Accomplice to the Villain

Accomplice to the Villain is the third instalment in Hannah Nicole Maehrer’s Assistant to the Villain Series. The novel is preceded by Assistant to the Villain (2023) and Apprentice to the Villain (2024). The series draws on the tropes of the contemporary romance and fantasy genres to explore themes of good and evil, love and intimacy, friendship and loyalty. The characters are all caught between their innate human desires and impulses, and the fates that have been prescribed for them.

Assistant to the Villain introduces the reader to the fantastical world of Rennedawn and establishes the primary characters, conflicts, and stakes of the series. Written from the alternating first-person points of view of protagonists Evangelina (Evie) Sage and Trystan Maverine, Assistant to the Villain traces the start of Evie and Trystan’s forbidden workplace romance. Evie is working for an abusive blacksmith, but leaves her job to work for Trystan, The Villain of Rennedawn. After a series of adventures, they fall in love. However, just after Evie moves into Trystan’s home, Massacre Manor, the wicked King Benedict apprehends Trystan. The novel ends as Evie is concocting a plan to save her boss and love interest.

In Apprentice to the Villain, Evie sets out to rescue Trystan from Benedict. Meanwhile, Benedict tells Trystan that Evie is dead. Trystan almost loses hope, but Evie soon appears, and the two make a miraculous escape from Benedict’s clutches with the help of their dragon, Fluffy. Then they work with their friends Tatianna the healer, Blade the dragon trainer, and Trystan’s best friend, Alexander Kingsley, who has been turned into a frog, to solve mysteries surrounding Evie’s mother’s disappearance and the fate of Rennedawn. Evie and Trystan’s feelings for one another intensify; however, fate seems determined to keep them apart: Trystan learns from a destiny monster that if he and Evie act on their feelings, they will endanger each other. He pulls away from Evie to save them from this future.

Accomplice to the Villain traces the evolution of Evie and Trystan’s love affair and their work to fulfill Rennedawn’s storybook prophecy to keep the kingdom from falling into darkness. Many characters and conflicts from the first two books appear in Accomplice to the Villain, thus preserving narrative threads between the three titles. This third novel also ends on an ambiguous note, which creates narrative room for the fourth and final instalment in the series. The reader is left wondering how Evie’s new role as The Villain will change the dynamic between her and Trystan, and how it could jeopardize Rennedawn’s fate. In the epilogue, Alexander Kingsley turns back into a human man, a cliffhanger that raises questions about who is the rightful prince of the story.