Once Upon a Tower is sorta a retelling of Rapunzal with a little Romeo and Juliet thrown in. Of course Eloisa James only uses the fairy tales as a guide, but she completely makes the story her own. 
 I haven't read all of the series, and I like the fact that you don't have to have read the other books in the series in order to enjoy each book. I have liked what I've read of them though. 
 Once Upon a Tower is the story of Edie and Gowan who meet at a ball znd immediately Gowan feels an attractions for Edie. Upon further correspondence and meetings between the two they are both enamored of each other and hasten their engagement to be married right away. What they figure out is that married life is a lot different than what they had expected and they both don't have the best of examples to follow in their own parents. Can they make it work? 
 While I overall enjoyed the read, it seemed this story just took too long to get to the point of conflict. I liked both characters well enough, but there was just too much back and forth between the two and I felt everything could have been resolved a lot sooner. 
 Not to say that I didn't overall enjoy the book, I did,it just wasn't one of my favorites of what I've read so far. I do look forward reading more in the series.