Accomplice to the Villain

Accomplice to the Villain (2025), an adult romantic fantasy novel by American author Hannah Nicole Maehrer, is the third installment in Maehrer’s New York Times-bestselling Assistant to the Villain Series. The novel is written from the third-person point of view and traces the ongoing forbidden romance of main characters Evangelina (Evie) Sage and Trystan Maverine. Although the two have intense feelings for each other, they feel incapable of pursuing a relationship for fear of jeopardizing their personal safety and the fate of the Rennedawn kingdom. The novel explores the Transformative Power of Love, the Journey Towards Self-Discovery, and the Complexity of Intimate Relationships.

This guide refers to the 2025 Entangled Publishing paperback edition of the novel.

Content Warning: Both the source text and this guide include cursing, sexual content, and depictions of graphic violence, physical injury, child abuse, child abandonment, and death.

Plot Summary

Accomplice to the Villain picks up where the second series novel, Apprentice to the Villain, ended. After 24-year-old Evangelina (Evie) Sage and her boss Trystan Maverine (aka The Villain) return to their home and workplace at Massacre Manor, they work together to find the fourth and final piece of Rennedawn’s storybook prophecy. Evie and Trystan still have intense romantic feelings for each other, but they are determined to keep their relationship professional. Trystan is especially worried about acting on his attraction because he recently visited a destiny monster who warned him that he and Evie are fated to destroy each other. Evie is skeptical of this prediction but respects Trystan’s wishes while helping him save Rennedawn from dark magical forces.

The wicked King Benedict offers to give Trystan and his friends the final lines to the prophecy in exchange for Evie’s mother, Nura Sage. In a panic, Nura accidentally shoots her starlight magic at the manor and breaks the stained-glass window. While repairmen attempt to put the window back together, they discover that the glass is inscribed with fine writing. Trystan and Evie realize that the script is, in fact, the Rennedawn prophecy. After fixing the window and angling the glass into the sun, they find out that the key to restoring peace to Rennedawn is related to their friend Alexander Kingsley.

Ten years ago, Trystan’s mother, Amara Maverine, hired an enchantress to curse and kill Trystan. Kingsley got in the way of the curse, which ended up turning him into a frog. Trystan spent years trying to reverse the curse and restore his friend to his human form, but to no avail.

After reading the stained-glass inscription, Trystan realizes that he and Evie must reverse Kingsley’s curse so Kingsley can take his place as the kingdom’s rightful prince. This is the only way for them to fulfill the prophecy and ensure Rennedawn’s destiny.

Trystan and Evie seek the help of their friends and family members. They call a series of meetings and devise a plan to transform Kingsley back into a human. First, they learn about the curse from the local Curse Consultant, Lionel, who informs them that they need a magic wand. As they confer about their predicament, Trystan recalls that he has a friend they might ask for help acquiring a wand: Lord Fowler.

Trystan, Evie, healer Tatianna, and Trystan’s sister Clare set out in search of Lord Fowler. When they find him, Fowler agrees to help them with the wand if Trystan and Evie attend his dinner party. During the party, Kingsley goes missing. Fowler announces that whoever finds the missing frog prince will win a night with Evie. After Trystan wins, he and Evie retire to their shared bedchamber. They don’t have sex, but they do share a passionate embrace. They still struggle to quash their feelings for each other.

Meanwhile, Tatianna and Clare roam Fowler’s manor and discover a magic wand. Fowler lets them take it, but informs them that it can only be used in conjunction with a pair of glass slippers held by Trystan’s wicked mother, Amara. Then, they will be able to get to the enchantress who cursed Kingsley. She is currently being held by Kingsley’s parents in the southern kingdom. To get beyond their magical defenses, they will have to hire another enchantress to don the slippers and carry the wand.

Trystan, Evie, and their friends ask for help from Tatianna’s father, Jellyfish Jones, who shepherds them across the Lilac Sea on his boat. When they arrive in Benevolence Village, where Amara lives, Trystan’s father, Arthur Marverine, appears on shore—Jellyfish Jones contacted Arthur to help.

Amara has the glass slippers, but at first refuses to help Trystan, who she still believes is pure evil and deserves to die. Instead, Trystan’s allies convince Amara’s maid, Winnifred, to help them. Winnifred, the daughter of Belinda, the enchantress who cursed Kingsley, dons the slippers and carries the wand to the southern kingdom.

In the southern kingdom, Trystan and Evie beg Kingsley’s parents, King Gavin and Queen Brina, not to kill Belinda—after all, she didn’t kill Kingsley. Kingsley’s parents scoff at this and turn Belinda to stone. However, when Winnifred tries to transform Kingsley herself, he remains a frog.

Trystan, Evie, Kingsley, Tatianna, and Clare return to their base, Massacre Manor. They are horrified to discover that King Benedict is there, too. The King reveals that Trystan is not, in fact, The Villain—Evie is. Evie was born with dark magic, but her parents convinced Benedict to take these powers from her and bestow them on Trystan instead. However, Benedict’s attempts to trick fate have only endangered Rennedawn. He takes the death magic from Trystan and pours it back into Evie.

Trystan insists it does not matter which of them is The Villain; he wants to be with Evie no matter what. Evie revels in Trystan’s love, but wonders if their relationship will work out. Rennedawn’s fate still hangs in the balance.

In the epilogue, Clare emerges from the forest and looks out over the sea. She is shocked to see a handsome, naked man emerging from the water. Then she realizes the man is Kingsley.