Fantasy Books with Well-Developed Villains (11 books)

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These are villains with complicated morality, interesting backstory and occasionally push you to wish you could root for them. The focus of this list is books and series with female protagonists but others are welcome too. Books where the villain doesn’t show up until later in the series are welcome too because great villains combine mythology with reality and sometimes the legend needs to be built over time

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1	Kingdom of Ash (Throne of Glass, #7) by Sarah J. Maas (Goodreads Author) 4.71 avg rating — 1,247,507 ratings score: 199, and 2 people voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
2	Tower of Dawn (Throne of Glass, #6) by Sarah J. Maas (Goodreads Author) 4.28 avg rating — 1,218,280 ratings score: 197, and 2 people voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
3	The Assassin's Blade (Throne of Glass, #0.1-0.5) by Sarah J. Maas (Goodreads Author) 4.20 avg rating — 1,353,078 ratings score: 194, and 2 people voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
4	Magic Bites (Kate Daniels, #1) by Ilona Andrews (Goodreads Author) 4.05 avg rating — 138,515 ratings score: 100, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
4	The Director Must Die: A Stardust Story by Dina Thala (Goodreads Author) 4.62 avg rating — 26 ratings score: 100, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
4	Magic Dark, Magic Divine (Warrior of the Divine Sword, #1) by A.J. Locke (Goodreads Author) 4.03 avg rating — 250 ratings score: 100, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
7	Pirate's Paradox (Sentinels of Savannah, #6) by Lisa Kessler (Goodreads Author) 4.30 avg rating — 109 ratings score: 99, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
8	Pirate's Promise (Sentinels of Savannah, #5) by Lisa Kessler (Goodreads Author) 4.36 avg rating — 110 ratings score: 98, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
9	Siege and Storm (The Shadow and Bone Trilogy, #2) by Leigh Bardugo (Goodreads Author) 3.80 avg rating — 701,722 ratings score: 97, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
10	Uprooted by Naomi Novik (Goodreads Author) 4.01 avg rating — 273,430 ratings score: 95, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
11	Sabriel (Abhorsen, #1) by Garth Nix (Goodreads Author) 4.16 avg rating — 221,811 ratings score: 94, and 1 person voted	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars