When I saw this new romance release from one of my top favorite authorial duos, Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings, writing as Christina Lauren, I immediately snapped it up based on the author name alone. I didn’t realize ahead of time that TANGLED UP IN YOU is a modern-day twist on Disney’s animated film Tangled. The Disney movie, in turn, was loosely based on the fairytale Rapunzel as recorded by The Brothers Grimm. Now, I’ve read all of the Grimm fairytales, but I’ve never seen Disney’s Tangled.
After finishing reading Laurens’ TANGLED UP IN YOU, I googled the plot for the animated film Tangled to try to compare the two. I’m sure there are a lot of little hat-tip details in the book that I didn’t pick up on, but I don’t believe that should deter potential readers who haven’t seen the movie. I think this book can be enjoyed on its own merits, especially for fans of Christina Lauren. There are fun things like: the name of the hero in the novel is Fitz, a nod to the film character Flynn who reveals his true name to be Eugene Fitzherbert.
Ren (i.e. the Rapunzel character with the requisite long blonde hair) is starting college at age 22, the first time she’s ever attended any school. She’s been incredibly sheltered and isolated her whole life, raised on a homestead and learning on her own. While she’s capable of reading and writing Mandarin and also repairing a tractor engine, she has no idea what the real world is like. She reminded me of Brandon Fraser’s character in the movie Blast from the Past, knowing about the modern world only by what she has read or seen on the very few old VCR tapes she had access to. She’s a wide-eyed innocent, and oh so endearing.
Bad boy Fitz is a college senior who has been passing himself off at school as a playboy rich kid. In reality, he was adopted by a millionaire when he was a teenager, and he has a sketchy past with the law. If he graduates college with top honors, however, his criminal record will be expunged. Fitz tries to resist Ren’s innocent appeal, but she appears to the heart he’s been trying so hard to protect. Fitz heads to Nashville during college spring break and Ren blackmails her way into his trip, and the hijinks (and eventual love) ensue.
TANGLED UP IN YOU’s hero and heroine are college students, and the vibe of this book is New Adult. While it’s much more racy than a children’s Disney film, I’m sure, it is still definitely only PG in heat. Our heroine Renfantasizes about sex with Fitz, but there is only kissing in this book. While the tone of the book is New Adult, the themes of childhood trauma and being true to oneself transcend age groups.
Although there are some deep emotions and terrible personal traumas, the overall sensibility of the book to me is like a Disney tale. Sure, there are some scary things, but overall the tale is light and frothy. Approach this read like you would a Disney princess story, and you’ll enjoy the ride. Lauren’s TANGLED UP IN YOU is about chasing your dream and being open to the wonders and the love around you.
A witty and deeply romantic modern reimagining of Disney’s Tangled, by the New York Times bestselling author duo Christina Lauren, part of the acclaimed and bestselling Meant to Be collection.
She has a dream. He has a plan. Together they’ll take a leap of faith.
Ren has never held an iPhone, googled the answer to a question, or followed a crush on social media. What she has done: Read a book or two, or three (okay, hundreds). Taught herself to paint. Built a working wind power system from scratch. But for all the books she’s read, Ren has never found one that’s taught a woman raised on a homestead and off the grid for most of her twenty-two years how to live in the real world. So when she finally achieves her lifelong dream of attending Corona College, it feels like her life is finally beginning.
Fitz has the rest of his life mapped out: Graduate from Corona at the top of his class, get his criminal record wiped clean, and pass himself off as the rich, handsome player everyone thinks he is. He’s a few short months from checking off step one of his plans when Ren Gylden, with her cascading blonde hair and encyclopedic brain, crashes into his life, and for the first time Fitz’s plan is in jeopardy.
But a simple assignment in their immunology seminar changes the course of both their lives, and suddenly they’re thrown out of the frying pan and into the fire on a road trip that will lead them in the most unexpected directions. Out on the open road, the world somehow shifts, and the unlikely pair realize that, maybe, the key to the dreams they've both been chasing have been sitting next to them the whole time.
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