Hey, I’m Sara, and I love a good book series! If you found this page, I bet you do, too. Are you looking to read a full Assistant to the Villain summary, book #1 in Hannah Nicole Maehrer’s series? If you need a refresher before you read Apprentice to the Villain, then you are in the right place. Read a full book recap now. This page is full of spoilers, so beware.

Author
Hannah Nicole Maehrer

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Assistant to the Villain Series:
#1 Assistant to the Villain (this page)
#2 Apprentice to the Villain (synopsis)
#3 Assistant to the Villain #3 (Goodreads)

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***** Everything below is a SPOILER *****

What happened in Assistant to the Villain?

Here’s your Assistant to the Villain summary with spoilers: 

Evie Sage finds herself working as the assistant to The Villain after a chance meeting with him. This comes at the perfect time, as she recently lost her job with the blacksmith, Otto. (The jerk propositioned her and then stabbed her with a cursed blade as she ran away.)

Evie tells her father, Griffin Sage, and her ten-year-old sister, Lyssa Sage, that she’s a maid in a neighboring village.

Five months later, Evie is still not accustomed to The Villain’s evil deeds, though she is quite distracted by his good looks. 

She and many others work for him at his castle, Massacre Manor, where her office nemesis is a woman named Becky. 

The Villain reveals that another of his shipments has been compromised. Their office runs on illegal cargo, most stolen from King Benedict. For the first time, it seems the king is striking back. The Villian believes there is a traitor among his employees.

Evie’s mother, Nura Sage, disappeared when Evie was a child after she accidentally killed her brother Gideon with her magic. Now, her dad, Griffin Sage, has contracted the Mystic Illness. Evie remembers once visiting the Gleaming City as a child, and she and her parents saw a magical specialist while there.

Evie finally learns that The Villain’s real name is Trystan. He’s got it bad for Evie, though he tries very hard to remain oblivious to his feelings.

Someone leaves a bomb in The Villain’s office, and Evie finds it. She runs to the parapet to throw it over but falls when her foot gets stuck. She believes she is about to die when Trystan arrives to envelop her with his magic, saving her from the blast. After being healed, Trystan takes her home and gives her the opportunity to resign. She refuses.

Evie joins Trystan in a tavern, where they meet his brother, Malcolm, a clockmaker. Trystan accuses him of making the timepiece that was used on the bomb, but he denies it. Evie helps in determining that Malcolm sold it but didn’t know what it was going to be used for. The only thing he could tell them about the person who bought it was that he had bright blue glowing ink under his fingernails. Whoever it was used Tristan‘s brother to get to him, and Evie is worried that they will use her next.

Blade, the dragon trainer, came to Trystan with a baby dragon a while back. The dragon is scared of everything, so they haven’t found a use for him yet. Evie finds a letter requesting employment in Blade’s room that is signed by King Benedict. Evie demands answers, and Blade admits that he grew up in the Gleaming City and his father was an advisor to the king. His father wanted him to be interested in politics, but he was only interested in animals. Blade stole the dragon egg from the king and came to The Villain when he realized he didn’t know how to take care of the dragon. That’s how he ended up at Massacre Manor. 

Evie tells Blade she will keep his secret for only a short while to give him time to tell the Villain himself. 

Trystan and Evie visit his sister Clarissa to question her about who she might have sold blue ink to. She is the only person in the kingdom who sells the kind Malcolm saw. She is angry with him for continuing this feud with the king, but she tells them that she sold it to a man named Lark, who signed his name as a Valiant Guard. 

Becky finds Blade’s employment letter and gives it to The Villain. He believes it’s Evie’s letter and calls her untrustworthy, so she quits. 

While she is gone, everything at the office starts falling apart. Blade confesses about the letter and where he got the dragon, and Trystan realizes that he will need to fix things with Evie. (He names the dragon Fluffy.)

Evie’s papa is feeling sick again due to the Mystic Illness. She recalls that after Lyssa was born, her mother’s magic awoke in a divine light. It seemed to drain her. One day, she took her three children to a field, where she tossed a ball of starlight, urging Evie’s brother Gideon to catch it. He tried, but it grew and burned him up. And then her mother was gone.

Evie returns to The Villain to ask for her job back. Trystan apologizes and allows her to stay.

They find an inscription on the inside of the dragon’s collar that says, “The Villain Will Fail,” along with the name of the blacksmith: Otto Warsen, Evie’s former employer. The equipment was intercepted before Blade even arrived with the dragon. The king is toying with Trystan. 

Trystan requests that Evie accompany him to the blacksmith, where they trick information out of him. They don’t learn who is behind everything, but they do learn that their suspicions are true: the king has someone on the inside. 

Otto attacks Trystan, so Trystan breaks his wrist. When the cursed blade, the one that originally stabbed Evie, is near, Evie’s wound causes her pain. Trystan says she has a death blow in her shoulder where it slashed her. If he were to hit her scar at the right angle with his magic, she would die. Trystan gives the magical blade to Tatianna to see if she can do anything about the curse.

Trystan catches a guvre, a flying dragon-like creature. When one captures a guvre, there is a natural consequence, so he is not surprised when a powerful storm envelopes the castle. The king has had the male guvre’s mate in captivity for 10 years. Trystan believes the female will break out and come to the male’s rescue no matter what, and she does. Evie and Trystan end up rescuing each other before finally capturing the female. Evie hands are badly burned.

While being healed, Tatianna reveals that she has known Trystan’s family since they were children. Trystan was always withdrawn but had moments of kindness. Tatianna used to date his sister, Clarissa, but they didn’t stay together because Clarissa never forgave Trystan for the events that turned him into The Villain. 

At home, Evie finds an anonymous letter inviting her to a celebration hosted by the Core Healer. The letter writer implies there’s a cure for the Mystic Illness, so Evie feels like she has to go. Becky and Blade are also lured to the celebration, where they meet up. They debate whether or not to tell Trystan but decide to check it out first. 

Evie meets Trystan’s father, Arthur, the Core Healer. Trystan arrives, angry that those of his inner circle are at this party. When away from the crowd, though, he asks Evie to dance and tells her it’s hard to be around his always absent father. 

The male guvre shows up wreaking destruction. Someone let him loose. Trystan runs off to find his sister, while Evie and the others stumble upon Arthur, who is injured. In a moment, they are surrounded by the Valiant Guards. 

During the chaos, Trystan is knocked out as he hears Evie scream. They are gathered together and their captors don’t yet know they have The Villain. He is unconscious, so Evie pretends to be his wife and is talking the guards into letting them go when he wakes up. She kisses him to stop him from saying anything to give them away. 

Someone has taken Arthur, believing him to be The Villain. The rest get away, and Trystan realizes he’s in love with Evie but vows never to tell her. 

Clarissa and Tatianna try to help Evie gain resistance to the magical dagger, a process which is painful for Evie. In the end, it only helps a little.

Clarissa recalls that someone named East Marigold has been and is still requesting blue ink from her. This name is special to Evie and her father, so Evie realizes that the traitor is her father, Griffin Sage. 

When she goes home, she finds a letter from her mother, Nura Sage, to her father. She has been writing to him for a while.

Tatianna tells Tristan that he needs to tell Evie what the gold marks on her finger are. They let him know when she is hurt, which is not what he told her they do. They figure out that Evie’s dad is the spy, and Tristan rushes out to go to her.

How did Assistant to the Villain end?

Assistant to the Villain summary with spoilers ending:

Evie’s father has been reading her notes from her notebook that he gave her using the blue ink purchased from Clarissa. This is how he knew how to stop the shipments. He is also the one who planted the bomb and tried to sell Evie to Otto. Oh, and he never actually had the Mystic illness. It was just a cover story. He is part of King Benedict’s Valiant Guard. Griffin says that Evie’s mother was supposed to work for the king after her power arrived. But she ruined it for herself. Evie gives her father a sedative, and he passes out.

Tatianna and Trystan arrive. They take Lyssa to the castle, and Trystan’s guards take Evie’s father to the dungeons.

Trystan finally tells Evie that he once worked with the king at his summer estate as his apprentice. The king said he had potential. Trystan helped him capture the female guvre, because it’s said that the venom of a baby guvre acts as a cure-all. Eventually, the king told Trystan that his magic was dangerous, and he had him locked up. 

He was there for a month in the darkness before his power awoke. He slaughtered his guards and escaped, and that’s when he decided to become The Villain.

Evie and Trystan hug, and Kingsley, the magical frog, distracts them before they kiss. (We learn the frog was once a human prince, one that Trystan admired.)

When they arrive back at the manor, Evie realizes that she left her notebook at home, so Trystan takes her back. On the way, though, they are ambushed by King Benedict and his Valiant Guard. They use special cuffs to restrain Trystan. The king hands Evie off to Otto, giving him permission to kill her however he likes, but the king wants her body back. Trystan begs for her life, but it doesn’t work. They knock him out and take him away toward the Gleaming Palace. 

Evie overcomes the pain brought on by the cursed blade and manages to kill Otto with it. She escapes with the help of one of the Valiant Guards, though he doesn’t reveal who he is. 

She returns to the palace, embracing her evil side. She displays Otto’s head in the manor and vows to save The Villain or become one herself.

There you go! That’s what happened in Assistant to the Villain Us by Hannah Nicole Maehrer. We hope you enjoyed this Assistant to the Villain summary with spoilers.

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What to read after Assistant to the Villain & Apprentice to the Villain

When you finish this series, try Five Broken Blades, Onyx Storm, or Heaven Breaker.

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