Diamond is book 3 in the Once Upon a Twist Tales series, after The Rose and the Balloon and Spindle Dreams–and it’s great. Diamond follows a loose retelling of the Rapunzel fairytale. Being my favorite of all the fairytales, I came in with solid expectations and Fichter delivered!

For reference, Diamond follows the life of a young girl as she struggles between doing what she knows it right or living under her mother’s thumb. I can’t go into more details without spoilers, but even though it’s #3 in the series, you can read it as a standalone, too.

Ratings for Diamond

Story: 5/5

Worldview: 4/5

Story gets a 5 because this was just such a wonderful new twist on Rapunzel. The characters grew from where they were in the last book in a way that felt organic and real. There were some plot twists that were very well done and yet heartbreaking all the same. Diamond and Seth also make a cute couple, and even though Diamond knows nothing of the world, there wasn’t a weird power dynamic with that. I loved the world building between the two main kingdoms and the language barrier was done well, too! All in all, a great novel with some Tangled and Barbie: Rapunzel references.

Worldview also greatly improved from book 2, Spindle Dreams. The characters don’t sit there and whine to God when they are at their wit’s end. They actually seek his guidance and help in many things. Even though the story never talks about how Jesus can free a person from gambling, I like that Diamond’s mother wasn’t condemned for it either. It’s hard to have a family member that suffers from an addiction, and to have it reflected as saying that someone is evil and will never recover would really suck. In any case, this novel didn’t do that as far as I could tell.

Overall Thoughts

All in all, another nice installment in this series. Overall rating sits at 4.5.

Note: there are mentions of blood, broken bones, danger, shooting a crossbow at a dangerous animal, and verbal abuse