The students at the School for Good and Evil thought they had found their final Ever After when they vanquished the malevolent School Master. Now, on their required fourth-year quests, the students face obstacles both dangerous and unpredictable, and the stakes are high: success brings eternal adoration, and failure means obscurity forever.

For their quests, Agatha and Tedros are trying to return Camelot to its former splendor as queen and king. For her quest, Dean Sophie seeks to mold Evil in her own image. But soon they all feel themselves growing more isolated and alone.

When their classmates’ quests plunge into chaos, however, someone must lead the charge to save them…

Let me start off by saying that I almost wanted to put the book down in the beginning, but I wasn’t sure if it was because I was losing interest or because of my reading mood. It turned out to be a little bit of both. The story starts out kind of slow as we get introduced to where Sophie, Agatha, and Tedros are six months after the third book, so it wasn’t exactly pulling me into the story right away like the other books did. However, once the story took off, my mood changed and I got really into their adventure once again.

In this adventure, the students are working on their fourth-year quests, which they previously thought were their Ever-Afters. At least, Sophie, Agatha, and Tedros did. But after a messy coronation, Tedros has to prove to himself and his kingdom that he’s the true king of Camelot and that he deserves to be. So when a new villain, known as The Snake, arises with his own magic pen that rivals The Storian, the three set off to once again, save the Woods and their Happily Ever-Afters.

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my long life, it’s that every villain thinks they’re the hero of their own story.”

As always, Agatha is my favorite character (Hort is getting up there as well), while Sophie and Tedros tend to annoy me. Agatha always seems to get the short straw in these novels, but in that she also proves her strength and her love for her best friend and boyfriend. I find it kind of interesting how her circumstances in the beginning in the story kind of comes full-circle at the end – which I obviously won’t spoil because I hate spoilers.

(Guess you’ll just have to read it to find out what I mean 😉)

As I mentioned, Sophie and Tedros annoy me. Don’t get me wrong, I like them, but they can be the whiniest characters in this story. Sophie usually tends to prove why she was chosen for the School of Evil with her selfishness disguised as good works. Though when it comes to Agatha, she does actually mean well and I adore their friendship and how it’s stood through everything they’ve gone through. Tedros on the other hand, I could honestly do without him in the books. I don’t hate him, but sometimes I feel like he’s the real third-wheel here, getting in between Sophie and Agatha’s best-friendship. His main flaw is that he needs to learn to accept help when he needs it, but I think a lot of us are like that in some way or another.

Then Hort. Sweet, stinky Hort. He deserves so much better. He kind of gets it in this story, but at the beginning of the tale, we again see him pining after Sophie who just strings him along in order to get him to do tasks for her. He might be a Never, but he’s got the potential of a hero and you can see he actually does care about his classmates, Evers and Nevers alike. I hope there’s more of him in the next book and that he gets the heroic break that he deserves.

Aside from the characters, which honestly make the book, the adventure they’re on is an interesting one. It takes an old tale that the kids of Camelot grew up with, of the Lion and the Snake, and brings it forth into their lives and proves it to be a real struggle of the King of Camelot. Tedros learns that The Snake is after his throne, claiming that Tedros is the Snake and not the Lion, so Tedros has to prove otherwise. So the group of classmates have to figure out who The Snake really is and why he’s claiming that he’s the rightful King of Camelot.

Overall, this is another great installment of The School for Good and Evil series once you get past the slow start. Don’t let it deter you. This novel raises the stakes and at the end, you’re going to want to pick up the next book right away!

Rating: 4.5/5 stars