Lady Tremaine
by Rachel Hochhauser
read by Bessie Carter
Macmillan Audio, 2026. 12 hours, 42 minutes.
Review written June 30, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
Oh, this one’s brilliant! I’ve made no secret that I love fairy tale retellings. This is something of a feminist retelling of Cinderella – with plenty of depth. I’m going to list it under Historical Fiction rather than Fantasy Fiction, because it takes out the magic in the tale, and looks at the plight of a twice-widowed woman in medieval times trying to protect her daughters.
The book is published for adults, not because of “adult” content, but because the focus is not the young women trying to find husbands, but the mother and stepmother in the tale.
And why did we not notice that Etheldreda Tremaine has a story? Woven through the present of the story, we get Ethel’s back story – how she met and married a man who loved her and they had two daughters, for whom she would do anything.
But when her husband died, his family was going to marry off her daughters and send them away without her, even though they were only 7 and 8 years old. So she found another man to marry, this one with a title.
She tried to be a mother to his motherless daughter, but the girl was resistant. After this husband died, Ethel was left with the estate – but no money to keep it up. His daughter Ellen had a dowry that she couldn’t touch until she got married.
Ethel and her daughters worked hard to put food on the table, but keep up appearances in order to keep the girls’ prospects for marriage open. Ellen? Not so much. She’s used to being a gentleman’s daughter and prefers to stay in her room, reading. As the book opens, Ethel is hunting with the falcon her first husband left behind. Her daughters are diligent – one keeping the books and managing sales of apples, with the other making skilled creations with her embroidery.
At first, I thought it was a simple up-ending of the tale with Cinderella shown to be actually the less hard-working sister. But it goes a lot deeper than that.
When Ellen gets invited to the ball, but her stepsisters don’t, Ethel has to dredge up things from her past to fix matters. But she’ll do anything for her daughters.
And then Ellen misses going to the ball with her stepsisters because she was supposed to make her own dress (with expensive materials provided) – and simply didn’t get it done. It’s not a godmother who helps her show up later, but she does get help.
It’s after Ellen seems to have gained the affections of the Prince that the story turns darker than the fairy tale. Ellen’s going to need her stepmother’s help, and Lady Tremaine is willing to go to the ends of the earth for her stepdaughter.
I can’t give anything away, but the ending is perfect and hugely satisfying – and leaves me with a look at the old fairy tale that I greatly prefer.
Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/lady_tremaine.html
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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.
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