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Tower of Gold: A Rapunzel Retelling
554 pages, Paperback
Published September 14, 2024
3 people are currently reading
100 people want to read
About the author
Laura Burton
76 books741 followersLaura writes sweet romance and fantasy with steamy kisses, thrilling suspense, and mystery.
A self-confessed Potterhead and Once Upon a Time fan.
Laura marries her love of 1990's romcoms with her obsession with Pretty Little Liars and writes fast-paced books written especially for readers who need an escape.
Laura Burton is a British author who lives in Wiltshire, England with her three wild sons, alpha-male husband, and positively loopy Poochon.
A self-confessed Potterhead and Once Upon a Time fan.
Laura marries her love of 1990's romcoms with her obsession with Pretty Little Liars and writes fast-paced books written especially for readers who need an escape.
Laura Burton is a British author who lives in Wiltshire, England with her three wild sons, alpha-male husband, and positively loopy Poochon.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 17, 2025
***Spoilers for the entire series***
The entire series was chaotic, and underwhelming, with flat characters and very little world-building. I do not shy away from YA books, as there have been several I have read that were good. Series like this one though, make me not want to delve into YA again. The series is made up of 8 books, with the first six being shorter novellas and the last two being nearly double in length, which would not be a bad thing if they were not so disjointed. It was almost as if the author was trying to write 8 different stories with interconnection to the first book without clearly defining the links, other than "We need to stop the snow queen."
If I wasn't a completionist when it comes to reading, I would have DNF'd the whole series after the travesty that Book 1 was had I not bought the entire series. If you are looking for a palate cleanser and do not care about substance or writing, then this may be it for you, or if you are like me, it may have put you on the precipice of a reading slump. Thankfully, I have plenty of books by solid authors that saved me.
Book 1: Starts with Jack, who is from the "real world," and his grandfather. His grandfather passes away, leaving Jack with no family and no place to "call home" any longer. During the wake, he wanders into his grandfather's study where he is drawn to a mirror. In this mirror, he sees this mysterious woman, and suddenly a "blast" of cold wind knocks him through it bringing him to the Chanted Forest. From there he meets Aria (I presume is Elsa), who is the princess of the realm, and is on the run from the "evil queen." Things quickly (and I mean very quickly) escalate between Jack and Aria creating an insta-love situation. Throughout their travels to find pieces of a mirror (the same mirror in the grandfather's study) they encounter other characters who are featured in the other books. Aria wants to find the shards so she can open the portal to another realm and be free from the Chanted Forest.
From the start, Jack is this awkward and sheltered man/boy who grew up with a "cold-hearted and loveless grandfather" but then he "dies" when he magically finds the courage to kill the evil queen and is reborn as Jack Frost.
Book 2: We follow Red Riding Hood in this book and it is a repeat of book 1. Red's story follows her desire for revenge after her grandmother is killed by a wolf. Little does Red know, wolves are shifters and they can hide among the humans. She is a cousin to Robin Hood and is with him on his quest to find the lovely maid Marian and take her back from The Wolf (alpha). On this quest with them is Will Scarlett, who (once again) has an insta-love connection with Red, who is less than enthused by him...until she is not. Will has a secret...wanna guess...of course he is a wolf shifter and should Red find out...
Obviously, they overcome the "secret" and they continue on their merry way with Will becoming the new Alpha. In this book, it is also discovered that Bell is a wolf and has been searching for a way to reverse it. Again, flat characters, hasty story movement, and little overlap with the first book, even though the main plot line affects all the characters.
Book 3: Bell's story... Again, the character development was lackluster, and the plot was all over the place. Bell is trying to find a cure for her wolf curse and in doing so, thwarts the characters from the previous book in finding a key. She gets the key and sneaks into the Snow Queen's palace where she finds Nate, Marian's long-lost brother. Nate suffers from blackouts, which later is found out to be because he shifts into the "Beast" and has no conscious awareness. Come to find out, he has been poisoned with mermaid scale oil (?) that allows him to be controlled through a mermaid stone. Somehow Ursula makes her way into this story by helping Nate recover "lost" memories by drinking from a hidden pool of water.
It also turns out that Nate is the brother of the king in his home realm and this was all done as a ploy to gain power. Somehow they find their way to Bell's childhood home that has been abandoned by her father and they choose that point to get a little frisky...ummm, no. It is almost as if the writers were trying to "kick up the heat" but not so much so it took them out of the YA genre. It was boring.
Book 4: Bring on Snow (Aria's sister) and King Emmett (Nate and Marian's brother). Emmett is a walking red flag, from having his brother locked up by some prince (who has nothing to do with anything other than some random character) to acting like he is a victim in all of this and playing the "duped" idiot. Somehow, Rumplestilskin gets added into the mix and they can call the character by his name when in the original story, saying his name gave the speaker power over him, in this version it does not. While they did stick to some of the original aspects of the lore (helpful and trickster), it was basically a new story for him. Snow goes through a crisis when she finds out Aria is not her blood sister, which causes her to suddenly hate her and desire her dethroned, even though Aria still sees her as a little sister.
The dynamic between Snow and Emmett is cringe at best and disjointed at worse. The characters were flat and the plot all over the place.
Book 5: Lexa (Ariel) and Ryker (Captain Hook)... I don't even know where to start with this one. It may have been the most obnoxious for me. Lexa is the princess of Atlantis, the daughter of Poisidon and she is in love with Ryker. Ryker's ship is sunk and Lexa is the one who nurses him back to health. In the accident, he loses his hand and proceeds to secure a hook to the stump. Poisidon is kidnapped and Lexa is forced to enter into a marriage pact to secure her father's release. However, it is not the prince and the king who are wholly responsible for the kidnapping of mermaids, rather it is Ursula. Toward the end of the book, Ryker is dying (or did die) and Lexa sings "the forbidden song" that returns Ryker's soul allowing him to live again, which now causes an imbalance in the Underworld. There were so many other things going on at once that the story became even more diluted and scattered that it was nearly impossible to fully ferret out what direction the authors were trying to go. Needless to say, I was bored and started speed reading and skipping parts just so I could get some semblance of understanding.
Book 6: Ella and Killian... Because Lexa sang the forbidden song, Ella's soul is now marked for the Underworld and Killian is a soul hunter. His sole duty is to take souls to the Underworld, where there is a contest that whichever soul collector obtains a certain amount of souls, will dethrone Hades and become the new king. Killian has one soul left... care to guess the soul he is to take...yup, Ella. Instead, he falls for her instantly and tries to discover why she is so full of guilt when she did not kill the king as she is accused of doing. Should a hunter claim an "innocent soul" their count totals zero out and they must start over. Killian is on a countdown and if he does not reap her soul by a certain time, more hunters will come and it will be free for all to claim her and take her to the Underworld. They work together to retrieve Ella's memories of that night so they can discover who truly murdered the king and as the lovers try to thwart the other hunters, their souls become bound together. At some point, Ella is stabbed and Killian turns her heart to glass to save her. He also creates "glass" slippers for her to wear to a royal event, where they confront the king's actual killer.
Another book that hops around and has zero substance.
Book 7: Aurora and Prince Tristan... What would happen if Sleeping Beauty never woke up? Well, she gets stuck in the Dreamworld and becomes the protector of those who enter it. This book was substantially longer than the previous 6 and actually had some depth (minimal at best) to it. Aurora fights nightmare-ish manifestations of her fears while searching for a way out and saving others from their manifestations. Prince Tristan struggles with his grief over the loss of his father (whom he killed, not Ella) and his upcoming coronation. In his desire to seek refuge, he finds himself in the Dreamworld and has an instant love connection with Aurora, causing him to continuously seek a rare plant that puts him to sleep so he can be with her. Despite his grief and all his stresses, he magically is the light in the dark when it comes to the Dreamworld, causing Aurora to always seek him out. He is the hope to her cynicism.
Then enters a new villain, King Midas, who got his golden touch from the Dreamworld and it is there that the "cure" can be found in the form of scorpion venom. So now Tristan and Aurora also have to get the scorpion venom into Midas so they can undo his dangerous touch.
While this book was longer and the world-building was slightly better...it was still scattered and had too many things trying to go on at once. The plots were even more convoluted by adding yet another storyline near the end of the series.
Book 8: Rapunzel and Finn... Now all of a sudden Rapunzel is the overall heroine of the entire series...ummm what? In this book, Rapunzel is on a quest to find a magic dagger that is somehow the key to everything. They are doing this all while trying to return all the "darkness" back to the Dreamworld, which is threatening to breach the barrier separating it from the Chanted Forest. Rapunzel ends up hiring Finn, who is a notorious thief and illusionist, to assist her on her quest. Rapunzel thinks of herself as a villain and it is through her time with Finn that she recognizes sharing burdens can be a strength, so she begins to open up to him. All the stories and characters converge in this one singular book where they fight the Dreamworld as it opens a doorway between the two worlds. The battle scene is overdone and honestly repetitive with them slashing all these manifestations, turning them to smoke, yet they still are overwhelmed and struggling. Then you bring in the illusions, which are somehow worse than manifestations, and suddenly the characters are flailing because they are being taunted by them.
Once again, slightly better world-building and still the chaotic plot lines.
The entire series was chaotic, and underwhelming, with flat characters and very little world-building. I do not shy away from YA books, as there have been several I have read that were good. Series like this one though, make me not want to delve into YA again. The series is made up of 8 books, with the first six being shorter novellas and the last two being nearly double in length, which would not be a bad thing if they were not so disjointed. It was almost as if the author was trying to write 8 different stories with interconnection to the first book without clearly defining the links, other than "We need to stop the snow queen."
If I wasn't a completionist when it comes to reading, I would have DNF'd the whole series after the travesty that Book 1 was had I not bought the entire series. If you are looking for a palate cleanser and do not care about substance or writing, then this may be it for you, or if you are like me, it may have put you on the precipice of a reading slump. Thankfully, I have plenty of books by solid authors that saved me.
Book 1: Starts with Jack, who is from the "real world," and his grandfather. His grandfather passes away, leaving Jack with no family and no place to "call home" any longer. During the wake, he wanders into his grandfather's study where he is drawn to a mirror. In this mirror, he sees this mysterious woman, and suddenly a "blast" of cold wind knocks him through it bringing him to the Chanted Forest. From there he meets Aria (I presume is Elsa), who is the princess of the realm, and is on the run from the "evil queen." Things quickly (and I mean very quickly) escalate between Jack and Aria creating an insta-love situation. Throughout their travels to find pieces of a mirror (the same mirror in the grandfather's study) they encounter other characters who are featured in the other books. Aria wants to find the shards so she can open the portal to another realm and be free from the Chanted Forest.
From the start, Jack is this awkward and sheltered man/boy who grew up with a "cold-hearted and loveless grandfather" but then he "dies" when he magically finds the courage to kill the evil queen and is reborn as Jack Frost.
Book 2: We follow Red Riding Hood in this book and it is a repeat of book 1. Red's story follows her desire for revenge after her grandmother is killed by a wolf. Little does Red know, wolves are shifters and they can hide among the humans. She is a cousin to Robin Hood and is with him on his quest to find the lovely maid Marian and take her back from The Wolf (alpha). On this quest with them is Will Scarlett, who (once again) has an insta-love connection with Red, who is less than enthused by him...until she is not. Will has a secret...wanna guess...of course he is a wolf shifter and should Red find out...
Obviously, they overcome the "secret" and they continue on their merry way with Will becoming the new Alpha. In this book, it is also discovered that Bell is a wolf and has been searching for a way to reverse it. Again, flat characters, hasty story movement, and little overlap with the first book, even though the main plot line affects all the characters.
Book 3: Bell's story... Again, the character development was lackluster, and the plot was all over the place. Bell is trying to find a cure for her wolf curse and in doing so, thwarts the characters from the previous book in finding a key. She gets the key and sneaks into the Snow Queen's palace where she finds Nate, Marian's long-lost brother. Nate suffers from blackouts, which later is found out to be because he shifts into the "Beast" and has no conscious awareness. Come to find out, he has been poisoned with mermaid scale oil (?) that allows him to be controlled through a mermaid stone. Somehow Ursula makes her way into this story by helping Nate recover "lost" memories by drinking from a hidden pool of water.
It also turns out that Nate is the brother of the king in his home realm and this was all done as a ploy to gain power. Somehow they find their way to Bell's childhood home that has been abandoned by her father and they choose that point to get a little frisky...ummm, no. It is almost as if the writers were trying to "kick up the heat" but not so much so it took them out of the YA genre. It was boring.
Book 4: Bring on Snow (Aria's sister) and King Emmett (Nate and Marian's brother). Emmett is a walking red flag, from having his brother locked up by some prince (who has nothing to do with anything other than some random character) to acting like he is a victim in all of this and playing the "duped" idiot. Somehow, Rumplestilskin gets added into the mix and they can call the character by his name when in the original story, saying his name gave the speaker power over him, in this version it does not. While they did stick to some of the original aspects of the lore (helpful and trickster), it was basically a new story for him. Snow goes through a crisis when she finds out Aria is not her blood sister, which causes her to suddenly hate her and desire her dethroned, even though Aria still sees her as a little sister.
The dynamic between Snow and Emmett is cringe at best and disjointed at worse. The characters were flat and the plot all over the place.
Book 5: Lexa (Ariel) and Ryker (Captain Hook)... I don't even know where to start with this one. It may have been the most obnoxious for me. Lexa is the princess of Atlantis, the daughter of Poisidon and she is in love with Ryker. Ryker's ship is sunk and Lexa is the one who nurses him back to health. In the accident, he loses his hand and proceeds to secure a hook to the stump. Poisidon is kidnapped and Lexa is forced to enter into a marriage pact to secure her father's release. However, it is not the prince and the king who are wholly responsible for the kidnapping of mermaids, rather it is Ursula. Toward the end of the book, Ryker is dying (or did die) and Lexa sings "the forbidden song" that returns Ryker's soul allowing him to live again, which now causes an imbalance in the Underworld. There were so many other things going on at once that the story became even more diluted and scattered that it was nearly impossible to fully ferret out what direction the authors were trying to go. Needless to say, I was bored and started speed reading and skipping parts just so I could get some semblance of understanding.
Book 6: Ella and Killian... Because Lexa sang the forbidden song, Ella's soul is now marked for the Underworld and Killian is a soul hunter. His sole duty is to take souls to the Underworld, where there is a contest that whichever soul collector obtains a certain amount of souls, will dethrone Hades and become the new king. Killian has one soul left... care to guess the soul he is to take...yup, Ella. Instead, he falls for her instantly and tries to discover why she is so full of guilt when she did not kill the king as she is accused of doing. Should a hunter claim an "innocent soul" their count totals zero out and they must start over. Killian is on a countdown and if he does not reap her soul by a certain time, more hunters will come and it will be free for all to claim her and take her to the Underworld. They work together to retrieve Ella's memories of that night so they can discover who truly murdered the king and as the lovers try to thwart the other hunters, their souls become bound together. At some point, Ella is stabbed and Killian turns her heart to glass to save her. He also creates "glass" slippers for her to wear to a royal event, where they confront the king's actual killer.
Another book that hops around and has zero substance.
Book 7: Aurora and Prince Tristan... What would happen if Sleeping Beauty never woke up? Well, she gets stuck in the Dreamworld and becomes the protector of those who enter it. This book was substantially longer than the previous 6 and actually had some depth (minimal at best) to it. Aurora fights nightmare-ish manifestations of her fears while searching for a way out and saving others from their manifestations. Prince Tristan struggles with his grief over the loss of his father (whom he killed, not Ella) and his upcoming coronation. In his desire to seek refuge, he finds himself in the Dreamworld and has an instant love connection with Aurora, causing him to continuously seek a rare plant that puts him to sleep so he can be with her. Despite his grief and all his stresses, he magically is the light in the dark when it comes to the Dreamworld, causing Aurora to always seek him out. He is the hope to her cynicism.
Then enters a new villain, King Midas, who got his golden touch from the Dreamworld and it is there that the "cure" can be found in the form of scorpion venom. So now Tristan and Aurora also have to get the scorpion venom into Midas so they can undo his dangerous touch.
While this book was longer and the world-building was slightly better...it was still scattered and had too many things trying to go on at once. The plots were even more convoluted by adding yet another storyline near the end of the series.
Book 8: Rapunzel and Finn... Now all of a sudden Rapunzel is the overall heroine of the entire series...ummm what? In this book, Rapunzel is on a quest to find a magic dagger that is somehow the key to everything. They are doing this all while trying to return all the "darkness" back to the Dreamworld, which is threatening to breach the barrier separating it from the Chanted Forest. Rapunzel ends up hiring Finn, who is a notorious thief and illusionist, to assist her on her quest. Rapunzel thinks of herself as a villain and it is through her time with Finn that she recognizes sharing burdens can be a strength, so she begins to open up to him. All the stories and characters converge in this one singular book where they fight the Dreamworld as it opens a doorway between the two worlds. The battle scene is overdone and honestly repetitive with them slashing all these manifestations, turning them to smoke, yet they still are overwhelmed and struggling. Then you bring in the illusions, which are somehow worse than manifestations, and suddenly the characters are flailing because they are being taunted by them.
Once again, slightly better world-building and still the chaotic plot lines.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 4, 2026
Very good read. Love a good retelling this just kept me going.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews