Published By: Orion
Pages: 352
Released On: 05/03/2026
Everyone said she was wicked. Now Cinderella’s stepmother tells her own story…
“We women were born and bred to expect marriage, and it all happened when we were too young to know better.”
After the death of her second husband, Lady Etheldreda Verity Isolde Tremaine Bramley is solely responsible for her two daughters, Ana and Griselda, her simpering stepdaughter Elin, a razor-taloned peregrine falcon, and a crumbling manor buried in the woods.
When a royal ball offers the chance to change their fortunes, Ethel risks her pride in pursuit of an invitation for all three of girls – only for her hopes to be fulfilled by the wrong one: Elin.
Yet as her stepdaughter’s engagement to the future king unfolds, Ethel discovers a sordid secret hidden in the depths of the royal family, forcing her to choose between the security she craves and the wicked stepdaughter who has rebuffed her at every turn…
*****
Thanks to NetGalley and Orion for the advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.
A play on the classic Cinderella story. This sounded so my thing; fairy tale influenced, historical, glamour, evil – it had everything.
It is from the POV of the stepmother which was original. It seems so obvious and yet I’ve not seen that POV before. We have been told that Cinderella’s Stepmother is wicked, evil, ignores her. And I’m not saying she’s a completely different person in this, but we get to see things from her side, we get to see her layers, and she becomes this real person rather than a Disney Villain. You actually start to feel sorry for her. She’s desperately trying to cling on to a society that she is crumbling from. She’s trying to find dignity and stability in a world she cannot afford or doesn’t really belong to. And you find yourself willing her on, even though you know you probably shouldn’t.
This is very much of Rachel’s creation, but she’s kept enough of the original character for us to recognise her. She’s given us enough of what we expect in order to support the new story.
Books can get a bit lazy sometimes when they take a well-known story and tell it from someone else’s perspective. But this is more than that. This isn’t the Cinderella story. This is Lady Tremaine’s story. There’s so much heart to it, so much power, it’s full of emotion and you often forget it’s got anything to do with the classic fairytale at all.
The writing is good, almost lyrical in the way she describes the land and the weather, as well as how she’s depicted emotion and behaviour, and how dark and frightening it all is.
I would say at times it was a little drawn out some scenes had more page time than they necessarily needed, and some bits too little time; I think the book is maybe a little too long for the story.
This is her debut I believe, and what a promising one it is. There is so much to enjoy about it, whether you’re into fairytales or not. It bodes well for her future work; whether it be in the same vein or if she goes down a different direction, she’s definitely a name to keep an eye out for.
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