January 2026 Book Club: Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

 

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Content: Strong language

 

ASSISTANT WANTED: Notorious, high-ranking villain seeks loyal, levelheaded assistant for unspecified office duties, supporting staff for random mayhem and 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. 

 

I'm sorry to my friends who liked this book. I really wanted to like it too and I wish I had but unfortunately, this wasn't for me. Going into this I was actually hoping the villain wasn't really a villain, but a Robin Hood type instead. In some ways that's kind of true, but Robin Hood didn't torture people, so this villain was actually a villain in my opinion. It seems a lot of other reviewers felt the opposite about him, that he wasn't villainous enough, and I can see where they're coming from if they picked this up hoping for a character that did lots of dark things. I can also see where they are coming from because this villain is written in a way that doesn't make sense. A person who likes torturing people would be a lot more hardened than this guy was.

I not only have problems with the way The Villain is written in this book, but I also have problems with the way the book is written as a whole. It was supposed to be funny, and I know other people found it funny, but the humor fell flat for me. It's also seems like it's supposed to be either cozy fantasy, romantasy, or satire, and in my opinion it fails at being any of those things. I'm not really sure if the author knew what she wanted it to be. The villainous acts of The Villain (though not as villainous as some people wanted him to be), make this not a good cozy fantasy, and the lack of any real romance in the book makes it a poor romantasy. There's a lot of longing and admiring that goes on but only one kiss and a couple of hugs actually take place. This could have worked as a satire if the author would have fully gone for that, but it doesn't lean into it heavy enough. There's also the fact that it reads like a middle grade or YA novel, and it's supposed to be written for adults. It felt very juvenile, but with cursing and dead tortured bodies thrown in. It just didn't work for me.