Mother Knows Best by Serena Valentino

Gothel, daughter of Manea witch of the Dead Woods, sister of Hazel and Primrose, has always known she was different from her siblings. When her mother tries to force her sisters to take her blood and uphold the ancient tradition of guarding the forest and the dead that reside there, Gothel comes face to face with a decision that will haunt her the rest of her

I love Serena Valentino's take on villains. She is very good at taking you into their backstories. However, this one was odd for me. Gothel felt like a very different character in this book than in Tangled or even the TV series. Even when Rapunzel was introduced, she still felt out of place as if the backstory was hers but the future with Rapunzel was not. It's hard to explain. Also, I would have loved to see who Cassandra's father might have been. Cassandra was Gothel's biological daughter in the tv series Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure. Which was a welcome surprise. But this book seemed to have skipped that part of Gothel's life which is a shame. It would have added more depth and heartache to the character.

Gothel herself didn't seem to align with Tangled until act three which was towards the end of the book. Which in itself was odd. I think the story would have worked better if Gothel had been an original character of Serena's own invention with a different name.

Overall, the story itself was solid, the pacing was nice and even, and I didn't even mind the omniscient pov this time.

8/10 🌟