Lady Tremaine: Reese’s Book Club Pick (A Novel)

Holy crap—Lady Tremaine was SO good! I just finished it, I felt every emotion reading this, and that ending completely caught me off guard. My poor husband had to endure my constant shock and retelling of the events, He was invested in the story line as well. 😂 If you’re into dark, twisty retellings, you need to pick this one up. It’s a wild take on Cinderella told from the stepmother’s perspective—and it totally flips everything you thought you knew.

Good reimagined story. The story kept me interested and wondering where they would go with it. I enjoyed the characters and especially the step mother. Well written and very descriptive. Could imagine the entire setting.

Author Visit!

Well y’all, as a card-carrying Southern librarian who has spent her whole life rooting for any retelling of Cinderella that lets the so-called villain finally grab the mic, I wanted to love this book. I really did. I came in ready to clutch my pearls and holler “YES! STEPMOMMA REDEMPTION ARC!”



Instead… I got about 70% of a slow simmer and 30% of a story that finally remembered it had a plot.

Let’s start with the good because my mama raised me right. The concept? Delicious. A twice-widowed mother clawing her way through a man-run society to secure her daughters’ futures? Sign me up and pass the biscuits.

And the falconry details? Listen. I did not expect to come out of this book Googling bird-handling gloves, but here we are. The peregrine content was hands-down the most fascinating thing in the whole novel. If the author had written 400 pages of “Lady With Attitude and Her Murder Bird,” I’d have rated this four stars… minimum.

Now… the part where I gently sighed and rolled my eyes a little bit.

This is a deeply feminist, smash-the-patriarchy retelling, which I respect in theory. In practice, the rage is turned up to eleven for so long that it starts to feel less like a character trait and more like background noise. By chapter ten I wasn’t thinking, “Wow, she’s really mad.” I was thinking, “Ma’am, do you need a nap and some chamomile?” A little emotional variation goes a long way, and this book sometimes forgets that other feelings exist.

Pacing-wise, the story took its sweet time moseying down the road. I struggled to get invested until about the 70% mark, when suddenly the plot kicked up and yelled, “SURPRISE, SCANDAL!” The royal drama that follows is certainly… dramatic. Personally, I found it a tad over the top, like someone added three extra scoops of soap opera for a little added flair.

All that said, I can absolutely see this book finding its people. If you love morally gray women, feminist fury, and revisionist fairy tales that flip the bird at tradition, you may eat this up with a silver spoon. It just didn’t quite enchant me.

Worth reading for the concept and the falcon facts alone—but next time I’d like about 30% less rage and 50% more story galloping in before the last act.

I loved this book in the way that every story has a mirror perspective and that you are always the villain in someone else's story. Rubbing the dirt away in a fairytale story and showing the maternal, caring, protective, survival needs of the stepmother. The author does a great job to not turn this book into a "versus" narrative but to humanize the stepmother and her attempt to nurture those under her care and face the importance of reputation during her lifetime. I also love how this book goes into the "happily ever after" chapters. This is a book for women empowerment in my eyes.