(Listened to this on audiobook.)
Overall, I really enjoyed this book and ran off to get the next one immediately, even though there's definitely some quirks/traits about it that are straight outta silly romance novel and might get A Bit Much to anyone reading it.
As a note before I begin, I'm not sure what the heck kind of world we have going here, because it's both a land with people riding carriages and living in fairy tale villages, and yet there are interns and assistants and the word "fuck" and straight out of modern day office culture. This is mixed in with magic, and people come into magical powers after undergoing a stressful experience.
Evie Sage's mother came into magical powers after giving birth to her third child, things went wrong with them and her brother ended up accidentally dying and her mom disappeared. Between that and her dad getting the magical equivalent of long covid, that's left Evie as the sole support for her remaining family. And after she refuses to fuck her employer and he literally stabs her in the back (she survives but has an icky remaining scar/wound issue), she needs a new job. And she ends up working for the local villain--yes, called "The Villain" after she encounters him and his magical frog friend Kingsley in the woods and helps him.
The Villain, i.e. Tristan Maverine, is both evil and yet not that bad a guy. He's on a vengeance kick against King Benedict and targets his Valiant Guards and anyone working for him (or abusing ducks). So while there's corpses around Malevolent Manor, Tristan is a great employer to work for. Sure, he does bind his guards not to betray him or they'll die, but he pays well and earns his employees' loyalty even if they don't know why he does what he does. He's also absolutely hot as balls, to boot.
Evie is...sorta Manic Pixie Dream Girl? She's an excellent executive assistant, keeps track of everything, plans to have the equivalent of fire extinguishers everywhere, doesn't lose it if a body ends up on her desk. But she's naturally cheerful and kind, with traits of ruthlessness that Tristan admires. Evie has the hots for Tristan pretty much immediately and he more or less does too, even if he's all "I'm evil, I'm not supposed to do stuff like that." Evie is also Very Quirky in her thinking, which Tristan also seems to enjoy, and also how the dragon ends up being named Fluffy.
On the kinda irritating side, this is a book where people Will Not Spit It Out, and descriptions can drag on for a long time (the scene where Evie finds a bomb just went on and on and I was all, "just finish it already!"), and the MPDG-ness is definitely there in Evie's interactions with her boss. The romance is also very slow burn-y.
However, I found myself being into this. I kinda adore Tristan myself, and he and Evie are cute as balls. Blade the dragon tamer is also cute as balls. Evie has an office nemesis, Rebecca, who she goes back and forth with, but it kinda works better as things go on.
The main plot is that there's a mole in the villain's organization, and Evie's trying to track down who it is. The most impressive thing about this book is how the mole situation is handled--I was blown away, I did not expect that AT ALL, and was all HOLY COW!!! to this. The bad guy reveal was legitimately shocking and, I will admit, probably not something anyone but Evie would be able to solve. There was some slight foreshadowing on the topic, but when the reveal happened, I was horrified and shocked. Now that's some evil. I'll restrain myself from discussing below the spoiler cut for once, but when I found out one particular evil thing, my mouth GAPED OPEN.
Anyway...the book ends on a cliffhanger, but happily I could immediately get the next one. Overall, four stars.
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