Royal Heirs Academy / Lindsey Duga / Book Review

ROYAL HEIRS ACADEMY

For fifty years, the kingdom of Ashland has been at peace, ruled by a strong leader, King Leander Eldana. And now, sixteen years after sending his grandchildren to be raised out of the public eye, it is time for him to bring them back into the spotlight. It is time for him to name an heir.

But any leader of Ashland must be strong, to keep the peace in this country with its extensive bloody history. So King Leander knows that whoever succeeds him must earn their place on the throne. Ashland's future rests in the hands of his three heirs apparent... and a wildcard.

Sent off to Almus Terra Academy, an infamous boarding school known for preparing the world's next generation of leaders, the three Eldana heirs must prove their worth. And thrown into the mix is Sadie Aurelia, a commoner from Ashland who has been given a scholarship... and the opportunity of a lifetime, a chance to bring new blood to the throne. And unlike her royal fellows, she's got nothing to lose and everything to gain.

THOUGHTS

I don't know. I'm not usually a fan of melodrama, but this book... This book could have benefited from some melodrama. It just fell rather flat. The characters, the competition... I didn't get invested in any of it.

PROS

Ruthless Ladies	Though the characters mostly fell flat in this book, I can at least appreciate that these ladies--the princess Emmeline in particular--were the most ruthless royal competitors. Much more so than their male counterparts. They pulled no punches, and they looked good doing it. It's nice to have a preppy (literal) princess slip so easily into this no-nonsense, no-mercy role.
Messy Relationships	If there was one element this book really did get right, it was the interpersonal drama. These relationships are messy. There are love triangles that aren't love triangles because they don't know each other that well--but they see some romantic potential. There's squabbling. There's in-fighting. It all feels very high school... just like it should. They're teenagers, after all. And I loved that.
Unequal Odds	Plots that revolve around contemporary royalty tend to be pretty escapist, and that's also the case here. But this book makes a pointed effort of exposing class inequality, even among the "elite" students at this boarding school. Our world isn't a meritocracy, no matter how much we pretend otherwise. The best of the best still get trumped by the wealthy, and that's just the way it is. And that sucks, which this book acknowledges. And that shouldn't be the case, which this book acknowledges. And Lindsey Duga does a really good job of weaving this thread of inequality into the escapist plot itself without either point clashing--which is a great accomplishment.

CONS

I don't want to spoil anything. That's not what I do here. So I'll tiptoe around this criticism. There's one character who snaps at the end, who has a rapid transformation into their real, hardened self. And... that just didn't work for me. It didn't make sense. It wasn't earned. It felt lazy and cheap, and I was disappointed. It fell so flat.	"Transformative" End
Above everything else, this book suffers from a sort of identity crisis. Did it want to be a competition book? That's how it set itself up, but the competition was nonexistent. Did it want to be a fluffy contemporary royal story? Well, it didn't quite reach "fluff" status. Did it want to be a social commentary? It wasn't serious enough for that. Did it want to be a romance? The romantic interests didn't really exceed anything but "interest" status. It wanted to be a lot of things, I think, and it failed to deliver on pretty much every front. Was it a bad book? No, but I didn't really enjoy reading it. It didn't lean into any of its aspects enough to really hook me.	Identity Crisis
This book pitches itself as a contest for the throne, but... there is no contest. Oh, they keep saying these kids are being "tested," but if you're looking for criteria, for challenges, for goals and achievements, well, this book has none. There's no way of judging how anybody's doing, or even what they're supposed to do. So I found it pretty impossible to get invested in any of these characters, because what was I supposed to root for? Nobody knew what was going on. Were there rankings? Were they going up or down? Everything was a shot in the dark, so nothing meant anything. And that doesn't make for a very fun read.	A... Contest?

Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
5/10

Those who loved Cale Dietrich's The Rules of Royalty will like diving into this new facet of royal life. Those who enjoyed Meg Cabot's The Princess Diaries will like following along with these royals-in-training.

Details Publisher: Christy Ottaviano Books Date: January 7, 2025 Series: N/A Add to Goodreads Buy it HERE

Note: I was provided with an ARC by the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are my own.