Assistant to the villain

By Hannah Nicole Maehrer

Maybe the fairytales told the wrong side of the story.

The Ugly Truth:

I know, I know—I promised everyone I would give a “real book” a chance this next review round, but come on, what really constitutes a “real book” anyway? One full of action? Adventure? Romance? Friendship? Well, this book has it all!

I expected Assistant To The Villain to be a quick romcom book that I could read at lunch at work. Boy, oh boy, was I wrong. Turns out, I have now embarked on a new fantasy series journey, with the next one coming out this September, and yes, I am excited about it.

I was honestly surprised that I enjoyed this as much as I did because it did take me a minute to get into and then another little bit to stay with the story. I thought overall that the writing was a little elementary and ultimately took away from the characters supposed late twenties age range. Instead, I pictured teenagers almost the entire book, especially with how the two main leads acted with one another, but more on that later. In terms of plot, usually in fantasy novels, I feel like I am chasing a million loose ends and trying to tie all the storylines together. In this case, though, the book was incredibly linear; in fact, at times, I felt it was too predictable - there was a tense scene between our leads interrupted by any side character followed by some attempt from the true “villain” at killing the two of them, so on and so forth.

On that note, while I liked the two leads, I was not necessarily attached to either of them. I could not totally tell if Evie was dumb or just incredibly nonchalant about life. She was incredibly innocent for her age but also had a jaded view of life that she kept well hidden behind many misplaced smiles. She was honestly a walking contradiction which was fun to read about but also became a drag towards the middle of the book. Trystan was a much more enjoyable read and I was eager to learn more about his past, but once his history came out, I was a little disappointed to see how flat it fell. I also struggled with wrapping my brain around the fact that this man was torturing and maiming people on a regular basis… if anything, I think Maeher should have just let him be a true good guy.

While we were given tidbits of the other characters, I still feel there are a lot of gaps to fill with them and I am intrigued to see the growth amongst the crew.

All in all, I think there is a lot more that can be done with this series but it will take some serious plot maneuvering for Maeher to achieve.