Review of Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser

This loose retelling of the Cinderella folk story offers the perspective of the "evil" stepmother, who is here actually a savvy, strong woman determined to provide for her household after being widowed in a patriarchal, 1700s-feeling society. I loved Hochhauser's turning the traditional tale on its head, the details, and the twists.

This is my favorite read of the spring so far.

Lady Tremaine is a loose retelling of the damsel-in-distress Cinderella folk tale, here from the perspective of the "evil" stepmother--who is shown to actually be a strong, determined, clever widow stuck in an era where men hold all of the property, power, and freedom.

Lady Tremaine is single-minded about protecting her daughters and trying to secure futures for them in a world where the safety and security of unmarried women is shaky.

A royal ball opens up the opportunity for Lady Tremaine to use the respectability of her deceased husband's title to secure invitations for her daughters (who are not, after all, shallow and greedy horrors of young women, as in the Disney story) and her standoffish but beautiful stepdaughter Elin. Elin is this novel’s version of Cinderella, and here she is a mostly insufferable girl, gloriously and willfully obtuse, dedicated to needlework and pious prayers while the rest of the househould is scrambling, hustling, and exhausting themselves to make ends meet.

After Elin attracts the attention of royalty, Lady Tremaine discovers a destructive secret in the noble family that threatens to destroy them but Elin as well, and Lady Tremaine must make crucial, life-and-death decisions around her own family to try to preserve the future of her loved ones.

There’s some gritty business, there are difficult choices, and there's a surprising shift of loyalties I loved. I adored the details of the late-1700s-feeling setting; the exploration of women’s struggles to carve out lives for themselves in a patriarchal society; and the creativity, strength, and resolve necessary to survive.

The story would have stood on its own for me, but the references to the Cinderella story were a fun added bonus.

I received a prepublication edition of Lady Tremaine courtesy of NetGalley and St. Martin's Press.

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Lady Tremaine is Rachel Hochhauser's first novel.