As the song from a popular Broadway musical goes, "No one mourns the wicked." But the latest Reese's Book Club pick promises to turn that trope on its head. The Book-Lover-in-Chief has announced her March 2026 pick, and it's a retelling of Cinderella like you've never considered. Meet Lady Tremaine by debut author Rachel Hochhauser.
Reese's March Book Club Pick Is a Heartbreaking Fairytale...with a Twist
Who deserves happily ever after?
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Published Mar 4, 2026
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"I loved the idea that it's a retelling of the Cinderella story," Witherspoon said in her announcement. "What we thought we knew, we don't know at all. Cinderella is not the hero."
Watching the reel further reveals some shocking takes on Cinderella's character, and paints Lady Tremaine in a whole new light.
In Hochhauser's retelling, the woman every little girl is taught to villainize becomes stunningly human. She's a widow with three daughters, facing imminent poverty and only her late husband's title as a possible saving grace. There's a stepdaughter who has always rebuffed her, a royal engagement, sordid family secrets and, at the end of the day, a mother's love.
Writing on Reese's Book Club's blog, Hochhauser shared that the idea came during a difficult time in her family's life. Her husband was hospitalized and suddenly, the author was juggling innumerable doctors' appointments, parenting a toddler and working full time.
"Like many women my age, I grew up loving Cinderella—aching for my own happily ever after and identifying with the story’s namesake," she writes. "But this time, looking at the stepmother, I didn’t see a villain motivated by harm. I saw myself: a woman motivated by care, doing whatever she could to survive. A mother. I could not stop thinking about the many ways women fight to protect those they love, and how this intersects with—or more often fails to intersect with—the stories we pass down, especially to girls."
Hochhauser was captivated by how easily she'd ingested the fairytale message that being nice and beautiful might save you. The resulting book, she writes, has the familiar hallmarks of this classic story, before it defies expectations.
"It’s a love story—but not the kind you expect—and an attempt to imagine a different version of happily ever after."
