Books like “Assistant to the Villain”

What to read after “Assistant to the Villain” by Hannah Nicole Maehrer: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
The Spellshop
Sarah Beth Durst · 2024
Similar atmosphere: “Cozy Fantasy”
After fire wrecks the Great Library, librarian Kiela escapes with crates of spell books to her late family's island cottage. To help the struggling villagers she secretly sells spells, and slowly lets her guarded heart make room for friendship, community and love.
2
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
Sangu Mandanna · 2022
Similar atmosphere: “Cozy Fantasy”
Mika Moon hides her magic and never lets herself grow close to anyone. When a strange house asks her to teach three young witches, she meets a prickly librarian, a house full of secrets and the possibility of a place that finally feels like home.
3
The House in the Cerulean Sea
T. J. Klune · 2020
Similar atmosphere: “Cozy Fantasy” and “Whimsical”
Linus Baker, a lonely case worker, is sent to a remote island orphanage to check on six unusual children and their mysterious master, Arthur Parnassus. What begins as a routine inspection slowly becomes a choice between following the rules and protecting a family he comes to love.
4
The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy
Megan Bannen · 2022
Similar atmosphere: “Cozy Fantasy”
Hart is a lonely marshal who hunts the undead; Mercy runs her family's funeral home and finds Hart insufferable. After a bitter week, each writes an anonymous letter to a stranger, and a warm correspondence begins without either knowing who is on the other end. Meanwhile, real life keeps forcing them together.
5
Howl's Moving Castle
Diana Wynne Jones · 1986
Similar atmosphere: “Cozy Fantasy” and “Whimsical”
Cursed by a witch into an old woman's body, Sophie takes shelter in the moving castle of the vain wizard Howl. Amid a fire demon, a scarecrow and Howl's tangled contracts, she finds a home and a way to break her own spell.
6
Legends & Lattes
Travis Baldree · 2022
Similar atmosphere: “Cozy Fantasy”
Viv, a battle-weary orc, trades her sword for an espresso machine and opens the first coffee shop in the city of Thune. With a hobgoblin carpenter, a reformed succubus and a skeletal latte artist, she builds a warm new life -- but her old mercenary crew has not finished with her yet.
7
Tress of the Emerald Sea
Brandon Sanderson · 2023
Similar atmosphere: “Cozy Fantasy” and “Whimsical”
Tress lives on an island where the seas are made of deadly spores. When the man she loves is taken by the Sorceress, she leaves her ordinary life, gathers an unlikely crew and sails toward the midnight sea to bring him home.
8
Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
Heather Fawcett · 2023
Similar atmosphere: “Cozy Fantasy”
Emily Wilde, a prickly scholar of faerie folklore, travels to a frozen northern village to finish her encyclopaedia. Her charming colleague Wendell follows, and the two must bargain with the hidden folk whose mischief binds the village -- and Emily herself -- to an old tale.
9
The Night Circus
Erin Morgenstern · 2011
Similar atmosphere: “Whimsical”
- Whimsical
- Slow Burn
A black-and-white circus arrives without warning and opens only at night. Behind its rivalry of illusions stand two young magicians, Celia and Marco, bound by a contest neither chose. As they fall in love, the circus and everyone in it becomes the stakes.
10
Caraval
Stephanie Garber · 2017
Similar atmosphere: “Whimsical”
- Whimsical
- Slow Burn
Scarlett has dreamed of Caraval, a magical game held once a year, as a way to escape her island home. When her sister is taken by the game's master, Scarlett must enter the show to find her, where nothing is real and the price of losing is high.
11
The Goblin Emperor
Katherine Addison · 2014
Similar atmosphere: “Cozy Fantasy”
- Cozy Fantasy
- Found Family
Maia, the exiled half-goblin youngest son, is unwanted and forgotten until an airship crash makes him emperor. He arrives at a hostile court with few allies and must learn whom to trust while trying to rule with kindness and stay alive.
12
The Hating Game
Sally Thorne · 2016
Similar plot moves: “Office Romance” and “Grumpy Sunshine”
Lucy and Joshua are assistants at the same publishing house, forced to share an office while competing for one promotion. Their open hostility and elaborate office games hide an attraction neither will admit, until a single reckless moment changes the rules between them.