Puzzle Company Co-Founder's Debut Novel Will Be a Bold Twist on a Classic Fairy Taleoriginally appeared onParade. Sometimes your next chapter starts with your first chapter. Just ask Rachel Hochhauser. The puzzle company co-founder has spent the last six years designing aesthetically gorgeous puzzles, and now she's gearing up to release her debut novel, a reimagining of the classic story of Cinderella,Lady Tremaine. Founded in 2019,Piecework Puzzlesis the brainchild of Hochhauser and her business partner, Jena Wolfe. The company was originally just a creative side project, a way to create puzzles inspired by the design language of high-end coffee table books. "They're like a curated library of visual stories," said Hochhauser in an interview. From the outside, the pivot from puzzle company co-founder to novelist might seem perplexing, but anyone who knows Hochhauser is likely not surprised. After graduating from the University of Southern California with a master's degree in fiction, Hochhauser wrote a novel, but it was never published. "At the time, that was a disappointment—but in hindsight, I'm grateful.Lady Tremaineis the book I was meant to debut with. It took an additional ten years of life, motherhood, and perspective to find the story I truly needed to tell," she says. Despite the fact thatCinderellais a story that has been told time and time again, Hochhauser's take is one that only she could write and one that started long before she put pen to paper. "As a little girl, I was completely enthralled withCinderella," says Hochhauser. "I had a picture-book and begged my parents to read it to me night after night. But as an adult—especially as the mother of two daughters—I started to question the story's underlying message: that if you're beautiful and good, youmightget picked by a prince." "I found myself thinking about the stepmother character. In most versions, she's flatly evil, but from another angle, she's simply a woman trying to protect her own children's future. That felt compelling to me—what if she wasn't wicked, just misunderstood?" The novel reimagines the story of Cinderella through the eyes of its most reviled character, here dubbed Lady Etheldreda Verity Isolde Tremaine Bramley. "Lady Tremaineturns the beloved fairy tale on its head for a new examination of motherhood, the depths of a mother's love, and a celebration of women brave enough to make their own fortunes.Lady Tremaineis Cinderella as it has never been told before," wrote Maureen Lee Lenker forEntertainment Weekly. But, writing a book while running a business is no small task, a fact that came into sharp focus as Hochhauser got to work. "Every word of this book felt hard-won. I had to get good at writing around the edges of everything else—fifteen stolen minutes after a meeting ended early, or a blissfully quiet morning when my kids slept in a little later than usual," she says. Lady Tremainewill bereleased by Macmillanon March 3, 2026, but Hochhauser is already hard at work on the follow up to her debut. "I'm now repeating the process with my second book, and the truth is: it takes a supportive partner, childcare, realistic expectations, and a steady willingness to be flexible," she candidly admits. "Some days are productive, some aren't, but I've learned that inching forward is all it takes." Puzzle Company Co-Founder's Debut Novel Will Be a Bold Twist on a Classic Fairy Talefirst appeared on Parade on Jul 30, 2025 This story was originally reported byParadeon Jul 30, 2025, where it first appeared.
