Apprentice to the Villain is the second book in the Assistant to the Villain series by Hannah Nicole Maehrer, where Evie Sage finds herself employed by the evil overlord of Rennedawn, Trystan Maverine. This heartwarming follow-up is a The Office meets what-if-a-Disney-princess-went-to-work-for-the-villain romantasy that’s full of peak yearning, a delicious slow burn romance, amazing banter, and some really good absurd comedy.
Apprentice to the Villain picks up from the ending of the first book, where Evie is ready to make a run for Employee of the Month with some handy dagger work and a knack for bringing catastrophe after catastrophe onto herself and her friends.
I adored Apprentice to the Villain even more than the series’ first novel. The slow burn is so delicious, the plot is like a complex fairy tale, and the banter had me kicking my feet on every page.
Read my full summary and review of Apprentice to the Villain in this post.
This post contains spoilers.
Apprentice to the Villain
Description
NOTICE TO STAFF: There has been a disturbing increase in cheeriness, sprightly behavior, and overall optimism of late. Please resume your former dark, ominous terrors at your earliest convenience. ―Mgmt
Evie Sage has never been happier to be the assistant to The Villain. Who would have thought that working for an outrageously handsome (shhh, bad for his brand) evil overlord would be so rewarding? Still, the business of being bad is demanding, the forces of good are annoyingly persistent, and said forbidding boss is somewhat…er, out-of-evil-office.
But Rennedawn is in grave trouble, and all signs―Kingsley’s included―point to catastrophe. Something peculiar is happening with the kingdom’s magic, and it’s made The Villain’s manor vulnerable to their enemies…including their nemesis, the king.
Now it’s time for Evie to face her greatest challenge: protecting The Villain’s lair, all of his nefarious works, and maybe (provided no one finds out) the entire kingdom. No pressure, Evie.
It’s time to step out of her comfort zone and learn new skills. Like treason. Dagger work. Conspiring with the enemy. It’s all so…so…delightfully fun.
But what happens when the assistant to The Villain is ready to become his apprentice?
The Assistant and the Villain series is best enjoyed in order.
Reading Order:
Book #1 Assistant to the Villain
Book #2 Apprentice to the Villain
Tropes
- Grumpy x Sunshine
- Humor
- Down bad MMC
- Workplace Romance (Sort of?)
- Found Family
Review
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Where did you hear about this book?
Overall Impressions 😊
I loved Apprentice to the Villain, even more than the first book. The first one did such a great job setting up the world, but this took everything deeper in a way that hit all the right notes.
Trystan’s captivity worried me at first. I do not handle the main characters being separated well, but it was handled really well, especially in how it tied into the ending of the book. I also really enjoyed the expansion of character POVs and the deeper dive into the rest of the cast. Every exchange between Trystan and Evie had me kicking my feet, and the burn is so slow I am begging for the tension to finally break.
The whimsical fairy tale world and the bizarre absurdity of telling this story in a literal office inside a villain’s manor is my favorite bit I’ve read all year. I cannot wait to dive into the third book based on how this one ends.
Perfect For Fans Of… 🌟
This one felt very much like, “What if a Disney Princess got a job offer from the most high-ranking villain in the kingdom?”
It honestly gave me major The Office meets The Love Hypothesis meets Tangled vibes. The grumpy, down bad MMC who falls first versus the naive, quirky, smart FMC who can break down his walls? Always a good time to read.
The second book leans heavily into the quest trope and a whimsical fairy tale arc. If you like uncovering a magical mystery Disney movie style, this one delivers.
Also, the placement of actual workplace terminology in a fantasy world, like talking about benefits packages while surrounded by severed heads, made me snort-laugh more than once. If you’re into grown-up fairy tales with great banter and serious yearning, you’ll love this.
Characters 👥
Second books, to me, are usually about expanding on the main characters while diving deeper into the side characters, and this one nailed it.
Evie continues to be a great sunshine FMC. She’s colorful, fun, unapologetic, and exhausting. I was honestly surprised by her descent into true villainy. I really thought she was going to make a baker out of Trystan, so it’s exciting to see it maybe going the other way around.
I continue to enjoy Trystan’s self-inflicted emotional torture. Every chapter where he wars with himself while pathetically yearning is a delightful experience. 10/10 would read an entire book about it. He gives Mr. Darcy flexing his hand after helping Elizabeth into the carriage and I am here for it. I do want to know more about his magic and his background though — like where is his dad?
Becky, Blade, and Lyssa are absolute STARS. I loved every moment they were on the page. Getting to learn more about Becky was a treat. And every time Lyssa interacts with anyone, it just humanizes them a little more.
I love the blooming side romances, seeing Gideon added to the cast, meeting Rebecca’s family and learning more about everyone’s background.
These are heartwarming, chaotic little scenes that I’m genuinely loving my way through.
Plot 🗺️
I love me a quest trope, and the search for Evie’s mother is a tried and true literary device. Seeing characters out of their comfort zone while trying to beat King Benedict to the prophecy in order to save Rennedawn’s magic is a dark fairy tale I can get behind.
Honestly, a lot of the story feels like it was designed to put Evie and Trystan in close situations where he could get protective and show his soft side. And I’m okay with that.
That said, a few plot wrap-ups felt a little strange or like a cop out, like Evie’s mother being a star?? I mean. Okay. And some content felt like filler, like the whole arc in Becky’s family home.
The slow burn is really burning, and I think the tension has been drawn out just a tad too long. Not because I’m just here for the spice (I mean, I am), but because it’s starting to stretch the will-they-won’t-they a little thin.
That being said, I’m loving the prophecy plotline and I’m dying to see how dark Evie goes from here.
But also… where is Arthur? And can someone please help that poor Guvre? He is suffering.
My Favorite Quote to Hook You 📣
“You laughed.”
“I know,” Trystan said, shaking his head, hoping to knock the building ache out of it.
“You’re fucked”
Hannah Nicole Maehrer, Apprentice to the Villain
Writing Style and Narration ✍️
The author’s language is funny, witty, and quick. The prose is lovely — like a fairytale in tone — but surprisingly grounded for the office setting. The tone is strange for a cozy fantasy, but that’s part of why I love it.
If you read my previous review, you know I had complaints about the narration of the audiobook. The ending-on-a-high-note issue I mentioned before is gone now — thank you for that! Also, I really enjoy the voice the narrator uses for Trystan. It’s very gravelly and fits him perfectly.
My favorite literary device is multi-POV, and I love that we got both Gideon and Becky’s perspectives in this book in addition to the main characters. It’s so nice to hear other inner monologues, and I enjoy it so very much.
Synopsis
📚 Where do you usually get your books?
📚 Where do you usually get your books?
Evangelina Saves Trystan
Trystan is in captivity in King Benedict’s dungeons waiting to be unveiled as the Villain. The villain reflects on regretting hiring Evie as his Assistant as she remained with Otto Warsen as he was being dragged away.
A Knight returns back to the palace and informs King Benedict that Evie Sage is dead. Benedicts wants to see the body and “prepare” but the Knight mentions it’s not in good condition.
King Benedict discusses an old story about the kingdom’s Magic, Rennedawn’s Prophecy. The prophecy includes Starlight magic which Evie’s mother Nura Sage has possessed. King Benedict instructs the Knight to fetch Nura Sage’s letters from Evie Sage’s house Griffin Sage has kept the letters.
Trystan is interrogated in Benedict’s dungeons by the Valiant Guard. The king wants both the male and female Guvre back. Trystant doesn’t break and asks the King to release his father, Arthur Maverine, the Core Healer.
The King tells Trystan Evie is dead. Trystan doesn’t believe this as the golden band around his arm did not alert him that she was in mortal danger.
Trystan is on his way to the unmasking ceremony but he breaks free from his holds. He runs to a small room. There, Trystan finds Evie in a glass coffin, laying still like she’s dead. Devastated, Trystan falls down to his knees and kisses Evie’s knuckles and orders her to come back to life.
The guards drag Trystan to the unmasking ceremony and tie him to a poll. Becky, the HR manager and Blade the dragon tamer are in attendance. Evie’s coffin is at the center of the room as a victim of the villain.
Benedict claims that he’ll save the kingdom and save Rennedawn’s magic. He also accuses Trystan of being the cause of the Mystic illness. Trystan in turn, accuses Benedict.
The crowd begins shouting and Trystan realizes the coffin is empty. Evie announces herself at the top of the stairs very much alive, having faked her death by eating the sleeping fruit.
Benedict tries to grab Evie. She wounds him on the cheek and demands everyone to be released.
The King laughs her off, and Evie shows her cards. Most of the Malevolent Guard are women, and women are often overlooked. Evie orchestrated an escape plan to sneak the noble women into the event.
The Malevolent Guard attacks the Valiant Guard. Trystan is freed and gets his magic back. Evie drops a chandelier to cause a distraction but the King grabs Kingsley and threatens to crush him.
Kingsley bites the King and gets free. Evie grabs her mother’s letters and they run into Hickory Woods. They jump off the ravine and land on Fluffy the dragon’s back. The Villain escapes with Evie.
Preparing to Enact the Prophecy
Back in the Villain’s lair, Trystan suggests separating the Guvres, magical creatures who are tied to the prophecy, as they cannot risk the female guvre getting pregnant. To his surprise, she already is.
Lyssa, Evie’s sister is settling into the life in the Massacre Manor. To keep her busy and entertained, Trystan suggests Lyssa bakes with Edwin.
Trystan and Evie begin deciphering Nura’s letters. They find out that whoever fullfills the prophecy will be the ruler of Rennedawn. The letters also contain a location. Evie suggests Trystan fulfills the prophecy before Benedict.
Trystan confronts Evie about Otto Warsen’s head hanging in the foyer, worrying he’s corrupting her. Evie is proud of her accomplishment however and doesn’t show a lot of remorse.
Evie, Trystan, Blade, Tatianna and Clare fly to the Nortern Border near the kissing trees. Evie runs into a sentry, a dangerous creature that can kill them. She politely asks to pass so she can enter the cave he’s guarding which to everyone’s surprise, he allows her to.
Evie falls into a trap and disappears into the cave. Trystan jumps after her. They land on cloud and Trystan is infuriated by her lack of self preservation. It becomes intimate and they nearly kiss, Trystan’s resolve to stay away from her getting chipped away, but they are interrupted by a massive creature the prophecy warns them off.
The creature is nameless, and tells them he is one of the gods of this world. He invented the trees. Trystan asks for a vial of stardust which he gives.
When they exit the cave they find the rest of the group ambushed by the Valiant guard. One of the guards is the one who spared Evie. He turns on his fellow guard, and Evie gives him a hug making Trystan very jealous.
The Knight is revealed to be Gideon Sage, Evie’s older brother whom Nura Sage supposedly have killed in the dandelion field all those years ago.
Gideon has his own magic that can negate others’ magic, and that’s how he survived when Nura lost control of her magic. However he lost his memory and the King never told him who he is. Trystan allows Gideon to return to the manor with them but he is to remain under guard.
Back in the Manor, Lyssa starts getting close to Becky.
The manor’s wards have been breached and it’s visible.
Journey to the Heart Village
The vial of stardust seems to have a mind of it’s own and it wanders. It takes Evie to Trystan’s room. In his bedroom, Trystan gives Evie a plate of food claiming Edwin made it for her. He also has a lot of trouble from staying away from Evie when she’s in her nightgown.
They sprinkle stardust on Nura’s letters, and it directs them to Heart Village.
They travel to the Village. The village sentry allow Trystan in, but only if he leaves his magic at the gate.
Evie smells a magical flower and gets drunk on it. In her drunken state, she keeps hitting on Trystan who has to restrain himself from giving into their attraction.
They are ambushed by some actors who recognize Evie and Trystan from their wanted poster. Trystan and Evie are taken to the drunk tank.
The head of the play house arrives, revealed to be Evie’s cousin Helena. She leaves them in there.
They try to escape, first by using Evie’s dress then Trystan’s shirt to lasso the keys. Evie marks Trystan’s golden band around his arm which Trystan is flustered. She puts him out of his misery by telling him she knows the true intent of the golden band, to protect her and is not mad.
Trystan breaks the window accidentally when trying to get the keys and water start pouring into the cell. Kingsley, Clare and Tatianna arrive and save them.
Helena let’s them go, revealing she never intended to turn them in but was wondering if she can push Trystan and Evie to give into their feelings.
Helena gives Evie a velvet bag containing the corner of a picture frame from Evie’s house and tells her to go back there.
Back in the manor, Gideon recognizes Becky from somewhere and figures it out when Becky separates two fighting interns with her physical dexterity. Gideon figures who Becky is out but promises not to tell anyone.
The manor’s wards were created by an enchantress who is imprisoned by the Southern Kingdom for allegedly killing the crown prince.
Trystan, in his attempt to protect Evie from further corruption, is trying to keep him in arms length. While trying to do so, he insults Evie who in return gives him silent treatment for days.
When Trystan infiltrates Evie’s village to interrogate the artist about Nura, he finds Evie also conducting an investigation. They make their way into Evie’s house, but not before Trystan hurting Evie’s ex boyfriend whom he overheard making lewd comments about her.
In her house, the tension between them finally break and they make out.
They are however interrupted by Malcolm, Trystan’s brother, who is squatting in Evie’s house after his tavern went out of business for being the Villain’s brother.
Trip to Becky’s Family Home
They find the rest of the picture in Evie’s house and discover that it’s a picture of Nura and her childhood bestfriend. Evie interrogates her father and finds out the other woman is Nura’s best friend, Renna. Her father also tells him Gideon is not telling everything.
Evie bursts out of the dungeon and confronts her brother. Gideon confesses that their father manipulated him into suppressing their mothers’ magic in secret and that’s why she probably never gained control of it.
Becky reveals Renna is her mother. They fly to her family home to find themselves in a house covered in plants alive. Becky’s brothers Roland and Rudy show up, and Becky sees her grandmother who is ill with the Mystic Ilness.
The plants claim Trystan and take him to the Trench.
Renna arrives and recongizes Evie since she looks like her mother. Renna says Nura is with some healers. Becky is not on speaking terms with her mother since she tried to offer her magic to King Benedict.
Trystan is taken to the Trench to relive events and face his fears. Evie jumps in to help save him.
It’s revealed that they are fighting a Destiny Creature and Trystan has passed the test, but not before hands of destiny tells him something terrifying.
He is taken to the infirmary and pleads Evie not to leave him.
Evie trains with Becky’s brothers to learn self defense. After his fever breaks Trystan looks for her and finds pinned down beneath the brothers. Thinking they’re actually harming her, he lashes out.
Evie asks Trystan to teach him how to fight like him. They spar and then they kiss.
Evie hears her mother screaming. She runs into the manor and realizes it’s coming from a flower. Renna says she tried to use the flower on her to suppress her magic, but her magic overcome her and she died. All there is left of her is a vial of stardust, which she gives Evie.
Becky tells her mother what she did is unforgiveable.
Renna has called in the Valiant guard to take Trystan and Evie into captivity in exchange for anything the King knows about the Mystic Illness.
The crew manages to fight and flee.
Apprentice to the Villain Ending Explained
When they return to the mansion they realize Benedict knew they were gone and attacked the manor. Fluffy killed some guards however the king managed to capture the female guvre.
It is revealed that Lyssa has been secretly visiting Griffin who manipulated Lyssa into freeing him and he’s gone.
Evie realizes someone has been passing notes between him and Lyssa and there is a traitor in the manor.
Trystan confesses that Kingsley is not really a frog but instead the crown prince of the Southern Kingdom, Alexander Kingsley. Evie reveals she already knows.
The hands of destiny told Trystan that his meeting with Evie that day in Hickory Forest was not a coincidence, but fate. She will be his downfall and he, her undoing. Trystan swears to for sure keep his distance from her from here on out.
While having a tea party with Trystan and Evie, Lyssa drops the vial of stardust onto a crystal. It breaks.
Evie realizes where her mother is and asks Trystan to go back to the cave.
They find the sky creature from before in which Evie remembers seeing an empty spot of sky. She hands back the glowing crystal back to the god of trees and makes a wish, to have her mother back.
Her mother, it turns out, have become a star when her magic has overcame her. The god grants Evie’s wish and Nura sage is mortal once again.
The creature tells them the world is in danger and magic is fading. The cave shakes.
They leave the cave and return to the manor.
They now have three things from the prophecy revealed. There is a fourth item of the prophecy but Nura doesn’t remember what.
Gideon considers the Prophecy, specifically about the part where the Villain is unmasked. He realizes Trystan is unmasked at the ceremony but so did Evie.
For all of their sakes, he hopes he’s wrong.
Does Apprentice to the Villain end on a cliffhanger?
Not really, definitely not as big of a cliffhanger as Book 2. We’re definitely headed to an interesting direction, but I wouldn’t call it a cliffhanger.
Spicy Chapters
How Spicy is Apprentice to the Villain (Book 1): 🌶️
Is Apprentice to the Villain Spicy?
Nope! But there’s plenty of tension.
Do Evie and Villain kiss in Apprentice to the Villain?
Yes! Twice in fact.
Tinfoil Hats On: My Predictions for Book 3: Accomplice to the Villain
- Evie has Starlight magic
- Evie has Trystan’s magic
- Evie and Trystan are mates(?) otherwise how did they do the true love’s kiss
- King Benedict is the true Villain — duh
- Evie and Trystan do more kissing — duhhh
Don’t gaze into your boss’ eyes longingly Evie!
This series continues to hold me hostage in the best way possible. I am so deep in the Trystan x Evie trenches, it could be embarrassing, but I love me a descent into evilness story.
As of writing this, I’m about a third of the way into the third book, which I’m enjoying immensely. This one is definitely a recommend from me, especially if you’re into down bad MMCs who openly yearn across multiple books.
Check back in soon for my book three review. At the speed I’m going, it’ll be up in no time.
What did you think of Apprentice to the Villain? Who do you think the prophecy is referring to? Let me know in the comments!
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