Lady Ethelreda Verity Isolde Tremaine Bramley is out hawking on royal lands to try and find game so that she, her two daughters, and her stepdaughter Elin will have a meager portion of meat in their stew. Surprised at this illegal endeavor by a stranger, she hies back to the once gracious home, now crumbling, where she and her daughters try to maintain appearances. Advantageous marriages are the only things that offer them any hope of rising out of the poverty into which they've sunk since Ethel's second husband died. Once at home, she discovers a royal messenger delivering an invitation to a ball designed to find the Prince a wife. The invitation is only for her stepdaughter Elin though, not Ethel's own daughters, a circumstance that she must remedy. The only way to get her daughters included will force her to come face to face with her past and ultimately to confront what her stepdaughter means to her.
These are not the familiar characters from the fairy tale. Ethel is not perfect, nor does she attempt to whitewash her mistakes, her occasional pettiness, or her pride. She does, however, offer explanations for her decisions, understanding that sometimes women don't have a good choice in front of them, they just have to choose survival, whatever that looks like. Elin, the Cinderella character, is sheltered and adored by her father and even after his death, she has no desire to see that stepmother Ethel's requests reflect their straitened circumstances and the reality of an all-female household without male protectors. She spends her days spouting platitudes she's read in a book from her late mother's collection and generally wafting about without contributing to the family. She is naive and innocent but also infuriating and willfully blind. And she has never allowed Ethel to forge much of a relationship with her, keeping her at arm's length. Ethel's daughters, Rosamund and Mathilde, understand the reality of their lives and pitch in as they can with the skills that gently bred young ladies possess. They are normal girls though, sometimes resentful of Elin's ability to rise above or ignore requests and angry that she is allowed to get away with such behavior. When Elin captures the attention of the handsome Prince at the ball, it seems as if the Bramley family's lives will change significantly for the better, even if not through the daughter that Ethel would have chosen, but just as the women's characters are different from the fairy tale, so too is the Prince's. So the story is far from over.
This is a completely engrossing tale centered less on "happily ever after" than on the demands that society makes of women, the social strictures that handcuff them, and the ways that they must make their own lives and rescue themselves. Hochhauser's writing shines in this reimagining. Ethelreda is recast from one-dimensional villain to a fully realized, flawed but fierce and human character. The twists and turns of the plot elevate this far above a simple morality tale. Ethel's primal mother-love for her daughters drives her actions at every turn. Her desire to protect them, to ensure their futures, to grant them the happiness that was so fleeting in her own life is absolutely uncompromising. This may have started out as a Cinderella retelling, but it ended up a tale of resilience, determination, and family with a surprising villain. Lady Tremaine is dark, twisty, and compelling in the best possible way.
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