Book Review: Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

The banter in this book reminded me of the banter in The Princess Bride. At some point as I was reading it, I heard that the author had said she was inspired by the personality of Giselle from Disney’s Enchanted and I can totally see that. The overall vibe makes for a delightful reading experience.

In the beginning, the Villain felt more like a caricature, but his character develops as the series moves along, as do the other characters. Kingsley was my favorite. I ended up painting him and made some bookmarks with the illustration for our book club (we read both this book and the second one in the series for our recent meetup).

There were a couple of minor plot holes and editing errors throughout the book that kept this from being a 5-star read for me, but I did really enjoy it. It’s charming, lighthearted, cute, and playful, if not a bit sinister in premise, and the characters stuck with me after I finished reading it. (Spoiler: I liked the second book even better!)        

Content advisory: strong language, violence, gore

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