Fantasy Books with Well-Developed Villains (11 books)

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 — 1,089,639 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 — 1,062,326 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 — 1,174,445 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 — 135,064 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) 4.60 avg rating — 25 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) 4.05 avg rating — 239 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) 4.29 avg rating — 106 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 — 106 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 — 684,261 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) 4.02 avg rating — 263,980 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 — 218,490 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