A review by melslostinabook
Mother Knows Best: A Tale of the Old Witch by Serena Valentino

4.0

Valentino has done it again! Wow, Mother Gothel is way more dark and twisty than we ever imagined! Gothel’s story starts hundreds of years before she kidnaps the infant princess from the neighboring kingdom and holds her captive in a tower. The book begins with Gothel and her two sisters living with their mother, a necromancer and Queen of the Dead Woods, in an enchanted forest. As the years progress, events in Gothel’s life lead to her becoming more twisted until we finally see the Mother Gothel we know from the movie, Tangled.

This one is definitely a bit darker than the previous books in the series, and it has just the right amount of creepiness. I could hardly bring myself to put it down. It would be a perfect Halloween read! I love Valentino’s story weaving and world building and I can’t wait to see which villain she tackles next!

I enjoyed this fifth book in Valentino’s Disney Villains Collection very much, but my one complaint is that after five books we still don’t know much about the Odd Sisters—sister witches who are involved in every story in this series—as well as their daughter, Circe, and Princess Tulip. I hope that there is going to be an “Aha!” moment at some point, when we find out who they are and how they tie together.