What Once Was Mine by Liz Braswell is a great telling of Rapunzel. I enjoyed seeing Rapunzel and Eugene in this new adventure.

I loved the changes made to this story. The addition of Gina was excellent. She brought some levity and a unique point of view to the story. I also really enjoyed the twist on Rapunzel’s powers. Seeing events and conflict from Rapunzel’s point of view really allowed you to experience her naïveté, and I appreciated her realizations about privilege. Flynn was absolutely fantastic. He showed multiple sides to his personality, including the serious parts where he was honest and fairly blunt. I would love stories about both him and Gina from before they met in the story.

The narration was interesting and I like that the sister seemed to be advocating for the reader. I appreciated her commentary and the brother’s thought process. I felt that it followed the characters we know from the movie, and that the relation between the stories was clear and well-written.

Thank you to Disney-Hyperion and NetGalley for providing a copy of this eARC for review.

What if Rapunzel’s mother drank a potion from the wrong flower?

The citizens of Corona are on a search for the Sundrop flower to save the queen and her unborn child but instead find the Moondrop flow. It heals the queen but the baby is born with silver hair and has the power to hurt others which leads her parents to allow Mother Gothel, a powerful goodwife, to take care of her. Rapunzel is locked away for 18 years and desperately wants to see the floating lights on her birthday so she escapes and ventures to the kingdom with Gina and Flynn Rider.

I thought it was unique how this book in the twisted tale series was written as a story being told by a brother to his sister during her treatments. I really enjoyed Gina and I think she added another dimension to an already great story. This whole series is easy, fun books and if you’re a Disney fan like me, they’ll be right up your alley.

What Once Was Mine is a reimagining of Rapunzel, where instead of having the power of the Sunflower, she rather has the power of the Moonflower. What exactly is the power of the Moonflower?

Instead of being able to heal people, Rapunzel can kill people with her hair. And that puts a pretty different spin on the story.

Things I Liked:

Braswell did a pretty good job keeping her characters similar to their Disney versions. Of the characters in Tangled, Flynn was the only character who didn't seem super close to his original self.

Some of the twists and changes from the original were fun and unique. It was neat to see the characters experience a different adventure.

Things I Didn't Like:

Okay... I personally didn't like Countess Bathory's role in the story. It brings in some dark elements that I wasn't really expecting.

Tied to that, I also would have personally preferred if What Once Was Mine hadn't been set in the real world. Setting it somewhere in Europe and bringing in a couple of historical elements seemed to bring a little bit of the "Dinsey magic" out of it for me.

Overall Thoughts:

It was neat to see Rapunzel and Flynn dropped into a different storyline than the original, However, I might love Tangled a little too much, because the story didn't blow me away. I personally would have preferred a more "stricter" retelling, rather than a total reimagining. But that is a total personal preference.

Perfect for fans of the Tangled movie and the tv series. It had just the right flavour of humour, action, adventure, romance with all the same lovable characters. I was reminded why Tangled is one of my favourite Disney movies and ejoyed all the different twists in this twisted tale.

I loved this what if!!!! Well anything from this series is good but I have a soft spot for Rapunzel ! Will recommend it for sure.. well already did with my friends

I have always been a massive fan of the Tangeled movie and tv series so this book was a must have for me. I can say I was not disappointed at all. The way the story was changed and retold was compelling and kept me glued to the pages. Knowing I did not know what was coming next because it was nothing like the original kept me on the edge of my seat. Definitely a must read.

Tangled is my absolute favorite Disney movie and Rapunzel and Flynn are my favorite Disney couple so I was so excited for this book. The cover is gorgeous and the premise sounded so fun and interesting. Sadly, I ended up DNFing this book. It just wasn't for me. I couldn't get into the writing or the story. This book is made for a much younger age group then me so that could have been the reason for me not liking it. I know this is the kind of book that my students would love.

This book is so many things, and I think that all of them are good. This books that’s the story of Tangled, elevates it to a new level. I love all the new details and characters that are added to this book. There where definitely some twists that I didn’t expect. So that why I rate this book 4 out of 5 because you still get the same feel as Tangled, but with some new elements.

What Once Was Mine cuts back and forth from a twist on Tangled, to the boy telling his sister the new story during her cancer treatments. Rapunzel’s mother is given the moondrop flower, so instead of the healing power of the sun, Rapinzelbis born with silver hair that turns out to be deadly. With twists and turns along the way to keep us on our toes, we’re swept away on a new adventure with characters we already loved.

This book reads slightly like fan fiction. I also mistakenly thought this book would be darker, based on the changes from the original story. While I ultimately found this to be a cute retelling, I was hoping for a little more depth. This would definitely skew towards the younger of Young Adult readers, in my opinion. This may have been my first Twosted Tale, but I think I’ll pick up another now that I know what to expect.

This was such a fun read. I love all of these twisted tales and can't wait to see what's comes next!

I absolutely love Tangled and the original story will always have a big piece of my heart.

Reading the Twisted Tales version of the story was so different but very interesting. While this was my first Twisted Tales stories I'm glad it was.

While I wouldn't say that this was my favorite story to read, I did enjoy the plot and the change of characters to fit the new story.

Thank you to Netgalley and Disney-Hyperion for the advanced review copy, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

My children adore these books. I have a 7, 10, and 13 year deal kid and they all enjoyed reading this twisted tale. My children said they enjoyed the unique retelling of Rapunzel and all the different settings within the story. I’d recommend this book for anyone who loves princesses, magic, and chasing dreams. Big thanks to the author and NetGalley for providing this copy for review.

I really really wanted to completely fall in love with this story, but there were a few things that really bothered me.
First, the siblings in the hospital, was it sweet that a brother was telling this story to his sister, who was in the hospital battling cancer? Absolutely. But honestly, I didn't really care about these two at all, anytime they interrupted the story I got a little annoyed, it just threw off my reading so much.
I also had issue with Rapunzel's hair powers; there was both too much and too little emphasis on what they could do. The middle part of the book was focusing on her learning about her different powers and what she can do, and it kind of dragged on as she slowly discovered what she could do. However I wanted MORE from this as well, I wanted to know more of what she can do with her hair, the different powers that she had and to what extent she could use them.
Things that I loved though, I absolutely loved Gina, she was an amazing and brilliant addition to the storyline, and her and her mother were absolutely wonderful. And Maximus! I was hesitant about where the hell the Max storyline was going (he's not quite a horse in this story) but I laughed so hard at the end and absolutely loved it.
Overall this was such a fun and creative retelling of Rapunzel's story, and I do wish there was more of it to enjoy.

I loved this book and I loved the movie as well I love the spin on the store and how the incorporated real life with the fairy tale I also love that she unlike in the movie she left the castle on her own accord without needing Flynn Rider I mean she eventually found him on the way but it was a necessity to leave her tower with him I can’t wait till this author’s next work of art

What if instead of a sun drop flower rapunzel mom is given a moon drop flower?
Instead of healing properties rapunzel hair has the power to kill.
All the original characters are here with a couple new

I read this and my daughter read this. It was very entertaining, I would definitely recommend it to others. So fun!

I have a few books from this series on my kindle but hadn’t gotten around to reading them. I’m so glad this was my first one. The story was close enough to Tangled that I could envision the characters I love so much yet it was different enough to capture my attention. The story is fun and adventurous and gives a new angle to the story. The characters were amazing and I really enjoyed them all, even nasty Gothel. I think my favourite part of the book though was the author’s notes where she shares her inspiration for part of the story. It was a powerful story of survival and how much hair can change an outlook.
I bought a few more of these books to add to my collection & I can’t wait to read them.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book.

This was a really cool take on Tangled. I felt like this story went a bit more in depth about the power of loyalty and how kindness can earn that level of loyalty.

The beginning of this novel was a bit slow for me. I had a really hard time getting into it at first and it took me way longer than it should have to finish it. However the last third really made up for it. Rapunzel's relationship with Flynn developed in a sweeter way than in the movie, and it felt deeper. The friendships in here were fantastic and wholesome. Overall, once I got past the slow bit in the front I really enjoyed this. I would pick up another "Twisted Tale" in a heartbeat.

I wasn't really sure how this story could be remade, but this was beyond my wildest imagination. As a result, this held my attention from start to finish. In fact, I read this book in one sitting.

We follow the story of Rapunzel; however, instead of her healing golden hair, she has silvery hair with the power of death... or so she's been told. Gothel still plays a prominent role of a liar in this book, and it's refreshing that her conniving, manipulative ways did not change in the story. Furthermore, we get to meet Gina and her witty banter with Flynn Rider. All of the elements of the original "Tangled" storyline are present with new characters, such as Countess Bathory, Treggsby, and the men from the Snuggly Duckling.

The story moves quickly, as there is a lot of action within the book. There are enough twists and turns to differentiate from the original story and maintain the reader's attention. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the book.