Rachel Hochhauser is a New York Times bestselling American author, strategist, and entrepreneur best known for her 2026 debut novel, Lady Tremaine, a feminist reimagining of Cinderella from the stepmother’s perspective. Raised in Santa Barbara, California, she earned a BA from New York University and a master’s degree in fiction from the University of Southern California before building a career in branding and co-founding the design-focused company Piecework Puzzles. The inspiration for Lady Tremaine emerged during a difficult period when Hochhauser was caring for a young child while her husband was seriously ill, experiences that influenced the novel’s exploration of motherhood, caregiving, and survival. She lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and two daughters and is working on her second novel.