Title: Accomplice to the Villian
Author: Hannah Nicole Maehrer, narrated by Em Eldridge
Length: 15 hours and 24 mins
Genre: cozy fantasy, romance (grumpy/sunshine, workplace romance, forced proximity), humor
Is this part of a series? Yes, this is book three in the Assistant to the Villian series.
I discovered this book via… the author’s Instagram, though I had been reading the series before this.
Published: August 5th, 2025
Summary courtesy of Goodreads:
REWARD OFFERED: Apprentice to The Villain wanted for treason (light), magical property damage (alleged), and one incident involving a weaponized scone (accurate). Frequently seen with a grumpy frog (crowned, judgmental). Answers to “Evie” or “Stop that.”
Evie Sage didn’t mean to become the right-hand woman to the kingdom’s most terrifying villain. One minute, she was applying for an entry-level position that promised “light paperwork and occasional beheadings,” and the next, she was knee-deep in magical mayhem, murder plots, and an entirely inappropriate crush on her brooding, sharp-jawed, walking disaster of a boss.
Now, with a magical prophecy unraveling, assassins showing up in the break room, and a suspicious amount of frogs wearing crowns, Evie has to figure out how to survive her job without setting the kingdom on fire—or her dignity, which is hanging by a very sarcastic thread.
Being evil-adjacent was never part of the five-year plan. But then again…neither was falling for The Villain.
A magical office comedy with grumpy bosses, snarky frogs, and definitely-not-feelings.
My thoughts:
I have always enjoyed these books- they are just really fun, fast reads. Every time I finish a book, I miss these characters- the draw, I feel, for most cozy series. In this one I got to spend more time with several characters, as we had a lot of different pov’s. My favorite was perhaps Kingsley, but I loved them all. (I may be biased, I often found that Kingsley stole the show for me in previous books as well).
We are making progress toward the fulfillment of the prophecy slowly, with a lot of chaos in the the mix. The banter is still good, though I found book two better there. I think my only issue here is that it was more…. scattered? Usually there’s a fairly easy flow to the book- chaos and all- this time, there were just too many different threads to keep track of. Don’t get me wrong, I still loved it. Everyone (except maybe Tristan) had a lot of character development. I like where most of these relationships are going and I am just having the best time moving along with their adventures. I am excited to see where book four takes us. For me, this was a four star book. I loved it, but it was just a little choppy.
As far as adult content, there some language, violence and very light sexual content. It’s still very cozy.
The book is out! Have you read it?
Happy Reading,
Gwen
