'Feminist, fierce, and wildly fresh. Hochhauser's prose is poetic, her story hypnotic, and her characters will live in my head and heart forever. Lady Tremaine is destined to be one of the biggest books of the year' GLENNON DOYLE
'I've been warned to be wary of strangers in the woods since I was a little girl. But just as shadows serve to hide and disguise, they also provide privacy and solitude, and, if you look carefully, beauty.'
Widow twice-over, Etheldreda has learned that marriage can be violent - even if her husbands were not. Saddled with the care of two children, a priggish stepdaughter, and a razor-taloned peregrine falcon, her whole life has become a ruse like the slumping manor hall they live in: grand and ornate on the exterior, and crumbling, brick by brick, inside. Fierce in the face of her misfortune, Etheldreda clings to her family's respectability, the lifeboat that will float her daughters along the gentle tides of stability, straight into the secure banks of marriage.
When a royal ball offers the chance to secure the future she desperately desires, Etheldreda must risk her secrets, pride, and coffers in pursuit of an invitation for her daughters - only to see her hopes fulfilled by the wrong one. As an engagement unfolds with unnerving speed, she unearths a sordid secret hidden in the depths of the royal family, forcing a choice between the security she's sought for so many years and the wellbeing of a feckless stepdaughter who has rebuffed her at every turn.
Praise for Lady Tremaine
"Both intimate and epic in scope, Lady Tremaine shatters our preconceptions of a famous fairy tale villain, presenting instead a mesmerizing portrait of a woman who discovers that real enchantment comes from daring to rewrite your own destiny. With spellbinding prose and haunting moral complexity, Rachel Hochhauser excavates the heart of a timeless story, revealing the profound humanity that exists in the spaces between good and wicked. This stunning debut dares to ask what happens when a mother's fierce love collides with the cruel machinery of power and privilege in a world that offers women impossible choices" Kimberly King Parsons
"LADY TREMAINE left me in awe. Breathing new life into a timeless fairy tale, this is the story of a complex, resilient mother who demonstrates that love does not always come naturally: it is often built on difficult choices. A must-read for anyone who believes in the power of second chances, the nuances of motherhood, and the ways in which strength evolves through adversity. Hochhauser's storytelling is a poignant reminder that even fairy tale villains have a story worth telling. My favorite read of the year so far!" Sarah Penner
"Wit, wisdom, poetry on every page. Hochhauser brilliantly takes a classic from a shelf and reads from it in a voice that's both hauntingly familiar and crisp in contemporary understanding. Her reappraisal of the cages we build for ourselves--in marriage and in love--reveals the freedom we possess, if only we'd look up and wait patiently for the hunting hawk's heart to return to our outstretched arm. Amazing work." Mark Richard
"Rachel Hochhauser's prose is a gift. LADY TREMAINE is one of the best novels I've read in a long time--for its sentences, for its grace, and for its originality. I haven't stopped thinking about it. I am envious of any reader picking up this book for the first time." Olivia Clare Friedman