Mother Knows Best by Serena Valentino - OPTIONAL

Mother Knows Best (Villains, #5) by Serena Valentino, 390 pages.  Disney Press, 2018.  $18.  

Content: Language: G; Mature Content: G; Violence: PG-13.  

BUYING ADVISORY: MS – OPTIONAL  

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE   

Gothel and her two sisters are witches and when Gothel’s mother tells her that they have to accept drinking her blood to gain power, Gothel wants to do it.  Gothel’s sisters aren’t as excited about the idea of being tied together forever, and know that Gothel is the darkest of them, but they love her and decide to do as she wants.  When Gothel’s mother is trying to get them to drink the blood, she goes to far and almost kills Gothel’s beloved sister.  In return, Gothel curses her mother and kills her.  Soon it becomes evident that the blood is making her sisters ill, so Gothel tries to use the Rapunzel flower her mother left behind to heal her sisters, but she is soon tricked by three sister witches.  

This series is frustrating because the covers are fantastic and make you think you are going to get a sympathetic look at the villains, but the main characters in most of these books are three witch sisters who are annoying.  That said, this book had an interesting spin on why Rapunzel was locked in the tower and I enjoyed that part.  Some parts of the story are slow and the characters aren't very likable.  Overall, it just doesn’t have a consistent entertaining story line that has a whole lot to do with the Disney movie.  The violence involves gruesome blood rituals.  

C. Peterson