Fantasy is back on the bestseller lists this week with two titles taking the No. 1 and 3 spots in original fiction, both of them from authors known as BookTok sensations.
“Accomplice to the Villain” is one of three “Villain” books that started out as a TikTok series. According to BookTokker Hannah Nicole Maehrer‘s website, the series is “‘Once Upon a Time’ meets ‘The Office.’” It stars Evie Sage who, after applying for an entry-level position as assistant to a villain — with “light paperwork and occasional beheadings” — ends up falling in love with the boss.
Meanwhile, Carissa Broadbent returns with another book in her “Crowns of Nyaxia” series. In “The Fallen and the Kiss of Dusk,” a pair of vampire lovers, separated when one is imprisoned by the gods, are offered a path to redemption and back to each other.
In non-fiction, a couple of books about historical events with far-reaching consequences have joined the original list.
In “King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation,” at No. 3, Scott Anderson writes about the fall of the Shah of Iran in 1979 and the terrible judgment of then-president Jimmy Carter and other Americans in relation to the ruler. The Iranian Revolution, the book argues, was as world-shattering as the French and Russian revolutions, according to the Penguin Random House Canada site.
According to the Associated Press review, “the most powerful portions come in the final chapters of the book, which focus on the bombing and the aftereffects of the bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. No writer could describe the hellscape that the bombs unleashed better than those on the ground who survived it.”
1. Accomplice to the Villain, Hannah Nicole Maehrer, Red Tower (1)*
2. She Didn’t See It Coming, Shari Lapena, Doubleday Canada (2)*
3. The Fallen and the Kiss of Dusk, Carissa Broadbent, Bramble (1)
4. Atmosphere, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Doubleday Canada (10)
5. One Golden Summer, Carley Fortune, Viking (14)
6. Don’t Let Him In, Lisa Jewell, Atria (7)
7. Broken Country, Clare Leslie Hall, Simon & Schuster (19)
8. My Friends, Fredrik Backman, Simon & Schuster (15)
9. The Woman in Suite 11, Ruth Ware, Simon & Schuster (5)
10. Not Quite Dead Yet, Holly Jackson, Doubleday Canada (3)
1. The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt, Penguin (58)
2. One Day, Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This, Omar El Akkad, McClelland & Stewart (23)
3. King of Kings, Scott Anderson, Signal (1)
4. Disney Adults, A.J. Wolfe, Gallery (1)
5. The Serviceberry, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Scribner (37)
6. I Am Ozzy, Ozzy Osbourne, Chris Ayres, Grand Central (3)
7. The Devil Reached Toward the Sky, Garrett M. Graff, Avid Reader (1)
8. Children Like Us, Brittany Penner, Doubleday Canada (2)
9. Everything Is Tuberculosis, John Green, Penguin Young Readers Group (9)
10. Anatomy of a Cover-Up, Paul Palango, Random House Canada (9)
1. She Didn’t See It Coming, Shari Lapena, Doubleday Canada
2. One Golden Summer, Carley Fortune, Viking
3. Every Summer After, Carley Fortune, Viking
4. This Summer Will Be Different, Carley Fortune, Viking
5. Finding Flora, Elinor Florence, Simon & Schuster
6. Meet Me at the Lake, Carley Fortune, Viking
7. A Most Puzzling Murder, Bianca Marais, Mira
8. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood, McClelland & Stewart
9. I Hope You Remember, Josie Balka, Simon & Schuster
10. The Maid’s Secret, Nita Prose, Viking
1. Value(s), Mark Carney, Signal
2. One Day, Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This, Omar El Akkad, McClelland & Stewart
3. Outsider, Brett Popplewell, HarperCollins Canada
4. Children Like Us, Brittany Penner, Doubleday Canada
5. Anatomy of a Cover-Up, Paul Palango, Random House Canada
6. Lessons From Cats for Surviving Fascism, Stewart Reynolds, Grand Central
7. A History of Canada in Ten Maps, Adam Shoalts, Penguin Canada
8. Murder, Madness and Mayhem, Mike Browne, HarperCollins Canada
9. The Massey Murder, Charlotte Gray, HarperCollins Canada
10. The Golden Daughter, Halina St. James, House of Anansi
1. Magic of the Wizard Dragon (Dragon Masters #29), Tracey West, Graham Howells, Scholastic
2. Sunrise on the Reaping, Suzanne Collins, Scholastic
3. Glorious Rivals, Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
4. T Is for Terry, Denise Dias, Noémie Gionet Landry, Scholastic
5. I Survived the Japanese Tsunami, 2011 (I Survived #12), Lauren Tarshis, Chris Chalik, Graphix
6. The Summer I Turned Pretty, Jenny Han, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
7. The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby, Dav Pilkey, Graphix
8. A Theory of Dreaming (deluxe edition), Ava Reid, HarperCollins
9. Love You Forever, Robert Munsch, Sheila McGraw, Firefly
10. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle, Penguin Young Readers Group
1. Every Salad Ever, Greta Podleski, One Spoon
2. The Essential Cottage Cookbook, Andrea Buckett, Appetite by Random House
3. Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving, Judi Kingry, Lauren Devine, Sarah Page, Robert Rose
4. Wood, Fire and Smoke, Michael Smith, Penguin Canada
5. Half Baked Harvest Quick and Cozy, Tieghan Gerard, Clarkson Potter
6. Shred Happens, Arash Hashemi, Rodale
7. I Love You, Pamela Anderson, Voracious
8. Matty Matheson: Soups, Salads, Sandwiches, Matty Matheson, Appetite by Random House
9. The Wishbone Kitchen Cookbook, Meredith Hayden, Ten Speed
10. Easy 10, Amy Sheppard, Quadrille
The bestseller lists are compiled by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited from information provided by BookNet Canada’s national sales tracking service, BNC SalesData.