I picked this book up in a bookstore recently because it looked like a fun time. I think I initially picked up the sequel Apprentice to the Villain before realizing that this was the first in the series. It is a fun time! But a little more of a romance than what I expected.
The book starts with Evie being newly unemployed and wandering through the woods dejected. The runs into an injured man, she tries to help him but ends up getting hired by him as his assistant. And of course this is the notorious Villain who has been terrorizing the kingdom, but she is desperate for a job and he is attractive. Evie ends up really liking the position, the Villain treats his employees well and doesn’t look down on the women in his employ. Which isn’t much, but it’s better than her previous employer who stabbed her after she refused his advances.
Anyways as Evie and the Villain make moon eyes at each other a plot unfurls where the Villain wants to foil the plans of the King to get a pair of magical creatures. The Villain captures the creatures’ mate and wrecks that, but then Evie returns home to find out that her supposedly sick father is not sick at all and in fact has been working for the King. He bought Evie magical ink that can copy itself and has been looking at her notes this whole time. After incapacitating him and moving herself and her sister out, they are attacked by the King’s guards and the Villain is captured. Evie as part of the bargain is given back to her previous employer, who she kills, and hangs his head up in the manor before making plans to rescue the Villain.
So the narrative swaps back and forth between Evie and the Villain throughout the story, and makes it pretty clear very early on that they both like each other but can’t do anything about it. And honestly I was pretty bored by the Villain chapters, I like Evie much more as a character. If the whole point of the Villain is that he’s mysterious and whatever, having a direct passage to his thoughts doesn’t make a whole ton of sense. And clearly, a lot of the idea of being a villain in the book has to do with standing up for yourself and challenging the status quo, which makes a lot more sense for a woman to be in that position than a man. All that said, the Villain did grow on me as you learn more of his backstory, but at first it was a slog.
The politics of the situation does take a bit of suspension of disbelief. The Villain does murder and behead people and hang their heads in the manor, but it gets revealed later on that he only does that to the King’s men. The townspeople can’t actually name any crimes he’s committed, it’s all a PR stunt. Which again, I have to suspend some disbelief with. They can’t name ANYTHING he’s done? At least have a murder or a robbery or something. Which again is why the villainy thing makes a lot more sense for a woman, she’s getting revenge against the men in her life who have abused and taken advantage of her. The actual Villain himself is just laying a path for her to follow.
All of that said, it is a fun book. The characters are
really quirky (there’s a frog that communicates in little signs) and it’s a
great blend of medieval aesthetic with modern sensibilities. I will try to find
the sequel, but we will also see. If it’s a lot more longing than I’m
definitely ehhhh on that.
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