SUMMARY
American Royals meets Elite in this contemporary YA set in a glamorous boarding school
For fifty years, King Leander Eldana has ruled Ashland without naming an heir to the crown. After sending away his grandchildren to be raised out of the public eye, it’s finally time to secure his nation’s future by appointing one definitive heir. The best way to appraise his successor? In the halls of Almus Terra Academy, a boarding school infamous for breeding the world’s next generation of leaders—and liars.
Titus Eldana has always known he’d inherit Ashland’s future. Now he must prove he has what it takes. Alaric Eldana was not raised with a silver spoon. His secondhand clothes might not be fit for a king, but he knows how to rule: with his fist. Emmeline Eldana only wants to please her neglectful parents. If that means securing the crown, she won’t hesitate to destroy anyone in her way. Sadie Aurelia has no idea why she’s been given a chance to bring new blood to the throne. With nothing left to lose back home, she’s ready to take it.
Filled with competition, secret alliances, enemies-to-lovers romance, and cunning revenge, Royal Heirs Academy is a breathless, entertaining read set in modern-day. This gossip-filled school for the global elite is inspired by UWC of the Atlantic, which Vanity Fair has described as “Hippie Hogwarts.”
Image and Summary from Goodreads.
REVIEW
My first read for February 2025 was Royal Heirs Academy by Lindsey Duga. I had purchased this book in January as the cover was very attention grabbing in terms of colour and the size of text for Royal Heirs. I did not read the blurb until after I had purchased it but it did sound interesting. I had it on a spot on my bookshelf at home where every time I walked past it, it was the first thing I noticed. So I figured I’d give it a read as it kept catching my eye.
Royal Heirs Academy follows 4 students comprised of 3 grandchildren of the King – Titus, Emmeline and Alaric as well as commoner Sadie who grew up in Ashland as they enter into Almus Terra Academy, a prestigious boarding school where they compete against each other to be named the Heir Apparent for King Leander. King Leander has not named an heir to the throne as he does not want one of his children to take the throne from him so to make sure that his grandchildren can experience the world outside of Ashland where they will be in the public eye from a young age, he sent them away from their parents to be raised by other people. As he had not named an heir yet, he brought his grandchildren back into the spotlight after being raised away from Ashland and as King, he is allowed to add anyone else to the line of succession and that is where Sadie the commoner comes in.
The book has multiple POV’s for each of the 4 main characters where you get to know more about the backstory of each of them. You find out that one of the grandchildren had been in contact with their parents from a younger age when it was not permitted as well as how one parent doesn’t want anything to do with their child.
Each of the characters have their own history as to why they are the way they are and some have some really good character development like Sadie and Titus where as the other 2 characters – Alaric and Emmeline didn’t really have that much development but we may see more for them if this continues on as a series.
In some places the book was a little slow and at one point I was considering DNFing the book because of how slow some of the story progression was. I pushed through it and it did pick up towards the end where one of the characters is out of the running for becoming Heir to the King of Ashland. They worked out a plot to be able to get back into the running and it paid off for them.
I gave this a 3 star rating for this book and so far there is nothing announced for more books in this series considering it was just released last month. Depending on when the next book comes out in the series, I might read it to see what happens with the King now announcing an heir. As the King of Ashland is not abdicating the throne for a few more years until each of the kids have graduated, he can then choose a new heir until he steps down. I do want to see who does eventually become King or Queen of Ashland but I might wait until more of the series comes out before reading the next book.
-Rachelle
I’m on Instagram at @rachellesbookshelf
