Tangled Up In You — Books, Beauty, & Buys

By: Christina Lauren
Published Year: 2024
Publisher: Hyperion Avenue
Pages: 320

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This in no way shape or form influenced my opinion of this novel.

Summary (Provided by Goodreads): A witty and deeply romantic modern reimagining of Disney’s Tangled.

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 months short 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.

First Impressions

I love Christina Lauren and I love Disney, so I was excited to see that they had joined forces. This book is actually a part of a series of Disney retellings by romance authors. I haven’t read any of the others, but I was very intrigued by the combo of Christina Lauren and Tangled.

What I thought

This story was very fun.

Ren has spent her whole life living on a homestead with her parents. She has never gone to school and does not have any friends her own age. When she’s 22, she finally convinces her parents to let her go to a nearby college. Their rule, however, is she needs to come home every weekend to the homestead and they will pick her up, she cannot use the internet for anything other than assignments, and no going off campus. She also does not have a phone. When she meets Fitz, who is assigned to give her the welcome tour, he immediately dislikes her optimistic attitude. She’s warned to stay away from his charm, but when she finds out her dad may not be who she thought he was, she joins him on a road trip.

What I liked most about this story is that even though it’s a modern retelling of Tangled/Rapunzel, it feels like it exists in its own world. I could see a lot of the nods from the movie but it didn’t feel like pandering or like the story was being told just to hit story points.

I really loved how optimistic and naïve Ren was, while also just being kind and genuine. Fitz was charming, yet also struggling with his own demons. His story actually confused me the most. There was a lot of backstory which I appreciated, but it unfolded slowly.

Christina Lauren always do a great job with slow burn romances and with chemistry and this book does not miss. It’s a little less spicy than their usual stories, which I think a lot of people will appreciate. I loved the banter and I also liked the road trip aspect where Ren got to experience a lot of things for the first time.