This book is a bit of a copycat of Harry Potter. The Royal Academy, though, has less purpose than a magical school. Devin, the main character, can talk to animals and she is rare royalty. She has an ambitious mother who has known about the Royal Academy all of Devin's life, but somehow Devin doesn't know any rules or what to do when she gets there. And the ambitious mother didn't know about how rare Devin's animal talking gift was and how it could help Devin's royal endeavors. I think an ambitious mother would know. I wish authors should stop teaching about class systems and how some people are just born better than others. Save the royalty for historical fiction. The author tried to bring too many fairy tales into the story with various characters being related to familiar fairy tale characters. I think this was too much. I like fractured fairy tales and fairy tales extended to chapter books, but this was way over done. Just pick one. The plot never grabbed me and I had to force myself through the story. ( )