THE INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING SERIES

Accolades:
Goodreads Choice Award finalist 2025: Readers' Favorite Romantasy - Likewise Choice Award finalist - Spotify Best Romantasy Audiobooks of 2025 recommendation

Once Upon a Time meets The Office in Hannah Nicole Maehrer's laugh-out-loud viral TikTok series turned novel, about the sunshine assistant to an Evil Villain...and their unexpected romance.

REWARD OFFERED: Apprentice to The Villain wanted for treason (light), magical property damage (alleged), and one incident involving a weaponized scone (accurate). Frequently seen with a grumpy frog (crowned, judgmental). Answers to "Evie" or "Stop that."

Evie Sage didn't mean to become the right-hand woman to the kingdom's most terrifying villain. One minute, she was applying for an entry-level position that promised "light paperwork and occasional beheadings," and the next, she was knee-deep in magical mayhem, murder plots, and an entirely inappropriate crush on her brooding, sharp-jawed, walking disaster of a boss.

Now, with a magical prophecy unraveling, assassins showing up in the break room, and a suspicious amount of frogs wearing crowns, Evie has to figure out how to survive her job without setting the kingdom on fire--or her dignity, which is hanging by a very sarcastic thread.

Being evil-adjacent was never part of the five-year plan. But then again...neither was falling for The Villain.

A magical office comedy with grumpy bosses, snarky frogs, and definitely-not-feelings.

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
Book #3 Accomplice to the Villain
Book #4 Adversary to the Villain

Review Citations:

• Kirkus Reviews 12/30/0001 (EAN 9781649378545, Paperback)
• Publishers Weekly 08/04/2025 (EAN 9781649378545, Paperback)

Contributor Bio:Maehrer, Hannah Nicole

Hannah Nicole Maehrer is a #1 New York Times bestselling author with a penchant for villains. She's primarily known for the Assistant and the Villain series and secondarily known for using humor to cope at inappropriate times --a strength in her day-to-day writing.

Before she was an author, she worked primarily in childcare and teaching emotions management. Ironically, her characters' emotions remain chaotic and unmanageable. Her work tends to mimic her life, which is made up of a very large, very loud, and very loving family, who remain her favorite characters and her primary source of inspiration in fiction. No matter how many years pass, from the time she read her first fairy tale, her passions have remained: romance, joy, laughter, and finding ways to incorporate them in everything she creates. hannahnicolemae.com

About the Author

Hannah Nicole Maehrer is a #1 New York Times bestselling author with a penchant for villains. She's primarily known for the Assistant and the Villain series and secondarily known for using humor to cope at inappropriate times --a strength in her day-to-day writing.

Before she was an author, she worked primarily in childcare and teaching emotions management. Ironically, her characters' emotions remain chaotic and unmanageable. Her work tends to mimic her life, which is made up of a very large, very loud, and very loving family, who remain her favorite characters and her primary source of inspiration in fiction. No matter how many years pass, from the time she read her first fairy tale, her passions have remained: romance, joy, laughter, and finding ways to incorporate them in everything she creates. hannahnicolemae.com