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Evil is made not born.

Book 5 in the wildly popular Villains series.

The tale of the legendary golden flower is widely known. The story has been told many times and in many ways. But always the flower is coveted by an old witch to keep herself young and beautiful. And always the flower is used to save a dying queen, who then gives birth to a princess with magical hair. Not willing to lose the flower, the old witch steals the princess and locks her away in a high tower, raising her as her own. But the princess always finds out who she truly is and manages to defeat the old witch.

And yet this is only half the story. So what of the old witch, Mother Gothel? Where does she come from? And how does she come across the magical golden flower? Here is one account that recounts a version of the story that has remained untold for centuries . . . until now. It is a tale of mothers and daughters, of youth and dark magic. It is a tale of the old witch.

Enjoy Serena Valentino's entire Villain's series.

Fairest of All: A Tale of the Wicked Queen (Book 1)The Beast Within: A Tale of Beauty's Prince (Book 2)Poor Unfortunate Soul: A Tale of the Sea Witch (Book 3)Mistress of All Evil: A Tale of the Dark Fairy (Book 4)Mother Knows Best: A Tale of the Old Witch (Book 5)The Odd Sisters: A Villains Novel (Book 6)Evil Thing (Book 7)

From the brand

The Villains Series

The Twisted Tale Series

The Meant to Be Collection

The Queen's Council Series

The Kingdom Keepers Series

Girl Power Stories

For Fans of Disney Princes

For Fans of Disney Villains

For Fans of Frozen

The Lost Legends Series

The Disney Chills Series

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Disney Press (August 7, 2018)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 400 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1368009026
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1368009027
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 12 - 18 years
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 700L
Grade level ‏ : ‎ 7 - 12
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.76 x 1.24 x 7.3 inches
Reviewer: Reanna
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: My favorite
Review: So far it's my favorite of the 5 I've read. I loved seeing the soft and loving side of Gothel. I wish things had gone differently because I was rooting for her but I knew it wouldn't. It was still a great read. I would definitely recommend it.

Reviewer: Jessica S.
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: The Real Mother Gothel
Review: Serena Valentino’s Mother Knows Best is the tale of Mother Gothel and what was going on with her before she became Rapunzel’s kidnapper/mother. It’s a decidedly darker tale than the ones we’ve previously read in the Villains series, at least I thought so. It seemed Gothel was always on the path towards darkness.We start the story with Gothel’s childhood, which made it a little difficult to place where this fell in the odd sister timeline, it seemed to be before most of the events of the series to date, but we eventually get back to the current time. Like many a villain, Gothel didn’t have an easy childhood. She and her sisters lived with their mother, the queen in the dead woods. This is basically where the nearby village took their dead after a person passed. The dead belonged to the queen and she planned on passing her legacy to her daughters one day when she was ready to die.Gothel was the youngest out of her sisters who were triplets, but not identical. It was that fact that made their mother not love them as much. Gothel was always trying to read and study up on magic in hopes of pleasing her mother, while her sisters dreamed of leaving the dead woods and seeing more of the world.Then one day, Gothel’s mother, Manea, showed her why the woods are so special and what was basically the source of her power, it was the rapunzel flowers that grew in her observatory. When you sang the magic song, the flowers could heal anything, including age. When Manea threatens to kill Gothel’s sisters, Gothel reacts in a finishing way and basically leaves her and her sisters on her own.The story was decidedly more focused on Gothel and her sisters, we watched Gothel slowly descend into darkness and of course the odd sisters make their appearance in the guise of help. It’s really not until the last quarter of the book or so that we enter what would be the movie, Tangled.Tangled is definitely one of my favorite Disney movies and I rather liked reading this interpretation of Gothel’s character. It did make things interesting and Serena definitely knows her Disney movies, for she always touches on those right little moments that came from the movie and kind of made you wonder…what was the villain thinking in THAT moment. Well, Serena answers that question for us. Not only does Serena know how to expand on these little moments, but she’s on point with her dialogue when it comes to reliving those movie moments. I was also quite pleased that my favorite animal friend, Maximus makes an appearance too! Though, I thought it would be funny if the odd sisters, who watched these events unfold would’ve commented on his prowess of moving aside the ruffians that Snuggly Duckling, but I guess you can’t win them all!This story was very much a Mother Gothel story. It’s really not until the very last page or two that we see something that might help steer the story into the next book’s direction which of course is titled, The Odd Sisters. We’ll finally get to learn more about the witches who have been causing a bit of havoc in Disney Fairytale Land! It’s definitely going to be a more interesting story since—as far as I know—there’s no key Disney movie directing it.Alas, that tale is not here (in my reading queue) yet. Soon though! Mother Knows Best was an interesting tale on its own. I just wish that there would’ve maybe been a bit more at the end that directs what will happen next in regards to the odd sisters. I’ve heard that next year’s book will be about Cruella, so that ought to be interesting. I’m rather curious if Hades will ever get a book since his name gets thrown out a lot when characters are cursing. Makes you wonder…As I was saying, Mother Knows Best was yet another enchanting installment in the Disney Villains series. While I feel like it didn’t do much to add to the greater story arc at large, it’s still probably one of my favorites out of the series to date as it just had such a detailed history of who Gothel was before she became Mother Gothel. Which is likely the point behind these villain stories! Definitely a worthy read!Overall Rating 5/5 stars

Reviewer: Beth
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Gifted
Review: He loved them

Reviewer: Lacey Blanchard
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Book
Review: What’s not to love about Disney Villain!

Reviewer: latrisha owens
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Amazing Disney fan's must read
Review: I love this whole series of books I'm obsessed with my Disney villains😈 these book's are everything your looking for if you love to read and love Disney villans or even Disney period, it brings a whole new look at these characters it really tells you why they became who they are, if you didn't like the villans before😈 after reading these book's you just might have a new love & respect for them, they are so interesting that you never want to put the book down and you can't wait to read the next one, I'm so excited for the new one to come out in july (cold hearted a lady tremain story) we all love Cinderella right? now lets see why her stepmother was so mean , the odd sisters WOW ! what an interesting bunch I've never heard of these witches before and if they were just made up for these books then yes please make them part of the Disney villans forever i would love to see a movie on them they top all the villans out there, great job Serena valintino on writing these book's one very happy reader and a customer for life can't wait to see what you come up with next 🤗🤔

Reviewer: Melissa V.
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Valentino has done it again!
Review: 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.

Reviewer: Roy Lindhardt
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Interesting Backstory for the Tale
Review: This story definitely adds a lot to the well known tale of Rapunzel. I quite nearly felt some sorrow for Gothel, but only nearly. The character represented here did start with some good traits, but didn't really acknowledge them, she thought she wanted too many bad things.

Reviewer: Jeanette
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Good seller
Review: The book looks good, fast delivery gonna make a girl happy for christmas, good seller

Reviewer: P. K.
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: .

Reviewer: Sapna Sood
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Again this is her side of story. Rightly said,as kids we love heroes and as grow we understand villains.

Reviewer: Bruno Takeshi
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Gostei, foi legal!!!!

Reviewer: Chlo90
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Brilliant book, i now have all books in the series. Highly recommended for any disney fan

Reviewer: Angel
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Me encantan los libros de Serena, había estado esperando este libro desde que publicó que lo estaba escribiendo y valió la pena la espera. Soy súper fan de Enredados y siempre me preguntaba qué hacía Gothel cuando dejaba a Rapunzel sola, o qué hizo durante todos esos años con la flor para ella sola, bueno, pues con este libro al fin aclaré mis dudas y me encantó la historia detrás de esta villana y espero con ansias el siguiente y el siguiente. Muy fácil de leer para alguien que a penas empieza a leer en inglés, la historia te atrapa y no puedes soltarlo hasta terminarlo. Gracias a Serena por escribir estas maravillosas historias