The Bookworm: Assistant To The Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

 A #1 New York Times bestseller from the creator of a viral TikTok series about the sunshine assistant to the evil villain and their unexpected romance.

ASSISTANT WANTED: Notorious, high-ranking villain seeks loyal, level-headed assistant for unspecified office duties, supporting staff for random mayhem, terror, and other Dark Things in General. Discretion a must. Excellent benefits.

With ailing family to support, Evie Sage's employment status isn't just important, it's vital. So when a mishap with Rennedawn's most infamous Villain results in a job offer-naturally, she says yes. No job is perfect, of course, but even less so when you develop a teeny crush on your terrifying, temperamental, and undeniably hot boss. Don't find evil so attractive, Evie.

But just when she's getting used to severed heads suspended from the ceiling and the odd squish of an errant eyeball beneath her heel, Evie suspects this dungeon has a huge rat...and not just the literal kind. Because something rotten is growing in the kingdom of Rennedawn, and someone wants to take the Villain-and his entire nefarious empire-out.

Now Evie must not only resist drooling over her boss but also figure out exactly who is sabotaging his work... and ensure he makes them pay.

After all, a good job is hard to find....

Something about me; I enjoy fantasy books the most out of any genre and when I'm feeling burnt out on fantasy & every other preferred genre of mine, I'll head to Amazon's Kindle section to look at the dark romance offerings [particularly the ones featuring the Russian mafia] or the teen thrillers and fantasies. I find these kinds of lighter & fast-paced books to be a nice reset button inbetween emotionally heavier books, or plots which are more complicated where you can't let your brain 'switch off' for a bit.

I saw Assitant To The Villain in a 99p Daily Deal and I assumed that it would be a cute & frothy, fast-paced read - perfect for giving my brain a bit of a chill after reading several heavy‐hitters in a row. Was I right, or was I wrong?

 

Assistant To The Villain is based around a nice core idea, but it seems that the author couldn't decide on a lane for the execution; the more simplistic writing style and the largely more juvenile humour in the dialogue between the characters says that she was aiming a more cozy, family-friendly, middle grade book. However the moderate violence, frequent f-bombs & cringy references to sex makes this an YA story. 

The book just doesn't flow right for me because of the clash of styles; the writing style has the fast-pacing and toned down magic system of a middle-grade fantasy book, but it doesn't have the charm for me. There's regularly something more serious happening in the plot that she really needed to build up more before they happen & a more serious tone wasneeded to convey the seriousness of those situations - I kept on becoming removed from the more high-stakes 1scenarios because the writing style removed most of the impact & emotions I'd usually feel in similar situations in other books.  

I'd ultimately describe Assistant To The Villain as being one of those 'sloggy' books; it was one that I happily read really fast at first, then I reached a point where my pace slowed down a lot because Evie irritated me. By the final third it took a few days for me to hype myself up enough to pick up my Kindle to finish the book, after I'd put it down because I just wasn't into the story anymore. The final twist and the cliffhanger ending did interest me slightly more than most of the other plot points, but I still don't see myself ever picking the sequel up - maybe if I come across it in a 99p Daily Deal?

There are thousands of rave reviews for this book and there will be at least two more books in this series, so there clearly is a huge audience out there. I'm going to assume that I'm just too old & uncool for it.

I should have just listened to my instincts that warned that a book that has anything to do with TikTok just isn't made for me - like i just said above, I'm too old and not cool enough for the crowd there. Sometimes with books like these I wonder if the disconnection is because of my age,  my neurodiversity, or something else that remains undiagnosed?

Paperback: £7.45

Kindle edition: £2.99