A review by oliviaclaire
Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

adventurous 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? It's complicated

3.75

I did enjoy Assistant To The Villain more than I expected to, which is always a pleasant surprise. It was another one of those reads that hovers uncertainly between YA and adult fantasy. There's literally no spice but that's fine, I get the sense that as this is a trilogy the spice may well develop to a mild level as the series continues. By contrast, there's a decent amount of profanity and descriptions of death and injury so I can see the confusion as to where this lies in terms of target audience. Personally, I think a lot of fantasy romance readers (or at least those new to the genre) have been introduced via series like ACOTAR and are therefore coming into new reads with an expectation of at least some fairy porn. I've even seen some reviews on Goodreads claiming that this author is a Christian and this has pigeonholed her into 'clean' writing. As mentioned, the number of 'fuck's and decapitated heads in this book would suggest that that's not  an issue for Maehrer and I think she's just dedicating time to developing the relationships in her book. 

My issues with the book instead revolve around the length and pace. It probably could have taken some cuts as I definitely felt it dragging from pretty early on. I appreciate that the author wrote this book based on a series of skits she imagined up for TikTok so she probably wanted to keep some of those in the written text as an inside joke for her followers and a fun throwback for herself but we spend an awful lot of time with Evie and the Villain daydreaming about each other, scolding themselves for daydreaming about each other, getting into sometimes funny, sometimes less funny workplace conundrums and in Evie's case, falling over. Seriously, she falls over all the time. I docked .25 stars for that alone. 

The book really picks up towards the end and a lot of the relationships and character development take off in the final third which is what saved it for me and gives me hope for the series and the resolve to read on. Evie grew on me massively in the closing chapters and Maehrer introduced enough points of intrigue
including but not limited to; is Kinsgley, as suspected, a prince? Are we due a reunion between Evie and her magical missing mother,l? And who is the mysterious knight who saves Evie at the close of the book?
that we have some great material for the next installment. I just wish that maybe we had gotten into all of this action a little quicker and cut maybe 10-15 chapters of filler. 
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