I really had a fun time reading this story. I love Megara. She's one of my favorite characters within the Disney universe. She's smart, snarky and not constantly looking for a man to save her. I was actually pleasantly surprised with this book! In terms of characters, Tiana was so spot on it really felt like I was reading about the same woman from the movie. She hasn’t experienced the same growth she had in the movie, but that’s to be expected since this is a twisted tale; she still thinks she needs to dig a little deeper and work harder to get what she wants. Because of that, she puts a lot of things ahead of herself, even if it’s to her detriment. Charlotte also felt very on point, even though she wasn’t as involved as I had wanted. Naveen, while still very well written, felt different from the movie. You could argue that he had the most growth in the movie, and in the book he’s still growing and learning; Tiana might’ve stagnated but Naveen has discovered he likes work, like helping people. I thought their forbidden relationship was cute, albeit it wasn’t explored very much in depth. I appreciated his point of view, but I would’ve much rather have seen just Tiana and Facilier; it was interesting to see them fighting against the same thing, but in different ways. A huge thank-you to NetGalley and Disney-Hyperion for this e-arc of Go the Distance by Jen Calonita. And when it comes to this book, it reminded me of the direct-to-video sequel. The early morning, poorly animated tv show sequel. The characters were... sort of the same, but also... not quite. It can feel quite forced at times, but the outline is still there and it's still a fun time.

Video Games: The Princess and the Frog • Kinect: Disneyland Adventures • Disney Princess Enchanting Storybooks • Disney Universe • Disney Princess: My Fairytale Adventure • Disney Sorcerer's Arena • Disney Heroes: Battle Mode A new line of titles that explores what would happen if a key turning point in a Disney film had not worked out as planned. La fin : je ne l'ai pas du tout aimé. Si globalement elle se rapproche du film (Tiana et Naveen se marient, Tiana ouvre son restaurant), les changements n'étaient pas les meilleurs choix. Pour résumer, Louis reste un humain et Naveen ne retrouve pas la mémoire (et n'a donc aucun souvenir de s'être transformé en grenouille ni d'avoir vécu cette aventure avec Tiana). 😒😒 Obviously, Meg has some mixed feelings on this, but she agrees nonetheless. We're talking about eternity with the man she loves here. The romance stuff between Tiana and Naveen felt very childish and overly complicated. I get why the stories throws roadbloks in their way, but after a while it became a bit redundant. Also, it got a bit in the way of the rest of the story and therefore took the score a bit down for me.There were some stand-out moments throughout this quest. Times where Meg could have (maybe should have) given up and chosen to remain human. There were times where she made mistakes that were oh-so relatable due to her swirling thoughts and unsure feelings. I highlighted so many quotes in my Kindle as I read and even felt as though Megara became somewhat like a friend. This surprised me greatly since I was going into this assuming it would have an almost middle-grade feel to it, as some of the other Twisted Tales had. I closed the book feeling as though I had actually learned something from it. Farrah Rochon weaves a beautiful tale in Almost There. The richness of New Orleans life comes through the story wonderfully too. All the food, music, and celebration that is New Orleans at Mardi Gras was a joy to take in.

I can proudly say that I read every book in the series so far .. and this one lies in the middle of how much I enjoyed it .. I noticed a common theme in the later books that they disregard the original material (the movie) to take so much liberty with the story ..like this book ..it's like the movie didn't even happen and we didn't even meet Mama Ode again :'( Thank you so much to the publisher, Disney Books and Disney Audio, for providing me copies to read and review. Overall, I think this is a fun addition to this series. If you are a Megara fan, as I am, you should definitely give this one a shot! FINALLY!! I've been waiting for Tiana's book for almost four years now!! Really hope it's on par with Reflection, aka the best book in the Twisted Tales series.I have to lead with I have never read the Twisted Tales series but I own a few so I was excited to get approved for this book because of how much I loved Hercules. I loved the fact that she stayed close to the Disney story. The characters felt the same as they did in the Hercules movie, even though the story was completely different. I also loved following Meg as our protagonist. I always thought her potential was fully exploited in Hercules, so I was glad to read a story from her perspective. I shouldn't have raised my expectations since I generally tend to be bored with Greek Mythology but Hercules is one of my favorite Disney movies so I was really excited for the twisted tale I will admit, most of these Twisted tales are a massive miss for me. They tear apart the very fiber of the classics I know and love to a point where I disconnect completely. However, when I saw the latest twisted tale would take on an all time favorite in Hercules I knew I had to give this a fighting chance. Disney, you did not disappoint! There is so much of the characters that you know and love from the movie that you can hear the voice of the actor who portrayed them as you're reading. No characters were written in a way that was off-putting or out of character for them. The added characters really enriched the world Meg and Hercules grew up in and getting to learn more about Meg's past was a great addition. The pacing was great and I never fell into a mid-book boredom which can happen to my pretty frequently (which is why I read more than one thing at once). The 13th installment in the New York Times best-selling series asks: What if Tiana made a deal that changed everything?