The first Meant To Be book I ever got was If the Shoe Fits by Julie Murphy. That’s because it was the first Meant To Be book at all, and as a religious reader of the Twisted Tales, I was curious what an adult contemporary line from Disney would look like. Of course, like many other things, it fell behind, and it wasn’t until a year or so later that I actually picked up a Meant To Be book—and this time it was By the Book by Jasmine Guillory. I wasn’t surprised that I picked this one up first; Beauty and the Beast was my favorite Disney movie for most of my life, after all.
But it was in August of 2023 that my mind was blown. There I was, sitting in the big signing room of Steamy Lit Con, scrolling on my phone during a lull in table visits, when I saw the announcement. The next Meant To Be book would be based on Tangled, my (new) favorite Disney cartoon musical. And Christina Lauren was writing it. Christina and Lauren, who were sitting at their own signing table not fifty feet away from me. I had to go talk to them. I had to tell them that Tangled was my favorite and I was excited.
So I did.
Cut to a few months later when I got a print ARC in the mail, direct from CLo’s publicist.
Reader, I screamed.
And then I put it on the shelf and didn’t pick it up until the week the damn book released.
But when I did finally pick it up, I didn’t put it down except to listen to things like my bladder and my appetite.
In Tangled Up in You, we have Ren, who has lived a very sheltered life. Her parents finally allow her to go to college, where she meets Fitz. Fitz isn’t strictly an asshole, so to speak. But he is not what you would call…nice. However. A project in the class they share leads to some questions, which leads to…a road trip? With Fitz? There are Tangled references galore, in a lot of fun and interesting ways; I giggled, I sniffled. I Leo Pointed when I knew exactly what was happening. Sadly, no Snuggly Duckling, but yes evil mother. So be prepared.
But you know who said “fuck the evil stepmother trope”? Julie Murphy.
Shortly after reading Tangled Up in You, I needed to read books about reality TV, which meant it was time to finally break out If The Shoe Fits, the first Meant To Be book. Here we had Cindy, who loves to design shoes. She just moved back in with her stepmother and stepsisters, who, while spoiled, are some of the nicest people you will meet. Her stepmother runs a Bachelor-style TV show, and when there are sudden dropouts, has all three girls go on as contestants. Her biggest concern with Cindy going on is her size—but even then, the concern she has about the public’s reaction to Cindy comes out of love, even if it’s still born out of fatphobia. But not only does the public love her; Henry, our Prince Charming, is very into her (and has been since they met on the flight out to LA. Whoops.). It does a really good job of broadening out the Cinderella story Disney gave us, and also asks some of its own questions. I wasn’t sure I was going to be satisfied with the way the story played out, but Julie pulled it off.
I still have one more (currently released) Meant To Be novel to read, Kiss the Girl, and I have discovered that the next one is going to be based on Mulan!