I don't believe I've read romantasy before, not even going back to The Mists of Avalon or Mercedes Lackey;
I'm not huge into fantasy, really, but the concept for Assistant to the Villain looked cute
and the series was on my sister's shelf when I visited, so it was easy
enough to borrow.
The premise of the book is good: Evie Sage
winds up working as the executive assistant for The Villain (whose real
name we learn thankfully early in the book) through Circumstances. This
is a world where many people, though not all, have magical powers; there
are dragons and other creatures and kings and sort of a standard
fantasy set-up. The plot ultimately becomes Evie and the Villain trying
to figure out who's betraying him and wreaking havoc at Mayhem Manor (or
whatever the actual name for his place is; it's something like that).
The
book took a while to get going, but once we got more into the plot
about the spy and things happening there, it picked up and I got
invested. I enjoyed the various people who worked for the Villain and
the details of their jobs and what working for a fantasy villain
entails.
However. Evie is clearly meant to be endearing, but it's
in that "Blurts out inappropriate things and then babbles" way; when
she's not doing that, she's fine, in a too-perfect way. I really just
needed the book to cut, like, 80% of Evie and the Villain thinking about
each other and how much they like each other and "Stop thinking about
your boss that way, Evie!" internal thoughts, etc., etc. The Villain
himself was pretty interesting, but his backstory...just did NOT work
for me. Or, at least, the details of it didn't; its general arc made
sense.
The actual plot itself is pretty good, but the book just
took too long to get going and honestly, the writing isn't great. I'll
still read at least the next book in the series--this one ends in a
cliffhanger--and I'll see how I feel after that.
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