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A review by fangirljeanne
Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer
Did not finish book. Stopped at 0%.
DNF
This feels undercooked, like a first draft in need heavy developmental editing. The set up has so much potential and the campy tone is unique, and something I’ve wanted to see more of in Romance Fantasy. But sadly the execution failed to deliver on all the promises the premise and tone made.
Here’s the thing about campy takes on fantasy settings (and camp in general), you have to know the rules of the genre before you break them into rainbow confetti. The world building in this story is practically nonexistent. It’s eluded to as if the reader is supposed to know, which is fine in a fan fiction or a derivative work that’s clearly aping on existing tent poles of a genre, but the little we see of this world more closely resembles a contemporary Billionaire Boss Romance than a fantasy world. Which wouldn’t be a problem if it were to fully commit to being an Urban Fantasy or went full throttle in to parody, but it doesn’t really commit to anything. There are elements of High fantasy and even fairy tale retellings, along side mundane contemporary language and social behavior.
It utilizes genre conventions from YA the inept clumsy girl who’s the sole breadwinner of her family with only one (kind of close) female friend. The only other woman with a name is a gorgeous mean girl bully who seems to be jealous of the heroine.
Fairytale/folklore (anime-esque) elements like a sentient animal sidekick who communicates via one word signs. *cue the Ranma flashbacks*
Fantasy elements like magical powers that aren’t really explain. Magical creatures like orcs, castles and mysteries.
Then of course the contemporary employee/boss office grumpy/sunshine RomCom straight of a billionaire Romance of the 2010’s.
All these disparate elements could work together to create something unique and fun, but they failed to coalesce into something that could stand on its own. Instead I felt like a bunch of ideas (arguably funny and novel ones that I’d love to see better executed) thrown at a canvas with little rhyme or reason, beyond filling pages.
This feels much more like a gimmick than an actual book.
This feels undercooked, like a first draft in need heavy developmental editing. The set up has so much potential and the campy tone is unique, and something I’ve wanted to see more of in Romance Fantasy. But sadly the execution failed to deliver on all the promises the premise and tone made.
Here’s the thing about campy takes on fantasy settings (and camp in general), you have to know the rules of the genre before you break them into rainbow confetti. The world building in this story is practically nonexistent. It’s eluded to as if the reader is supposed to know, which is fine in a fan fiction or a derivative work that’s clearly aping on existing tent poles of a genre, but the little we see of this world more closely resembles a contemporary Billionaire Boss Romance than a fantasy world. Which wouldn’t be a problem if it were to fully commit to being an Urban Fantasy or went full throttle in to parody, but it doesn’t really commit to anything. There are elements of High fantasy and even fairy tale retellings, along side mundane contemporary language and social behavior.
It utilizes genre conventions from YA the inept clumsy girl who’s the sole breadwinner of her family with only one (kind of close) female friend. The only other woman with a name is a gorgeous mean girl bully who seems to be jealous of the heroine.
Fairytale/folklore (anime-esque) elements like a sentient animal sidekick who communicates via one word signs. *cue the Ranma flashbacks*
Fantasy elements like magical powers that aren’t really explain. Magical creatures like orcs, castles and mysteries.
Then of course the contemporary employee/boss office grumpy/sunshine RomCom straight of a billionaire Romance of the 2010’s.
All these disparate elements could work together to create something unique and fun, but they failed to coalesce into something that could stand on its own. Instead I felt like a bunch of ideas (arguably funny and novel ones that I’d love to see better executed) thrown at a canvas with little rhyme or reason, beyond filling pages.
This feels much more like a gimmick than an actual book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, and Sexual harassment