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citrarowan's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
I am speechless and trying to understand why I liked this book so much. It’s not the most brilliant thing I’ve ever read, yet it has something that completely mesmerised me. And for the life of me, I never saw that coming (that plot twist at the end), I’m usually really good at figuring where the plot is going but I kid you not, I was dumbfounded by the last couple chapters. This book is so silly and it feels like a YA (even though it’s not, given all characters are in their 20s), but I’m not going to pretend to be pretentious and say it was rubbish when I genuinely enjoyed it. Evie is such an interesting character, I’m so happy to see a character that’s so true to themselves and even though there’s some character development going on, her true essence remains at the end (just more villain-y, which I LOVED). Picking up the second book RIGHT NOW!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Rape, and Death of parent
indieandajean'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? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Assistant to the Villain is an adorable fantasy rom-com with more emphasis on the "com". The slow burn in this book will be of no surprise to anyone who enjoyed watching the tiktok series it was based on, and it makes for a lot of exasperation from a reader's perspective when you read many chapters of pining and them "almost" getting to the point. This is a feature, not a bug.
The characters are lovable, the plot moves along at a decent pace, and it has just the right amount of tropes that one would expect from a slow-burn, mutual pining, workplace rom-com. It also has a dragon, which is always a positive.
My only complaint is that at times the book was a little too slow. There were unnecessary scenes that did little to move the plot forward or deepen the reader's understanding of the characters. I understand that the author was given a three book deal and that where there is a three book deal about a single romance, there is going to have to be some filler. That said, the story never dragged, even through these filler moments, and it was always fun to pick back up to read.
My review is probably somewhat biased as I fell in love with Evie Sage played by Hannah Nicole Maehrer in her Tiktok videos that were the catalyst for the books, but I challenge anyone who loves a good underdog to watch the videos or read this book and not also love the character. She, the Villain, Blade, Tatiana, and yes, even Becky, are great characters and it was fun to see them more fully fleshed out in this book.
I am very much looking forward to book two which is coming out this fall, particularly because of the cliffhanger ending!
I recommend this one for anyone who enjoys a bit of humor in their romances, morally grey fantasy villains, dragons, and strong female characters who overcome obstacles and earn the respect of people around them.
The characters are lovable, the plot moves along at a decent pace, and it has just the right amount of tropes that one would expect from a slow-burn, mutual pining, workplace rom-com. It also has a dragon, which is always a positive.
My only complaint is that at times the book was a little too slow. There were unnecessary scenes that did little to move the plot forward or deepen the reader's understanding of the characters. I understand that the author was given a three book deal and that where there is a three book deal about a single romance, there is going to have to be some filler. That said, the story never dragged, even through these filler moments, and it was always fun to pick back up to read.
My review is probably somewhat biased as I fell in love with Evie Sage played by Hannah Nicole Maehrer in her Tiktok videos that were the catalyst for the books, but I challenge anyone who loves a good underdog to watch the videos or read this book and not also love the character. She, the Villain, Blade, Tatiana, and yes, even Becky, are great characters and it was fun to see them more fully fleshed out in this book.
I am very much looking forward to book two which is coming out this fall, particularly because of the cliffhanger ending!
I recommend this one for anyone who enjoys a bit of humor in their romances, morally grey fantasy villains, dragons, and strong female characters who overcome obstacles and earn the respect of people around them.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
mindsplinters's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
fast-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
5.0
What a delightful romp! What lovely, engaging characters! What a laugh out loud adventure... that then went and broke my heart. Gee, thanks a lot, Hannah. Seriously, though, this book reads like the fluffiest kind of cozy fantasy for the most part and even the violence is kind of... cozy which might sound weird but there is a delicate kind of balance to the gore that puts it on the sunnier side of bloody comedy. The plot is a bit light in places but it deepens as the book goes on, growing it from a grumpy-sunshine rom-com office sitcom to an increasingly complicated mystery. (Mind you, I did see the traitor a few chapters ahead of time but that is because I read way too many mysteries and also I usually have a very suspicious approach to certain people shirking certain duties.) The book ends with us still not quite knowing every bit of backstory and the greater Evil (or Not Evil?) Plot. This is good because, frankly, I'm quite happy to return to Evie and The Villain and Rebecka and Blade and Tati and KINGSLEY for more romping... and beheading and scheduling and such.
Though I do sigh at how much more dreary my own job of being an admin assistant can be. My boss is not nearly so intriguing. LOL Bring on the sequel!
Though I do sigh at how much more dreary my own job of being an admin assistant can be. My boss is not nearly so intriguing. LOL Bring on the sequel!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence and Murder
Minor: Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, and Death of parent
stories's review against another edition
dark
lighthearted
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Good fun. Definitely for adults - some swears, quite a bit of lusting. Dual POV: Assistant & Villain. Mutual pining.
Lots of mysterious backstories.
Some fun characters, with solid side character development. Bonus points for at-odds lesbians.
Some fun playing with traditional fairytale and fantasy tropes, alongside office workplace dramas.
Working for a villain is all well and good, but when there’s a mole in the office, it’s not the *safest* workplace ever.
Mildly cliffhanger ending, which was not my favourite. (Not least bc my library doesn’t recognise the existence of book 2 & 3 :c )
Lots of mysterious backstories.
Some fun characters, with solid side character development. Bonus points for at-odds lesbians.
Some fun playing with traditional fairytale and fantasy tropes, alongside office workplace dramas.
Working for a villain is all well and good, but when there’s a mole in the office, it’s not the *safest* workplace ever.
Mildly cliffhanger ending, which was not my favourite. (Not least bc my library doesn’t recognise the existence of book 2 & 3 :c )
Content Warnings
Moderate: Chronic illness, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal cruelty, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Sexism, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Murder, and Alcohol
Villainous deeds (murder, torture etc) occur, but off screen and typically presented in a tongue-in-cheek fashion.abicaro17's review against another edition
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
merylas's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
fast-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? No
4.75
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, and Injury/Injury detail
tacochelle's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I liked its concept, but the dialogue and romance were uncomfortably awkward. And I wasn't fully sold on how much of a villain the love interest was. The heads hanging in the lair, among many other crimes, were just so casually described, almost as an afterthought. Also, they just call him The Villain as a title for most of the book. It's so uncreative and boring, you could call him literally anything and that's your choice?
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Murder, and Sexual harassment
wickedgrumpy's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
2.5
It had promise but ended up lacking. The pacing felt awkward, the pining was uninspired, the world building was confusing.. I could go on, but it wasn't a bad book. Doubt I will continue the series.
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
notsobinaryart's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.0
A fun and easy read, but I had some major issues with the book.
It’s a fun concept, showing The Villain being not a bad guy and having a sweet bubbly girl working for him. The characters are overall charming, and you do root for them even when they do less than ideal things.
The book was long, having unnecessary scenes that serve as fun little moments without furthering any obvious plot, which can be fine but don’t seem super well edited. The book is very on the nose, which isn’t bad for an easy read, but don’t expect some earth shattering revelations, new concepts, or major twists on any tropes. The characters weren’t super complex either, and we mostly only get surface level insight into the characters until we get a few moments of insight to their trauma, often in an info dumpy way.
One of my biggest issues is with some ableist tropes is at the climax of the book. In the end, you find out the sick disabled father was faking it all along. Not only is he faking, he’s faking to further his villainous intentions. This stereotype further perpetuates that many disabled people are actually faking it, which is incredibly harmful towards public perception of real disabled people. I am extremely tired of disabled people, even fake disabled people, being the villain, especially if it’s a direct tie to their villainy. Almost every disabled person has experienced ableists questioning their disability perpetuated by these harmful tropes.
If you’re looking for a fun read, it can be enjoyable, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend this book.
It’s a fun concept, showing The Villain being not a bad guy and having a sweet bubbly girl working for him. The characters are overall charming, and you do root for them even when they do less than ideal things.
The book was long, having unnecessary scenes that serve as fun little moments without furthering any obvious plot, which can be fine but don’t seem super well edited. The book is very on the nose, which isn’t bad for an easy read, but don’t expect some earth shattering revelations, new concepts, or major twists on any tropes. The characters weren’t super complex either, and we mostly only get surface level insight into the characters until we get a few moments of insight to their trauma, often in an info dumpy way.
One of my biggest issues is with some ableist tropes is at the climax of the book.
If you’re looking for a fun read, it can be enjoyable, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Violence, Blood, Murder, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Gore and Alcohol
Minor: Animal cruelty and Drug abuse
ajhling's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
(Please note it took me from October to December to finish it, not because I wasn't interested but because I'm Autistic and other things (video games, cooking, trying to learn another language, and a handful of movies, books and TV shows) caught my attention (yay for hyperfixation)).
This book is a fun read. It's obvious that the author doesn't have much experience in writing, and that - at least in the Google Books edition I had - there was some minor formatting and spelling issues.
But despite the clear inexperience of the author, I found myself enjoying the book. The cast of characters weren't 'diverse' in the real-world sense. But to be fair, its a fantasy world with fantasy nations and cultures, and we only know there are other cultures in this world because they were occasionally mentioned very briefly.
That being said, the characters that were depicted weren't of the same physical appearance (not all white, or supermodel 'pretty'), and at least two side characters were revealed to be not-straight (so for those of you that care about that sort of thing you'll find a little bit of representation).
However, there were definitely character tropes happening. The Villain (the love interest for the fenale protagonist) being described as really attractive and physically strong. The female protagonist having black hair and light-blue eyes (which apparently is seen as a cliche these days that doesn't bother me but apparently bothers orhers).
Random bitchy female character who would be the high school girl who thinks she's better than everyone because 'reasons' in a YA novel, but in this one she is a co-worker who thinks she's better than everyone because 'reasons.' A dumb geeky-jock-like character clearly crushing on the bitchy co-worker but probably doesn't stand a chance.
But even with the cliches and the plot being a little 'holey' (which is unsurprising because this whole idea for the story literally started thanks to a TikTok serie and was originally created for fun and enjoyment) the story was still good.
Would I say it was great or revolutionary? Nope. But it was still a great light-hearted read for when you don't want to read something too heavy or with to many 'moving parts' or complex lore.
Was the world and character building a little on the weaker side of things? Yes. But don't worry, there was character development for not just the maim characters but fir secondary characters as well (and most of the character development happened in the last five-odd chapters). Despite this the characters were interesting enough that I cared about what happened to them.
Will I be reading the sequel? Yes, because I genuinely want to know what happens next.
This book is a fun read. It's obvious that the author doesn't have much experience in writing, and that - at least in the Google Books edition I had - there was some minor formatting and spelling issues.
But despite the clear inexperience of the author, I found myself enjoying the book. The cast of characters weren't 'diverse' in the real-world sense. But to be fair, its a fantasy world with fantasy nations and cultures, and we only know there are other cultures in this world because they were occasionally mentioned very briefly.
That being said, the characters that were depicted weren't of the same physical appearance (not all white, or supermodel 'pretty'), and at least two side characters were revealed to be not-straight (so for those of you that care about that sort of thing you'll find a little bit of representation).
However, there were definitely character tropes happening. The Villain (the love interest for the fenale protagonist) being described as really attractive and physically strong. The female protagonist having black hair and light-blue eyes (which apparently is seen as a cliche these days that doesn't bother me but apparently bothers orhers).
Random bitchy female character who would be the high school girl who thinks she's better than everyone because 'reasons' in a YA novel, but in this one she is a co-worker who thinks she's better than everyone because 'reasons.' A dumb geeky-jock-like character clearly crushing on the bitchy co-worker but probably doesn't stand a chance.
But even with the cliches and the plot being a little 'holey' (which is unsurprising because this whole idea for the story literally started thanks to a TikTok serie and was originally created for fun and enjoyment) the story was still good.
Would I say it was great or revolutionary? Nope. But it was still a great light-hearted read for when you don't want to read something too heavy or with to many 'moving parts' or complex lore.
Was the world and character building a little on the weaker side of things? Yes. But don't worry, there was character development for not just the maim characters but fir secondary characters as well (and most of the character development happened in the last five-odd chapters). Despite this the characters were interesting enough that I cared about what happened to them.
Will I be reading the sequel? Yes, because I genuinely want to know what happens next.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Animal cruelty, Child death, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Torture, Grief, and Sexual harassment
Most content warnings were only briefly mentioned or implied. Only two were more obvious (gaslighting, blood and violence and sexual harassment coming up or implied more than the others) but even then they weren't overly explicit. The most explicit was description of an injury that resulted in death of a number of people.