Hester (Laurie Lico Albanese) is a fictional story with some true figures from history. Isobel lives in the 1800s and has come to Salem from Scotland. There are some flashbacks to the 1600s and an ancestor of Isobel's, also named Isobel.  The 1800's Isobel is a seamstress who makes the most of her talented needle. I want to thank NetGalley and St. Martin's Publishing Group for an early copy to review.

When I saw the title of this book, I was immediately drawn to the novel as I remembered another Hester that I read about in high school. I was not disappointed! Hester is a vivid imaginary retelling of the Scarlet Letter as written by the heroine Hester Prynne. Laura Lico Albanese researches the history of the Salem witch trials and uses Nathaniel Hawthorne's character to tell her own biography. She guides the reader through the plight of women in the 1600s and 1800s through both historical accounts and imaginary characters. The mindset of men about women with "loose morals, different backgrounds, or strange concepts" was outlined by Albanese as men of superior intellect and power. For anyone who enjoys reading about the difficulties women have faced through the ages in attempts to be equal, Hester is another reminder that we need to continue our fight.
#thankyounNETGALLEYforthisARC. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel.

Thank you #netgalley and #stmartinspress for an advanced copy of Hester.
Basically this is a retelling of the book The Scarlet Letter and a re-imagining of Hawthorne as Dimmesdale and Isobel as Hester. Magic and witches are involved which seems to go hand-in-hand during this period in history. I thought the story was ok. The plot has a lot of side stories, which were distracting to me. Nevertheless, this was an interesting book for those who enjoy retelling/re-imaginings.

I was eager to read this as I enjoyed the Scarlet Letter. While I didn't think it was as good, I do recommend this book and found it an interesting twist. The only real negative for me while reading this book was that at times the story dragged. But, overall a great read, especially for fans of TSL.
I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

HESTER
LAURIE LICO ALBANESE

I had read Laurie Lico Albanese's beautifully written historical novel called, "Stolen Beauty," and loved it because it had to do with art. With "Hester," I wasn't so sure if I would like it at first because I had read too many reviews and much of them described the same summary and most made reference to the classic of "The Scarlet Letter," which I was familiar with from reading it in High School. I was totally blown away when I read Laurie Lico Albanese's BRILLIANT writing in "Hester," because it is so much more than what is offered in the synopsis and I did myself a great disservice by reading all of those reviews. I usually don't do that as most always I prefer to read a novel by knowing as little about it as I can. This has taught me a valuable lesson not to make that same mistake again in the future. You might presume that you already know enough about this, but I can assure you that this is an intimate and fresh perspective. Please do not make the same mistake that I did. This is a truly magnificent and imaginative work of art that deserves to be showcased in the Museum of Fine Art in Boston. I say that because Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4th in 1804, in Salem, Massachusetts where the setting for this striking and wonderful retelling takes place.

I was stunned by how rich and lush this very original and unique tapestry of blending together 1800's Salem, Massachusetts historical records mixed with 1600's Scotland's folklore along with the hysteria of witchcraft that took place here in Salem, but also in this novel in Scotland. Some of the most beautiful writing came alive for me as I devoured "Hester," in a single sitting. It was the feeling as if I was placed inside this fabulous historical novel. I was pulled inside the storytelling from the very first pages and I was completely captivated by how much greater this novel incorporates the many different threads of history and it far exceeded my expectations. I should have already known that this Author wouldn't disappoint me by my reading of her previous work, which I highly recommend all the past reader's of "Hester," and the future readers who are planning to read this when it publishes. Please check out this author's previous wonderful work as it is also quite stunning and beautiful.

Ms. Albanese has captured Salem, Massachusetts seaport and cobblestone streets and brought them to life so realistically for use as her main setting for this perfect novel. I have been there many times and the witchcraft that she so vividly describes can still be found today. There are actually witches that still inhabit that waterfront city and can be visited by those interested in viewing the numerous monuments and the real flesh and blood humans who today safely admit to being witches. The hysteria of this novel really did take place there in the past as well as other locations. There also exists a museum for Nathaniel Hawthorne's other novel called, "The House of Seven Gables". If you ever get the chance to visit my suggestion is to go on Halloween where it draws millions of adults who walk the streets, but expect long lines to tour the many museums that make this city the perfect setting for this masterpiece of historical fiction and factual reality that is so much more than a retelling of Hawthorne's "The Scarlet letter," in "Hester". Having also read, "In the Devils Snare," by Mary Beth Norton when it first published in 2003, I choose Laurie Lico Albanese's masterpiece "Hester," over Nathaniel Hawthorne's, "The Scarlet Letter," and "In the Devils Snare," for her breathtaking prose, imagery and her keen ability at storytelling. "Hester," succeeds in capturing women's oppression, the equally subjugation of not being white and Puritan and the immigrant experience while transporting me into the 1600's and the 1800's as I vicariously felt stifled. Ms. Albanese is truly gifted and this is one of the finest artistic accomplished works of literary fiction that I can recall as being in my top five favorite novels of all time. "Hester," is as bewitching as its subject matter and themes, only it captivated me from the very first line and held my interest until the very last sentence. If you enjoy fine art and an unforgettable novel that you cannot stop reading because it is so addictive that you can't put it down then pick up "Hester". It is haunting and the writing is so fantastic it took my breath away. It broke my heart while giving me a happy ending. Spectacular! Five Plus Sparkling Stars! I will be seeking out a signed First Edition for my collection when it's published. Pre-order your copy today and put it at the top of your reading list. I envy the reader who has yet to read this for the first time. I LOVED THIS SO MUCH!

Publication Date: October 4th, 2022

A Huge debt of gratitude to Net Galley, Laurie Lico Albanese and St. Martin's Press for generously providing me with my beautiful ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

#Hester #LaurieLicoAlbanese #StMartinsPress #NetGalley

Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese~
Recently arrived in Salem, Isobel and her husband are both running away from their pasts and seeking a new beginning. While her husband leaves on another boat to seek his fortune, Isobel must use her seamstress skills to survive. The town is unfortunately not very welcoming to outsiders with the exception of a young man named Nathaniel Hawthorne. Dark and always brooding, Isobel finds Nathaniel intriguing. She feels a connection with him and starts to wonder what life would be like if he was her husband. When she hears news of her husband’s supposed disappearance, Isobel believes that he’ll never return and now truly feels free. As she takes the risk and starts a relationship with Nathaniel, she never once stops to wonder if the risk is all her own.
What if the story of The Scarlet Letter was not fictional and was in fact based upon some sort of truth? What if the author based it on a personal experience and he was the one who betrayed his lover? A retelling of The Scarlet Letter that I really enjoyed. The story was well written, engaging and although Isobel was frustratingly naive at times, I still felt a connection. She so desperately wants to feel loved and doesn’t have the insight to realize that she doesn’t need his love to be happy. Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read this. It will be published October 4, and I definitely recommend it.

Okay, scores better than the Scarlett Letter. I loved this fictionalization of the young and courageous woman who inspired Hester. Just an awesome piece.

I originally read The Scarlet Letter in school and I did not enjoy it so I was hesitant to pick this one up but I love retellings. This was told between dual timelines and was such a beautifully written book. I ended up enjoying it more than I thought I would.

As someone who was the only student in my high school sophomore English class who didn’t groan and roll their eyes when assigned to read “The Scarlet Letter,” I was eager to read Laurie Lico Albanese’s “Hester.” Having just finished reading it, I can’t say enough positive things about it. If it were possible to give this book a resounding ten star rating instead of a maximum of five, I would. Yes, Albanese’s “Hester” is THAT good.

The story begins with Isobel Gamble, a young seamstress, leaving Scotland with her husband Edward, a former apothecary, now an opium addict who has driven them so deeply into debt that they are forced to flee Scotland and sail to America in the hopes of starting over. But upon arriving in Salem, Massachusetts, Edward abandons Isabel just a few days later to set sail on another ship to work as a medic.

Alone and destitute in an unfamiliar country, Isobel crosses paths with young Nathaniel Hawthorne. Like the real Nathaniel Hawthorne, Albanese’s character of the same name is deeply haunted by the atrocities committed by his ancestors who served as judges in the Salem Village witch trials and ordered innocent women to be sent to the gallows and hanged for their nonexistent crime of “practicing witchcraft.”

The character of Isobel, meanwhile, parallels both Hester Prynne and the women wrongfully convicted and executed for being witches. A gifted seamstress, she has what was once referred to as “the gift of colors,” a neurological condition now known as synesthesia in which she experiences colors as letters. Had Isobel lived in the time of Hawthorne’s ancestors, she herself would likely been branded a witch for her extraordinary gift and sent to the gallows. As Isobel is to Hester Prynne in “The Scarlet Letter,” Albanese’s Hawthorne has parallels to Arthur Dimesdale, as he and Isobel become involved in a forbidden love affair. In that respect, the book is very much a love story, but at the same time it’s also much more than that.

The story is set in the first half of the 19th century and the cruelty and injustices perpetrated against enslaved Black people. Because it’s set in Massachusetts, the storyline includes significant mention of the abolitionists and the Underground Railroad which helped many enslaved people find freedom. It’s also a time when women, although they were no longer being falsely persecuted for allegedly practicing witchcraft and executed for not meeting men’s expectations of what women “should” be, Isobel and the other women of her time are still expected to conform to standards and definitions of womanhood dictated by men. The book examines important questions of what it means to be equal, what it means to be free, and, finally, what it means to be a “real” American - and who gets to decides who is worthy of that description.

The thing I particularly loved about “Hester” is that it can be read on so many different levels, yet the story flows naturally and never becomes bogged down. A major reason for this is that Albanese is an extraordinarily gifted writer, both stylistically and as a creator of characters who are complex, interesting, and believable. I look forward to reading more of her work in the future.

Hester pulled me in first with its beautiful cover and description. Much like this stunning cover, the flowery language and descriptions throughout Hester were magical. Laurie Lico Albanese is able to balance a modern take on The Scarlett Letter while also incorporating other relevant historical topics such as the Salem Witch Trials and Underground Railroad. I was invested in following Isobel's journey from Scotland to Salem and loved her as a main character. Hester is a tale of love, family, hysteria, betrayal, and resilience that enchants the reader from the first chapter.

I highly recommend Hester to any fans of historical fiction and classics! Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin's Press for an e-ARC to read and review!

Loved the take on the scarlet letter, anything is made better when combined with witchcraft and Salem. Will be the perfect fall reading book!

What if Nathaniel Hawthorne based Hester Prynne, the beleagured main character of his novel The Scarlet Letter, on a real woman in his life? Laurie Lico Albanese’s imagininings provide one possible answer to this question in her upcoming novel Hester.

Isobel Gamble, a gifted seamstress and embroiderer married to apothecary Edward Gamble, meets young Nathaniel Hawthorne shortly after her ship reaches Salem in 1829. Of course there’s a story in their meeting and interactions, but that relationship is just one of Isobel’s deep and trusting friendships which serve as the impetus for a deepening plot and an unexpected turn of events. Readers will find themselves moving a little closer to the edges of their seats at Hester’s unexpectededly heady culmination, followed by the exhilaration of another sea voyage and a gratifying conclusion – one that has less to do with Hawthorne than a reader might expect.

The first few chapters are rough, with their folksy references to Isobel’s synesthesia (explained in a note at the beginning of the book), which her Mam calls “the colors.” There are mysteriously veiled warnings from Isobel’s elders who caution her to hide her magic to avoid being shunned by the folk who populate young Isobel’s world. Tropes like this can work if preceded by a lot of world-building and context, but placed so close to the beginning of the book, the narrative in those first chapters is almost funny, reducing a potentially five-star review to four stars.

You may find yourself wondering if any of these denizens of Salem actually existed, and you’ll be gratified to see that the author answers this question – and maybe some others – in her notes at the end of the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press, who provided the Advance Readers Copy I used to write this review.

This book brought together so many of my favorite things: historical fiction, a romantic struggle and of course, magic! It took me a little while to understand the parallel stories with the ancestors of both leads going back in time but once I got into the book, I couldn't put it down. Overall this is a fun and fantastical twist on a story we all know (or at least had to read in high school).

A retelling that I enjoyed significantly more than the original. There are some creative liberties taken but maintains its historical truth throughout. The dual timelines were easy enough to follow and the writing itself was done beautifully. As a reader I hit a little bit of a lull in the story half way through but it did pick back up.

I did not care for this retelling of A Scarlet Letter. Burning women as witches in the 1600s was a frightening experience and even moving the idea forward to the 1800s and maybe even into the 21st century terrifies me. With the current climate toward women, I did not want to read about mistreatment of women in the previous centuries.

DNF @ almost 50%.

I really hated The Scarlet Letter in high school but recently reread it and connected with it much more. Having loved it the second time around, the premise that this book speculates about Nathaniel Hawthorne’s inspiration for that book sparked my interest. There are a few interesting things here: a main character with synethesia, a vivid depiction of early American life particularly for a woman on her own, the not-so-distant past of witchcraft trials, etc. Ultimately, it was just incredibly slow and boring. The connection between Isobel and Hathorne was not developed beyond “lonely woman/lonely man” and I just had zero emotions about it. I enjoyed seeing the hints of The Scarlet Letter tying things together but they weren’t enough to make me want to continue slogging through it.

Isobel possesses an unusual gift; one her mother has warned her NOT to share with anyone! She marries and soon her husband Edward finds trouble. In an effort to start anew, they move to America, settling in Salem.

Edward finds work on board a ship, leaving Isobel on her own for who knows how long! Isobel soon discovers Edward took the money she had hidden away that her father had given her. This was money she was going to use to eventually open her own store.

Determined to make it on her own, she finds work at a local shop and agrees to embroider items exclusively for the shop owner, who never divulges Isobel as the talent behind these items.

Word comes to her that Edward won't be coming home to her, he's made a home somewhere else. With ties now cut, she allows herself to fall in love with a man she has befriended - a Nathaniel Hathorne.

Despite efforts to avoid conception, Isobel soon discovers she is with child. She confesses her love to Nat, and he tells her they can never be together as his name is everything to his existence. She loses her job, and her boss threatens to tarnish her reputation as well.

Edward show up and uses Isobel to get something he desperately wants. When his plan backfires, the two argue and Isobel defends herself, leaving her husband disabled.

Her daughter is born in the safety of friends. Soon after Margaret's birth, she decides to sail to Canada where she starts a new life and opens her long dreamed of shop. In time she finds true love that and her story is told through the eyes of her past.

A very good reimagining of The Scarlet Letter and how it came to be written. Told from the viewpoint of a heroine with synesthesia who immigrated from Scotland to Salem, and is clearly the model for Hester Prynne. This book had vivid imagery from the descriptions of embroidery, to life in Salem, to her friendships with women. To me, this is the best kind of historical fiction, and the parallels to a famous novel made it even more enjoyable.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

I love The Scarlett Letter and the idea of Hester Prynne; unfortunately this was a little too "historical fiction" for me. I found myself bored with the details and slow pace. Still an interesting read for fans of the classic, though!

I will be recommending this to my followers who are obsessed retellings what an interesting take. love it !!!