Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an early copy of this book!

My spoiler-free review is below:
I was a bit apprehensive about reading another Disney Twisted Tale, as I've been disappointed by the ones I have read previously, so I did go into this book with hesitant expectations.
Luckily, the voice of the main character brought me in right away. This story has two sides to it. One is that of of a normal teenage boy in our world spending time with his sister who is going through chemotherapy. The other side is that of the actual twisted tale of Rapunzel, which is a story made up by the brother who tells it to his Tangled-loving sister as she goes through treatment. The book switches back between theses two sides, but stays the majority of the time within the world of Rapunzel's story. The side in the real-world was very realistic and well-written, with a strong voice for the main character who is also our narrator. This made the story of Rapunzel's twisted tale more enjoyable. Other things I liked are that despite this book being a different version of Rapunzel's story, we still have the same energetic, courageous Rapunzel that we get in the original movie. This similarity was a comfort to have in a story that is, obviously different.
As stated in the novel's premise, this story follows a Rapunzel who's mother, the queen, drank a potion from the wrong flower, so instead of Rapunzel having glowing gold hair with healing abilities, she has silver hair with what seem to be deadly powers.
For this reason, Rapunzel's parents choose to send her away to Gothel, who claims to be a witch that knows how to train Rapunzel how to control her deadly hair, and thus the story begins. I won't spoil anything, so I will only say this: the new magical system for Rapunzel's hair was very creative and imaginative. With that being said, there were points of this story where the hair's magic felt more like a Maguffin than anything else. On top of that, there were many parts in this story that felt rushed or poorly thought-out, and despite this being pointed out to the narrator, the teenage brother in the real world, it didn't help its case. Overall, the story had great potential, but overall fell flat.

I had a hard time putting this book down. When the story took a surprise turn life for Rapunzel was never going to be the same. For many years her life wasn’t that exciting until one day she sees a thief hide something. This prompts her to do something drastic and it propels her on a thrilling adventure. While this story moves along Rapunzel discovers truths about her past and her so called mother. As this tale comes to a close Eugene gets the happy ending he so deserves.

Provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Let me just say it, the original “Tangled” movie story is way better than this.

The concept of this Rapunzel or “Tangled” retelling is that while Rapuznel’s mom was pregnant with her, she drank tea from the Moondrop flower instead of the Sundrop flower. Instead of Rapunzel getting hair powers with healing abilities, her hair now has the ability to kill things. The concept of this book is interesting, but not interesting enough, in my opinion.

The issue I had with this story largely comes from the writing. The dialogue was cringey, filled with little jokes than even my dad would be ashamed to tell. The writing also was very juvenile, so I’m thinking that this should be classified as a middle grade. However, this book is being sold in the young adult section of the bookstores I have gone to recently. I think this is misleading.

The characterizations of both Rapunzel and Flynn that we see in the Tangled movie are both lost in this retelling. The Flynn and Rapunzel in this story seem less interesting and childish compared to the movie version characters, which made me not want to continue reading this book.

I think this book might work well for younger audiences who really love the Twisted Tales seriously, or for people who don’t mind a more immature writing style. The ideas were here to make the book great, I just don’t think the execution was here.

I would much prefer to just rewatch the Tangled movie than to continue on with this book.

Rapunzel's story from TANGLED is reimagined by Liz Braswell in WHAT ONCE WAS MINE, a Twisted Tale.

Imagine that Rapunzel's mother picked the wrong flower. What could possibly go wrong except that Rapunzel can now KILL people with her hair! Talk about a twist! or a spin!

Staying true to most of the characters from the beloved TANGLED Movie (aside from Flynn), Braswell did a good job entwining new characters into the story and creating a brand new storyline for Rapunzel et al. While the beginning read much like the beginning of the standard fairytale, once i got further into the story and the big twist happened i could not put this book down.

So entertaining, hilarious, amusing, and perfect for a fun Halloween read!

My only disappointment would be the choice to add a real world framing mechanism involving a brother telling his sickly sister (who has cancer) his own version of Tangled. This seemed to take away from the overall story unfortunately.

Thanks to NetGalley and Disney Publishing Worldwide for the review copy. All opinions are my own.

I also have always loved Tangled. I couldn’t wait to read this installment of the Twisted Tales series. The first half of the book was adventurous and fun. Rapunzel felt familiar but also a little off to me. The biggest thing that set me off was Eugene. His whole personality was completely different than his original caricature. He felt flat and boring. The original character Gina, was the shining star. I loved her banter with Eugene. While I am always a fan of retelling, this one just left me wanting something more. Overall, I’d you’re a fan of Disney and Tangled, you’d enjoy this book.

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