✨Julie✨'s Reviews > Apprentice to the Villain

✩ 2 stars ✩

What to Expect:
➼ Morally Gray Characters
➼ Villain gets the Girl
➼ Opposites Attract
➼ Grumpy x Sunshine
➼ Slow Burn
➼ Workplace Romance
➼ Animal Side Kick
➼ Dragons
➼ Magic
➼ Multi POV

Wow… what a mess this was. I wanted to love this, but it was just so poorly executed. I’ll admit that my confusion started because I had forgotten the ending of book one. Book two starts out with an unnecessary prologue that takes place in the past (confusing) and then jumps straight into where book one left off without any recap or context given. I eventually caught up enough to vaguely remember what was going on and then that issue was resolved (too quickly) and they were off and onto the next thing.

The chapters were extremely short and most of them felt like they had deleted scenes. I think the main thread of the story was that they were looking for her mom or clues about what had happened to her?? And there was a prophecy that factored into the cliffhanger ending… I think it was all meant to be connected, but the author didn’t do a great job of explaining how it all fit together. They essentially did a bunch of side quest without the author very clearly telling the reader that that’s what they were doing and then suddenly there would be a dragon or someone would have a new power or we’d be hearing from a random side character and I was left scratching my head trying to figure out how we got there.

This book also relied heavily on the angst and tension between the two MC’s. Typically I’d be eating that up, but in this case it started to feel really repetitive. I felt like the author was just trying to stretch out the tension between them to make it to the third book. When it comes to slow burn, there is such a thing as too slow. 🤷🏼‍♀️

I feel like the author had so many ideas she was trying to get out and onto the page that she kind of lost the thread of the story. I wish her editor had encouraged her to beef up the world building and the explanations for the quests and the magic they wielded a little more. The author deprived us of the romance and then kind of tanked the execution of the fantasy elements. I almost gave this 3 stars, but I just can’t justify it. I really wish I had loved this more! I hope you’re able to find more enjoyment in it than I did!

P.S. …apparently all it takes to make someone a villain is to call them one repeatedly. Very little villainous activity detected.

✼　 ҉ 　✼　 ҉ 　✼　 ҉ 　✼　 ҉ 　✼　 ҉ 　✼　 ҉ 　✼

Pre-read: Ready for this “villain” to unmask his ooey gooey center!

I need all the murdery bits to be explained so I can fully endorse this romance. 🤣