Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese is about the story that inspired the Scarlet Letter. Isobel Gamble and her new husband, Edward, come to Salem to start a new life. Shortly after their arrival Edward leaves on a trade ship. Isobel is left alone to provide for herself. As a seamstress, she is talented and makes magical embroidery that capture a lot of attention. Isobel quickly spots Nathaniel Hathorne and begins a friendship.

Hester is a magical story of love, survival, strength and hope. I loved the setting of Salem, Massachusetts.


Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese, publish date October 4th, 2022

I received a copy of this audiobook earlier in 2022, and waited to listen to it until the autumn. I am so glad for it, because the book has a lot of reference of Salem witch trials and has "Halloween" written all over it. It is an atmospheric historical fiction, reimagining Nathaniel Hawthorne and his inspirations to write Scarlet Letter.

Isobel is a young Scot seamstress who marries an apothecary in early 1800s. Together they sail from Scotland to America. Isobel has color synesthesia and sees letters in colors, but her mother forbids to associate letters with colors. I have never heard this condition, and it perked my interest. I can see how this can be considered "witchy" in colonial America. The story is slow to develop, depicting Isobel's background, and current situations which takes some time, maybe not unlike to stitch letters together. Eventually Isobel meets Hawthorne, along with other members of Salem community.

I have really enjoyed the story, and it isn't a typical love story. The last 30% of the book is suspenseful and I had difficulties putting down, and I enjoyed the book's ending as well.
Overall I would have given five stars if I didn't struggle to engage in the story at the beginning.
The book is perfect for October, especially if you have ever visited Salem, Massachusetts or interested in history of Salem.

On a sidenote, I also received audiobook copy and read/listened to this book in tandem. Audiobook narration is exceptional and I would highly recommend audio format as well.

An advanced copy of this Ebook was provided courtesy of St. Martin's Press and NetGalley. Thank you!
Opinions stated hereby is my own.

I found the story “Hester” captivating. I thoroughly enjoyed the story, a retelling of Hester Prynne the heroine in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter. Set during the 1800’s, it follows the story of a young Isobel Gamble. A seamstress from a descended of ladies’ seamstresses who see words and hear voices as colors, with her namesake being proclaimed a witch. Isobel married an older pharmacist who ends up losing everything because of his addictions. They set sail to America for a new beginning. On the ship, Isobel saves the life of the captain who then protects her. Isobel’s husband Edward goes off to sea leaving Isobel alone to fend for herself. Isobel’s stories are stitched into the garments. The narration was done very well.

Thank you #NetGalley, #St.Martin’sPress, #MacmillanAudiio, #Hester, #LaurieLicoAlbbanese and #SaskiaMaarleveld for the advance copy for my honest review.

What would Hester Prune’s story be from her own perspective? That is what Albanese’s Hester strives to put together in this novel. Cruelty, hardships and women who are stronger together than apart are the base of the novel but the experiences and characters themselves make it all worthwhile. A well written and worthy explanation of a life Hester could have lived, I enjoyed this look into the past as I wove my own threads around The Scarlet Letter and its plausibility.

Real Rating: 3.75* of five, rounded up

A book about passion elicits passionate responses. Thus The Scarlet Letter from its date of publication to the present. What Author Albanese did was meld a fact of Hawthorne's life...all his novels save this one sprang from known biographical incidents..and said, "...except...? <I>Hmmm</i>" and ran with it.

Thus we have this novel, which I stress so loudly because I've seen a lot of responses to the book that take exception to the author's assumption that Hawthorne was always a writer working from his own biography. I fail to understand this. It's a novel, and novels are fiction. The way they get their lives is someone thinking, "hey, what if..." and running with it. "Oh it's unsourced in anything from the time" well now, our little firebug Hawthorne might've hidden many a secret forever in his purgings, mightn't he? What he didn't want us to know, we do not know. ...that sounds weird but I don't know how to fix it.

Anyway, considering the story on its own merits...I like it okay. I don't love it.

Too much, too much, I thought as Isobel synesthesia came to the fore, then as we whizzed back into the seventeenth century again.... It's just another thing to mark her out as weird, this strange sensory disorder. Her life was eventful and her loves bone-rattlingly deep wasn't enough? When I read novels I want to think about how the life unfolding before me is moving, not how it's making me move between emotional registers. That's when I begin to feel a bit like a footstool, moved here, plopped there, and all in service of someone else's visions and needs.

Yes yes, I know, that is what novelists do. But the ones whose work I treasure do it with less grunting and heaving.

Setting the novel in Salem, and with Hawthorne...well, the parallels to his probable state of guilt and discomfort over the history even then looked on as brutal and his treatment of Isobel aren't challenging to form are they. I wasn't particularly enamoured with the author's take on Hawthorne, finding him a dreary sort of navel-gazing git. I'm not all the way sure that he could've been as quivery as a blancmange and still written the work he did. I could, of course, be wrong. After all, I suspect that Melville's obvious tendresse for Hawthorne was not entirely unreciprocated and I am *loudly*assured* this is unthinkable.

Back to <I>Hester</i>. I wish it was less hectic. I would've enjoyed a more uncluttered interior for the novel to present itself to me; one colored less hectically and decorated less thoroughly with lovely bibelots and literary objet d'art. But the read as it was, distractingly stuffed into a space a bit too small for it, was a deeply interesting and quite soundly reasoned story. The passive little Hawthorne falling for the intensely alive Isobel? Yes, I see it. The quivering awakening of the young people to bodily pleasure? It is ever thus, and so always involving to me. The resolution of the matters that, quite inevitably, come from the aforementioned awakening? Fortuitous! And, as the epilogue-y thing at the end makes Ever. So. Clear, it all came good.

Please don't tie bows and smack 'em on the butts of my stories. I'd like some room to put my own thoughts into the story's likely continuation.

These are the things that kept me from warbling my fool lungs out about this read. Others will, I do not doubt, feel differently. I expect so, in fact, and hope I'll be seeing the author's gorgeous cover art in many a gift pile this Yule.

A Novel Like No Other

I have never forgotten reading The Scarlet Letter many years ago in high school. My English teacher was a timely instructor who imparted her students with new ideas. I was startled; Hester Prynne wore a scarlet A for adultery.

Fast forward, at least sixty years, we now are privileged to read Hester, meticulously written by a woman, Laurie Lico Albanese. This original story is told from the point of view of Isobel Gamble. As a young girl, Isobel’s beloved mother warned her of the danger of her gift. It is the gift of “the colors.” A form of synesthesia, Isobel and a long line of women before her, link letters on a page and words with certain colors and shades of colors. After her mother dies, she marries an apothecary, Edward Gamble, who could have been a good man if not for his own ambitions and addictions. He and Isobel leave Scotland and sail to America, arriving in Salem in 1829. Yes, that Salem, the place of the witch trials, generations prior. Edward does not treat his wife with respect, nor does he keep his promises. He has stolen her money for an ocean passage.

Enter Nat Hathorne, known to us as Nathanial Hawthorne. It is a dangerous, passionate relationship. It must be a secret, like many of Isobel’s skills. Albanese includes wonderful stories about Isobel and Nathaniel’s ancestors. She also portrays how some women, in small towns or cities, are more aware of the real stories and connections than the elite families who make the rules.

More authors, drawing on history, should be impressed with Albanese. The possibilities are endless. Recently, there have been more of this genre, for instance the brilliant, late Hilary Mantel in Wolf Hall series and The Magician by Colm Toibin. However, nothing held my interest or respect as Hester.

My gratitude to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this pre-published book. All opinions expressed are my own.

Thank you Netgalley for giving me an advanced copy of Hester in exchange for an honest review!

There were certain parts of Hester that I greatly enjoyed. I think Isobel was an interesting character and her life in Salem along with the Black community there that she befriended was fascinating. Her eventual romance with Nathaniel was also quite interesting with the dramatic tension that you knew it was going to end tragically due to the inspiration coming from the Scarlet Letter. And it was beautifully written.

However, I did also find the beginning of this book hard to get into and at times boring. The exposition was needed to set up her life and the society she was in, but I did not find myself absolutely intrigued until almost halfway through the book. I also did not enjoy the occasional fantasy element added in, found the synesthesia confusing at first, and thought most of the sections not in Hester's POV were extraneous.

I would recommend this book to people who were greatly into historical fiction or those who really enjoyed The Scarlet Letter as the themes are mirrored here, but I do not know if it is for everyone.

The 'could be' backstory on America's oldest tale of a single mother making it work under harsh scrutiny. Who might've inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne's famous Hester Prynne? The world may never know, but I loved this conjecture.

Isobel Gamble is descended from the only convicted witch in Scotland to escape. This comes with abilities that have to stay secret, even after Isobel is forced to start a new life in Salem, Massachusetts. Her husband isn't sticking around to help, so she must learn to use her talents to keep food and shelter.
Isobel is a heroine of tenacity, love, and heartbreak. Albanese created a vivid life for the scarred people and town famous for its judgement of women.
If you thought Hester Prynne was a badass, you'll LOVE Isobel Gamble!

Hester's cover is stunning!

This story is wildly imaginative, yet filled with historical facts about Salem, Massachusetts years after the Witch trials. While I don't remember much about the Scarlett Letter, as I read it in school back in the 80's, Hester uses its heroine as the muse for the classic story.

Nathaniel Hawthornes storyline adds an element of intrigue to the tale of how his story came to life in print. This mysterious tale is all consuming - A is RED!

Thank you St. Martin's Press for the complimentary ARC to read and review.

"If I have learned anything these months in Salem it’s that history isn’t what’s written or told. History is hidden away in dark corners and shadows, just as Nat says."

Hester is an utterly spellbinding reimagining of the woman who inspired Nathaniel Hawthorne to write Hester Prynne and The Scarlet Letter . A talented young seamstress, Isobel’s creative abilities and unique gifts raise suspicion in a community that doesn’t understand what it is to be different.

"I loved the needle and thread; they let me put my visions into cloth in a way that no one questioned, in a way that brought me praise. They let me keep my secrets in plain sight, where I prayed they would hurt no one, least of all myself."

She is taught to hide, and even to fear, her differences in order to protect herself. She keeps her secrets well, so as not to be accused of witchcraft. But when she falls in love with Nathaniel, she wonders if it might finally be safe to reveal her true self. Will he see the magic woven within her as something beautiful to be cherished? Or will her secret unravel both of their lives?

"Can the colors be both a blessing and an affliction? Perhaps he’s right and the colors are like the two of us—accuser and accused, pain and desire come together across time and oceans to heal our wounds. Perhaps this is the secret that I’ve been trying to see all along, that together we are whole."

I absolutely loved this book. It was so imaginative, so well-researched, and so beautifully written. I couldn’t put it down and wanted it to continue on forever! One of my favorite reads so far this year. Highly recommend for fans of The Once and Future Witches or Magic Lessons .

A huge thank you to Laurie Lico Albanese, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

As a literature student in my university days, I find it difficult these days to find a new novel worthy of old-world recognition. The Scarlet Letter might not even be used in schools anymore due to my country's ever-changing taste in what is classic and what is a scandal.
Then comes along Hester. Released recently but was written with hundreds of years of women's plights behind it. So much has changed, and yet not near enough.
Isobel and Nathaniel chase spirits and hide from shadows together in this astounding piece of literature. The saga unfolds as Isobel puts needle to thread.....but what does it all mean?
A must-read of 2022.

I am loving this trend of taking mythology or classic novels and translating it into the perspective of the often-overlooked characters. In this case, This one was a beautiful story that explores themes of what it means to be family or found family, generational trauma, and the way society tries to eject the "unknown" or "new" in its midst.

Hester's life parallels that of Hester Prynne in Nathanial Hawthorn's The Scarlett Letter. However, it's set in the 1800s. Hester's life - and her interactions with Nathanial - influence how he writes the book. We get flashbacks of the Salem witch trials and how they link to their descendants. Hester's own familial history is also woven into the story. Her descriptions of the synesthesia and her needlework were beautifully done.

Even if you aren't too familiar with the Salem witch trials or the Scarlett Letter, I think you could still enjoy this book.

A huge thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for this ARC!

As most Americans, I read The Scarlet Letter in high school in the early 2000's. As a huge book nerd, even then, I remember being intrigued by the story. Fast forward to early 2022 and I see the blurb for Hester and I was hooked.

Isobel is a young woman who works as a seamstress in Scotland. She has the ability to see colors when people talk and assigns colors to letters. Isobel meets apothecary, Edward, who wishes to marry her. Edward and Isobel set off to America for a new start and to leave Edward's addiction and debts behind. The journey to America leads to Isobel's needlework moving her life forward. She gets the attention of Nathaniel Hathorne, who is dark and brooding with a past he can't seem to get away from. They are drawn together like a moth to a flame, ending in a fiery spark.

Uncovering secrets, flashing back to the past and learning how to live again, Isobel, goes on a journey throughout this book to discover the colors she worked so hard to hide were there for her the entire time.

I really enjoyed this book. 5 out of 5 stars.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for an advanced e-copy of the book.

First, I haven't read The Scarlett Letter, so the only context I have to go off of here is the summary in Easy A (my life is chaos).

This started out really slowly and I almost gave up. But when Isobel arrives in Salem and meets a young Nathaniel Hathorne, I was hooked. He was an enchanting, chaotic, moody mess. He loves Isobel in his own way that makes you want to root for them.

But Isobel is not destined to be the manic pixie dream girl muse. She wants love and freedom and has her own dreams. Hers is a story of learning to push through hardship and heartache.

Hester is also a really interesting look at early American life. About who gets to be American and who gets pushed into the "other" category.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for accepting my request to read and review Hester.

Author: Laurie Lico Albanese
Published: 10/04/22
Genre: Historical Fiction - Literary Fiction - Women's Fiction

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for accepting my request to read and review Hester.

Author: Laurie Lico Albanese
Published: 10/04/22
Genre: Historical Fiction - Literary Fiction - Women's Fiction

Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter and Hester was a character, according to the synopsis. I didn't read and never had a desire to read The Scarlet Letter. I went into Hester knowing it was categorized historical fiction. The research on the historical portion appeared spot on to everything I knew. The dates and times given are period appropriate.

I was mesmerized from the opening line. The story is told through Isobel's eyes. We go through her being married to a much older man, fleeing to America, and surviving .

The time period was rough from Salem Witches to Slave Trading. The author writes a solid woman who does not give up and takes care of herself. Her struggles are real and the solutions are believable. Isobel was taught a beautiful skill of sewing as a child. She worked hard to master the stitching and the use of colors. The entire book is centered around a needle, and the success she garners.

My review does not do this book justice. It is a solid five star read for me. I love how it was written; it moved seamlessly, and the ending left me feeling amazing.

Lovers of historical fiction, romance, and reimaginings will rejoice with this one! After reading so many retellings and reimaginings that were duds this year, I had approached HESTER with so much skepticism. However, I am happy to report that HESTER did not disappoint.

Laurie Lico Albanese's HESTER is a stunning and original story. It was hard not to fall in love with the writing straight from the beginning. There is so much gorgeous imagery spread throughout every chapter, and the exploration of Isobel's experiences with synesthesia is fascinating. I confess that Hawthorne's THE SCARLET LETTER is probably my favorite American classic, so seeing all the easter eggs scattered throughout the story was such a treat--and all of it convincing. It's always so refreshing when someone breathes new life into an older piece of literature (especially when it doesn't fall flat!).

Readers will love Isobel and Nat, and, of course, despise Edward. It’s so easy to see why Isobel and Nat develop a bond. The interspersed snippets of Isobel's ancestor's experiences with faeries and accusations of witchcraft in the old country and Nat’s ancestor’s experiences with the Salem Witch Trials are perfect and only seem to strengthen the connection between the two characters (and I so love that Tituba appears in these flashbacks to the past). The ending, of course, is a bit expected, but also satisfying. Nothing disappointed.

HESTER is for sure one of my favorite reads of 2022. I will definitely be recommending this novel to others and ordering copies through our school and local libraries.

First....this book cover is so beautiful, how could you not pick it up to read?
Laurie Lico Albanese has taken all of the loose threads and all of the endless questions we had when we read The Scarlet Letter in high school and woven them into an outstanding story of how the original story came to be. She has displayed her considerable writing skills by anchoring her story to the original but she most definitely is not giving us a reimagined Scarlet Letter.
Instead we watch a young woman whose plans for the future quickly change into a desperate run to avoid the poorhouse. Instead of the prosperous future her husband promised when they wed, she's on a ship to Salem where women who stand out from the crowd are often punished as witches. When she meets a young Nathaniel Hawthorne, we see the beginning of a long relationship that grows quickly into the background (maybe) of Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter.
An outstanding read whether you have read The Scarlet Letter or not.

In a sense, this novel is a precursor to The Scarlet Letter whereby the creation of the infamous Hester Prynne character is given context and backstory via a woman Nathaniel Hawthorne meets in his early adulthood.
A socially-awkward, recently married young woman, Isobel MacAllister, moves to Salem, Massachusetts only to be abandoned by her husband who pursues his fortune elsewhere. She suffers from synesthesia, but conceals it, and uses her talents as a seamstress to provide for herself. She meets Nathaniel, becomes attracted to him because she senses he also has dark inner struggles. An affair ensues…and the rest is history, so to speak.

The Salem Witch Trials serve as a connection between the lovers with Isobel’s ancestor being victimized and Nathanial’s as a member on the prosecuting team. There was also a subplot involving the Underground Railroad and I found myself more interested in these two subplots and their supporting characters than I was with our two protagonists. Sadly, I was not endeared to either of them (and I really wanted to like Isobel). Additionally, while the premise and writing were fine, I found myself speed-reading through a few passages to get through this novel because the pacing was a bit taxing (for me).

In short, I believe many fans of The Scarlet Letter will enjoy this offering and can/will enjoy it as a standalone novel.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an opportunity to review.

Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese is a historical fiction/women’s fiction that follows the haunting and riveting journey of one woman’s plight from Scotland to Salem in the New World. This story is set in the early 1800’s with MC Isobel Gamble fleeing Glasgow with her opium addicted, debt ridden, apothecary husband - Edward. The journey across the sea is not without its own trials and dangerous situations yet Isobel believes once her & Edward reach their destination they can somehow begin again and build a new life. Isobel soon is facing the stark reality of being broke and alone in a strange land, you see Edward leaves her behind as he departs on a new ship.

Any other woman would have given up. Hester is not just any woman.

Nathaniel Hawthorne, is a complex man and he is haunted by the actions of his ancestors. When he meets Isobel he is at the beginning of his journey as an author and he finds himself falling under the spell of Isobel. It seems that Isobel is not only the woman he is falling in love with, she is also the elusive muse he has been struggling to find.

Nathaniel and Isobel become entranced with each other and as their passion and love grows, each of their pasts begin to haunt them. Can Isobel, a woman with secret ancestral talents ever truly be completely honest with Nathaniel a man with a sordid family history of involvement with the Salem witch trials.

This is a story that captivated me from the first chapter and held my attention all the way to the end. As usual I found myself researching this time in American history, the witch trials, Salem’s history, and Nathaniel Hawthorne. A large part of this story focuses on women, immigrants, and minorities, the ways they are treated by those in power with focus on certain accusations the powerful make, and the impact of these accusations as they are wielded to enforce power. As an immigrant and a woman, Isobel experiences this in a myriad of ways, beginning to realize how little choice she has in her own life. Isobel comes to understand that much of her life is in-fact controlled by the powerful women throughout society. The powerful are able to ruin a woman’s reputation and even threaten a lesser woman’s life with a whispered accusation such as witchcraft and adultery.

I highly recommend this book to all lovers of historical fiction. I will be looking for more books from this author in the future.


5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

📚Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from St. Martin’s Press publishing via Netgalley. All thoughts, opinions, comments, and interpretations of the story are my own and bias free. I did not receive any money in exchange for this review. Thank you to the publisher for allowing me the opportunity to review. Reviews are cross-posted to social media, goodreads, and blog. 🦄

Hester, by Laurie Lico Albanese, is an atmospheric historical novel involving the dark days of the Salem witch trials, and an imagined relationship between Nathaniel Hawthorne and a young woman named Hester, which ultimately inspired his famous novel, The Scarlet Letter.
Told in two timelines, the story features Hester, the 19 year-old protagonist, a Scots woman who immigrates to Salem with her conniving husband Edward in 1829 and meets Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hester is a strong, clever, resourceful young lady and uses her skillful needle working to survive in this New World. I really liked the first person POV narrative, and believe it made Hester’s character more complex, more realistic, and absolutely engaging. She has the “gift” of synesthesia (joined perception), which in her case manifests as her seeing letters associated with colors, and hearing sounds which evoke experiences of color, shape and texture, i.e., when someone speaks to her, she “sees” their words as colors, at times warm, or sometimes dark and ominous. This lends the story added depth atmosphere.
The alternate timeline is compelling, with interspersed chapters recounting the fears of witchery in the 1600s, and the lives of both Hester’s Scots ancestor Isobel Gowdie, and the unfortunate women accused and hanged in the punitive Salem of 1642.
This is such a well-told tale!! The history and context of both timelines is riveting, and the writing is beautifully descriptive, with skillful use of the senses, colors and textures woven into Hester’s life. I felt like I could almost “see” and “feel” the words along with her.
I highly recommend this beautifully written novel with its unique and atmospheric interweaving of cultural history and American literary history!!

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my unbiased review.