Name: Hannah Williams's review of What Once Was Mine by Liz Braswell
Item: What Once Was Mine
Rating: 4.5
Author: Hannah Williams

Liz Braswell

The 12th installment in the New York Times best-selling series asks: What if Rapunzel's mother drank a potion from the wrong flower? Desperate to save the life of their queen and her unborn child, the good citizens of the kingdom comb the land for the all-healing Sundrop flower to cure her . . . but someone mistakenly picks the blossom of the Moondrop instead. This shimmering flower heals the queen and she delivers a healthy baby girl�with hair as silver and gray as the moon. But with her mysterious hair comes dangerous magical powers: the power to hurt, not heal. For the safety of the kingdom, Rapunzel is locked away in a tower and put under the care of the powerful goodwife, Mother Gothel. For eighteen years Rapunzel stays imprisoned in her tower, knowing she must protect everyone from her magical hair. When she finally decides to leave the only home she's ever known�to see the floating lights that appear on her birthday�she gets caught up in an unexpected adventure with two thieves: a would-be outlaw named Gina, and Flynn Rider, a rogue on the run. Before she can reach her happy ending, Rapunzel learns that there is far more to her story, and her magical hair, and her future than she ever knew. For more twisted adventures, try the other books in the A TWISTED TALE series: A Whole New World by Liz Braswell Once Upon a Dream by Liz Braswell As Old As Time by Liz Braswell Reflection by Elizabeth Lim Part of Your World by Liz Braswell Mirror, Mirror by Jen Calonita Conceal, Don't Feel by Jen Calonita Straight On Till Morning by Liz Braswell So This is Love by Elizabeth Lim Unbirthday by Liz Braswell Go the Distance by Jen Calonita (on sale 4/06/2021)

A Twisted Tale

What Once Was Mine

Lizeth Esmeralda

“You're too young, they say. You're a girl, they say. How am I supposed to get job experience if no one will let me in on a job? Literally the only thing I've wanted to do my entire life and it's a boys' club…”

Jocelyn Smith

this retelling was so much fun. i love the way the author went about telling the story. having it set up as the brother to telling the story to his sister with interruptions was so much fun and kind of reminded me of the princess bride. the retelling itself was so good because it truly was pretty different than the tangled movie. i really enjoyed all the little added things like the witch and the auction. also the way maximus and pascal came to be was super creative. my only complaint is that the middle was a little slow but other than it was a fantastic read!

Hannah Williams

(spoilers)

this retelling was so much fun. i love the way the author went about telling the story. having it set up as the brother to telling the story to his sister with interruptions was so much fun and kind of reminded me of the princess bride. the retelling itself was so good because it truly was pretty different than the tangled movie. i really enjoyed all the little added things like the witch and the auction. also the way maximus and pascal came to be was super creative. my only complaint is that the middle was a little slow but other than it was a fantastic read!

Mallory Kim

This book was okay. I expected a bit more out of it I think. For me this book didn't get good until about 75% of the way through. It took almost half of the book for rapunzel to leave her tower, making the book a slow read for me that neglected to pull me in. The love story between her and Flynn felt so odd and forced and .. immature? As if it was placed there simply because the original story had it. Their love developed out of nowhere and there wasn't one moment that triggered it. 

This book felt very teen or child-ish in tone and content until the sudden super disturbing part about the countess comes up... leaving me to wonder if I was still reading the same book. Don't get me wrong, it made the story more interesting, it was just an odd transition after what felt like I was reading a mellow "fairytale". 

I didn't love that the basis is a brother telling this story to his sister that he is making up as he goes. Especially in the beginning when the story didn't have much ... substance... the idea that some kid was making it up from the real book made it feel even more like.. well what you would expect a teenage boy to come up with on the spot. 

For a while there I felt like no climax was in sight but thankfully that climax finally pulled through and was the bit of this book I enjoyed most.

The 12th installment in the New York Times best-selling series asks: What if Rapunzel's mother drank a potion from the wrong flower? Desperate to save the life of their queen and her unborn child, the good citizens of the kingdom comb the land for the all-healing Sundrop flower to cure her . . . but someone mistakenly picks the blossom of the Moondrop instead. This shimmering flower heals the queen and she delivers a healthy baby girl?with hair as silver and gray as the moon. But with her mysterious hair comes dangerous magical powers: the power to hurt, not heal. For the safety of the kingdom, Rapunzel is locked away in a tower and put under the care of the powerful goodwife, Mother Gothel. For eighteen years Rapunzel stays imprisoned in her tower, knowing she must protect everyone from her magical hair. When she finally decides to leave the only home she's ever known—to see the floating lights that appear on her birthday—she gets caught up in an unexpected adventure with two thieves: a would-be outlaw named Gina, and Flynn Rider, a rogue on the run. Before she can reach her happy ending, Rapunzel learns that there is far more to her story, and her magical hair, and her future than she ever knew. For more twisted adventures, try the other books in the A TWISTED TALE series: A Whole New World by Liz Braswell Once Upon a Dream by Liz Braswell As Old As Time by Liz Braswell Reflection by Elizabeth Lim Part of Your World by Liz Braswell Mirror, Mirror by Jen Calonita Conceal, Don't Feel by Jen Calonita Straight On Till Morning by Liz Braswell So This is Love by Elizabeth Lim Unbirthday by Liz Braswell Go the Distance by Jen Calonita (on sale 4/06/2021)

It took me a while to get into this book. But once it did get into it, I enjoyed it. I didn’t like how the whole plot point of Rapunzel seeing the floating lanterns was taken out. The writing style was also quite different to what I’m used to. But overall I did like how the plot played out. After reading this I wanted to watch Tangled!

elle 

Margery 

kendall p

I received this book a few weeks ago early, but since it’s publishing day I finally finished! 
Thank you to the publishers at Netgalley! 
I really enjoyed this book, especially since Tangled is my favorite disney movie. 
If you want to be transported back into the magical world of Rapunzel, I recommend!

stephanie archer 

this was a warm hug to all fans of tangled

Mikayla Cassidy

Want to start off this review by saying thank you so much to Disney publishing for sending me an arc of this book! This is my first arc and I am so excited to review it for you guys! This book was absolutely incredible and completely surpassed my expectations. I am a huge fan of all things Disney, especially Tangled, so I was nervous that this book wouldn’t live up to the movie; I was so wrong! The way that the author chose to frame the story as if it were being told from a brother to his sister is truly ingenious and really emphasizes the found family trope which is consistent throughout the story! It is really great because the plot is different enough from the movie to keep it interesting but there are also many callbacks to the movies that fans can pick up on. My favorite part about this book is the way that it established Rapunzel’s character and individuality. The relationship between her and Flynn is told beautifully but there are also many moments when Rapunzel is able to decide things for herself, without Flynn’s input which I really enjoyed. Additionally, this book introduces a new character, Gina, who becomes close with both Rapunzel and Flynn. I really loved the addition of a female friendship for Rapunzel and how their dynamic is different and just as rewarding as Flynn and Rapunzel’s dynamic. Finally, the romance between Flynn and Rapunzel is told amazingly in this book, there were so many moments where I couldn’t help but smile and gush over how cute they are! If you are a fan of Tangled or Disney, you will absolutely love this twisted retelling!

Caitlyn DeRouin

** spoiler alert **
           So so good! Got me out of a reading slump! i love the way the story was framed and she always does an incredible job twisting the storyline and characters around!! really well done and a book i’m glad i own!!

so now that ive processed the story. i wanted to add a bit more. firstly, i really wish we had gotten more of a moment of rapunzel’s power. like i know she shrunk the castle, but it didn’t feel as impactful as it should have been to signify her control. i also wish we got a definitive what each phase does to her powers because i feel like that was just never wrapped up. it feels less open ended as it does just annoying that we don’t get any answers to the extent of her powers. furthermore, i missed the sacrifice flynn does at the end of the film. yes i get this is a twisted version, and while i do think the characterization of flynn was done really well, it just feels off. the speed of flynn and rapunzel’s relationship also felt shaky, i can’t pinpoint why the film works better, but rapunzel just felt so naive in this story that her falling in love with flynn was less romantic because of it you know? 

aside from those very small qualms, i still overall thought the book had some interesting twists and did a good job of building inside an already fleshed out world. also the framing was awesome with a boy being the one to tell his version, i thought that was a unique way to get the story across.

Jelke Lenaerts

I received a galley of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. 

This book has a content warning for cancer.

I'm going to start this review of by disclaiming that I've never seen Tangled but I do know the basic story of it as well as the original Rapunzel story. That plus my evergrowing interest in this series made me pick this book up. I don't regret it at all though. This was a really fun and quick read. Going in I wasn't expecting the Rapunzel story to be framed by a brother telling his sister the story while she is going through her cancer treatments. So yeah, even though that wasn't expected I really loved that element. It was a small element but I still really got a sense of the sibling relationship between the two and it really warmed my heart. Now, to the main story: I really liked this story a lot. I loved the magic element in this. I loved the adventuring aspect of this book. I don't know if this is going to make sense but I loved how fantasy it felt. I'm just saying that because even though I quite like Disney movies but they feel very fairytale-esque and this really felt fantasy. I loved the attention to detail in the inclusion of science-y stuff as well as just setting a historical setting. I don't know. I'm explaining this terribly I know but I just really loved the setting and it was very easy to imagine it all. I quite liked the characters but they were pretty flat. I know that's a staple in Disney movies but I expect a bit more from the books I read. However, I really loved the friendship that was at the center of this book as well. The romance was a bit underdeveloped but they did have some cute moments, so it isn't the worst romance I've ever read.

ashley larsen

Tangled with a dark twist. Exciting and adventurous. Our story starts modern day in the hospital room of a 16 year old cancer patient. Her and her brother just finished watching tangled and she want him to read her the book now, but her brother decided to add his own twist to the story. What if Rapunzel’s mother drank a potion from the wrong flower. This book gave me all the feels and it was amazing highly recommended if you love the movie tangled!!

Gemma

This was such a fun retelling of Tangled! The story starts off similar to the original movie, but goes completely off the rails part way through. I've only read one other twisted tale story before and didn't really enjoy the changes made to that one, but this one I had a fun time with Rapunzel and gang. The twisted tales seems to be a bit darker than the movies; Mother Gothel tries to auction off Rapunzel and her magic to the highest bidder, either as a wife or a slave. We encounter another villain this way: Countess Bathory, who in the story remains true to the rumors of her bathing in virgin blood to retain her youth. 

Keeping in mind that the target audience is teens, I didn't have a hard time being in Rapunzel's head as we explore the world for the first time outside of her tower. I originally thought that the book would follow most of the movie, but early on we meet Gina, who encourages Rapunzel to control her magic and take on adventures herself. I quite enjoyed the little ending with Gina and Flynn; the author definitely foreshadowed this throughout the book but I didn't catch this until the end.

Overall, this was a touching story. We got to explore more of Rapunzel's relationship with Mother Gothel, and the Snuggly Duckling gang plays a larger role. I would definitely watch this as a movie.

caro(lee)na

i’d like to start this off my saying this was my favorite book in the twisted tales series. my favorite disney princess is rapunzel, so i was very excited to read this. IT DID NOT DISAPPOINT. 

the person who tells the story is the brother of a girl with cancer who’s obsessed with tangled and i think that’s so cute 

i also loved the feminist topics throughout it.

Jocelyn Smith &
What Once Was Mine by Liz Braswell

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What Once Was Mine by Liz Braswell