Hannah Nicole Maehrer

Representation: N/A
Trigger warnings: War themes, blood depiction, physical assault and injury, sword violence, death and murder of people in the past
Score: Six out of ten.
Find this review on The StoryGraph.

Well that was a unique reading experience. I wanted to read Assistant to the Villain for a while to try romantasy again after other books like Fourth Wing and Iron Flame disappointed me. No library had it so I had to request one to get it for me. I glanced at the blurb, but I wasn't that intrigued, and when I closed the final page, it was okay.

It starts with Evie Sage looking for a job until she finds an opportunity to work for The Villain, which happens in the opening pages. The concept, the theme and message of unexpected romances were okay but there were flaws in the execution that forced me to lower the rating to three stars. The worldbuilding was lacklustre since the narrative focused more on the romance than the world itself, and the characters are hard to connect or relate with. The plot is average and didn't engage me enough due to the filler pages hampering the pacing. Removing those could've increased my engagement, as well as writing the characters with more depth and expanding on the world. Conflicts arise as Evie quits her job (what for?) and the kingdom of Rennedawn starts an uprising against the Villain (he's a false antagonist, mind you) but there are more filler pages afterward, until the conclusion, which has more action and a cliffhanger.… (altro)

DNF which makes me mad, as the sample had me hoping.

Cozy = juvenile. Seriously juvenile approach to sexuality. It’s one thing to not have adult things on the page, it’s another for the heroines inner voice to be very, very young. She reads as young enough it felt really wrong for her to be liking looking at an adult male in leather pants. (BC she doesn’t read as adult). I agree with the reviews who thought this was YA.

Skipped to the end to see where it was going and discovered it’s not an ending, it’s a cliffhanger. (And not a “wrapped up a lot but more to come” kind, there’s new mysteries in the last pages).

I thought that this being on the GoodReads best of voting would mean something. No, what it apparently means is that the authors fans followed her from TT.… (altro)