Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

Book Rating  4.7/5

This book was Spice Free, but there was some kissing if you count that.

What to expect: Slow burn romance, optimistic girl and a morally gray guy, dual POV, heads hanging from the office ceiling, magical monsters, otherworldly powers, crazy plot twist that will cause your jaw to drop, and most importantly, a cute frog with a crown.

CW: Blood, death, battle, serious injury, extreme pain, familial estrangement, death of a sibling in backstory, child abandonment in backstory, and sexual assault in backstory.

"His body, his power, settled in her presence. There and still deadly, but it welcomed her."

The reason why I rated this book a 4.7 out of 5 is because it doesn't deserve a 4.5, but for me, it doesn't make it all the way up to 5. The writing is great. Sure it may feel a little slow at times, but even if it's slow I still had the feeling of 'I can't wait to see what's on the next page'. And also, you can see characters progress throughout the book. The world building was good too! 

Evie is in need of a job in order to support her terminally ill father and her 10 year-old sister. Evie was walking in Hickory Forest trying to figure out how to tell her father that she lost the one job opportunity that she had because she gave it to the women behind her with 3 children. While trying to figure this out she sat by a stream and splashed herself with water. Soon enough this water turned into blood. Worrying for the source of the blood Evie traveled upstream. She came across a person. And in a moment of weakness said person tackled her to the ground and put his hand over her mouth to shush her. Turns out he was shushing her from causing them to be discovered by the king's Valiant Guards, who were chasing him. Due to this man's reputation we are led to assume that he killed someone or stole something—but no. The king's men were chasing him for a frog.

The Villain and Evie have to find the mole in their office. Someone whose been leaking their plans to the King. Even though the Villain doesn't want to admit it, he trusts Evie even though he's barely known her. These two must work together to discover the mole and put and end to the king's plans to damage The Villain's empire. But things go south as clues are discovered and names are crossed off the list. When they discover the real mole–I can guarantee you would have never guessed it was them.

The Villain is our morally gray protagonist. The type that people die over. He's the 'I'm emotionless, but for you I might smile' type of guy. He also hasn't laughed in a long long time or possibly ever before Evie. As Evie says, he's got the drool worthy body and a face carved out of marble. So basically, he's the dream morally gray protagonist that a lot of readers wish for. And yes, you do find out his actual name in the book, he's not referred to as 'The Villain' or 'Your Evilness' the whole time. This book is dual POV, so we actually get to hear what our male protagonist is thinking.

Evie is our main character here and she is a bundle of joy. Literally. She walks into work and her boss left a dead body on her desk—no problem, she just asks her boss if she should work around it, or if this was his very subtle way to ask her to find a better place to dispose of the body. She also has a great sense of humor. Need a laugh? Don't worry Evie's got your back. I was even doing the silent dying of laughing thing during the book.

Another very important main character is Kingsley. Kingsley is a magical frog with a crown on his head. He is able to perfectly understand human words and spell single words on a board to respond. Or to just give his input. He's also The Villain's best buddy. They are practically best friends, even though the Villain is all moody and is like 'I don't have friends. I have acquaintances and enemies'.

This is the type of book that once I realized I was going to finish it soon, I began to dread finishing it. Not in the bad way, but in the way that I just did not want the story to end. This is one of those books that is good for a escape from reality. Not that every book isn't an escape from reality, it's just that this one is one of those special ones that caused me to really get lost in the moment.

Being honest here, when I saw that there was a book about the literal assistant (Evie) to the best villain I was pretty excited to see what entailed. And it is safe to say that my excitement will carry on to the next book. Which by the way, the cliffhanger we were left with needs to be illegal. You cannot just end the book like that and then make us wait a year for the next one.

This story I feel is like a childhood bedtime story, just added on some more details that made it interesting. Like it had the same concept of a typical childhood bedtime story, where the king and his knights fight the evil guys, but instead of being told from the 'good guys' point of view, we get the 'bad guys' point of view. But really in this story the roles are reversed and those who you would assume are good, I feel are really the bad guys. Sure The Villain is still classified as an evil doer but the knights are lower then him I would say.

Thanks for reading <3

Assistant to the Villain Synopsis:

"ASSISTANT WANTED

Notorious, high-ranking villain seeks loyal, level headed 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 undeniable 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."