Towering

By: Alex Flinn

Narrated by: Casey Holloway, Ann Marie Gideon, Andrew Sweeney

New York Times #1 bestselling author Alex Flinn reimagined the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast in Beastly and gave a twist to the story of Sleeping Beauty in A Kiss in Time.

Now with her gothic and darkly romantic YA novel Towering, Alex Flinn retells the tale of Rapunzel.

When Rachel was taken to live in a tower by a woman she calls Mama, she was excited. She felt like a princess in a castle. But many years later, Rachel knows her palace is really a prison, and begins to plan her escape. She is encouraged by the speed that her golden hair has been growing. It’s gotten long enough to reach the ground. And she’s begun dreaming of a green-eyed man. Could he be out there in the world? Is he coming to save her? Or will she find a way to save herself?

©2013 Alex Flinn (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

I was sadly disappointed :(

I am a big Alex Flinn fan! I've reread beastly and a kiss in time each at least 3 times!! And I'm a HUGE fan of retold fairy tails so I was very excited for this book!

But I found it to be:.. A bit doll and also totally random and messed up.
For one, the romance was horrible! You know I'm the old diseny princess movies, how they meet and two seconds later they are in love... That's exactly how it happens in the book!😐 not cool man!

And than there's th hole drugs circle thing... Like whaaaaat?
I really didn't like how they handled the whole boy meets girl, and how they just magically can hear each other.. Seems a bit much.

But I have to admit here were are some good parts..
I likes the whole mystery, the dead daughters journal holds secrets.

I suppose there are some good things about the book... But I'd sooner suggest you go reread Beastly or a Kiss in time rather than buying Towering.. It was okay but I kinda wish I didn't bother listenig to it!

Modern fairy tale

I wasn’t expecting this book to be a mystery. I was shocked, but not unhappily so, that it was one. It’s also a fantasy story, but that wasn’t a surprise at all. The main characters – one was a girl locked in a tower and the other one was a boy, who was… well, destined to save her? Actually, she ended up saving him. She was the hero of the story, when it came down to it.

The story was a retelling of “Rapunzel” – and it had all the classic elements of the tale: a girl locked in a tower, a handsome young man who she spends time with, a strange plant that a woman yearned for and ultimately promised her child to them.

There were elements that were flipped – the person keeping Rachel in the tower wasn’t the villain of the story. That person was actually doing just what she said: trying to keep Rachel safe. There was another character who was the villain, one who reminded me of Rumpelstiltskin more than anything else.

The cover art was nothing like the story. Well… the long blond hair was accurate to the story. Her dress was white, like in the story. However, her outfit was not what I pictured, not only that… when she was walking in the swirling snow with her hair that long, she was wearing a hooded winter coat.

The end of the story reminded me so much of other Rapunzel retellings that I’ve seen/read. At the end… Rachel went back to being a normal girl.

I really enjoyed the story! I loved the different twists and turns. I loved how things turned out, with… well, pretty much a happy ending. The only odd thing was the Fox Brothers. They just left. The police charged them with kidnapping, but… they pretty much end up in jail and that was it.

Since I've done this with my other audiobooks, I'll also say: the narrators did a fantastic job of telling the story. There are two other books by this author (that I know of) in this series and I might check them out as well.