Ranking The Hero’s Guide trilogy

Everyone knows the story of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel and Snow White, but the truth is the bards got a lot wrong. For instance, all those Princes Charmings have a name, and their stories have cast them aside in various embarassing ways.

But it’s not the annoying songs that bring the princes together. That all starts when Prince Frederic drives off his Cinderella with his dainty, safe (aka boring) lifestyle. Determined to prove his mettle, even though he doesn’t know how to ride a horse, he goes after her and meets up with Gustav, Duncan, and Liam and they all end up in a convoluted plot headed by the evil witch Zabura to destroy the kingdom.

Through a variety of mishaps, failures, so many failures, the League of Princes is born and so much fun on the way. And maybe, just myabe these brash, arrogant, cowardly, silly princes can become heroes.

1. The Hero’s Guide to Storming the Castle: You may think that after saving the kingdom, the princes would become beloved and respected. You thought wrong. Since Gustav’s brothers took the credit and they got humiliated by the tweenage Bandit King, the princes are back to where they started. But they have a chance at redemption by rescuing Liam from his wedding to the bratty Briar Rose. They fail, but Briar offers them a chance to become heroes. Get the stolen sword of Erithia (in the trove of their nemesis, the Bandit King) and Briar will pardon them all. Of course, they don’t trust Briar just to hand the sword over, so it’s a double-cross ontop of the double-cross Briar has planned for them. Also the heist involves warlords, blade-jawed eels, giants and internal strife. The internal strife is what catapults this to number one as Frederic and Liam butt heads over leadership styles, undiscreetly stemming from their jealousy over the Cinderella love triangle they’re in. Liam also had the additional insecurity over finding out his entire life is a lie, and he may not be a hero after all. There’s really a lot more to it than that because Healey manages to stuff arcs for everyone ontop of funny side rants, proper grammer and the ultimate troll vs giant fight but that’s the main reason it gets the spot is has,
2. The Hero’s Guide to Being an Outlaw: This was one epic finale. It’s no wonder each novel gets just a little bit longer as Healey brings in not only giant mongeese (or mongoose, either is correct. Also inside joke in the book), the djinn of Barbidiua, resurrected and possessed warlords, and pirates. But he wraps all thirteen kingdoms into an all-out war led by our favorite bumbling League of Princes and Fierce Female Fighters. Obviously, I’m not even touching the cream of the crop but it’s nice seeing how everyone gets where they need to be even the supposed bad guys like Ruffian the Blue and Briar whose hidden depths are expanded on till she actually becomes an anti-hero. I still feel that Liam and Ella’s tension to be unnecessary drama to drag out their eventual couple-dom.
3. The Hero’s Guide to Saving the Kingdom: Honestly, Healey’s writing is consistantly great so there’s no real reason to put this at the bottom as his introduction is just as witty, action-packed and chock full of character development as all the others. It’s a nice look back to see how far they’ve all come from their flaws and neurosis. Plus the friendship pep talk as the princes truly come together and see each other’s strengths is really sweet.