Mother Gothel is also fleshed out a bit, so the reader understands just how much an agent of chaos she wants to be.

We see her grieving, but then we see her take action to help the orphanages in the kingdom and create positive reform. The deeper insight to secondary characters: WHAT ONCE WAS MINE finally provides an answer to what Rapunzel's mother was doing while Rapunzel was trapped (other than being sad). Likewise, because Rapunzel's powers are so different in this story compared to the movie, Rapunzel has an additional emotional dilemma over what might happen if she leaves the tower (i.e. I loved how the mystery around her hair and it's different powers slowly unravels and how scientifically Rapunzel approached it. In WHAT ONCE WAS MINE, we meet a full witch who helps Rapunzel understand her powers. The magic: In the Tangled movie, we only get a glimpse of the magic possible in Rapunzel's world.

Along the way, she'll learn more about herself, her powers, and where she really came from. On her 19th birthday, after Gothel denies her request to see the floating lanterns, Rapunzel sneaks out of the tower herself, on a mission to find a thief she's heard of who can surely get her to the lanterns without anyone being hurt. Taken away by Mother Gothel who convinces the king and queen it's for the safety of the kingdom, Rapunzel is raised alone in a tower, not knowing who she truly is. Instead of healing, Rapunzel now has the power to hurt and kill with her silver hair. In Disney's latest Twisted Tale, Rapunzel's mother doesn't drink from the sunflower: instead, she drinks from the moondrop flower. Before she can reach her happy ending, Rapunzel learns that there may be more to her story, and her magical tresses, than she ever knew. But when she leaves the only home she's ever known, wanting only to see the floating lights that appear on her birthday, she gets caught up in an adventure across the kingdom with two thieves-a young woman named Gina, and Flynn Rider, a rogue on the run.

For eighteen years Rapunzel stays locked away, knowing she must protect others from her magical hair.

For her safety and the safety of the kingdom, Rapunzel is locked in a tower and put under the care of powerful goodwife, Mother Gothel. With it comes dangerous magical powers: the power to hurt, not heal. Nonetheless it heals the queen, and she delivers a healthy baby girl with hair as silver and gray as the moon. 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 people of Corona search for the all-healing Sundrop flower to cure her-but mistakenly acquire the shimmering Moondrop flower instead.

What Once Was Mine by Liz Braswell