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Laura Doe (1350 KP) rated Mother Knows Best: A Tale of the Old Witch (Villains #5) in Books

Jul 21, 2021

I love these takes on the Disney villains back stories, and this one didn’t disappoint me at all.
We follow Gothel, of Tangled fame, a lifetime before she becomes Rapunzel’s guardian and mother. We learn about her life and what drove her to kidnap the princess when she was a baby.
We learn that Gothel had two sisters, sisters that she would do anything for as they were triplets. But their mother doesn’t seem keen to teach Gothel and her sisters her magic, which frustrates Gothel more than her sisters. Their mother dies one night, leaving Gothel to take on her duties as Queen of the Dead and rule over their “kingdom” otherwise known as the Dead Woods. Gothel thrives, while her sister do not and she becomes concerned for them, attracting the attention of the three Odd Sisters.
We follow them as they try to help Gothel help her sisters and learn her magic, whilst trying to get their hands on her mother’s spell books.
In the last part of the book, we discover why she kidnapped Rapunzel and what happens before she ends up in the tower and then follow her quickly (through the use of mirrors) through what happens in the film.
I really do love these different views on the Disney villains and the thought that goes into giving them a back story, so that they aren’t just “evil”. I can’t wait to continue on with the series and hope there are many more to come.

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Leanne Crabtree (480 KP) rated Briar Rose in Books

Sep 6, 2019

I received this book as a first reads copy via GoodReads and My Kinda Book.

I'll start by saying I love the cover of this book.

Then: I'm a big Jana Oliver fan, having loved her Demon Trappers series so when I saw the First Reads giveaway on Goodreads for this I just had to enter and luckily for me, I was picked as one of the winners.

I have to admit that I, too have always liked the idea of Princes and Princess' and fairy tale endings and this was a unique take on it, with the twisted fairy tale one that is almost of Briar Rose's own making.

I kinda wish I could say more but I don't want to ruin it for those who are going to read this...sorry ;D

Saying that, it was very unique to me, as I have never seen or heard of anything like this before, and I really enjoyed it. Maybe it was the authors style which I can easily fall into or maybe it was the idea of the story but I was captivated by it from early on.

I also really liked all the major characters though it took a while for Pat to grow on me. The rest; Briar, Joshua, Reena and Ruric were all pretty cool from the start.

If you're a fan of the author then you should give this a try, as well as those who like fantasy books as this is no ordinary fairy tale.