Heroes

Royal Academy Rebels #3

by Jen Calonita

Princess Devin didn't come to Royal Academy for fame, glory, or a crown. All she's ever wanted is to be a Magical Creature Caretaker.

Just when Devin gets up the courage to ask about following her passion, disaster strikes. The evil Rumplestiltskin and Alva cast a curse that nearly destroys Enchantasia, a new villain is on the rise, and the students of Royal Academy find they now have to share their castle with the delinquents from the notorious Fairy Tale Reform School.

Devin feels stuck--how can she think about going her own way when her kingdom clearly needs her now more than ever?

Genres: Fantasy, Middle Grade, Fairy Tales, Fiction, Adventure, Audiobook, School

336 pages, Hardcover

First published October 5, 2021

About the author

Hi Goodreads!
I'm Jen Calonita, a MG and YA author who loves what I do because it lets me connect with all of you (and no, I wasn't intending for that to rhyme!).

I've been writing ever since I can remember, but it was fourth grade when I put my "three wishes" for a genie down on paper. They were:
#1. Buy all the Cabbage Patch Kids in the world and give them away for free (because apparently that was how I rolled).
#2. I wanted a mansion, limo, lake house, pool and speed boat (still sounds quite nice).
#3. I wanted to be an author for young readers, which I am!

I love writing novels for teens (and for savvy grown ups who know that YA rocks at any age). My first series was "Secrets of My Hollywood Life" and it followed a teen star named Kaitlin Burke who struggled with the fame game. I have also written the stand-alone novels Sleepaway Girls, it's companion book, Summer State of Mind and the Belles series.

I've been writing middle grade too and am having so much fun with my series Fairy Tale Reform School! The fourth book in this series about a school run by former villains is called Tricked and will be out March 2018. Ever wonder what it would be like if your parents got a job with someone like Taylpr Swift? My other middle grade series, VIP, follows super fan Mackenzie Lowell as she tours with her favorite band, Perfect Storm.

I promise to give book updates here, and on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or my website. I hope I hear from you!

xo
Jen

Reviews

[Clarissa Bush · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is AWESOME!
We find out why Felix wasn’t in CURSED! The great big mystery is solved! Not to mention there mighttttt be an appearance of a VERY SPECIAL SOMEONE (that may or may not start with a G…) ! ;)

Anna and Devin… I LOVED their bond—similar to Jocelyn and Gilly’s. Rocky at first, but evolves into an amazing friendship! 🥰

Also, the FTRS Short Story… wow. We get to see the FTRS crew—they have a magic scroll call similar to a zoom call! They reacted just like we did the first time we used zoom 🤣

““Oh,” Emerson’s smile waffles.”
“…Headmaster Pierce, Heath, and Raina have reacher her, but her whole body waffles and disappears into their arms.”
Not sure what’s up with the “waffles” LOL but in context, I assume it meant “fade”. “Her body fades” and “her smile fades” 🤷🏼‍♀️ not sure, but it’s super funny 🤣

⭐️⭐️⭐️

I absolutely LOVE how Anna played a big role in HEROES! Anna, as you know if you’ve read FTRS, went from a sweet good two shoes, to a brainwashed RS squad member—but at the end of CURSED (the 6th and final FTRS book), she sentences herself to FTRS in hopes of reforming like her sister (Gilly).
I’m result of the “Battle of a Rumpelstiltskin” (as it’s called), a lot of Fairy Tale Reform School is left in shambles. It’s decided that the dorms are no longer safe for students to stay in meaning they will need another place to house the students. Royal Acadmey, being the closet school and the school with the most similar curriculum, Headmistress Snow (yes, she’s headmistress now!) and Headmaster Pierce (yes, they are co-headmasters!) agree with Headmistress Flora (FTRS) to let the FTRS students stay with them.
This poses a problem.
The FTRS students view the RA students as “suck up royals”, while the RA students see the FTRS students as “villains in training”.
Devin Nile finds herself at odds with Anna Cobbler.
Anna, who joined the Stiltskin Squad and helped him almost destroy all of Enchantasia…
Anna claims to want to reform, but Devin isn’t buying it. Devin believes that Anna is working with Olivina, while Anna claims she doesn’t even know her. Is Anna untrustworthy, or are Devin’s suspicions going too far?

Baby gargoyles, two unexpected friends, strawberries (you’ll see), and a platter of cookies, brownies, and cheese!

Okay, the platter doesn’t effect the plot at all, but I love cheese! 😂

Anyway, GREAT book—highly recommend! Really exciting, action-packed rap up to the Enchantasia world (😢 *sheds tear*).

[FTRSLOVER · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can’t wait for this to come out!!!

[Korah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know it's going to be good, they always are. Five stars in advance!

[Wysteria · Rating 1 out of 5]

Refuse to finish it.

So far honestly I'm angry. One of the things I enjoyed about the feminist tone to the story was there were two boys who liked cooking and sewing which are seen as more female activities (honestly I like a guy who can cook and bake though) but then she had to make one of the boy's gay!!!!!!!

You cannot write a story about a girl who has girl power and dislikes anything doing with all that girly stuff and then make the male characters either act like obnoxious egotistical male or gay. I mean my dream is to marry an obnoxious egotistical male that treats me like trash instead of a sweet guy who knows how to bake or sew. Can you feel the sarcasm?

I have no idea why Devin feels close to Heath, his bloated ego and all, because I thought we wanted to teach girls to find their own power and date/marry men who treat us well and not like little pawns that make themselves feel better.

To make matters worse there are plenty of guys who like theater, cooking, baking, and sewing and they are NOT gay. To put this into literature is sickening since boys should know they have every right to participate in this activities and still be straight and not seen as "clearly gay". This is the equivalent to saying that if a girl likes football she's "clearly a lesbian." People would be up in arms if someone said that but apparently you can totally do it with male characters.

With this beautiful rant I must stop and say Logan (the boy who likes to cook and bake) doesn't seem to be gay.

Also Tara is clearly going through something and is depressed. She slept instead of going to a party. Clearly something wrong and none of the kids nor the teachers care at all. That's not OK.

Devin even is told how she can't live her dreams because she has royal duties to do by a teacher who is very happy he isn't a royal anymore because he can now live his dreams. WHAT?!

I did NOT receive a complimentary copy. I got this book from the library.

[Dilayra Verbrugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book! Predictable but it didn't make it less enjoyable.

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was an amazing ending to both Royal Academy Rebels and Fairy Tale Reform School. Jen Colonita has outdone herself with this book.
The first thing I must note is that before reading Royal Academy Rebels, you should read Fairy Tale Reform School. (A different series taking place in Enchantasia before Royal Academy Rebels) There are many things that are important to know. Also, FTRS (abbreviation) is an amazing series and I liked it better than RAR.
My favorite bit in the whole book was the extra section at the end which involved the FTRS heroes and heroines. It was spectacular, and Jen Calonita couldn't have put in a better ending.
You should read both series by Jen Calonita, and when you have, finish off with Heroes, the best ending to the best series.

[Gilly 2 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely. 100%. Incredible. I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH!!! It is goblin-tastic! I wish there was another Enchantasia story coming...I'm not ready to say goodbye!

[Meghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was received as an ARC from Sourcebooks Young Readers in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

I now have read all of the books in the Royal Academy Rebels series and Jen Calonita is creative and hysterical as ever. I absolutely love the twist in dreams of Devin and how she wants to stand out and be unique. Then all of a sudden things change and a new villain is on the rise and Devin finally gets her chance to be a caretaker but not for a magical creature but a Rebel from the Fairy Tale Reform School. This book is brilliant in reflecting the curve balls life throws at you and that you were destined for a different direction and you didn't even know it. I know our young readers will enjoy this book and will never stop talking about it.

We will consider adding this title to our JFiction collection at our library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

[Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Last book in the series: 9/10

My Review:
You should know by now I love Jen Calonita’s writing. (Half of my website is her books) but I really must say this book just wasn’t it. I hate saying this about an author I love, but I feel like it had to be said. There was some interesting things in the beginning and I did LOVE how FTRS and RA have to move in together, since it FTRS was destroyed by Rumps and Alva. The ending though was just un-cinematic. I mean the author’s writing is fantastic but the ending of the story just wasn’t as intense as I would’ve liked it to be. Yes, in this book there was more character development which is important for any story, which is why I liked it so much.

Jen Calonita, if you are reading this please know I still absolutely love your writing and I don’t want you to ever stop. You are an amazing writer that I can’t wait to see more of. But I did love the Enchantasia universe, and the crossover. I loved the short story in the end, becasuse I needed more of Gilly.

OVERALL: You should read this series. It doesn’t really stand alone and I think in order to get the most out of the story, you should read Fairytale Reform School.

[Addie]

say what you want about childrens books but they’re a great way to get out of a reading slump

[Jessica Geil · Rating 5 out of 5]

These books are amazing!
I am so sad to be finished with the books in the world of Enchantasia.
I can only hope that Jen Calonita will revisit this beautiful universe.

[Naomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was really good! I read the previous two in the series a while ago, so I wasn't sure if I would remember what happened before, but everything seemed to come back pretty quickly. There was a lot of adventure and plot twists in this story, so it kept me entertained the whole way. And it is by Jen Calonita so of course it was amazing! I really want to go back and reread the FTRS series now, because reading this book has made me realize how much I miss the characters!

[Book - Dragon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sighhhh. I'm upset right now because I've been waiting a long time to read this book and I didn't even like it very much. I loved Misfits, Outlaws was pretty good too, but Heroes just left me hanging. The epic battle scene was anything but epic, Devin acted totally out of character, and it felt like the whole point of the story was to show how misunderstood gargoyles are (which I thought was stupid). I WANTED AN AWESOME CONCLUSION TO BOTH ROYAL ACADEMY REBELS AND FAIRY TALE REFORM SCHOOL!!!!!! (I also wanted to see Heath and Devin get together, but that was probably a stretch).

[Sharon Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heroes is the third book in the Royal Academy Rebels series by Jen Calonita. I highly recommend reading this series in order, and perhaps reading the Fairy Tale Reform School series first as well, because the two come together in this installment.

Princess Devin didn't come to Royal Academy for fame, glory, or a crown. All she's ever wanted is to be a Magical Creature Caretaker. Just when Devin gets up the courage to ask about following her passion, disaster strikes. The evil Rumplestiltskin and Alva cast a curse that nearly destroys Enchantasia, a new villain is on the rise, and the students of Royal Academy find they now have to share their castle with the delinquents from the notorious Fairy Tale Reform School.Devin feels stuck—how can she think about going her own way when her kingdom clearly needs her now more than ever?

Heroes is an entertaining and engaging read, and a wonderful addition to the series. Devin is still trying to find her way to being an animal caretaker, but the world still seems to be in danger and everything seems to be problematic. She does not know who to trust, including herself. I liked that she has some serious character development in this book, even if she really frustrated me at many, many points in the story. I enjoyed getting to see Anna and Tara more in this book, but would have enjoyed more character development or depth from the rest of the group. I thought the mystery and danger aspects were well done, and thought there were some surprises in play, for instance some that I thought would be involved with the big bad were not, and some that I did not suspect at all were. I liked the way the story and world were build and grew. I think fans of the two series thus far will need to read this, and that this series might just be a favorite for a large group of middle grade and teen readers.

Heroes is another great installment to the series and world that Calonita has created. I hope to revisit this world and its characters again soon.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 3 of the Royal Academy Rebels finds Devin and all her friends back at the Royal Academy and Olivina revealed as the villain and ousted as headmistress. But things are still not back to normal. Large portions of Fairy Tale Reform School were damaged or destroyed in the battle with Rumpelstiltskin and Alva. Now the FTRS students will be attending RA and even rooming with the royals! To make matters worse, it is rumored that Rumpelstiltskin and Alva are planning to cast a spell that will entirely rewrite the history of the kingdom and erase everything the students from both schools have fought to achieve.

With security tightening around the school, possible attacks by the villains and their minions, and pressure from the royal court for Devin's group to act as role models for the other students (including having to make speeches and talk to the press), things may never get back to normal. Devin hopes that a new teacher hired for a Creature Caretaker class may see her potential and help to convince her parents to let her pursue her dreams, but circumstances keep spiraling out of control.

This book mixes together some of the characters from both series, most notably making Anna and Devin roommates. Favorites from previous installments are all here - princes, princesses, and even Lily the bearded dragon. A bonus FTRS story is included for fans who can't get enough of Gilly and her pals. For those who have loved and supported the characters through all their troubles, this brings resolution to many of the story lines, explores themes of friendship and being true to oneself, and still manages to leave the door open for future adventures.

Great for middle grade readers who enjoy fairy tale remixes, magic, adventure, and stories that rely on friendship to help the heroes succeed.

[Becky B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Princess Devin thinks that now that Alva has been outed and is on the run and Royal Academy is under new management (and allowing non-royal students to apply). Devin thinks she can finally ask her parents if she can transfer out to the Sherwood school that specializes in creature caretaker training. But then the big confrontation with Rumplestiltskin hits and the kingdom is reeling in the aftermath. Fairy Tale Reform School and Royal Academy are temporarily combined while repairs to FTRS are carried out. No one is happy about getting new roommates, and students from both academies have a lot of preconceived notions about each other. Devin finds herself stuck rooming with Anna, one of the ones who actually helped Rumplestiltskin. Not only that but Anna has suddenly developed the ability to communicate with animals, and seems to be able to do it faster and better than Devin. It isn't fair. And as classes resume, odd things are happening around campus. There are more gargoyle sightings, and Devin can understand them, but she shouldn't be able to understand evil creatures, right? And Alva's granddaughter is acting oddly. Plus there are others obviously trying to get Alva to come back. Can Devin and others prevent that from happening?

Devin learns some important lessons in this about judging without getting to know others first. And learning it is ok if others have similar talents to you, it doesn't mean you have to feel threatened. I liked having FTRS and RA all combined as it provided an opportunity to fully wrap up both series. A fun end to 2 series that have had some quickly devoted fans.

Notes on content: No language issues. No sexual content. Violence is threatened, but everyone ends up ok.

[Mandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Middle grade adventure/ fantasy. This book was such a fun ending to the storylines of both the Fairy Tale Reform School and the Royal Academy Rebels series. This one takes place after Cursed, and deals with the aftermath of the battle with Rumplestiltskin. Since the FTRS campus was severely damaged in that battle, those students are coming to the RA campus, which some of the royals are not happy about. Anna Cobbler, Gilly's younger sister and former Stiltskin squad member, is one of the FTRS students coming over. Devin is not happy to be sharing a room with her, but soon they find out they have a shared interest in creature caretaking. With all of the former misfits back on campus, there is a lot of adjusting to do. Tara in particular seems to be having a hard time of it-- always looking exhausted and seeming confused. Can all of the students ban together and figure out what's really going on? Is villainy vanquished or is there still a threat to be taken out?

This book would not be nearly as enjoyable without reading at least one, if not both of the full series that came before. Having enjoyed all of the prior books, this one was like visiting old friends. Adventure, magic, talking pegasi and gargoyles, magical charmaccino drinks, and all around a lot of fun.

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an electronic ARC from SOURCEBOOK Kids through NetGalley.
This series concludes with characters taking on one last challenge to defeat the Fairy Godmother. No one has seen her but hints that she is still about appear in almost every chapter. Calonita also confronts prejudice and making judgements with her descriptions of how the gargoyles are treated. Readers see this story through Devin's point of view as she struggles with her life's call and with her own biases and judgements. She has to reassess her abilities and filters when she meets Anna (Gilly's younger sister for those who know the whole series). She has been branded and few think she really changed after leaving Rumplestiltskin's army. Readers watch their relationship evolve as the story progresses. Both the Royal Academy and Fairy Tale Reform School have to share space after the "final" battle that takes place at the beginning of the book but is not directly part of the story.
Well done conclusion that offers openings for further adventures but wraps up the good versus evil battles that have run through the series.

[Starr · Rating 2 out of 5]

It wasn't a terrible series but unfortunately I've read other books that did it better. They all start off with the princess stereotypes of having to look good and knowing how to dance at a ball. But the main character is different from the other princess and she wants to do more than rule.
So many authors to this in fairy tale remakes that it doesn't have the same effect.
Unfortunately for this series I've read the School of Good and Evil series which I think did it better. It deals with the them of good and evil but u can't necessarily go by outward. Appearances. And as the series goes on it develops on themes of gender, the right to rule, trust, friendship, can a person change, etc. It is a longer series so it gave itself more time to develop these themes. But I mean after you read that this series just falls short.
It is well written and she develops her characters well. So it's an ok read. But I wouldn't recommend this series.

[Mel Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this was a good ending to the RA and FTRS series. I like the combo of them together.

The reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because I felt the "big battle" was a bit rushed compared to the build up and the rest of the story. But overall, I liked it and sad to see it end.

Also, reading one other review on here, I'm not sure where claims of a character being gay (not that there is anything wrong with that) came from because it does not mention or indicate that anywhere in the book. Just to clarify. And Heath being liked by Devin "romantically" is not really indicated either. Just that they're friends who look at each other like equals. REALLY confused as to where that reviewer got these from and maybe was thinking of another plot while typing this one.

[Zessi Kurz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this series so much!
I've read every book in this series and love them all.
Though I was rather disappointed in the ending of this book, I hope that there will be another run on series told by the perspectives of several of our beloved side characters shuch as: Jax, Jack, Heeth, Maxine, Anna, and all the other marvelous characters we've grown to love, along with our amazing Gilly and Devin, all fighting together for the greater good.
I would also love to see Gilly and Jax get together along with Devin and Heeth, but we can only dream😁. And I don't know if this is just me, or if Ollie and Raina would hit it off.
Still hoping for more, but an amazing story written beautifully.

[Genevieve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can I give this book a 10 star rating? The worse thing about this book was that it is the end of the series and I can't read more of the adventures in Enchantasia. I loved this book. The Royal Academy is still standing after the world was almost erased but the Reform School needs a lot of work so the reform students come to Royal Academy.
I love all the characters in this book Devin and her friends band together with help from former evil student Anna Cobbler to save the world against it all. The story line kept me engrossed and almost to the end I couldn't tell who to trust and who to hate. It was an amazing story and amazing characters.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

My 5th grader enjoyed this series, and I read each book when she was done so we could talk about them. We agreed that this book was not as good as the first two, and the poor editing (ending punctuations missing and whole sentences repeated) was frustrating for both of us. The constant jealousy and ungratefulness of Devin, the main character, makes her far less likeable in this book than she was in the first two. There's also a huge battle at the beginning of this book that I believe overlaps with the timeline of the author's other series, but it's completely skipped over in this book. It's still an overall good series. The finale just fell a little flat.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This amazing story gave me a book hangover.

It's an amazing end to the Royal Academy Rebels Series... with visits from the folks at Fairy Tale Reform school after a magical terrorist attack (and a stint in an underground mall).

Reluctant Royal Devin must team up with unlikely friend/roommate Anna (the Fairy Tale felon) to protect baby gargoyles from certain danger. Hilarity, as well as lessons about questioning prejudices and being true to yourself, ensue.

Thank you Jen Calonita for sharing with #BookAllies.

[Eugene Hung · Rating 5 out of 5]

From my 12-year-old daughter: “I have been reading the Fairy Tale Reform School/Royal Academy Rebels books for about 4 years, and I still love them! I especially love the new one, because I always love a good crossover story, especially when it’s done well. And it is! I also love how it explores characters you know, but don’t know more personal things about. Overall, this book is great, and made my inner fan-girl squeal with joy!"

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

judge not!

I was pretty disappointed with Devin and how quickly she turned on creatures she claimed to want to care for. Even babies! Rude!

She judged Anna and judged the gargoyles and was pretty mean to them. She was selfish and wanted to go to to Nottingham and didn’t care who she hurt in the process.

I’m glad she apologized but it seemed pretty sad to turn so quickly when it suited her.

[Emma! · Rating 3 out of 5]

I tough it was a little bit rushed at sometimes. I really didnt have the time to think abaut who did what and who did that. + plus it would have been better if Devin would have stayed a little bit more sensible. In this book at least the half of time i saw her as a bi*ch 😔. It could have been better,but i would still read fourth book if there is gonna be one.

[Cindi · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good story overall but I didn’t love this book in the series. I love the premise and I like the crossover between fairytale reform school series. I’m not sure if it’s just because the FTRS series came first but I like that series better than this one. I do like the characters in this series but a lot of them are extremely shallow and it’s hard to want to root for them.

[Em07 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like how they combined the two school so they can work together to beat the fairy godmother who turned evil and put people in her trance to do her dirty work. I definitely love the two characters Anna and Devin. If they need someone to be a movie in these books series I would love to be part of it because I can listen to animals and understand them since I’m known as the animals whisperer

[Alexis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you Sourcebooks for an advanced copy! I love the mix of known fairytale characters and new ones and the adventures they all have.

3 things I loved
-enemies to best friends
-mystery
-gargoyles! I want more gargoyles