow and any story advancement is basically in the last 50ish pages. The characters are also relatively flat and boring. Like Evie got a blip of development past the box she was shoved in during the last 5 pages. Becky and Blake are the worst examples of this because they're exclusively office suck up and the goofy guy. I tried to give this book grace because its part of a series but a lot of content could have been added to create context for a lot of things we're just like asked to believe. Like the Villian being a village terror (

he basically only beheads people who work for him, people trying to kill him, or anyone who disrespects people he cares about

), King Benedict being a "hero" in literally anyones eye??, or the lack of world building (where are they, how far away is the palace, is it like a fairytale kingdom or am I supposed to be imagined King's Landing from GOT?) This just needed more world building content, more contextual characterization, and a story restructuring for me.

Also when the Villian is like I love Evie! I literally closed my book and rolled my eyes. WDYM? This is a slow burn bro you aren't supposed to know that yet.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Classism, Kidnapping, Body horror, Gaslighting, Medical content, Murder, Violence, Cursing, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Child death, Chronic illness, Drug use, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Blood, Confinement, and Grief

erinreadsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

This book felt unpolished. It had the makings of a fun story but it was way too long. I think it would’ve been better-paced if it had been condensed into novella-length; I felt myself getting bored and antsy with the slow-moving plot.

The characters also were kind of flat—they seemed almost caricature-ish in their personalities. I think this story could’ve worked better in another format, like a cartoon or a short comedic story. But it felt like the author was trying to write a romantic comedy, and it fell somewhere in between romance and humor. To me, it didn’t feel entirely like one or the other, resulting in a comedy that was dragged down by plot mixed with a romance that felt insincere and underdeveloped.

Overall, I was somewhat entertained and I think with some editing, it could’ve been a fun rom-com story, but it just wasn’t there for me. 

Read if you like slow-moving, simple lighthearted comedies. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore, Violence, and Abandonment

Minor: Murder, Torture, and Child death

dalek_caan's review

adventurous dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

This book has a really drab start, and the characters begin exceedingly bland which makes the book hard to get into. Getting past the first half, however, the book picks up a bit in the second half, though in my opinion the drawnout buildup to the conclusion was mildly unnecessary and could have been filled with more useful content. As the reader gets to know the characters a bit more, there is some clever banter that's rather enjoyable. It's definitely a fun albeit somewhat gorey MG/YA novel that pokes fun at a lot of fantasy genre tropes while simultaneously falling into them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Violence, Blood, Abandonment, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Torture, Sexual assault, Child abuse, and Child death

busyknitting's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment

Minor: Child death, Kidnapping, Abandonment, and Trafficking