I love Tangled, and I was very interested to dive into What Once was Mine and to explore a different version of Rapunzel’s story. I was nervous as I started the book and realized that, in this story, Rapunzel’s hair has lethal powers rather than the healing ones it has in the movie. I was concerned that the kind, smart, goofy princess from the movie would be transformed into a violent and evil character. I am relieved that the Rapunzel in What Once was Mine remains kind and caring.

What Once was Mine uses a framing device where Brendan is telling his twin sister, Daniella, a story as she goes through cancer treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering. This feels appropriate because fairy tales are based in oral tradition. Daniella is also trapped by her illness just as Rapunzel is trapped in her tower and by the fear of her hair’s power. This framing also allows the reader into Brendan’s thoughts into how he is crafting the story, which I enjoyed.

Tangled is technically told through Flynn Rider’s perspective, but the audience remains very focused on Rapunzel and her point of view throughout the film. I loved that What Once was Mine addressed the points of view of many of the story’s characters. The queen doesn’t speak in Tangled, and it moved me to hear the story of a mother who made the devastating choice to send her daughter away. "Arianna still mourned the loss of her daughter and spent many sleepless nights in the last room where she saw her, one hand on her cradle. But her days were spent building the finest orphanages that anyone in the world had ever seen. She made sure there was enough food, clothes, and nurses to take adequate care of the kingdom’s motherless youngest." I admired Arianna for choosing to turn her grief into an opportunity to help the orphans of her kingdom.

The book format also allows the reader to delve into Rapunzel’s innermost thoughts and feelings. The depth of Rapunzel’s loneliness before she leaves her tower is highlighted for the reader. "Of course humans can weather almost anything with love and companionship…and for the first time, Rapunzel was beginning to realize she might not actually have either." Moments like this made me so happy when Rapunzel is finally able to build connection and relationships with Gina and Flynn because she finally makes the friends she always wanted.

The Rapunzel of Tangled is strong and smart, but I was consistenly struck by the development of the character in What Once was Mine into an independent, confident young woman. "I am not an object to be fought over, whether it’s as a wife or a weapon. I am a person." It is clear that even though Mother Gothel spent Rapunzel’s childhood telling her that she is dangerous and that she can’t go out in the world, Rapunzel is still able to see her own worth.

As a fan of the movie, I enjoyed the little nods to Tangled in What Once was Mine. Mother Gothel makes a comment that “mother knows best,” which is a reference to the iconic song that Donna Murphy sings in the movie. There are also references to Flynn’s “smolder” and other similar references that grounded What Once was Mine in the same world as Tangled.

What Once was Mine has a darker tone than Tangled from Rapunzel’s hair with murderous powers to the bloodhungry villain, Countess Bathory. Even the framing story about a teenager with cancer adds to the book’s somber tone. This version of the story is more adult and feels more in line with the Grimm’s orginal fairy tales.

I highly recommend What Once was Mine especially to fans of Rapunzel and Tangled like me.

Okay, so this book was absolutely adorable. It had tension, it had romance, it had a dark and gothic feel to it. It involved German and Romanian stories within the plot, and it involved a naive main character that grew into herself so well that she became a princess in more than name. She was a princess in actions too. Gina was an interesting addition to the story, in that her quirkiness added to the plot. She drove the plot in potential directions that it wouldn’t have gone in the original movie. It’s well worth having her in the book and along for the ride. Flynn seemed to almost immediately care for Rapunzel to the point it felt insta-love without actually being insta-love. I think that was a genius take on an already developed trope. I liked Gina’s mom, because she showed Rapunzel what a mom could be. The twist that Gina and Eugene are siblings at the end threw me for a loop (a little), but I sorta guessed that early. I loved the interaction between the sibling telling the tale and the sick sibling critiquing the tale, because that’s how siblings are (I know, I have two brothers). This book is definitely worth adding to TBR piles.

approved to review this book, but unfortunately I didn't have enough time to get to it before it archived. I am a mood reader and I just wasn't in the mood for disney inspired books. I'd rather not force myself to read a book that I'm not in the mood for and end up hating myself for forcing through it. I plan on getting a hard copy of the book in the near future & anticipate when I'm in a Disney retelling mood!

I couldn’t get into this book unfortunately. Which really bothers me since Rapunzel is one of my fave princesses!

After years of unanswered questions, and longing for an adventure, she's ready to let her hair down...

Rapunzel has spent her entire life locked away, not for her safety, but the safety of others. Her magnificent silver hair is a curse, one that she keeps tightly bound and tucked away, except for one braid that she uses to help her mother climb up her tower. Rapunzel knows her mother loves her, but with her visits less frequent, she can't help but feel lonely and curious about the world outside of her tower. She works up the courage to ask her mother to take her to see the floating lights, and is immediately shut down. Hurt and frustrated, Rapunzel takes her adventure- and her hair- into her own hands. Her journey brings new friends, impossible choices, and impeding danger. Can she be the hero of her own story? Or is she the villain with dangerous hair that she's always feared herself to be?
I read this book in two days, and I have to say, this is probably my favourite Disney Twisted Tale yet! As always, the characters were so authentic to the movie versions, but much more developed and personal. I found Rapunzel extremely relatable, and my heart broke for her many times throughout the story. I felt as though I was embarking on this transformative journey with her, as Liz Braswell's use of description pulled me right into this magical story. I highly recommend What Once Was Mine to anyone who loves a good fairytale twist!

Liz Braswell has done a great job on every one of the Twisted Tales that she has written and "What Once Was Mine" is another hit. This one is a twisted take on Rapunzel (and I won't bore you with the summary as it's all over the place), but I have to say I was instantly intrigued when I read the part about Rapunzel's hair having the power to hurt instead of heal. That was a very interesting way to go about the story (and how it could be different from the one we all know and love). If you liked the rest of the Twisted Tales, then you'll like this one. I'm always looking forward to seeing what fairy tale the series will take on next!

Thank you to Disney Books for sending me an ARC via netgalley for an honest review.
5/5 stars
I absolutely loved this twist on Tangled! It was so much fun, and it was filled with all the things that make the movie so good, just in a bit of a different way.
I really enjoyed the format of the story. Not only is it a story about Rapunzel, but it’s also a story about Brendan and Daniella. Brendan and Daniella are twins, and Daniella has cancer. Brendan goes with her to her chemo appointments, and they often watch Tangled and read Rapunzel’s story because it’s Daniella’s favourite. One day, Brendan tells Daniella that he wants to tell her his version of the story she loves. Daniella is hesitant because she doesn’t want her brother to ruin the story by adding Stormtroopers or robots, but Brendan assures her that it will have everything she wants in it. I really loved this way of presenting the twisted tale, and I loved the little interruptions in Rapunzel’s story to remind us of the characters behind the story.
Rapunzel was such a fun character, and I really liked her energy! Not only was she super positive throughout most of the book, but she did have doubts and other emotions that made her feel so real. Her enthusiasm over seeing new things and learning things was really cute, and I was rooting for her the whole book.
I liked the way Mother Gothel was handed, and I also liked the other villains in the story. Along with the added villains, I also liked the other changes that twist this tale. Gina was a fun character, and I liked her relationships with Rapunzel and her mother. Gina’s mother was also a good character, and I liked how she was able to teach Rapunzel about magic.
The magic hair in this tale is the major twist because instead of the Sundrop flower, the Queen consumed the Moondrop flower. This leads to a scary situation, and Rapunzel ultimately Bringen sent away with Mother Gothel. Seeing Rapunzel’s relationship with her hair change was really cool, and I thought it was a fun element to add in the experiments with her magic.
The pacing and tone of the book were really good, and I found it flowed easily. I loved reading it, and I think Disney fans and readers who enjoy magic adventures with princesses, thieves, and villains will really enjoy What Once Was Mine.

The format of the storytelling in this book is unlike any of the other Twisted Tales ( that I've read at least and I've nearly read them all now). It is truly touching and highly recommended for that reason. As for the retelling of the Tangle tale itself, I loved it too! It was so different and imaginative evoking a complete new outlook on the kingdom of Corona and Rapunzel herself. Always nice to see the characters we know and love from the Disney movie in a new way, but with respect for their original form.
Ultimately, this book is at the top for my favorite of the Twisted Tale series. What Once Was Mine is one I will read again and suggest you to read too!

What Once Was Mine by Liz Braswell is the twelfth installment of the series A Twisted Tale that takes a single action in a fairy tale and asks “What if”. This time the question is “What if Rapunzel’s mother drank a potion from the wrong flower?” I quite honestly loved this book. From start to finish, it is engaging, entertaining, and heartfelt, much like the cartoon version it is based on. Braswell does something that I haven’t seen her do before here: she writes a story within a story.

In the same vein as The Princess Bride, the story begins with Brendan at a hospital with his younger sister who has cancer and is receiving treatment. To cheer her up and not read the same story he has read more times than he can count, he decides to tell her his own Rapunzel story. I love Brendan’s version of the story. I also love how Daniella continuously interrupts the story to interject her own thoughts about what should happen next. It brings levity to the story while also bringing awareness to childhood cancer, which is a cause near and dear to my own heart.

In Brendan’s story, Rapunzel’s mother drinks a potion from the Moondrop flower, and so her healing powers are much different. Rapunzel’s hair is now silver instead of gold, and her power is tied to the moon. Instead of healing, her hair can kill. With broken hearts, her parents send her away to learn how to control her magic and hopefully one day return, but Mother Gothel has other plans.

Rapunzel is not quite as naive as she is in the origin cartoon. She is still unused to the world at large, but she is more scared of killing others than of them hurting her. In fact, I’d say she’s quite fearless in that she quickly trusts those around her, knowing that if it comes down to it, she can protect herself. I loved reading how her character grows and learns through her adventure to see the floating lights.

Flynn is not my favorite character though as he is in the source material. While I like him, Gina is my favorite. Gina is a new character created by Brendan for the story. She is like a female Flynn. She’s daring and courageous and wants nothing more than to be a ruffian as Rapunzel calls them. When she crosses paths with Rapunzel, she promises to help her find Flynn Rider in exchange for a bit of gold and notoriety.

Overall, I really enjoyed What Once Was Mine. Rapunzel’s journey is more here than in the cartoon, and it is even more accurate to history at the time the story is set during. I loved the characters and bits of history Braswell adds to the story. Again I loved the story within a story as well. Brendan and Daniella are fun, even if their presence isn’t always seen. If you are a fan of this series or a fan of fairy tales, I highly recommend this one!

I will begin by saying I loved almost all of the Disney Twisted Tales stories so I was super excited to pick up What Once Was Mine. I loved this refresh on Rapunzel's story and it kept me reading all night, I could not put the book down!

I finally got around to reading this week and I'm so sad I waited as long as I did. This is hands down my favorite out of the series. This is the twisted tale of Rapunzel and follows the main characters down an alt path, It's a big boy and takes a little to get through but I promise if you are into Disney and Rapunzel is one of your favorite its worth it the pages. I think this one has the best story build and magic building. The story answers the question of what would happen if Rapunzel mother was brought the moonflower instead of the sunflower and I kinda wish the movie followed this plot line. 10 out of 10

I loved this book and I wish this had been the Tangled movie instead of what we got. Even though I did really enjoy the original movie.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of What Once Was Mine in exchange for an honest review!

I was so excited to receive a copy of this book! I really enjoyed the latest installment in the Twisted Tales series. I've been meaning to start this series for such a long time and receiving this ARC finally gave me a push in the right direction. I'm a big Disney fan, and I thought the author did a really great job with this retelling of Rapunzel.

I enjoyed the dynamic between the three central characters; Rapunzel, Flynn and Gina. I also liked the fact that we were told chapters from different perspectives, which made the story a bit more interesting seeing certain events happening from the eyes of different characters. I especially liked the chapters told from Gothel’s point of view.

There seems to be mixed reviews from readers regarding the breaks in the story to bring us back to reality as this is a tale told by a brother to his sister in the hospital as she undergoes treatment. I actually enjoyed this. I liked the idea of him creating this alternate version of Rapunzel to make his sister happy, while she was going through something extremely difficult in her life. I like the comparison to the Princess Bride, as I really loved that movie as well. I don’t think this took away from the book at all for me.

I did feel that this book was a bit long. I could only manage to get the PDF copy to work on my phone and I'm not a huge fan of using my phone to read books, especially long ones. My Kobo wouldn't support the format unfortunately.  I feel like that was the only negative experience I had with this book. 

Overall, I really enjoyed What Once Was Mine and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys retellings of Disney films and fairy tales.

I was provided a free copy of this from @netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
This is a part of the Twisted Tale series where different authors take Disney fairy tales and reimagine them. In this one, instead of Rapunzel's mother drinking from the Sundrop flower, she is mistakenly given a drink made from the Moondrop flower! This leads to different, more menacing, powers for Rapunzel and her magical hair. Many of the characters you know and love from the Disney movie are present (including Eugene with his smolder), but the storyline has different twists and turns.
Although it was interesting I struggled with it a bit. I'm not sure if it was the pressure I felt to read it quickly (I was approved to read it just a few days before it was published), or if these stories just may not be for me. Although I've been interested, this is the first Twisted Tale I've read. And it felt slow at times. After being used to watching a 90 minute movie, reading a 500 page book, kinda dragged. I will probably still give some more Twisted Tales a chance in the future (I think I have two on my shelf)!
If you like fun Disney stories with new problems and obstacles for your favorite characters to overcome, you should definitely give this one a chance! It was published last week, so you should be able to find it at your favorite local bookstore!
#WhatOnceWasMine #NetGalley

Absolutely LOVED this take on Rapunzel's story! The characters had a lot more depth and I couldn't put it down and read late into the night.

Rating: 4.5/5
I received this eARC for my honest review.

This book takes a twist on a classic Disney tale we all know, even if you have not it seen the movie, Rapunzel. This story beings with a version of Rapunzel being told to a sister who is in the hospital with cancer, her brother, sick of reading and watching Rapunzel over and over decides to make up his own version of the tale and it is amazing. This book takes the normal, sweet and cute story of Rapunzel and amps it up with the twist of something a little dark and scary, self-discovery, and friendship. Character development was great for Rapunzel and a few other side characters, but I left like it could have been stronger for others. I also felt that in the beginning it started off slow, but after a few chapters it really picks up and doesn’t slow down until Rapunzel discovers something about herself then it picks right back up and doesn’t stop until the ending. The way Liz Braswell ended this story was amazing and left me feeling great inside and happy for the rest of the day, and to see Disney take a swing into the dark side and still interweave something amazing, beautiful and have romance is something else. I highly recommend this book to anyone that loves having classics turned into something else.

I want to thank Netgalley and Disney Hyperion for allowing me to read this eARC for my honest review.

3.5 rounded up

Tangled is one of my favorite Disney movies, so I was super excited when I heard that it would be included in the Twisted Tales series!

I loved this book! The world-building and magic system was so excited to see, and I think it was really a step up from some of the other installments in the series written by Liz Braswell.

I liked how this retelling showed us a much darker side to the story while not changing anything major about our main characters that we came to love in the original Disney film. It had all the same awe and magic of the film, but it was somehow even better.

I did think there were some mild pacing issues, but nothing that hindered my enjoyment of the story too much. I would have liked for some parts of the story, especially near the ending, to be dragged out a little more to give us more feelings of resolution.

Overall, this was great! I can't wait to see what Disney has in store next for this series.

This is such a fantastic series! I love that you can read them in any order. I loved that this was a Tangled retelling! Tangled is my favorite Disney movie. I don't know what else to say, only because I don't want to spoil anything. Honestly, just go into this one blind, and I think you'll love it

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.

Such a fantastically written retelling! I never expected the story to develop the way it did and I really enjoyed how it was told - from Danielle’s brother’s narration! It really gave the story a special feeling. What I enjoyed most was Rapunzel’s growth and discovery of herself and becoming into her own.