Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser Review: A Riveting, Perspective-Flipping Debut

Rachel Hochhauser's debut is a work of historical fiction and fairytale retelling that follows Lady Etheldreda Verity Isolde Tremaine Bramley — Ethel — from girlhood through middle age. As BookPage describes, the story opens before dawn with Ethel out hunting with her trained peregrine falcon, not for sport but for food. Twice widowed, she is solely responsible for a crumbling manor, two daughters she loves fiercely, and a stepdaughter named Elin. With her late husbands' assets exhausted and their fancy possessions long sold, Ethel holds together the illusion of prosperity through relentless resourcefulness — because that illusion is the only currency left with which to secure good marriages for her children. The Cinderella skeleton is present: there is a royal ball, a prince seeking a wife, an unexpected arrival, and professions of love. But Hochhauser consistently upends expectations, and, as BookPage notes, "nothing is as it appears, because Ethel is not the only one hiding secrets behind a veneer of propriety."

The novel's central achievement is its sympathetic reconstruction of a character fairy tale tradition has flattened into pure menace. Hochhauser traces Ethel's origins as a brewer's daughter who grew up without a mother, found genuine happiness in a first marriage, and then remarried Lord Robert Bramley purely for the security it promised — only to be widowed again and left with an additional dependent. BookPage observes that by the time readers encounter Elin, Hochhauser has "successfully convinced us to root for Ethel." Elin herself is portrayed as the privileged product of a doting, wealthy father: pretty, aloof, unmotivated, and absorbed in a book of manners, fantasizing about rescue rather than taking any action. This inversion — the "wicked" stepmother as a competent, dirt-tolerant pragmatist and Cinderella as a passive dreamer — forms the novel's ideological spine. As one blurb on the author's own site frames the project, Hochhauser "insists we include the wicked stepmothers" in the broader cultural reckoning with historically maligned women.

Lady Tremaine arrived as a New York Times bestseller and was selected as Reese's Book Club's March pick, with Reese's describing it as a reimagining that explores "motherhood, family, and the pressure to be perfect." The novel is set for publication in more than eleven languages. Blurb praise from Kate Quinn, New York Times bestselling author of The Briar Club, calls Ethel "a heroine to root for with every turn of the page" and names Hochhauser "a major new talent to watch." Fellow NYT bestselling author Emilia Hart credits the novel with keeping "the grim in the fairy tale." One comparator in circulation — drawn from promotional copy — positions the novel as sitting at the intersection of Bridgerton and Circe, which signals both its romantic undercurrents and its mythological rehabilitation impulse. The audiobook version is narrated by Bessie Carter.

Beyond its high concept, the novel draws consistent praise for its prose and character depth. The author's own site carries a blurb calling Hochhauser's prose "a gift" and describing Lady Tremaine as "one of the best novels I've read in a long time — for its sentences, for its grace, and for its originality." A review at thegeekywaffle.com highlights the supporting cast as a particular strength: Ethel's two daughters are portrayed as equally hardworking, and two servants — described as like family and also as romantic partners — are called "strong, independent women," adding texture to what might otherwise be a two-character drama. Hochhauser also broadens the emotional stakes around motherhood in ways that, according to Reese's Book Club, push the narrative well beyond a simple villain redemption arc.

For readers who approach the novel expecting a straightforward Cinderella retelling, the experience may be deliberately disorienting — and that is by design rather than oversight. Elin's characterization as passive and self-absorbed is not softened; a review at jessicacrawfordwrites.com notes that "Lady Tremaine is not perfect" as a novel even while calling Ethel an inspiring heroine worth readers' time. Those seeking a traditionally sympathetic Cinderella figure or a light romantic fairy tale will find neither: BookPage describes Elin as "pretty and frail, aloof, unmotivated," and the novel's emotional weight sits squarely on Ethel's shoulders. Readers who come to fairytale retellings for the romance and whimsy, rather than for the interrogation of class, survival, and maternal sacrifice, may find the novel's moral recalibration more demanding than inviting — though that same demanding quality is precisely what has made it a cultural conversation piece.