Look, I need to talk about the job posting that opens this book because it personally attacked me. "Loyal, levelheaded assistant for unspecified office duties" — that's literally the description of motherhood except the benefits are worse and nobody calls you a villain. They just call you Mom, which is scarier.
I picked this up because BookTok wouldn't shut up about it and I needed something light enough to survive Sophie's fake-napping phase. You know the one — where she's quiet for exactly eleven minutes, just long enough for you to think you're free, and then BOOM, she's standing at the baby gate like a tiny warden. I needed a book that could handle that kind of interruption schedule.
When Your Boss Is Evil But At Least He's Hot
So the premise: Evie Sage needs a job desperately (relatable), ends up working for the kingdom's most feared Villain (less relatable but go off), and slowly develops feelings for him while also trying to figure out who's sabotaging his operation. It started life as TikTok skits from Hannah Nicole Maehrer, and honestly? You can feel that origin. The humor hits in short, punchy bursts — Evie's sarcasm, the absurdity of office dynamics in a literal dungeon, severed heads treated like annoying break room decor. It's giving corporate satire meets fantasy romance and I am the target demographic. Though fair warning — if your thing is more explicit slow-burn with the enemies-to-lovers tension cranked way up, I also tried Voyeur around the same time and the two books could not be more different in how far they're willing to take the heat.
The Evie-Villain dynamic is the engine here. She's sunshine-coded but not stupid, he's broody and murderous but weirdly respectful of her boundaries, and their slow-burn banter carried me through a full week of school drop-offs. I caught myself smiling at a stoplight more than once, which — if you've ever done the morning routine with three kids and one missing shoe — is saying something.
But here's my honest thing: the plot outside their dynamic feels a little... first-draft-y? The mystery of who's betraying the Villain should've had me guessing, but I kept getting distracted by how choppy the pacing was. Scenes would jump without much connective tissue, and while that might work fine in a BookTok skit format, in a nearly 14-hour audiobook it sometimes felt like the story was skipping ahead without telling me.
Em Eldridge and the Great Narration Debate
Okay, the narration. Em Eldridge. I have... thoughts.
She's genuinely good at Evie. The droll delivery, the comedic timing on the sarcastic asides — she nails that energy. When Evie is being ridiculous (which is often and wonderfully), Eldridge leans into it with this dry, slightly exasperated tone that just works. Her voice for the Villain has a nice low gravity to it that sells the whole "terrifying but attractive" thing.
BUT. There's this cadence issue that I kept noticing during car time, where the delivery would get this slightly mechanical rhythm. Not always — just enough to pull me out. It's hard to describe except that sometimes the pauses between phrases felt calculated instead of natural, like the emphasis was landing a beat too late. A few listeners have compared it to AI-generated speech and while I wouldn't go that far, I get where they're coming from. It's most noticeable during the more emotional or dramatic scenes, where the delivery stays at the same level when it should be building.
I bumped it to 1.25x (my standard) and that actually helped smooth out some of the pacing weirdness. The comedic beats landed better with a slightly faster clip.
The Mom Pause-ability Report
Here's what matters: could I follow this book despite being interrupted approximately 400 times? Mostly yes. The chapter structure is manageable, the character dynamics are clear enough that you don't lose the thread, and the humor works as individual moments even if you've lost the bigger plot. I did have to rewind once after a particularly chaotic bedtime derailed my listening for two days, but I picked it back up without needing a recap.
The ending is... a lot. It goes bigger than I expected and sets up the sequel pretty aggressively. Nobody ugly-cried at pickup, but I did have a minor emotional moment during the Evie-family scenes because apparently any fictional character with an ailing parent is my personal kryptonite now.
Who's Hiring and Who Should Decline the Offer
If you want a light fantasy romance with good banter, a workplace-enemies-to-lovers setup, and you don't mind that the worldbuilding is more vibes than architecture — this is a really fun listen. Perfect for multitasking moms who need something entertaining but not demanding.
If you need tight plotting, deep fantasy lore, or a narrator with zero quirks, you might bounce off this one. And fair warning: there's some mature content including a scene involving sexual assault that caught me off guard given the otherwise light tone.
Not groundbreaking, but sometimes you don't need groundbreaking. Sometimes you need a book where the love interest is literally a villain and nobody pretends that's not hilarious. Survived 47 pauses and still made sense. Car time approved — with the caveat that you might want to bump the speed up a notch.
