This is the third book in the series. And was not so easy to track down. Fantastic Fiction listed 1-2 and 4-7 and confused the heck out of me.In this book, we focus on Rapunzel. Except that every other chapter is from the point of view of one or another of the other princesses and I find that disorienting. The same holds true for the other books in this series that I've read so far.Add to that that I have trouble telling Rose and Snow apart. I have to think about it each time. One lives with Sleepy and one is sleepy. (To be more accurate, his name is Nod in this series. At least I think it was Nod. Maybe it was Yawn. Or Snooze.)Rapunzel's story is a deeply disturbing one if you stop to think about it for more than half a minute. And this book tackles that head on. And then dodges away from it at the end. Essentially it's the Rapunzel you know --- witch takes her as a baby from her parents, locks her in a tower. Except that around the age of 7, a young prince wandered by and encouraged her to climb down. (Because he was too chicken to climb up!) So she's been sneaking off since and is not 10ish and attending Princess School without the witch knowing.Well, the witch finds out. And she's not happy! Tries to lock her up more. Fails. The two end up writing love/hate notes to each other. I pine for my real mother. I take care of you. I want to go to school. No, stay with me. I have awesome friends. Your friends suck.Etc, etc.The end is entirely unsatisfactory because the witch essentially says she doesn't want Rapunzel to leave. Rapunzel says she has been leaving. But she always comes back! Aww, touching. Except then she winks at her friends, like she's totally lying to fool the witch.And you're kind of left adript without a moral compass. Okay, this kidnapper locks a girl up in a tower for 10 years. Feeds her acorns and things that are barely edible. Leaves her alone much of the time. Well, honestly, how does the kid not end up feral and entirely messed up?In any case, no happy ending should involve the situation staying as it was at the start of the book! She should not now be thinking of her a 'foster mother' when she never did before.Oh, and meanwhile there's some stupid plot about letters to princes.If I didn't already have all the other books through ILL, I'd be quite tempted to stop here. ( )

I love the princess tales! In the Rapunzel story we have three main characters (besides her veggie stealing parents)- Rapunzel, her prince, and the witch who has imprisoned her in the tower. The Rapunzel in this story is fiesty and perfectly capable of leaving the tower on her own to spend time with her prince, but her prince (or at least the prince who's her friend) is paying attention to another princess. Not only that, but the witch has found everything out. Suddenly our traditional story is in rags, and we get to ask an important question: just why is the witch locking Rapunzel in the tower? For that matter, why did she want her in the first place? In this version, it is a fear of losing Rapunzel, who she really cares about, that keeps Madame Gothel (the witch) locking her up. It is and understanding that her fear is foundless that encourages her to allow Rapunzel some freedom. The prince, it turns out, has not abandoned his princess, rather, he's working with another one to surprise Rapunzel with a birthday party! ( )