If you know me, chances are you know that I. Love. Tangled. I have been looking forward to this book since it was announced.

And boy, was it a let-down.

The first half was okay. The adventuring, learning about her powers... all good!
But when it got closer to the end and the "big bad" was introduced, it went downhill.

To begin with, I was not a fan of it being set in the real world. It was very offputting to be reading about my beloved kingdom of Corona (the name of which is never even USED, might I add) in Renaissance-era Europe.

Eugene feels like a one-dimensional version of himself. Much of what makes him Eugene feels forced. And he's never even called Eugene in the text! ***SPOILER***Even at the end when Rapunzel introduces him as Eugene, the text of the book still says Flynn, and Gina still calls him Flynn. Like. WHAT.***END SPOILER*** He’s not funny or sly or charming. He feels dull and forced. I couldn't find myself actually getting invested in his character, which is sad. Eugene deserved better.

Gina. Gina, Gina, Gina. Gina, my beloved. Probably due to the fact that she's an "original" character, she doesn't feel like a caricature of a person. Now, I have no idea if the author of this ever watched TTS/RTA, but Gina feels, to me, like a new version of Cassandra. If not, maybe the rough and tumble girl who wants freedom and to hold her own in a patriarchal society really is just what Rapunzel needs in her life (if you get the reference to that Chris Sonnenburg tweet, let's be friends).

Now, Rapunzel! The most important character. I do feel like the author had her characterization pretty much down and I love her just as much as I love actual Rapunzel. Wasn’t a huge fan of the whole “witch” portion of her character, when really it’s all just magic, but. Whatever.

Next, we really have to talk about all of their relationships with each other.

First up, all three of them. I loved Eugene and Gina’s banter (again… Eugene and Cass, anyone?). I loved that Rapunzel got to make a female friend first. What I am not a fan of was Rapunzel’s irrational jealousy of Eugene and Gina’s blossoming friendship. Real Rapunzel would NEVER.

New Dream. Eugene and Rapunzel feel SO forced. The author relies upon the idea that they fall in love at first sight, except… that isn’t New Dream’s dynamic at all. I didn’t really understand why their relationship happened. Rapunzel is just enamored by the IDEA of Flynn Rider, not the actual man. Then pretty out of the blue Eugene starts actually caring about her. It just felt like they fall for each other and end up together because that’s what they’re supposed to do. Also, there is NO moment akin to “You were my new dream.” “And you were mine.” which is THE defining moment of their relationship.

Now, my beloved animal children, Maximus and Pascal. In sum? They deserved better.

Ok so! Finally. My BIGGEST ISSUE.

***SPOILER***The Big Bad Is. Not. Gothel. Gothel, actually, barely gets any screentime after Rapunzel leaves the tower and is mostly treated like a side character and not the villain she is.***END SPOILER***

Onto Countess Bathory, my detested!
It's 2021. You'd think we'd be done with blatantly queer coded villains, right?
Wrong.
So, so wrong.
I don't deem this as a spoiler because this type of writing is extremely harmful, so let's go.
Countess Bathory is based on a real-world Countess Bathory who killed many young women. A popular story is that she would bathe in their blood, and she is deemed something of a real-life vampire.
In this story, Bathory kidnaps girls and bathes in their blood to stay young. She is called "unnatural," "insane," and "monstrous" because she has "gone through all of the young women in the village."
See where I'm going with this?

I would've preferred if Gothel had kidnapped Rapunzel again and we had a face-off similar to the one in the movie rather than the actual kidnapping and fight.

All in all, I'm disappointed. At first, I went into the book playfully nitpicking everything that was different from the current Tangledverse canon, but by the end, it wasn't playful because I wasn't having fun reading about these characters. If I hadn't watched the movie a hundred times and had such a deep understanding of them already, they'd feel like strangers still.

While I'm thankful for more Tangled content, I'm not here for it if it's like this.

Still, a huge thank you to Netgalley and Disney-Hyperion for an ARC of this.

This was a fun retelling of Rapunzel. I liked that her powers made her appear dangerous instead of heroic.

I listened to the audiobook and the readers were fantastic. A young man decides to retell Rapunzel to his sister during her chemotherapy. What if instead of the sun drop flower that allows Rapunzel’s hair to heal, she is blessed with the moon drop flower that gives her other powers instead? Add in a nice feminist message and you end up with our same amazing Tangled characters with a great twist.

Tangled is my favorite movie ever and Rapunzel is my favorite princess, so when I saw the title of this book I snatched it up so fast! And oh my god, it was so good. Everything about it was perfect. The perfect twist to the perfect story, in my opinion. If you love the movie, this book is for you.

While not my favorite of the twisted tales so far, this was none the less enjoyable. I love Rapunzel in the movie and this characterization fits with my favorite parts of her. The pacing was a little slow at times, but that's what I've come to expect with this series so it wasn't a problem. Love the way they keep using Disney stories to pass on important messages to YA audience!!

overall I was really bored and couldn’t connect with the characters, I thought the book would start to pick up but I was sadly disappointed. I wish I could have liked it and I really tried but it wasn’t for me.

I loved this book so much! Tangled is my all time favorite Disney movie so I of course jumped at the chance to read a retelling of this story. i had heard great thing about Liz Braswell's retellings and this series as a whole but had not gotten the chance to pick any of the books yet before. This made me want to pick them up and potentially read the entire series! The twists to the original were so fun and the writing style kept me engaged from beginning to end. Braswell did Tangled justice with this awesome retelling!

*Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an e-arc. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

The Twisted Tales series is one that I will always come back to, even if I did not enjoy one of the books. I have had hits and misses with this series and I was not a fan of the previous one Liz Braswell wrote, Unbirthday. However, this book was a hit. I think Braswell took a fresh take to the Twisted Tales series by telling a story within a story, which made it so interesting to read.

For the retelling of Rapunzel/Tangled, I really enjoyed it. By adding the witchy elements, it was a new way to tell the story and was done so well. I even took time to read the Author's Note at the end of the book and I think it gave the story and even more personal touch, which was great.

On another note, I am very interested to see how far and how long Disney Publishing can continue this series. I think it is a fan favorite and with bringing in multiple authors and not having any of the stories be connected, I think this series can continue on. I look forward to what other books get published, both by Braswell and other contributing authors.

2.5 stars: I was initially really excited for this book. Sadly it fell very flat for me. I didn't like the idea of this being a story told by a brother to his sister. Some of the stuff was odd in general, but especially when you think of it coming from a teen boy to his sister.. "the hours before her monthly blood began." The pacing felt boring and slow and I struggled to just get through it, especially the first half. I didn't like Flynn and Rapunzel's relationship (or lack of one). There are some cool details in the story that makes me think she could write a better original story instead of retellings. Also some of the stuff just felt out of place and like she had to come up with a reason for things being the way they are, but didn't want to put in any effort (like Rapunzel picking her birthday and it just happens to be her actual birthday...) Overall wasn't too impressed. Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Enjoyable twist on the Rapunzel story. Rapunzel herself is a *little* flat but overall it was an enjoyable read. Will recommend any in this series.

If you are a Disney fan and you have never read any of the Twisted Tales series, you are missing out. What Once Was Mine is the 12th book in the series. This book is focused on the story of Tangled.

Instead of Rapunzel's mother being given the Sundrop Flower, she is instead given the Moondrop Flower. Needless to say, Rapunzel's story becomes a much different tale than the one that we all know and love. Many of the same characters have been included in the story, but we also meet new characters too.

I would highly recommend this story to any Disney lover, fairy tale lover, or if you are looking for a retelling of a classic story.

Major yikes at how the author chose to write this. The back and forth between the story and a hospital in our reality just wasn’t necessary. And I really don’t love it when authors use a lot of parenthesis to add thoughts or context or whatever

As a huge fan of Tangled, i really loved and enjoyed reading this. i think it captured the magic of Tangled really well while flipping the story on its head. i really loved the plot and honestly i will eat up any Tangled content.

First experience with a twisted tale, over here! My ultimate decision is I’m not sure how I feel about them! I typically enjoy retellings, but honestly, I got a tid bit bored with this one. So much so I took maybe a couple month hiatus from it before finally picking it back up to finish. But hear me out…

Obviously so many of us love Rapunzel & her story. & this was no different, I still love her story! I just felt like it was drawn out way more than it needed to be. At slightly more than 500 pages, this book & the message it was trying to convey could have been condensed by at least 200 pages. Like, let’s just leave Mother Gothel’s perspective behind… who cares about her? Not me! I also felt like some of the beginning, where Rapunzel is trapped in the tower, seemed a little repetitive.

But I want to end things on a more positive note… There were things I loved! I really enjoyed learning about Rapunzel’s moonflower magic along with her, I’m a sucker for any kind of magic! I also really enjoyed Rapunzel’s connection with Gina & Flynn, there’s nothing quite like having good friends to adventure with! & I’ll also say I enjoyed the ending of this Rapunzel story versus the original storyline! & then the author’s note had me literally crying at the end, felt it to my soul! IYKYK!

Thank you @netgalley for the opportunity to read & honestly review this eARC!

2.5/5 Star

I had to admit this one was not my favorite. I really wanted to enjoy this twisted tale but for some reason, It just wasn"t as enjoyable as the others I've read. The writing was still great and I am going to continue reading any other twisted tale books because at this point I'm completely invested in them. I think there was just something about Rapunzel's/ tangled story that I just wasn't a big fan of. Unfortunately, this was a miss for me. I would say if you're interested go for it. Like I said I'm still going to continue with anything else released in this series because for the most part I really do enjoy them.

Tangled is one of my favorite Disney movies so I was super excited to be able to get this title for review.

I have a love/dislike relationship with this series. I love the idea's of them but the ones I've given a try I haven't exactly vibed well with, nevertheless I really wanted to give this one a shot.

It's always interesting to see how authors weave a story. To retell a retelling is something that's always been my reading kink. There are vast differences between this title and the Tangled Disney movie that most of us are familiar with. There were times when I really wanted to see where this was headed and other times where I just felt lost within the story, and not in a good way.

I get you're suppose to go into this with an open mind, but I suppose the fact that the cover and title is pretty much telling you "hey this is a Tangled movie retelling" I was expecting something closer to just that.

What Once Was Mine takes the Disney Rapunzel story and changes almost everything, reimagined into a story of what if the queen had consumed the wrong flower. Instead of magical healing hair, Rapunzel has silver murder hair as she calls it, and is taken away to protect the kingdom. The story still has Mother Gothel, the tower, and some familiar faces but adds in other characters, particularly Gina who I really loved. The story is told similar to The Princess Bride, with back and forth between the story itself and the storyteller, a brother making up the story for his sister undergoing chemotherapy.

It was a nice retelling with some very fun and interesting changes to a classic story.

I’m so glad to have finally been able to read this. This is my oldest Netgalley arc that I received right as we found a house and started the selling/buying of two houses. I’m sorry, it has taken me so long to get to this. With that out of the way, let’s get to the goods.

This is my first Twisted Tale book and I really didn’t know what to expect. I love Tangled the movie and I was really excited when I received an ARC. With that being said, I did feel a bit let down. I really enjoyed a lot of aspects of the book but there are some things that really just had me disconnect. For example, the biggest thing that would take me out of the story were the scenes at Kettering Memorial. I would be into the actual story and then we would just jump right out of it to the hospital. I would have enjoyed it more because I could have been fully immersed in the story. I did understand why she did it after reading her note. I just don’t think it added anything to the actual book.

I really enjoyed the actual “twist” to the tale. Moondrop?! Yes, that was really fun and an interesting take. I really liked the addition of Gina too. She was a lot of fun and she kind of stole Flynn’s thunder. I actually didn’t love him in this book. He didn’t really give me the same vibes that Flynn from the movie did.

The pacing was a bit off but it could be because of the jumps back and forth with the hospital. I do think there’s a lot of things at the beginning that could have been left out. It would have cut the book at some points where it became lengthy. Once we get away from the movie scenes it really took off for me.

Overall, I didn’t love this like I thought I would. I did enjoy it enough that I will keep going. I’m actually reading book one at the moment and I’m loving it a lot more.

**Thank you to NetGalley and Disney Hyperion for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. This in no way changed my rating**

I really wanted to like this one. I wanted to like the series. But I honestly think after the two I read, I'm going to call it here. I didn't dislike the Alice one, but the way the real world problem was wrapped up was very simplistic for the off page world equivalent. I'm having a similar issue here where the story kind of goes off the rails and I made it 43% before DNF-ing. I was having a hard time buying into the whole premise from the get go.

To begin with, the story is being told by the narrator, Brandon, to his sister who is a cancer patient in the hospital. She begs him to watch Tangled with her every day. She constantly reads the book over and over (which, far as I can tell, only exists in early readers chapter books, junior novelizations, and MANY children's picture books). She begs him to tell her the story again. Which sounds like the start of a doting older brother humoring his young sister as she goes through treatment for a hard illness.

Except the sister is 16 or 17. So it's a teenage boy telling his equally teenage sister the story he made up about Tangled, which she has been reading junior novelizations of every day throughout treatment. Unsurprisingly, this makes this teenaged character sounds like she's 8 MAX. She whines about animal characters missing and that he "isn't telling it right". I just have a very hard time suspending my disbelief for a child this old.

Additionally, the parts with Rapunzel make Rapunzel come off as dumb, not naive. She just runs into everything headfirst without thinking at all. Rapunzel in the movie is sheltered but not stupid. She teaches herself how to paint, to navigate by the stars, to cook, sew, create pottery, etc. She is VERY skilled and clearly able to reason as she has figured it all out through reading. Rapunzel in this book reads also like a young child. Very "oooh, look! that thing is shiny!", "Ooooh! look! HORSES!!!!", etc. When you're halfway into the book and not vibing with ANY characters, especially ones you already know and love, that's a problem. It's even more egregious for me that they managed to take a character I know and love and turn her into an unrecognizably unthinking character. I didn't like this characterization at all.

I might pick up another book in this series some point WAY later in the future. I know I own a few more of them. But this has not made me willing to do so anytime soon.

I love these series so much! What Once Was Mine is a perfect Twisted Tale for fans of Tangled and the Rapunzel story.