Anexis Matos

I watched a review for this book and was immediately interested. A villain and his assistant? Employee and boss romance? Count me in.

Synopsis

Evie finds herself unemployed. By chance, she’s forced to accept work from the kingdom’s worse criminal.

Book Information

Genre: Fantasy romance
Category: Adult
Explicit violence: Some
Explicit sex: No
Content warnings I noticed: None
This is the first in Assistant to the Villain series.

Review

The prose is great. Accessible and easy to read.

It’s written in third person past and switches between Evie and the villain’s points of view. It’s surprisingly not distant which is what I would expect from this POV. I’m happy about that, considering the characters we’re following.

While the writing is great, I don’t think the prologue is necessary. It could have been the first chapter rather than a prologue and a passage of time. We don’t get to see Evie in her role in the beginning, something I would have enjoyed.

The world-building is good. There isn’t a lot of it. What we have, however, is enough to set up the world for later books. This story is very character-driven, so we’re seeing whatever the characters are. We don’t need a lot of world-building in this first book, but what we got is more than enough.

The romance is adorable. At first, it’s not very obvious. Evie is attracted to the villain from the very beginning, but she doesn’t recognize that she’s falling in love. For the majority of the story, neither does the villain.

It took me some time to recognize the romantic aspects of the book. It’s done in such a clever way, giving the reader tiny clues that there is a romance. From this first book, I can tell it’s going to be a slow-burn romance. My favorite type. It also helps that they have amazing chemistry.

The pacing is good. It’s very fast-paced, but it works. Things are still built up to and nothing feels out of place because of what the story is.

Themes of friendship, family, and identity are explored very well. Most of them are explored through Evie, but they touch on these with the villain, too. I assume there will be more exploration in the sequel.

The characters are amazing. They’re fleshed out and, while their arcs are not complete, the beginnings of them are expertly written. The dynamics are delightful. While there’s a lot of comedy, there are also a lot of emotional scenes.

Evie reminds me of Torhu from Fruits Basket. She’s a people pleaser. The one person who sacrifices everything for everyone else. She’s a caretaker and, unfortunately, there are those who take advantage of her. The only difference between Torhu and her is that Evie’s arc suggests there might be a struggle between pleasing others and following what she wants.

The villain is mysterious. We get the backstory, but it’s more than halfway through the story.

The only critique of the story that I have is that I would have liked to see more villainy. Evie is the assistant to the villain, but we don’t get to see the crimes they commit. It would have been really interesting to see that.

Conclusion

I think you’ll like this story if you like cozy fantasy and Nimona. It’s very funny. The relationship between Evie and the villain reminds of Nimona and the villain in that story. While this is a romance, it mirrors the friendship and closeness they share.

Overall, this is a great story. I can’t wait for the sequel. I rate it four stars.