What Once Was Mine

A Twisted Tale

De: Liz Braswell

Narrado por: Rachel Kimsey

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 18 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, 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

©2021 Liz Braswell (P)2021 Disney Hyperion

who edited the audio?

there was a few chapters that abruptly ended in the middle of a sentence, so some of the story was lost.

missing some parts

listening to the story some parts are definitely missing. like it was just skipped. the story was great and was able to guess what happened but would like to have those parts

love it

very long book then what I am use too but over all I enjoyed it I am not a great reader so audible works great for me!

Loved it

this is a great twist and I loved this as much as my daughter loves rapunzel

Absolutely brilliant

I really like how it went into deep detail about Gothel’s mental abuse towards Raps.
It reminded me of when a friend told me that her mother would say little comments about her weight growing up and it gave her an eating disorder.
It broke my heart to hear and this book made me feel something.
Its fantastic.

Dark. Weird. Best Premise Yet.

It's a story that a brother is telling for his little sister (who is going through chemo).

Honestly, I feel like this one understood the heart of the story best. The others seem to mock a lot. This one felt very . . . Glen Keane, at the heart. Glen was the heart of this story, and just . . . little moments seemed to practically quote his thought process of Tangled.

Lovely spin

I enjoyed reading this version of a classic fairy tale. I'm looking forward to reading her other creations!!

Very clever but I prefer the original

I have totally fallen in love with these twisted tales and although I did enjoy this one, it is def my least favorite so far. The narrator Rachel Kimsey did a fantastic job and I was disappointed to see that she does not have any more audiobooks available. Hopefully more to come! I especially enjoyed the voices she did for Gothel and Bathory, very chilling and commanding! The happy go lucky, childlike voice she used for Rapunzel was an excellent contrast. There def seemed to be some skipping issues throughout but I was still able to follow.

(Spoilers) So, here are my critiques, my likes and dislikes lol. My most notable dislike was that this twisted tale is being told by a brother to his sick sister in a hospital. This is a major downer and constant distraction from what I feel is the true story. I guess they thought they were being cute and clever that the sister lost her hair to cancer and her fav princess is Rapunzel. But I could have done entirely without that. I felt it added zero to the story.

The time that was wasted on the hospital scenes would have been better used on Flynn and Rapunzel. Their romance is still powerful but not nearly as focal as in the original which was a major bummer for me. I would have preferred more scenes with them and more than one freaking Flynn perspective.

I really enjoyed the addition of Gina and the twist about she and Flynn at the end. The Maximus twist was also cute. I liked the dark addition of Countess Bathory but I would have loved to see a final interaction between she and Gothel. I liked that Rapunzel openly wondered if Gothel had any love for her at all, this was something I was always curious about as well but unfortunately it is not really resolved here either.

The ending is a happy one but it is so rushed and several loose threads are left. Rapunzel’s last scene with Gothel is absurdly anticlimactic and Gothel’s end at the hands of a character we met for five seconds was insultingly bad. Bathory’s end after all she has done is also fairly boring. We are also never told if Gothel at some point cut off contact with the king and queen. Wasn’t Gothel supposed to reunite them at some point? Was she lying to them? Very confusing and strange.

Also, for all we learned about Rapunzel’s magic, it was pretty much…much ado about nothing. She felled Bathory’s castle and turned that dude into a horse to save him but that was pretty much it. Not nearly as glorious as her bringing Flynn back from the dead.

Overall, def worth a read and a very clever reimagining. I just would have focused more on the romance and the ending should have been more action packed. We needed to actually see Bathory and Gothel fall together imo.

enchanting

this book gave you some good new characters that isn't in the movie it was a good read

Beautiful

What a thrilling take on Rapunzel! The narrator completely captures the essence of the story . Medieval characteristics are included smoothly and the writing is so beautiful and endearing.