Review Detail

ROYAL HEIRS ACADEMY is an intriguing YA contemporary that follows four teens who are in the running to become the heir to the kingdom of Ashland. Unwilling to allow his children to inherit, the king has devised a test for his three grandchildren and a meritorious citizen to compete for the crown. The grandchildren, Titus, Alaric, and Emmeline have been raised away from their parents and were supposed to have only found out about their ties to the crown upon their admission to the prestigious academy. The fourth, Sadie, received a scholarship and was likewise shocked to find herself in the running. As they attend the school and compete for the crown, anything could happen.

While the story took a little while to really get into it, each of the four was really compelling and unique with their own personalities and styles. This helped to tell the four perspectives apart and sink into the stories. While readers will form their early favorites, they all became sympathetic or understandable characters through watching each of their stories unfold. There are plenty of twists and turns to keep the story surprising, and the boarding school setting works so well for this.

There are some interesting themes around family, merit, power, and trust that were quite thought-provoking throughout. As they compete, the four will need to look within as well as between themselves to examine what the tests mean and what makes a good ruler. This underlying premise was quite clever, and I appreciated the twisty way the drama unfolded. The school and other students were also interesting, but the main four were really the focus, and I appreciated that the readers get insights into each. A dash of mystery and the unexpected keep readers hooked and turning pages.

Overall, ROYAL HEIRS ACADEMY was an intriguing YA contemporary with a clever premise and compelling characters that kept the twists and drama flowing.