Calonita’s spin off/concurrent trilogy, Royal Academy Rebels brings readers back to the kingdom of Enchantsia. Only, it’s not the reformed villains who are in trouble. It’s the royals with their tiaras and ballgowns that bring the revolution.
Actually, it’s one specific royal who doesn’t quite fit the box.

Devin of the Nile couldn’t care less about fashion. She wants to be a creature caretaker, her gift for communicating with animals only bolsters her dream. But she’s twelfth in line for the throne, so she’s obligated to attend Royal Academy where she gets on Fairy Godmother, Oliviana’s bad side with her nonconforming ways.

It’s not just a clashing of old fashioned ideas with the young wanting to expand their dreams and definitions of royalty. Oliviana is actually a puppetmaster, manipulating all those famous fairytales so she can save the day and make the royals dependent on her favor. Yeah, so manipulatively smart and gives real Shrek 2 Fairy Godmother vibes.

Just as spunky and relatable as Gilly, Devin’s adventures and friendships at Royal Academy make for a great story about following your dreams, controlling envy and the importance of faith and trust with light wreastling over the nature of who’s really good and who’s really evil.

So let’s get to the rankings.

1. Heroes: Okay, it’s par for course that the epic conclusion gets the top spot. Not only is it double the length of the other novels, but has the return of characters from Fairy Tale Reform School. Most notably, Anna Cobbler undergoes her redemption arc whilst Devin struggles with her own fall from grace, struggling with the envy she has with Anna’s newfound animal communication gifts. As well as her feelings that she doesn’t belong in Royal Academy, feeling her own dreams are deferred for the sake of royal duties and responsibilities she doesn’t want. The latter one truly hits home. The personal development, and overall, plot go hand in hand in wrapping up Devin and Anna’s arc while expanding on the previous themes of royal and villain definitions are fluid and no one is born evil nor entirely good.
2. Misfits: The introductory book is great fun, bringing in Devin’s unintentional feminist rebellion to Royal Academy as she chafes against Oliviana’s restrictions for princesses to defend themselves or even wear pants. It gets a bit gas-light (lite?) as Oliviana chastise Devin for failing her tests while smiling through her teeth that she will be expelled and her parents will be hurt if Devin doesn’t fall in line. Yeesh, but I like the paranoia and confusion. Devin’s friends and roommates are each distinct, representing different ideas of what royals could be and the importance that following their dreams doesn’t mean they can’t also fufill their destinies to rule.
3. Outlaws: As usual, the sophmore book falls into sophmore slump as it has the weight of being the filler exposition, setting the foundation for the finale and introducing important new characters but also drawing out the bad guys winning angle. It’s a solid book but not as interesting as the others.